dwelleth in God, and God in him. Thus as man was originally made in God's image, after his likeness, and as he lost this image by the fall, so he is now restored by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, to a divine temper and disposition, a bent and tendency of mind which come from God and which conduct to him, which bear the impress of his holiness, and exhibit some faint adumbration of his moral glory.

It might seem at the first view surprising, that the exceeding great and precious promises of Scripture should have the effect of delivering us from this corruption of the world, and communicating to us the correspondent blessing of a participation of the divine nature. That the commands of God should produce these consequences might appear natural; and that the warnings and threatenings of God should have such a tendency, might also seem obvious; but that gratuitous blessings should operate in this manner is perhaps not altogether so intelligible. A very little attention, however, will be sufficient to place this point in a clear light.

But first let me caution you against considering the promises as the only method which God employs for our sanctification. The regeneration of the soul is the work of his Holy Spirit, who, of his own will begets us by the word of truth. But it is not the word of promise only which the Spirit employs in this work. The terrors of his law are ordinarily the means of producing the first movements of true repentance. In all the course also of a Christian's life there are various other appointed means of grace, which, as well as the promises, conduce to the ends of sanctification. The declaration of the text must therefore be only understood to assert that the design and the tendency of the promises, as well as of the other truths of the Holy Scriptures, is, by giving strength to our faith, animation to our hope,

and fervour to our supplications, to encourage us to a ceaseless pursuit of holiness, and thus to make us partakers of the divine nature.

That this is the direct tendency of the divine promises may appear, first, from the consideration that it is the view of his LOVE AND GRACE 'as displayed in the Gospel of his Son, which God is pleased chiefly to employ to win the heart to his service. The true penitent (and to him alone the promises belong) is constrained by the love of Christ to live, not unto himself, but unto him that died for him and rose again. Terrors may produce sorrow and contrition, but it is the promises which chiefly animate to the pursuit of universal holiness. Injunctions may deter from evil, but it is the sense of the divine mercy which raises the heart to what is good. The law may prescribe the rule of duty, the grace of the Gospel alone can incline us to observe it. The natural man may see God on Mount Sinai and fly from him, the humble penitent beholds him on Mount Sion, and learns to delight in doing his will.

The ASSURANCES OF ASSISTANCE offered to us in the promises tend also directly to promote holiness. Despair unnerves the soul. The perpetual discomfitures which we meet with when we attempt to serve God in our own strength, increase our actual bondage. But when the promise of the grace of the Holy Spirit encourages the heart, we rise to resist sin and to tread the path of duty. It is when assured that God will work in us to will and to do, that we begin in earnest to work out our own salvation. His engagement to instruct and teach us, may well animate us to inquire after his will. His promise to receive the returning sinner, may well move him to repent. When Christ declares that he will cast out none who come unto him, we are led to approach him. His assurance that he will be with two or three that meet together in his name, tends

to excite us to a devout attendance on his worship. When commanded to draw nigh to God, and promised the aid of the Spirit to assist us in doing so, we are encouraged in the attempt to pray. The hope of support in trouble, relief in distress, joy in sorrow, and life in death, which we derive from this source, strengthens us to press onwards through every difficulty. The promise of forgiveness excites us to forsake sin; the promise of inward grace, to mortify it; the promise of a new heart stimulates us to labour after its renewal in the divine image; and the promise of future glory, to prepare ourselves for heaven.

Again; the CONDITIONS annexed to the promises, make them the powerful means of producing in us conformity to the divine nature. I mean by conditions the terms with which it has pleased God to connect the fulfilment of his promises. These are frequently expressed. To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God. The meek will he guide in judgment. All things work together for good to them that love God. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me, and they shall never perish. If any man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him. It is obvious that such promises must tend to produce in true Christians those dispositions and that character to which alone they are made. It will be found that by far the largest number of the separate promises, if not all of them, are of this kind. They are made to attach to the disposition and state of mind of the individual. The prophetic parts of Scripture indeed abound with promises which are of a more absolute and unconditional description; but these are evidently addressed to the church of God. And before we venture to apply them to ourselves, an inquiry ought previously to

be instituted, whether our true repentance, faith, and holy conduct exhibit the necessary evidence that we are indeed members of that body. In the Epistles also many promises are again addressed to particular churches, to the saints, the elect, the holy brethren; but these still require the same careful examination whether we are of the number of the true servants of God, before we apply them to ourselves. I allow, indeed, that the very power to fulfil the terms of the promises is the fruit of divine mercy, and is to be ascribed to God's grace alone, and not to any thing in ourselves: still as the previous conditions must be accomplished before the stipulated blessings are appropriated, such promises, if believed, directly tend to produce obedience.

But I ask once more, what is the matter of God's promises-what are the BLESSINGS THEMSELVES WHICH THEY HOLD OUT TO US? Do they not all either imply holy obedience, or directly include it? Repentance, faith, love, joy, hope, peace, strength, communion with God, are subjects of the promises; and what are these but parts of sanctification? The Holy Spirit as the teacher, guide, comforter, and "sanctifier of all the elect people of God," as our church expresses it, is the great promise of the New Testament; and is he not the source of the Christian's holiness? Again; pardon, justification, and adoption, are blessings which God has promised: and what are these but the removal of the hindrances which interposed to prevent our serving God without fear? Go through all the blessings which are promised in the Sacred Scriptures, and you will find them to be either connected with sanctification, or included in it; so that the possession of them implies holiness in the possessor; implies that he has communion with God through his Spirit; that he is united to his Saviour by faith; that he is a

partaker of the divine nature, and an heir and expectant of heaven.

I ask, again, what are the direct and necessary EFFECTS of such promises, when they are received? They are the nutriment of faith which worketh by love, They inspire hope which purifies the heart even as God is pure: which is represented as the anchor of the soul, and as our helmet in the day of conflict. Through their power we obtain the victory over the world. Having these promises, we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. They fill the mind with love to Christ, who loads us daily with such benefits. They awaken the powerful and operative principle of gratitude. They lead to unreserved devotedness to God. They encourage to perseverance in the ways of religion. They work, in short, not as the presumptuous hope of a mere exemption from punishment would work on an earthly and unrenewed mind, but as a scriptural expectation of spiritual blessings operates on a new and heavenly nature. They work therefore not as an opiate to stupify, but as a medicine to restore. And all this they do, not by a mere natural process, but by the gracious appointment of God, that through his mercy and the power of his Spirit, the cordial belief and reception of them should lead to purity here, and end in heaven hereafter.

But why do I enter into these details upon a point which every true Christian feels in his constant observation and experience? If ever he has done any thing for God, it has been by means of the promises. If ever he has mortified his passions or cultivated a temper of universal holiness, it has been by the grace of the Gospel. If ever he has escaped from the corruption which is in the world through lust, and become in a measure partaker of the divine nature, it has been by faith in the power