Father : but our blessed Lord said to them, " If God were your Father, ye would love me." So I say to you, " If God have loved you, you must of necessity have been brought to love him."]
2. A decisive proof of his love to us —
[Suppose now a different character to be manifesting from day to day his love to God, and yet to be doubting and questioning God's love to him ; I would ask, Whence did you obtain those dispositions which you manifest? Were they natural to you ? or did you form them in your own heart? or did any fellow-creature implant them there? By nature, you are as much a child of wrath as any other person in the uni- verse. So corrupt are you by nature, that " every imagination of the thoughts of your heart is evil, only evil, continually." If there be only a good desire towards him, it has been im- parted to you by God himself; who, of his own good pleasure, has wrought in you both to will and to do. If you behold the heavens and the earth, you conclude that they have been formed by an Almighty power : and the same conclusion must you form from every thing which you see in the new creation. If you can say from your heart, " Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire in com- parison of thee," you may without hesitation add, " He that hath wrought me to the self-same thing, is God."]
To appreciate this truth aright, we must consider,
II. Its practical importance —
Verily, it is of the utmost importance,
1. For the forming of our judgment —
[It is well known, that confidence in God is our bounden duty : nor is it less clear that we are called to cherish in our bosoms a diffidence respecting ourselves. But professors of religion are very apt to separate these habits, instead of com- bining them ; and to carry both the one and the other to an undue extreme. One indulges confidence, and carries it to presumption : another affects diffidence, and extends it to despondency. But from both these extremes we should flee ; maintaining no confidence which is not warranted by God's word ; and never carrying our diffidence so far as to invalidate his truth. We must have a scriptural foundation for our hopes : and with God's promises before us, we must moderate our fears. Hope and fear have each its appropriate place in the believer's bosom, and should both be called into action in his experience. They should be like the scales of a balance, rising or falling according to our secret walk before God. If we are really living nigh to God, in the enjoyment of his pre- sence and in the performance of his will, our hope may grow