AIM 192 Perfec`l Love gives Boldnefs S F R m. able to force rifques, and they have not an VIII. abfolute certainty of profitable returns ? Will the hufbandman forbear plowing his grounds, and (owing in the proper feafon, becaufe he is not fore of a plentiful harveft ? No, he does not fufpend his hopes and his endea- vours for want of demonfiration ; but being folicitous for his intereft, and feeing no other way to provide for himfelf, he enters into anion with confidence and diligence. In like manner the chriflian condufs him- felf. The cafe of the feed -time and the harveft, one inftance I mentioned in the bufinefs of this life, is ufed by the fa- cred writers as an image of the prefent and the future Bate, as they relate to each other. Perhaps dry, uninterefted, and fpeculative, rather, fceptical minds, may think our profpedts and our boldnefs with refpeét to the day of judgment fanciful and enthufi- afiic ; there is indeed no demonftration : But the chriftian who has moral perfection and the happinefs refulting from it greatly at heart, and ftrong affections to God and goodnefs, finds evidence which is fatisfying, which infpires him with confidence, and excites him to affiduous diligence. This
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