speaks as honestly, and even more explicitly. He does not call us by name, nor with an audible voice from heaven; but He does better: He puts into our hands the written copy of the everlasting covenant, ratified by his own oath and the blood of his Son, pledging all the eternal honour of the Godhead, that whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish.

Now, really this strong assurance from the lips of God, deserves strong faith. For, what could He say or do more, in order to warrant implicit and imperishable faith in His promises? We really ought to be ashamed, yea shocked, at the bare idea of placing but little faith in them, seeing they are so great, so precious, and so true. Why; if you cannot trust them, what could you trust? What could be so satisfactory as the assurance, that "it is impossible for God to lie?" This fact,-all history, all experience, all the universe rises up to attest and confirm. Neither voice nor

vision from heaven, could amount to so much encouragement as this one fact. I must, therefore, repeat, that strong promises from the God of truth and love, deserve strong faith; nor can we have any good reason for withholding it from them.

I know quite well what you are now thinking about. You have been ready to say again and again, whilst reading this Essay,-" But, how can I be sure that the promises are meant for me? They are the children's bread; and I am not sure that I am a child of God. They belong to the penitent, the humble, the hungering and thirsting after righteousness; and I am afraid to class myself amongst them. Besides, I find no difficulty in believing firmly the truth of the promises themselves, or their faithfulness in the case of others: my difficulty is, to believe them in my own case. It is there, that my faith staggers.”

Yes; and well it may stagger, if you thus

want to be sure of your calling and election, before you venture to believe the glad tidings of the Gospel. You are, indeed, perfectly right in your opinion that, in general, the promises belong to specific characters, and are adapted and addressed to certain spiritual states of mind. Of this fact, you ought never to lose sight. Whoever regards all the promises as made to mankind promiscuously, understands neither their excellency nor their design. The greater part of them are, emphatically and exclusively, "the children's bread." There are, however, many of them (and these neither weak nor equivocal) the only and express object of which is, to multiply the children of God, or to win sinners to become the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. Yes; one class of the great and precious promises are entirely occupied with the manifestation of that matchless love which God bestows, in order that we may

be made his children.

Nor is this all the

whole of them have it as much for their object to reconcile the world unto God, as to endear God to the Church.

Consider this fact, and remember it. It will clear your way, mightily and rapidly, to the point at which all the promises can be appropriated and enjoyed by yourself. What you have now to believe with a strong faith, is not your own election, adoption, or conversion. You cannot, and ought not, to believe these things firmly, until you have more evidence of their truth, in your own experience. Strong faith on these points, can only be warranted by the fruits of faith in your heart and life. But whilst this is true, it is equally true, that even now, and as you are, and however you feel, there are both great and precious promises which you are fully warranted to believe, with all the faith of assurance.

The

promise, "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened," belongs as much to you, and deserves your entire faith, as the promise, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," belongs to the dearest children of God. What more, therefore, would you have, in order to warrant and welcome you to hope in Christ for your own salvation? God says, "You shall find," if you seek: "it shall be opened," if you knock. Unless, therefore, you want to find without seeking, or to be admitted into the household of faith without knocking, your way is as open as promises can make it.

If this view of the matter do not remove your difficulty, you have, in some way, mistaken the nature of faith itself, as well as the character of strong faith. It may be, that one cause of the weakness of your faith, is, that you tried at first, to believe more than was necessary at first; and thus by grasping at

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