Lord shall heal me?" the sufferer may be disposed to ask, How shall I know that the Lord has a favour unto me, and out of very faithfulness causes me to linger in affliction? This proof is given, in his present state and condition: in what God has already done.7 30. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. God has already made him to differ from others, in "calling him to repentance and the knowledge of the truth." He has not been left in darkness, but the light of the gospel has been manifested to him. Neither has he been permitted to close his eyes against the light, and choose to abide in darkness. The Lord has opened his heart, to attend unto the things spoken by his messengers. He has been called, and he has obeyed the calling: and therefore has this proof that "God has predestinated him unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. 8 Why should he not trust that the mercy which has brought him thus far, will accompany him unto the end? For all things are in due order. The ultimate glory which God designs for his people, is already theirs in his will and purpose: but it can only be 62 Kings xx. 8. 7 Ειδες ποσα ἡμιν ἐχαρισεν· μη τοινυν ἀμφιβαλλε περι των μελλοντων. -Chrysos. Eph. i. 5. granted them in his appointed way. It can only come to them through the Son; and that the Son may bestow it, he must be believed in: and that he may be believed in, he must be made known; set "the author of eternal salvation to all them forth as This due order had been observed, and all these things had met together in the case of those to whom Paul was writing, and whom he encourages under trials, and the prospect of trials, by assurance of future glory. The favour of God had taken its regular course. These had been already called, and having embraced the truth, were also justified. And they who have been thus called by the Spirit of God working in due season to "redemption through Christ Jesus," are those whom he has predestinated to everlasting salvation: those who in his purpose and 9 design are already glorified. Just as Joseph, when carried down to Egypt as a slave, or when lying for years in the prison to which he had been condemned, in the purpose and foreknowledge of God was governor over all the land of Egypt." It is a natural question arising from these words, Are we among that blessed company here spoken of, whom God has predestinated to everlasting glory? No special revelation is given to tell us this. The first token of divine favour belongs to us. God has already granted us an "advantage great every way: " we have been planted in a Christian land, and by baptism enrolled amongst his family. This indeed is 9 Art. xvii. But "If not alone sufficient. We know that 66 called" to outward privileges, who are not finally many are "chosen" to inherit the heavenly kingdom. though nothing can prove that we are predestinated to glory, except a faith and practice conformable to the gospel;-still our outward calling is an earnest of the goodwill of God towards us, which nothing but our own unbelief and hardness of heart can render vain. As the wife of Manoah argued,1 the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have showed us all these things." We cannot expect that "the book of life" should be opened before our eyes. But if my heavenly Father has sent down a message to me, and the messenger is his beloved Son, inviting me to his service here, and his inheritance hereafter, what more can I ask, what further assurance of his favour shall I desire? LXIV. JOY AND PEACE IN BELIEVING. ROMANS XV. 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, through the power of the Holy Ghost. THIS prayer of the apostle in behalf of the brethren 1 Judges xiii. 23. R : at Rome, to whom he was writing, is, in effect, a prayer that a belief of the gospel, i. e., that faith in Christ Jesus as a Prince and a Saviour-a Saviour to redeem, a Prince or Lord to rule-that this faith should be to them a cause of happiness, a ground of lasting tranquillity that in believing the word of God, as declared by his beloved Son, and now preached to the world by his disciples, they might find joy and peace in their hearts. Such is St. Paul's prayer; and it agrees with the manner in which the coming of the Son of God was first announced. The angels calmed the fears of the shepherds, saying, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." And their hymn was, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." Yet this is not the light in which the religion of the gospel is always viewed. Neither is it always the first result, that joy and peace should be immediately produced by the truths which the Gospel reveals. That must depend on the education, and the practice. One who has happily been brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and maintained the covenant to which he was pledged in baptism-he will be able to "rejoice in the Lord always," and be "kept in perfect peace." But if, unhappily, the case has been otherwise, the mind may be disturbed, rather than quieted, when thoughts of God and of eternity are presented to its view in powerful demonstration. Peace, or what is called peace, may be interrupted rather than promoted, when the awful truths disclosed to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ are either for the first time heard, or for Yet there must be some the first time attended to. thing faulty in our views of religion, if they do not agree with St. Paul's view. If we judge of it as a thing needful indeed, but not delightful; as what must be submitted to as a resource in age or sickness, but which we should never think of courting as the ground of comfort and satisfaction, we still have much to learn, and much to unlearn. For our views of religion must be mistaken views, if they differ from those of the apostle and we here perceive what he expected to be the result of what he emphatically terms, believing. He knew that the ministry intrusted to him, was the ministry of reconciliation: that his message was, "God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself:" he knew that this message was one of joy to sinful man: and therefore he prayed, that it might be received with joy; and through the power of the Holy Ghost the result might be "grace and peace from God our Father." Now joy and peace, as is evident, are affections of the mind, arising out of the circumstances in which a man for the time may be placed. Joy, is commonly a sudden, and comparatively a transient emotion, produced by some unusual or unexpected source of satisfaction. We have an instance in the case of the aged Simeon, who had long been looking for the Consolation of Israel, and to whom it was now revealed that the Child then presented by his parents in the temple was the Saviour for whose advent he had been habitually praying. "Lord," he exclaims, in a sudden transport of exultation, 66 now |