grace. It is therefore fitting that He should possess it all at their hands, as their reasonable service.

But it must not be forgotten, as we contemplate the victory of Abram, and the rescue of Lot, that while the defeated king, and people of Sodom and Gomorrah were thus delivered by the patriarch, it was to them only a respite from destruction-the mere holding back of God's outstretched hand, by his own long-suffering and pity. The ruin briefly delayed, fell upon them, with an increased emphasis of wrath and judgment. The fire from heaven very shortly afterwards consumed them and the waters of the Dead Sea roll their bitterness over a plain once fruitful as the garden of God; while they who once defied God in their pride and fulness of bread, are doomed to suffer the judgment of eternal fire. They are thus examples of those whom God warns, chastens, corrects, and is unwilling to abandon : but who will not turn when He calls, nor repent when He commands; nor believe when the word of salvation is preached to them, in the Atonement of the Lamb of God. Yet a little while, alas, and their day of mercy will be ended, and the morning of judgment will succeed. Consider

then, ye whom, in impenitence and unbelief the solemn truth may concern, that respite is not remission. The hand of God will perform, what the word of God has threatened against his enemies: and for the obdurate there can be no escape. "Turn ye then, turn ye; for why will ye die?" 1

1 Ezekiel xxxiii. 11.

SERMON XVIII.

JUSTIFYING FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS.

GENESIS XV. 6.

HE BELIEVED IN THE LORD, AND HE COUNTED IT TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

THE promises of God, deposited in the ark of his word, are like the manna laid up in the most holy place of the tabernacle, unchangeable and incorruptible. Yet such is the weakness of faith, in those who nevertheless believe on Him to the saving of the soul, that unless these promises are frequently strengthened by new assurances brought home upon the heart, they appear to lose their virtue, like the manna kept until the morning, not in the tabernacle of God, but in the tents of Israel. Such defect in the patient waiting of faith was felt even by Abram himself. The Most High had solemnly engaged to give him a country, a posterity, and a Saviour. But although he was now a conqueror, he had won no place

in Canaan by his victory. Nearly ten years had elapsed, since the assurance of a family was made, and he was yet childless. The last and greatest of all the promises, to which his soul turned, as to its dearest resting-place-the wonderful Deliverer of mankind-gave not even the most distant sign of a future Advent to the world through his posterity. The unbelief that lurked within him appeared therefore in act, when the word of Jehovah came again to him in a vision, saying, "Fear not Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." 1 Abram said, "Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house, is this Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "Behold to me thou hast given no seed: and lo one born in my house is mine heir. He seems to fear that divine faithfulness would fail; that God would evade his promise; and that instead of a son, born to him from his own loins, he should merely have an adopted child in this Syrian, who had the care of his household and property. Every year of Sarah's continued barrenness seems to nourish his disand he is not yet brought into that con

trust;

1 Gen. xv. 1-3.

fidence of faith, whereby "against hope he believed in hope; that he might be the father of many nations." God however condescends to reiterate his assurance, of accomplishing all that He had graciously undertaken. The word of the Lord came unto Abram, saying, "This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels, shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou art able to number them. And He said unto him, so shall thy seed be." The Holy Spirit of promise sealed the faithfulness of God's assurance upon his heart, and his distrust was subdued." "He believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness." "I cannot but observe, that this sighing mournful complaint of Abram hath in it much infirmity, and something of distrust. He shakes in the very bottom of his soul, that improbabilities were growing up, as he thought, to impossibilities against him in the way of promise. Yet hence also mark two things: first, that he doth not repine in himself, and keep up his burning thoughts in his breast; but sweetly

1 Rom. iv. 18.

2 Gen. xv. 4, 5.