excellence, and find them making us conformed to his image, who is the sum and substance of them all, we must seek to have them fastened upon our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit. Our thoughts indeed are so little proportioned to the majesty and goodness of God, that when we would ask for needed blessings we are often discouraged in prayer; like Moses, when Jehovah had promised quails for all the multitude of Israel: as though it were impossible that God should do as He had said. And therefere, because we fear to ask, we fail to obtain. When meditation upon the promises has filled a Christian's heart with a full sense of the value of evangelical blessings, in the glorified treasurehouse of the church, prayer should pour out the desire to possess them; and God will be found with an open hand to bestow them. The promises, so pleaded and sought from God, will be blessed in their own high value, and blessed to the receiver as answers, to prayer, and evidences of the love of Christ.

II. A Christian should never rest contented in a slight acquaintance with the promises. They are intended, in the purposes of divine wisdom, to smooth the path of self-denial-to console the child of God in the afflictions and

F

trials of nature and grace--to enable the good soldier of Jesus Christ to endure hardness in his gracious warfare-to lift his renewed mind above the love of this present world-to bear it up over the floods of temptation—to produce conformity with Christ, in his death to sin, and in his reign over sin-and to enable him to perfect holiness in the fear of God. And shall it then be, that one who feels his need of fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, for these important ends, and for that peace of God which passeth all understanding, should be satisfied, without ample and constant experience of their presence and power within his heart? God forbid! O never may it suffice those who have embraced these promises in their Redeemer, only to dip the end of the rod of faith. in this honey, and put it to their mouth, and so pass on, and be little strengthened. He who would sound the depths of the sea, must not stand upon the shore, and let down his plummet. He must sail far upon its bosom, and then try whether its bottom may be reached at all. It is thus with the promises. He who would understand the love and greatness of his Saviour and covenant Father in them, must follow them out, in the life of an experimental religion. He must

familiarize himself with them, as they meet his view; and endeavour, through a daily increasing acquaintance with them, to "know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and to be filled with all the fulness of God." 1

III. Is it the end of all the exceeding great and precious promises given to Abram, and his seed by faith, that they should be made partakers of the divine nature? Then is it an allimportant question for a believer to ask, Whether he is so enjoying the happiness they communicate, and using them according to the purpose of the Spirit, as to be escaping the corruptions that are in the world through lust, and purifying himself, even as God is pure? "Having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." He who neglects this solemn call, can never abound in the riches, either of grace or consolation. The promises, truly received into the heart, and faithfully dealt by, are not only causes of holiness, as workmen of the Spirit, but arguments to enforce it: and ill indeed shall we understand, either their nature, or their

value, if we fail to exemplify the life of faith upon them. They are pure in themselves, even as gold purified seven times in the fire; and where they are truly received, and enjoyed, according to the will of God, must effect, (notwithstanding all the opposing power of sin and Satan) a gracious conformity to themselves, and to the fountain of immaculate holiness, from whence they flow, to supply the church. They not only declare, but communicate the riches of the grace of God to his children in Christ Jesus; and they prepare his blessed family, day by day, for the enjoyment of his rest, and the vision of his glory.

SERMON V.

THE COMMAND OBEYED.

GENESIS XII. 4, 5.

SO ABRAM DEPARTED, as the LORD HAD SPOKEN UNTO HIM; AND LOT WENT WITH HIM. AND ABRAM WAS SEVENTY AND FIVE YEARS OLD WHEN HE DEPARTED OUT OF HARAN. AND ABRAM TOOK SARAI HIS WIFE, and Lot HIS BROTHER'S SON, AND ALL THEIR SUBSTANCE THAT THEY HAD GATHERED, AND THE SOULS THAT THEY HAD GOTTEN IN HARAN: AND THEY WENT FORTH TO GO INTO THE LAND OF CANAAN; AND INTO THE LAND OF CANAAN THEY CAME.

He who should stand at the source of one of those mighty rivers in the new world, which traverses a thousand leagues of country, and

then pours a sea of water into the ocean, would never imagine, unless he had traced it upwards, that it could be the parent of such a stream. And it is even so in the processes of divine wisdom in the spiritual world. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, to the eye of

sense.

Some of those events connected with