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celebrate the praises of the God of Israel. And shall we have no stones of grateful memorial to erect, when we pass through death? no dying testimony to leave behind us of God's everlasting love, the complete salvation of Jesus, the life-giving operations of the Holy Spirit, his kind and faithful care of us through this wilderness of sorrow, and our firm hope in his immutable promise for an eternal inheritance? Shall we have no farewell testimony to leave behind us, that our children, and all who may then surround us, may be encouraged to trust in the Saviour's power and love! God forbid! But may we find that remarkable promise verified, at evening time it shall be light. Zechariah xiv. 7. On the other side of Jordan I know we shall erect a memorial, for all who have passed to that delightful shore incessantly sing, Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Revelation i. 5, 6. Therefore let us pray that we may live by faith, and walk in love, and we shall know something what it means, that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, and pass through Jordan to be in the presence of the Lord, where is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

ON THE PROMISES OF GOD.

Engrav❜d as in eternal brass

The faithful promise shines;

Nor can the powers of darkness rase
Those everlasting lines.

Oh, might I hear thy heav'nly tongue

But whisper, "Thou art mine!"

Those gentle words should raise my song

To notes almost divine.

Watts.

IN the Christian's walk with God, and his daily course through this world of conflict, in hope of endless bliss, it is of great importance that he possess a correct knowledge of the nature and uses of the promises which God has recorded in the Scriptures. Not so much as to their number, variety, and suitableness, to all the possible cases of the Christian life, as the manner how God has made them to man, and also the way by which we are to receive their accomplishment. And if such knowledge be of utility in the more active scenes of the good man's early days, it certainly must be more so in his old age, when he becomes more sensible that there is no comfort to be enjoyed but from God,

through the medium of those promises. Impressed with the importance of this subject, I purpose to offer you a few considerations on the manner how God becomes a promising God to man; how they are applied to the mind, so that you may correctly make use of them; and then I will copy a few of those promises which are peculiarly adapted to aged Christians, in the hope that the Lord may thereby increase your faith, and teach you how to make use of them for your personal refreshment.

You cannot be too well persuaded that to man, as a transgressor, God could not possibly make any promise; on the contrary, all his threatenings are against the sinner, and we know that the wages of sin is death. Romans vi. 23. However unfavourably this may at first thought be received, both Scripture and reason will justify the assertion, and it cannot make too strong an impression upon the mind. It is evident that the precepts of the law of God, which we have transgressed, must be fulfilled; and his justice, which we have provoked, must be satisfied, otherwise no promise of mercy or favour could be made to the guilty. This restitution certainly cannot be made by the sinner himself; he is judicially lost as a criminal under condemnation for his transgressions, and the way of relief must come as an act of grace from God alone. It is worthy of observation, as elucidating this important point, that in no civilized or heathen country has there ever been known to exist a law which, while it denounced a penalty against a

transgressor, did at the same time make a promise or condition of forgiveness on the acknowledgment and repentance of the offender. If, therefore, no such human law ever existed, how may we presume to look to the most high God for a promise of mercy, while provoked justice bars the way against us, as much as it did to disobedient Adam, when a cherubim with a drawn sword prevented his returning to the Paradise he had forfeited? Like him we must submit to judgment, which we are told, in the fifth chapter to the Romans, has passed upon all men to condemnation, for that all have sinned; so that God himself must reveal a way for our restoration, in harmony with his law, his justice, and every other perfection of his glorious majesty, or his threatenings must be executed against us. Happy for us that our offended God hath provided, consecrated, and revealed, such a new and living way for the restoration and pardon of his fallen people, as to bring glory to himself in the highest, peace on earth, and good will towards man! and at the same time to justify himself in giving exceeding great and precious promises for our benefit. This grace and mercy is only to be known by the Gospel, wherein we learn that Jesus, the Son of God, became our Surety and Redeemer; who in our stead has magnified the law which we have violated by the personal obedience of his own life, and satisfied its penalties honourably, by the offering of his body upon the cross, as an atonement for our sins. Thus having borne the threatenings of God's transgressed law against us, he ascended up on

high, and was exalted at the Father's right hand as a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sin. In him the Father hath also deposited all fulness, both of grace and glory, to be communicated to his redeemed, to bring them near to himself, to supply the variety of all their wants in this vale of tears, and eventually to prepare them for his glory for ever! It is therefore of the greatest consequence to the exercise of your faith, and your communion with God, to view all the promises in the hand of Christ, who, as your Surety, is engaged to fulfil them to you, while each of those promises are so many directories to your mind to inform you of tho inexhaustible blessings contained in his fulness for the benefit of his people. It is therefore declared, that all the promises of God in him are yea, unto the glory of God by us. All these promises are yea and ble, consistent, and certain, so that not one of them shall either deceive or fail, all being ratified and confirmed irrevocably by the blood of Christ, and by the oath of God to give his people the greatest assurance and the strongest consolation. Hebrews vi. Therefore pray that you may have a right view of this important subject: for if a correct knowledge of these promises, and how they are to be received, make them essential in the life of faith to every Christian, how much more so to those who are advanced in age, whose senses fail, and whose passions and feelings are frequently as variable as the wind and blessed are they who trust in the

and in him Amen, 2 Corinthians i. 20. Amen, that is, visi

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