Page:Great duty of confessing Christ before men, stated and recommended.pdf/3

3 I. Make some Observations about the Duty recommended in these words, of Confessing Christ before men.

II. Consider the force of the motive, Him will I confess before my Father in heaven.

III. Make a few Inferences.

HEAD I.

I. We observe, that it is the bounden duty of Christians to confess Christ before men, or the world. The words of our text refer to a period, when a confession of Christ exposed his followers to reproach, to persecution, and to death; but even then this was a necessary duty: Though Christ’s name was not then generally known, though his religion was in opposition to all other religions, and though the powers of the world were leagued against the Church, yet it was still a duty to hold fast his name, (Rev. ii. 13.) and not to deny his faith. But the text refers also to a time when under the name of Christ men have forsaken him; when his truths are denied, his cause neglected, his laws broken, and when the true spirit of Christianity has evaporated: Then it is our duty to confess him before men, to appear on his side, to range under his banner, and, at all hazards, to stand with him upon the mount Zion, having his Father’s name written on our foreheads, Rev. xiv. I. If we are subjects of the moral government of God, we are bound by his law, “to know and acknowledge him to be the only true God, and our God, and to worship and glorify him accordingly.” The very constitution of the Church, and the enjoyment of her ordinances, lays every Christian under an obligation to confess Christ before men, and not to be ashamed of him, or of any of his words, before an evil and adulterous generation. The names given to Christians in Scripture, imply an obligation to make a public profession of his name: They are his friends, children,