show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting," 1 Tim. i. 15. For what object, then, is grace bestowed? Why are some selected to show forth the long-suffering of God? and why do we behold a powerful operation in the souls of true Christians, whereby they are evidently brought into a new state of feeling, are made to follow a new standard of right and wrong, and voluntarily to dedicate and submit themselves to the kingdom of Christ, with a right apprehension and cheerful prosecution of heavenly things?

We answer, that there is one great design in the gift of grace, whereby God's people are made willing in the day of his power,—that it is part of a plan prepared in the eternal counsels, but made manifest in time, whereby Jehovah is willing to make it seen that he who calls forth his pilgrims to the great journey can sustain them to the end, can lead them on from strength to strength, can give them grace, and, last of all, give them glory also. And the proof of this is redundant in Scripture; but we will first of all, to establish this truth, refer to the adoption or sonship of believers.

The true disciples of Jesus are not merely worshippers of God, they are his children; and they are children not merely as a title of favour, but as a title of adoption, union, assumption, and co-optation. It would be infinitely beneath the meaning of the word of God to interpret the title of sons given to believers as a mere designation of complacency, and an appellation of encouragement; for it is rather the inscription of the seal of God which he has stamped on those whom he has peculiarly selected to be his in an indissoluble union; "for the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, that the Lord knoweth them that are his :"—his, not by accident, and by the result of happy circumstances, fortuitously bringing about so blessed an issue, but his according to his eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the origin of the adoption of the saints, the choice which God the Father made of them before they were born in the flesh. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved," Eph. i. It is impossible to gainsay these words: they directly assert that the saints, the people of God, were chosen in Christ before the world was made, that they were predestined to be his

adopted children by Jesus Christ; that this adoption was " unto himself," for his own glory, and for his own possession; and that this plan, unlike any thing that man could have invented or supposed probable, was to make his grace glorious, notable, conspicuous, and an object of praise and admiration; that he, out of his own will, (nothing thereunto moving him but his own will,) should have made those whom he had so chosen accepted in his beloved son Jesus Christ, acceptable, that is, and accepted, inasmuch as they were taken into union with him.

This is high doctrine, it will be said; and it is high; but is it not the heights of Scripture? and shall we flinch to assert, or be ashamed to repeat that which the Holy Ghost has asserted repeatedly in all those Scriptures which are given by inspiration of God? All doctrines have their proper place, and this is the place to bring forth these doctrines. The text of our discourse requires it; and we should evade the written truths of the Bible if we said less on this head than we find there written.

Now, if the Almighty has given the name, and privileges, and relationship of sons and daughters to his saints; if he has done so, not accidentally, but of a purpose settled long before they came into this visible world, what, we ask, is the object of this his revelation of grace to them? It is to give them an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. So says the apostle; "In whom [i. e. Christ] we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," Eph. i. 11. Our inheritance does not accrue to us from accident, or in consequence of what is done in this mortal life, but is to be traced up to a higher source— -to that fountain from which our sonship or adoption springs: "If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ;" and it is part of this great plan, by all the ills and trials of life to make us walk in that course of obedience which it is absolutely necessary all should walk in who appear at last before God in Zion. Hence the trials and afflictions, the sorrows and the troubles of the saints, are all part of that grace which has enrolled them amongst the sons of God; "for we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose: for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born amongst many brethren: moreover, whom he did predestinate them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified," Rom. viii. 28.

This is the end of the journey; the beginning of it is in the effectual calling of God. The first step is in justification freely by grace, through faith; the rest of the journey is the process of conformation to the image of Christ in sanctification and obedience, through the same grace that first called and justified. The last stage is a triumphant death, entering thereby into heaven, to bear for ever the image of the heavenly Adam, and to bid farewell to that tabernacle in which the travelling saints were burdened and did groan, waiting to be clothed upon by their house which is from heaven.

So, then, we have shown from Scripture that Jehovah, the Elohim of Israel, who is the sun and shield of the saints, does give both grace and glory, according to the doctrine of the psalmist.

It is not, however, to be supposed that we wish to exclude from the view which we have taken of the grace of God effectually working into glory those necessary evidences and proofs of grace which manifest the new creation-holiness, good works, patience, love, meekness, and all the other fruits of the Spirit: no; we have already incidentally noticed that obedience is requisite for obtaining everlasting life, which is given to those "who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality," Rom. ii. 7; for it will be of no avail to begin well, and then to discontinue the works of holiness, for we are commanded "not to be weary in well doing," the reward being attached to the command,-" for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not," Gal. vi. 9; and if we look to our victory as a gift of God's grace; and certain, because it is through the power of one who has already been victorious, as the apostle expresses it, by ascribing "thanks to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." This must only be to encourage us in a continued course of obedience: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord," 1 Cor. xv. 57, 58.

But whence, then, comes this power of "patient continuance in well doing?" From the great fountain of the spiritual life, even the eternal will and disposition of God, who, when he chose his children, chose them for a life of good works, and resolved that in them they should continue, till he called them to join the just men made perfect; "for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them," Eph. ii. 10.

We, therefore, cannot turn any where in this great inquiry, without finding grace at every turn. If we seek for good works as a requisite

to eternal life, we find that those good works were before ordained, and that the children of God were created to walk in them. If we lay down as an undeniable maxim, that" without holiness no man shall see the Lord," and that holiness consists in a conformity to the blessed example of Jesus Christ-truths which are indisputable-we then discover that those whom God "foreknew, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born amongst many brethren," Rom. viii. 29; and that this holiness, which is indispensable in the elect, is a portion of their election; for " God did choose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love," Eph. i. 4.

After these considerations, we may well exclaim, in the words of the text, "O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee;" -who trusteth not in his own strength, purposes, resolutions, vows, watchfulness, and solemn determinations, but trusteth in that God who giveth grace that he may ultimately give glory. Wide is the difference between a life of good works out of grace, and a life of good works in grace: vast is the distance between those who are going to Zion in the purity of the natural man, though decorated with most glittering virtues, and those who are going thither in the purity of the new creation. The one has his own excellencies, obedience, noble deeds, and great sacrifices to offer, and of them he may presumptuously boast; the other has nothing to boast of but God's workmanship, which has hewn him out of nature's quarry for the temple of grace; " for by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast: for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them," Eph. ii. 10.

And why have the Scriptures so frequently inculcated these doctrines? Why do the inspired penmen, either directly or indirectly, refer to them with earnest iteration? Why do we find them insisted on in so many chapters and texts of the New Testament? Why is grace, in all its varied operations, so continually and earnestly set before us? It is to strengthen the weak, to comfort the faint-hearted, to encourage the timid, to fortify the afflicted, to uphold the desponding, to sustain the oppressed. The way to Zion is through the valley of Baca, a passage of unspeakable trials, a journey of droughts and burning heats, a road of dust, and toil, and tears, and groans. "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven;" and therefore, assuredly, we have need not only of exhortations "to continue in the faith," but of "confirmation for our souls:" see Acts

xiv. 22. We need to be taught, and that frequently, that our strength is not in ourselves; that our tottering feet are not to be supported by any mortal staff, but by the rod of strength of Christ our head; that this is a rod of strength in the preservation and perseverance of the saints, a rod like Aaron's rod which blossomed, and the blossoms perished not, but remained in the ark of the covenant; that, as the buds and the manna did not perish in the ark, so neither shall the word of life in the hearts of the faithful; that we are kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation; that the power of Him who called the saints keepeth them from falling, and presents them faultless before the presence of his glory; that the seed of the new birth is an incorruptible seed, and that by it we are begotten to an inheritance which is reserved for us in heaven; that the Lord our righteousness has fulfilled the law for us, and borne the curse of offended justice, and has been made sin for us; that our sins have been laid on Him; that when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by his death, and therefore much more, being reconciled, shall be saved by his life. 'Surely," therefore, does a child of God say, "in the Lord have I righteousness and strength,"-in his immutable counsels, his unerring -word, his exceeding great and precious promises, his eternal covenant, >ordered in all things and sure.

But let it be placed foremost in the list of Christian axioms, that the elect are the children of trial and affliction. If this leading truth be not fully acknowledged, the doctrines of grace lapse into dangerous antinomianism, or degenerate into the profitless speculations of party theology. The Scriptures do, indeed, teach us that the saints given unto Christ shall assuredly enter into the kingdom of heaven, and that not one of them shall be lost; but then, with equal earnestness, they teach at the same time, and inseparably, that the saints are to be in a state of suffering upon earth; that they must carry their cross daily ; that the mere act of being a follower of Jesus insures some denial, or loss, or trial of patience, or sacrifice, or persecution; that tribulation, and chastening, and grief, are part of the believer's predestinated lot; that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has, indeed, " many sons," whom he is resolved to place at last in glory, but that they must suffer on earth before they reign in heaven; and that, to prove and seal this truth for ever," he made the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings," Heb. ii. 10; " for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth," Heb. xii. 6. To separate the cross from the doctrines of grace is to separate Christ from the cross, and to propound him to us as some other character than a