part of the covenant, God did not fail of performing his. This assistance was offered and bestowed towards procuring for them national blessings, advantages that were temporal and external, and the duties enjoined them to perform in order to obtain it, were in many instances also external.

Let us now examine whether we have any offers analogous to this made to us by the Son of God; and how far the analogy extends. Let us see what is the nature of the promises and threatenings he came in the name of his Father to publish; and what the nature of the duties we have to perform in order to entitle us to the reward; and whether, in the performance of them, we have reason to expect the Divine assistance, and upon what conditions.

To the least enlightened understanding it must plainly appear, from

the

the whole tenor of the Gospel, that our Lord came not, like Moses, to institute a law that was to have a temporary authority, but a law that was to endure for ever. He came not to offer to those who accepted him the promise of any particular advantages in this world, nor did he threaten those who refused with any temporal punishment; but he came commissioned by God to give the assurance of eternal happiness to those who accepted the offered terms of salvation, and of eternal misery to those who refused! He came to make this glorious offer of neverending felicity, and this awful denunciation of never-ending woe, not merely to the persons of his own country, and his own times, not to any particular nation, or to those who could be known or classed by any external badge, but individually to

all

all who then heard, all who should hereafter hear, the words of the gospel of peace! To you and to me, my dearest Lady Elizabeth, were these promises and threatenings addressed. We may accept, or we may reject them. But unless we can control and alter the counsels of the Most High, we cannot avoid the consequences of our choice.

This is a very awful consideration. It behoves us to attend to it. It behoves us the more seriously, because we are told by Him to whom all the prophets bare witness, and whose prophecies are sure of being fulfilled, that though many should hear, of the many there should be few who would not hear in vain!

I am extremely anxious to impress a lively notion of your personal interest in all our Saviour said and did ; because I am convinced that it is not until such impression be made upon

the

the heart, that the account will prove

of any use. Let me then entreat you to reflect, that what a day is to eternity, so is all that this world can offer in comparison of what is offered to us by God through Jesus Christ. Then let us for a while throw the world and the things of the world from our minds, and come and inquire together concerning the foundation of the hopes we cherish of living in a state of improved felicity and joy, when the world in which we now live shall, by the breath of Him who called it into existence, have been dissolved !

We are expressly told by our Saviour, that "God so loved the world, "that he gave his only begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him "should not perish, but have everlasting life; for God sent not his

"Son into the world to condemn the

❝ world,

world, but that the world through "Him might be saved."

The question now is, in what does this belief, so essential to salvation, consist? Is it enough for us to believe that such a person as Jesus Christ came into the world, and that he did, and taught, and suffered, all that is set forth in the Gospels? I imagine it may be very possible so far to believe all this, as never to entertain any doubt concerning it, and yet that the belief should have no effect upon our heart or conduct. And surely it is no such belief as this that is meant by Him, who elsewhere says, "It "is in vain that ye call me Lord, Lord, "and do not the things that I say."

Is it, then, to believe in him according to the interpretation given of his person and doctrines by any particular man or set of men?

No for this is to believe in these inter