3. The heart should be given up _cheerfully_. In every offering presented to God, it is required, that we should not “give grudgingly or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.” 2 Cor. ix. 7. This is a requisition more especially important, when the heart is the gift, and God the receiver. Why should we hesitate or grudge to give him _his own_? Instead, therefore, of entertaining one repining thought at the idea, we should rather rejoice that we have hearts to give the Lord, and that he is so condescending as to take them at our hands. Mark with what readiness and vivacity the sensualist and the pleasure-taker devote their time and affections to pursuits of the most trifling and sordid nature. These poor deluded idolizers of a perishing world, think no time too long, and no pains too great, though exhausted in a service that is perfect bondage. They want no arguments to enforce conformity to the world, neither is the smallest compulsion necessary to drive them to their pleasures. Self-gratification is a sufficient inducement. Earthly things have an irresistible attraction. The current of their affections carries them away with an impetuous tide; and they glide swiftly and cheerfully along, though the objects of their false felicity are empty and precarious as the bubble, and the deceitful stream is wafting them with a rapid but imperceptible course, to the gulf of ruin. And shall these infatuated triflers be such willing slaves of Satan, such cheerful devotees to folly? and we engage in the service of the blessed Jesus, with reluctance or reserve? Shall they give the world and its God their _whole_ hearts? and we _divide_ ours with Him, who made them and redeemed them? Shall they _fly_, when dissipation solicits, and amusements call? and shall we _creep_, when the God of love cries “Follow me?” Forbid it gratitude, devotion, and common sense! Rather may we say, “Thine we are, Lord, by ties the most sacred, and obligations the most binding, and thou shalt have our whole hearts; for, thou art worthy!” And, in order to prevail on you to do this, give me leave to urge those, III. Motives, which ought to prompt our compliance with the reasonable demand in the text. Now, these are founded upon the state of the human heart by nature—the many mercies we receive from God, the uncertainty of time, and the great danger of procrastination—and the nature of Him, who makes the demand.