are no further promised than the bestowinent of them shall accord with God's will, and be subservient to his glory. We shall have them in that measure that shall be conducive to our spiritual and eternal welfare. Promises also which relate to others, are of this kind. God engages to " pour out his Spirit on our seed and his blessing on our offspring," &c.f But this cannot be fulfilled, unless the individuals themselves seek his blessing: and therefore it must be understood as subject to that condition.
Such then is the faith which we are to exercise in prayer. We are to lay hold on the promises of God in his word, and are to apprehend them, not as they are applied to our minds, but as they are given by God. Their striking our minds more or less forcibly makes no alteration in them : they are not a whit more or less certain on that account : their accomplish- ment is no otherwise affected by our conduct than as we exer- cise faith on them, or entertain doubts respecting them : if we do not credit them, they will not be fulfilled to us; if we do credit them, they will be fulfilled absolutely, or on our performance of the conditions, according to the quality of the promises themselves.]
Having stated what we apprehend to be the kind of faith that we are to exercise, we proceed to mark,
II. The importance of it towards the success of our prayers —
Two things are noted in our text, the one expressed, the other implied ; and they will serve to shew us the importance of faith in the strongest light in which it can be seen:
1. Without it, no prayer even for the smallest
blessing can succeed —
[If we go to God without faith, instead of honouring, we insult him ; we tell him to his face, that the representations given of him in his word are too good to be true. Unbelief necessarily ascribes to God a defect either of power or of will to accomplish what he has promised : for if we believe him fully able, and fully willing, to accomplish his word, there remains no ground of doubt. It may be said that doubts may arise from a sense of our own unworthiness : but I answer, that all doubts ascribed to that source, have their origin in pride and ignorance : they argue an unwillingness to receive the promises in our proper character, and an ignorance of the freeness and fulness of the promises. Let us make the case
f Isai. xliv. 3—5. .