If we do so and the first case the divine will takes the lead, in this second a human agent seems to take the lead. so, such a blessing will be bestowed. unto God and he will draw nigh unto you:" James iv. 8. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and I will receive you :" 2 Cor. vi. 17. " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light: Eph. v. 14. "Ask and ye shall have, seek and ye shall find:" Matt. vii. 7. If any man open unto me, I will come in to him :" Rev. iii. 20. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved: "Acts xvi. 31. "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out:" John vi. 37. Besides which there are hundreds more which we consider as conditional promises, or as declarations of what will necessarily fall out, as an effect follows a cause, and which any wise man would easily see must result from such and such conduct, as Rom. viii. 13; but still it is clear that any really conditional or regulated promise hangs upon something to be done by us, and we see that, wherever the regulation is observed, God is not slack concerning the fulfilment of his promises; for it is in all cases true that, if we draw nigh to God, he does draw nigh to us; if we seek, we do find; if we believe, we are saved; if we come to Christ, he does receive us; and if we refuse to come to him, we are not received. These are unquestionable facts. It is evident that we are dealt with here as rational and accountable creatures. Now, whether we see it or not, there is no doubt a connexion between the general purpose of God and the free agency of man. The general purpose may rationally consist with the disposing of men's minds to the due use of appointed means. The work of converting grace supposes such influence; and our working out our own salvation with fear and trembling does not exclude God's working in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure: Phil. ii. 12, 13. So that when, agreeably to our Topic, we compare the promises with the condi tions annexed, we do it with great advantage to ourselves, and shall be enabled to adjust a case of conscience upon it for the benefit of our hearers: seeing that this wheel in the midst of a wheel, having a transverse motion, does not offer any insuperable difficulty; "for at last," as good Mr. Bayne says," the will is subject to grace, and not grace to the will." God is still free in the exercise of his sovereignty; in disposing the mind to himself, even in an act of rebellion, as in the case of Saul of Tarsus when intent on persecuting the saints of God. Thus far, my brethren, I think you may proceed, that is, to justify the divine procedure, his just right to establish his own purposes, to carry them into execution against all opposition, to exact from man the concurrence of his will, to place him under responsibilities, to give encouragement to exertion, and to put means into his hands for this purpose which he has so much interest in improving. Thus far we have real and practical utility in comparing the state of things till we understand their bearings, till we apprehend what the mind and will of God is upon those points in which a well-regulated ministry is so much concerned, and in which the light of private Christians is either diminished or promoted. We ought to give them as much satisfaction as we can; but into deep speculations and disputations enter not; I never knew any good done by them. Human weakness is not to be trusted far into the intricacy and secret connexion between the principal and subordinate wheels of the divine administration. Practical utility is the point at which you are to aim, and at which you are to stop. As often as necessary you will maintain the sovereignty of God, that he has a right, in willing an end, to will also the means, to arm those means with necessary efficacy, and to support them by his promises; and you * The divine alluded to was Paul Bayne, of St. Andrew's College, Cambridge. His work on Ephesians is in some parts insufficient; in others very excellent; which observation, I think, will apply to divinity works in general of that age. will represent that there is a perfect analogy with this divine method in the natural world. Here God wills a crop, but wills also the needful culture and labour. God wills light to the world, but makes the heavenly bodies subservient to this end. He wills our spiritual improvement, and all means in connexion with it. Nor can there be any thing more reasonable or more honourable to us than placing talents in our hands that we may increase them; making us the agents of our own happiness; accepting, in kindness, the co-operation of our poor endeavours with his purposes; putting a number of regulated promises into the hands of those who are so deeply interested in their object; putting us upon nothing less than self-preservation and self-interest; honouring his creature with an active agency suited to a renewed state, an activity too so necessary to our spiritual health as well as our improvement; putting us upon the exercise of our faith in the divine word, upon the expectancies of hope; making us examples of success in the use of means; giving us a blessed experience that the Lord is gracious, and a blessed foretaste of "the grace that we are to receive at the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." This view of things places our religion above the suspicion of fanaticism; and if these conditional promises had been withheld, the loss had been very great; there would have been no suitability between the economy under which we are placed and the common nature of man. There had been a strange anomaly exhibited to us, which all the wisdom of philosophy could never have reconciled or accounted for. We have therefore much reason to be grateful that the economy of grace is so suited to our state and to every thing that is remedial which that state requires. Allow me, therefore, to show more at large that these conditional promises are actually and experimentally of a beneficial nature, and their not standing as a part of the sacred Scripture would be a very great calamity. 1. I observe, in the first place, that a Christian is necessarily influenced by hope and fear in spiritual things. He comes under these influences in conversion; and, in proportion as he is actuated by them, his spiritual life is to be estimated as lively, or dull, or languishing. I do not say that these are the only motives to action, because love is equally essential; but it must be admitted that hope and fear are principal motives of determination as to man's conduct. The hope of reward influenced Moses's choice; and the apostle says, "Let us also fear, lest" such and such consequences follow. Now try the issue upon a single regulated promise of our dear Lord and Master: "Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find," &c. Does not the promise actually and experimentally operate upon the believer's mind? Is he not influenced to pray by the very terms of the promise? and is he not put into a state of fear that if he do not so seek he will not find or obtain that which is the matter of petition? Certainly we must answer in the affirmative. Here is a proof of the excellence and utility of a conditional promise, and, however dead his frame of mind may be, when he connects with this the promise of a spirit of grace and supplication-the assurance that the Spirit will help his infirmities, though with groanings which cannot be uttered-does he not resolve, "“thy face will I seek. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning?" Now this is such a plain case of utility that no doubt remains. 2. The weakness of our common nature requires such stimuli, in all variety. Does the Saviour say, "Come unto me, and ye shall find rest for your souls?" The believer answers, "I come unto thee, for thou art the Lord my God: in thee the destitute find mercy." Take but a review of all these promises, and you will perceive that all of them tend to action, the very essence of the Christian life that they enter on all possible things and circumstances with an accuracy of foreknowledge that is very wonderful; ; an intimate acquaintance with our wants, which nothing but omniscience could discern, or infinite goodness could supply; and yet not one too much. Again: there are promises to our due observance of the Lord's institutions, and of all other obligations rightly regarded. There are promises to encourage our trust and confidence in every season of affliction or sorrow. There are promises made to the exercise of every Christian grace, and they are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Now suppose the absence of these, or their existence without the condition under which they are given; in either case the want must be severely felt, both to the private Christian, and more especially to the preachers of the gospel, who could never, with all their ingenuity, furnish a substitute. In former times, more than at present, it was the practice of preachers to urge to activity from motives collected from heathen philosophers; this was indeed a miserable shift: but, if the funds of eloquence which these promises supply were wanted, we must go again to the schools of Athens for topics of discourse; and we might say of the pulpit " the glory is departed." I hope it has been sufficiently shown that these promises have an important place in Scripture, and they have an immediate tendency to the instruction and comfort of all who really believe them, and must be used accordingly. 3. Does not the Christian stand in continual need of some evidence of his state before God, and especially in the dark and cloudy day? What better evidence can he have than the agreement as to the state of his mind and that which is the object of the promises? This is not the case with a hypocrite; he wants the promises, but wants them without that state of the heart to which the promises have respect. The believer can, on the contrary, appeal to God for his sincerity, that he only desires the promises in God's own way, and believes that God will work in him to will and to do of his own good pleasure; and this, I say, is an enviable estate: his will, which God first looks at, is |