the covenant, and he shall prepare the way before me, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son, that serveth him.”

A few of the "exceeding great and precious promises" given to the church during the patriarchal and legal dispensations, have been adduced in evidence of God's gracious method of dealing with his elect people. And these promises have been but scantily gleaned from the books of Moses and the prophets. But what copious treasuries remain untouched; and how attempt to set in order the words of spirit and of life contained in the historical books of Scripture, in the book of Job, and above all in the Psalms of David, and in the writings of Solomon ! Or how hope to compress within any reasonable limits, the multiplied records of divine love and grace, which flow from the pen of the sweet Psalmist of Israel and from that of his inspired son? The effort is not made, not because the task would be any other than a pleasing one, but from its hopeless nature. The fruits of this garden of the Lord's planting, are too varied to admit of any due selection. The leaves which are for the healing of the nations, too profusely scattered to admit of their being gathered up. An attempt has been made to follow the church of the first-born, during a period of four thousand years, and to mark the progress of the life which she derived from the promises of God. And at the coming of Christ we behold her faith in a good measure turned into sight. The seed of the woman was revealed. "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made

under the Law. to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Now the title to heaven, so long spoken of, was actually given. The freedom from sin, so long promised, was actually bestowed. God would no more tell of a deliverer to come, who should bruise the serpent's head: behold, the deliverer is come out of Zion. He appears on earth, he wages war with the powers and principalities, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, with spiritual wickedness in high places. He enters the lists with the God of this world, and "through death destroys him who has the power of death, that is the devil." No more shall the future opening of the prison-doors be proclaimed by any prophet of the Lord. Isaiah performed his office blessedly, but it need not be repeated. The prison doors are open, and cannot be closed again. They have been opened at the cost of the life of the Son of God. From henceforth who shall shut them? "I am he that openeth, saith Christ, and no man shutteth; behold, I have set before thee an open door." (Rev. iii. 7, 8.) And shall they any more testify of sin to be forgiven, and removed? Christ has made an end of sin. He has obtained for us eternal redemption. And why proclaim any more, that righteousness shall be the heritage of the saints? Christ transferred that precious gift to his people, and made his church the righteousness of God in himself, when he was made sin for them. (2 Cor. v. 21.) The church then entered upon altogether a new era of her spiritual life, when the dispensation of the kingdom of heaven, succeeded to that of the Law and the Prophets. The promise had almost entirely sustained her hitherto, but from henceforth, she is to live mainly upon the facts, which prove the actual fulfilment of the ancient promises. The language of the church is not now the

Faith,

same that it was before the coming of Christ. indeed, has always respect to the same objects, but the expression of that faith varies, in proportion as its objects are more or less clearly discerned. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ, and he saw it, and was glad; but did he behold it, as we now behold it? Impossible; Christ himself attests the contrary. It must be granted, however, that whilst the faith of the Christian church is grounded upon the facts of the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, these facts can never be contemplated, apart from those ancient promises of God which these facts accomplished. The church then, even now, lives by the faith of the same words of promise, which sustained the spiritual life of their predecessors under the Law. And although it must be acknowledged that we possess an increase of blessing, and that the faith which rests upon the fulfilled word of God appears doubly secured, still it must not be forgotten, that the believer can never repose his faith so perfectly as he ought to do, upon the facts recorded in the Gospel history, except he connects those facts with the promises which foretold their existence. Nor will this view of the matter be displeasing to those, who would not willingly part with any one of the gracious words, which have at any time proceeded from the mouth of God; every notification of the Lord's favour being dear to the believer's heart, whilst that demonstration of love is necessarily most precious, which has been manifested in the consummation of the promises; even the love which has superadded facts to words; which has shown us the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, as well as told us of him; and which in fulfilment of the promise, and of the types and shadows of the mighty sacrifice, has exhibited to our adoring eyes the actual Lamb slain

from the foundation of the world! (Gal. iii. 1.) And shall not the love that has now poured out upon us the Holy Ghost, so long predicted, and that has caused us to enter into the kingdom of Christ, spoken of by the prophets, be duly acknowledged by us? and shall we not rejoice that our lot was cast, not in patriarchal, not in legal, but in Gospel days? Not that we would boastfully imagine ourselves more beloved of God than those former saints, some of whom it is probable far surpassed us in faith and righteousness; but still we must confess the superior dispensation of the grace of God, under which we live, in the good providence of God. A dispensation appointed us, not for our merit's sake, but of the Lord's goodness, and according to the purpose of him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be the praise." To us belongeth shame and confusion of face. To thee the prerogative of exercising mercy in thy church, according to thine own good pleasure.

The church of the last days has been described, as resting her faith mainly upon the facts of the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus; but yet not so as to make it unnecessary, that she should any more contemplate the promises made to the ancient church. It has been shewn that she still lives, in a measure, by that word which God spake at sundry times, and in divers manners, to our fathers by the prophets. But it is also evident, that she now lives upon new promises, superadded to the old; upon gospel promises, which are linked with the "better hope" now brought into the world. For what exceeding great and precious promises has Christ himself given to the church! No more he speaks in parables, but (John xvi. 25.) he tells us

plainly of the Father's love, and of his own love, and of the love of the Holy Ghost, and predicts distinctly, that Father, Son, and Spirit, will dwell from henceforth and for ever with his people. But how enumerate the multiplied promises now afforded to the Christian church in the last dispensation of the grace of God? If the attempt to make any thing like a due selection from the promises of the Old Testament was almost hopeless, how shall any success be expected, when the New Testament is the treasury to be explored! The very many last words of God, which are calculated to sustain the believer's life in the kingdom of his Lord, cannot be set in order here. But happily, there is no need for the recapitulation of them all. The mention of one of them is enough, even the one selected by our evangelist in the text, " And this is the promise that he hath promised us-Eternal Life." For into this promise all other promises may be resolved; in this one promise all centre, and have their accomplishment. And it may be affirmed with truth, that to this one blessed consummation of the believer's hope, all the varied and multiplied, and widely diffused promises of the word of God, have respect, even from first to last; from the first promise indicated in the serpent's doom, and given, prior to the expulsion of our first parents from paradise, to the last promise contained in that apocalyptic vision, which disclosed to the apostle's eye 'the Tree of Life,"-true emblem of our immortality in Christ.

26. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

The apostle proceeds now to explain the cause of his