saith, Matth. xx. 16. "Many are called, but few are chosen;" and
of many of whom that is also too true in every generation, (and, oh! that
it were not too manifest in this also,) which Paul observed in his time,
Phil. iii. 18, 19. "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now
tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in
their shame, who mind earthly things,"--and as to Christ thy Lord, most
comely "as the lily among thorns," being his "love among the daughters,"
Cant. ii. 2. so also, thou, in a special way, art the dearly beloved and
longed for, the joy and crown, of every sincere servant of Christ in the
gospel, Phil. iv. 1. Thou art, if not the only, yet the chief object of
their labours, their work being either to confirm and strengthen thee in
thy way, that thou mayest so stand fast in the Lord, or remove
impediments, make crooked things straight, and so prepare the way of the
Lord before thee, or to guide thee by the light of God's word in the dark
night of temptation and desertion. Now, as we are confident these sermons
were preached at first by that blessed, serious labourer in the work of
the ministry, Mr. Hugh Binning, with a special eye to the advancement of
sincere seekers after fellowship with God, and seriously
heaven-ward-tending Christians amongst his hearers, so to whom shall we
direct this posthumous, and alas! unperfected work, but to thee, (O
serious Christian,) who makest it thy work not only to seek after the
knowledge of God in Christ, in a mere speculative way, that thou mayest
know, and therein rest, as if thy work were done, but also to follow after
the enjoyment of that known God, and believed on Saviour, and all the
promised privileges of grace in this life, and of eternal glory in the
life to come. To thee especially belong these precious soul-ravishing
truths delivered in these sermons. Two things, we know, thou hast
determined thy soul unto, and fixed thine eye on, as thine aim and mark in
thy generation, viz. the light of knowledge and the life of practice. As
to knowledge, we are confident that with the apostle Paul, 1 Cor. ii. 2.
thou hast determined to know nothing but "Christ, and him crucified;" and
as to practice, with the said apostle thou prayest, that thou mayest be
sincere and without offence till the day of Christ, being filled with the
fruits of righteousness, which are