Helps for an application of the promises of Scripture, recommended to the sick and dying, by way of self-examination, and of prayer for their fulfilment.

There is a wide difference whether we read the Scripture chapter after chapter in a formal manner, without any self-application or prayer, only believing in general that it is the word of God; or whether we seriously weigh the contents; submit in every point, how contrary soever to our corrupt inclinations; and embrace with faith that patience, comfort, and blessed hope of everlasting life, it was designed to give. I have therefore earnestly and repeatedly recommended to my parishioners and others, when they read the Scriptures, to examine themselves by the passages they read, and then turn them into a prayer.

As for instance, examine yourself by this text, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his right"eousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. vi. 33.) Do I seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness as my first and principal concern? And do I believe that all necessary things will be added unto me? Then turn it into a prayer: Grant, I beseech thee, O Lord, that I may be enabled first (and above every other consideration) to seek thy kingdom and thy righteousness; and that all necessary things may be added unto me, as our blessed Lord has here promised to those who seek God, and depend on him.

In like manner sick and dying Christians may for their comfort and support examine themselves by the promises of God; and then pray that they

of Religion in the Soul. A book, which is so highly esteemed as to have passed through eleven editions; and which I cannot suffi ciently recommend, especially to every sick person. It is a body of practical divinity and Christian experience. Dr. Doddridge said to an intimate friend, "I never think on death, but joy and triumph spring up in my heart."

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may be fulfilled in themselves. As for instance, "Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, "for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea "I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the "right hand of my righteousness." (Isa. xli. 10.) Do you believe this promise? If so, then be comforted by it, and pray, "Lord, increase my faith in "it!" If you do not believe it, then pray to God to strengthen your faith by his grace, and to support you with the comfort of believing this promise.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the "shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou "art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me." (Psal. xxiii. 4.) Do I fear no evil, even in the prospect of death? If you do not, be thankful to God for it, and pray, "Be thou with me, O Lord; may thy rod and staff comfort me."

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"My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is "the strength of my heart, and my portion for "ever." (Ps. lxxiii. 26.) Has God been my strength, and is he now so? Have I taken him for my portion, and have I now this hope? Then pray, "O "be it unto thy servant according unto thy word."

"Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory "through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. xv. 57.) Am I thankful for this? Grant me, O Lord, the victory according to thy promise.

By such an examination and prayer these promises may revive the heart, when no cordial can support the sinking body.

Helps for an examination by Scriptural promises, with some directions to prevent the misapplication of them.

You should examine yourself by the promises of God, which you may properly apply to yourself when you answer from the heart these questions. Do you value these promises as your best treasure? Do you venture all your hopes of salvation on them? Are you anxious to know your personal in

terest in them? Do you frequently meditate on them? Do you often plead them in prayer; especially under your burdens of conscious guilt and pollution, and in seasons of affliction and temptation? This is the way to honour God, whose promises they are, and the Redeemer, by whose blood they are sealed; and consequently it is the most effectual way to secure peace to our own souls. Why else does the prophet Isaiah say, "Thou "wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is 66 stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." (Isai. xxvi. 3.) Was not this the way in which Abraham's faith discovered both its excellent nature and happy tendency?" He staggered not at the "promise of God through unbelief, but was strong "in faith, giving glory to God." (Rom. iv. 20.)

There are too many who call themselves Christians, who greatly sin by neglecting divine promises, and not applying them as they ought to do. They are more prone to distrust God and Christ than themselves. They do not consider that comfortable declaration of St. Peter, that "God has r given us exceeding great and precious promises, "that by these we might be partakers of a divine

nature." (2 Pet. i. 4.) They lose their sense of the preciousness of the promises, and are valuing something else as their treasure. They are honouring with their confidence the word of mortal man more than the word of the living God. They are slothful and negligent about their interest in Christ, but zealous in securing the interests of time and sense. Divine promises are to them like things forgotten and out of mind: and to plead them earnestly is inconsistent with the cold and formal temper of their prayers. No wonder the faith of such is little and staggering, ever inclined to call in question the truth and faithfulness of God, and the power and grace of Christ. They affront God and Christ by making light of divine pro

mises; and the indignity is justly resented, and plainly punished, by his "sending leanness into "their souls." Ps. cvi. 15.

It was the constant rule of an eminent divine to be very cautious how he applied any of the Scriptural promises; which he never did till he thoI roughly knew the state of those to whom he applied them; and then only conditionally: as for instance, if you have performed the conditions which are required of you on your part, God will perform the promises which he has made on his part. The true Christian may take any promise, and apply to himself the comfort resulting from it, if through grace he can discern in himself that peculiar character to which the promise is made. Does the Christian perceive himself brought to such a sensibility of his own meanness, dependence, and guilt, as to be "poor in spirit?" If he does, he may with a confidence, which is perfectly consistent with the deepest humility, pronounce himself blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is his own. (Matt. v. 3.) Is it his 'constant endeavour and fervent prayer to be "pure in heart," and his real grief to have any impure thought or affection enter there? If it be, then blessed is he, for he, shall "see "God," and eternally enjoy a God of unspotted purity and affection. (Matt. v. 8.) But if the nominal Christian try himself either by the character of spiritual poverty or purity of heart, he will find that, instead of spiritual poverty, his mind is intoxicated with an apprehension of his own worthiness and self-sufficiency. And instead of purity of heart, he cannot avoid this consciousness, that his heart has entertained unclean thoughts and affections; nor was he ever displeased with their entrance or their continuance there. Thus the fur

ther he goes in his self-examination as to his right to claim the promises, the more apparently these promises speak a curse to him rather than a bless

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ing, because he is altogether destitute of the peculiar characters to which the promises are made.

By this manner of self-examination we shall find that every promise in Scripture (whether of a more general or particular kind and nature) has a manifest tendency to produce the satisfaction so much desired by the true Christian concerning his interest in Christ; but that it has likewise a tendency to produce self-condemnation in the heart of a nominal Christian. It certainly is not God's design in the promises to distribute blessings promiscuously. Their bright side, like the cloud in the wilderness, is towards the Israelites, at the same time that they spread darkness before the Egyptians. Certainly, when the promises meet not with those who are entitled to them, they are turned into dreadful curses.

"Him that cometh to me, says our Lord, I will "in no wise cast out;" and, on the contrary, him that cometh not to me, I will most certainly cast out. And in this manner all the promises may properly be applied..

I have been more particular on this point, because it has frequently given me great concern to read narratives of sudden and improbable conversions of the sick, and likewise the accounts of some condemned malefactors, who through the misapplication of the promises, the misrepresentations of the conversion of the thief on the cross, and of the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, having passed into eternity with an enthusiastic joy, instead of that humility and contrition * more suited to their awful situation.

See Archbishop Tillotson's Sermons on Eccles. xii. 1. and Heb. iii. 13.