These are the blessings promised to men under the Gospel ; and it will be utterly our own fault if we be not partakers of them.]
But these blessings must be sought for in God's appointed way. Let us therefore consider,
III. The terms upon which he will bestow them upon us —
The promises of God to Israel were altogether conditional —
[We have seen what he engaged to do for them : but it was upon the express condition, that they " obeyed his voice, and kept his covenant." They must take him for their God, and devote themselves to his service — and then he would make them his people, and give them incessant and increasing tokens of his love and favour. This covenant was not wholly legal, nor wholly evangelical, but a mixture of both. Inasmuch as it prescribed conditions, it was legal; and inasmuch as it secured to them a remission of sins upon their returning unto God, it was evangelical : but on the whole the legal part was far the more prominent ; and the promises were made void by their neglecting to perform the stipulated conditions.]
Those made to us, though absolute in some re- spects, are conditional in others —
[Under the Christian dispensation, all is of grace : grace is not only the predominant feature, but the sum and substance of the New Covenant : and repentance, faith, and holiness, are not merely required, but bestowed h; and that freely unto all who ask for them at the hands of God1. "By the grace of God we are what we are;" and "by grace are we saved" from first to last. Yet are faith and obedience indispensably necessary to our eternal salvation : nor need we be afraid of speaking of them as conditions of our salvation, provided we be careful to divest them of all idea of merit, or of being a price whereby ulterior blessings are to be purchased. God has given us a covenant of grace ; and that covenant we must embrace : and it will be in vain to hope for acceptance with God, if we do not found all our hopes of happiness on Christ the Mediator of that Covenant. God has also given us a revelation of his will : and that will we must do ; nor will that " grace of God ever bring salvation unto tis, if it do not lead us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live right- eously, soberly, and godly in this present world k." These then
h Acts v. 31. Heb. xii. 2. Rom. vi. 14. • Ezek. xxxvi. 37.
k Tit. ii. 11, 12.