Page:Great duty of confessing Christ before men, stated and recommended.pdf/11

11 destroy with their lives what they attempt to build with their testimony, or profession, or with their lips, they act a most inconsistent part: He is a good man, heathens wont to say, but he is a Christian: a noble testimony to Christianity!

We should confess Christ in our families: God gave us families, and we ought to walk with a perfect heart in our houses at home. It is a shameful denial of the Son of God, when we do not shew forth in our families his loving kindness every morning, and his faithfulness every night. When we do not, by family-worship, instruction and government, consecrate our houses to God, as Bethels, to his service. If God be the founder of the family, if domestic deliverances, mercies, and trials, come from God? where is his honour and fear? How ungrateful to forget, or conceal, the goodness of such a gracious Father! If children and servants, and visiters in a family, near the worship of God, how is Christ confessed under that roof? The worst of the heathen shall be witnesses against these families, falsely called Christians, in the day of the Lord.

We ought especially to confess Christ before men after solemn occasions. When we have been near Christ in privileges and enjoyment, it is natural to suppose that we have imbibed a portion of his Spirit, and are resolved to glorify him in the world by obedience to his laws. We are especially to remember the day we stood before the Lord in Horeb, when we avouched him as our God, and promised to be his people. We are to hear what God saith to his people, and that he spoke peace, and we should not turn again to folly. The eyes of the world are fastened upon us after these occasions, and we should walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise; knowledge should be taken of us, that we have been with Jesus. We should carry about with us daily