tion has recorded. But he was a man of thought and foresight; he looked beyond the surface of things. He considered not only present appearances and attractions, but moral obligations and future consequences; and both his judgment and his conduct were regulated by those more accurate and comprehensive views which were thus exhibited to his mind. His history reminds us that many things which are not in their own nature joyous, but grievous, may nevertheless be wisely chosen and esteemed; and that pleasures may be so connected with sin that it becomes our duty and highest interest to forego and refuse them. Let these lessons, brethren, be impressed upon your hearts. Look not merely at any present gratification or advantage which may for the time solicit your choice, but at its spiritual and moral tendency. Look not only on things seen and temporal, but on things unseen and eternal. Act with habitual reference to your soul's welfare, to the approbation of your Judge, and to your everlasting happiness. Then you will never choose the pleasures, or honors, or profits of sin; for, "though they may court you in the form of angels,"* you will consider them as being really your worst enemies, and will start back from their offered embraces as from those of demons. "What fruit," you will exclaim, "can I expect from things of which I am now ashamed, the end of which will be death?" Nor will you dare to refuse the yoke of Christ, the burden of the Lord, when called to bear it, lest such a refusal should fill your death-bed pillow with thorns, and expose you to the bitter pains of eternal death. O that we all may be wise in every decision of our judgments, in every choice of our wills, in every exercise of our affections, in every transaction of our lives-wise to think of this, and to consider our latter end, our dying day, our final reckoning, and our everlasting state!

3. From this subject I infer, lastly, the necessity of a vital and operative faith, in order to our imitation of that bright example which is presented to us in the text. "By faith Moses" arrived at his decision. Not by the power of nature,

* Lucas.

nor by principles derived from education, but by faith, he thus judged, thus chose, and thus acted. It is faith in God's testimony of the evil and danger of sin, that must make us abandon those pleasures which are connected with violation of duty. It is faith in the certainty and excellence of the world to come, that must enable us to put only a secondary and subordinate value on the transitory enjoyments of the present state. It is faith in the promises and declarations of God concerning his people, that must induce us to prefer a union with them, though connected with affliction and self-denial, to ease and affluence, if these can only be enjoyed on condition of separation and estrangement from the society of the faithful, and the visible Church. It is faith in Christ, as the great gift of the Father, the chosen among ten thousand and altogether lovely, the only and all-sufficient Saviour of our souls, that must dispose us to esteem his reproach for his sake, and account the scandal of the cross a glorious infamy. In a word, it is faith in the recompenses of eternity that must stimulate us to the duties, and reconcile us to the sufferings, of the present time. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. May this faith be divinely wrought in all your souls! May it have its perfect work, its full and complete operation! May it render all difficult things easy, and sweeten every bitter cup! And by it may you finally triumph, THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, AND THE WORD OF YOUR TESTIMONY!

1

XV.

THE CHOICE OF MOSES.

PART IV.

THE RECOMPENSE.

FOR HE HAD RESPECT UNTO THE RECOMPENSE OF THE REWARD.-Hebrews xi, 26. THESE words, as used by St. Paul, refer to the case of Moses; pointing out to us one principal source of the holy self-denial and courage which that man of God exercised on an occasion peculiarly trying and difficult. But we may truly affirm that this Scripture is of no private interpretation. It characterizes the hope, not of Moses only, but of all genuine saints. In this general view I shall now resume the consideration of it, with the intention of unfolding to you more particularly the instruction which it suggests.

The words "recompense" and "reward" are variously used in the Scriptures. In some places they bear a general and indefinite sense, including both the blessing annexed to holiness, and the curse which shall rest on sin. Elsewhere they are used explicitly in an unfavorable sense, and refer entirely to the infliction of punishment. And in a third elass of texts the same words are employed in a favorable sense, and denote exclusively the felicity which will be conferred on God's faithful people. Now, in this exclusively favorable sense I am disposed to understand the "recompense of reward," as mentioned in the text. I consider the phrase as referring wholly to the promised crown of righteousness, which the Lord will give, in the world to come, to those who have loved and served him here. To this Moses looked; and this is the object of our Christian hope also. In the prosecution of the subject I shall endeavor to illustrate three particulars: namely,

I. The grounds on which the future bliss of the righteous is described in these terms.

II. The nature of that respect which should be had to the recompense of reward.

III. The fitness and sufficiency of the motive to religious decision which is thence derived.

I. The future bliss of saints is not called a "recompense," or a "reward," because their services, their sacrifices, or their sufferings can ever merit it: for by grace are we saved, through faith; and eternal life is the gift of God. Yet it is in various parts of Scripture so denominated, for the following

reasons:

1. Eternal blessings, indeed, are not due by virtue of our merits; nor have we any natural or legal right to expect or claim them. But they are due to all believers by virtue of God's promise, which gives us a gracious right to look for them, and makes the gift of them on God's part, in a certain sense, an act of justice, as well as of grace. It was mercy that promised heaven at all to those who had righteously deserved a place in hell; but it is justice, as well as mercy, that fulfills the promise once made. And as the promise is connected with certain specified terms, namely, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, those who by divine grace have complied with the terms have an evangelical claim to the blessings promised.

2. Heavenly blessings cannot be legally claimed by any on the ground of their own natural righteousness or inherent worthiness. Yet, in bestowing them, God will pay a strict regard to the essential distinction which exists between saints and sinners; and will confer them only on such as his grace has made evangelically righteous; that is, on pardoned, sanctified, obedient believers. Of such St. Paul scruples not to say, that they are "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." (Colossians i, 12.) The converted Thessalonians were to be "counted worthy of the kingdom of God," for which they suffered. (2 Thessalonians i, 5.) Our Lord himself, also, speaks of some who should be counted "worthy to

obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead.” (Luke xx, 35.) And of some at Sardis, who "had not defiled their garments," he said, "They shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy." (Revelation iii, 4.) These passages evince that God as a Judge will sacredly attend to the difference which his grace, habitually used and improved, has produced between the righteous and the wicked; and will treat the former as evangelically, though not legally, worthy of his glory, and meet for an eternal recompense. "Being made free from sin, and become servants to God," they "have" their "fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." (Romans vi, 22.)

3. But it will appear still more clearly why future felicity is represented under the notion of a recompense or reward, if we consider that it will be proportioned in its degree to the measure of our active and passive obedience to the Divine will. God owes nothing, in point of merit, to any of the glorified saints; but, having graciously determined to reward them all, he has also resolved to render unto each according to his works. On this account, "though it is the blood of the Redeemer that has purchased all the prizes and crowns in heaven, yet one who was a swift runner in the Christian race on earth, especially if the race itself were long, is fitted to receive the fairer prize. And the most active and victorious soldier in the army of Christ, who has served faithfully through a tedious war, has reason to hope for the brightest

crown.

From all these considerations we conclude that "while we ever acknowledge that it is free and boundless grace which both enables us to work and bestows the rich reward, we may still humbly wait for a reward according to our works." We may still, with Moses, have respect unto the recompense of the reward; and may hope, with Paul, for a crown of righteousness, a crown bestowed by God the righteous Judge, for the sake of Jesus Christ the righteous, on none but righteous persons, and on them in such a degree as accords with the righteous economy and holy regulations of the covenant of grace.

* Dr. Watts.

+ Ibid.