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I. First, THE SOURCE of all the promises is shown by this same apostle to be "the abundant mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:3-5). By whatever name called, in whatever dispensation or method made known, the "abundant mercy" of the ever-blessed God has been the great original, only source of promise to man.

II. THEIR CHARACTER. They are "exceeding great," or, as the Rhemish version literally translates it, "most great." As the announcements of Divine mercy concerning the provisions of redemption for man, we may expect the promises to be so great as to meet all the wants and woes of our fallen nature.

1. One wide, deep, and long-felt want of our spiritual nature is — "light." The most enlightened Pagans but guessed at immortality, and felt after the true God among a rabble of false ones. Need I point out to you how Jesus Christ is thus "the Desire of all nations"? "To Him," as the true Light, "gave all the prophets witness." Pleasant to the eyes, cheering to the heart, indispensable to labour, assuring to the traveller, longed for by the watchman, an indispensable condition of all healthy growth, and therefore of life, light is in every language the symbol of truth; and as Jesus Christ is "the brightness of the Father's glory," so His gospel is "the light of lights" in all these respects to believing souls.

2. Another deep-felt want of the human soul is the craving for "peace with God." Wherever the religious instincts have been awakened, their most poignant conscious ness has been that of guilt, a dread of the Invisible, and "a fearful looking for of judgment." Hence all the self-torments of superstition, and the altars and offerings of Paganism, past and present. And of all the promises of God, none are more "exceeding great and precious" than those which invite, intreat, "beseech men to be reconciled unto God," on the ground of the great propitiation of Jesus Christ for sin. They are more precious than the royal warrant that releases the death-doomed culprit; they are our passport and safe-conduct into present safety and eternal life.

3. Thus we might proceed in regard to every want of the human spirit. Does the quickened soul pant for self-harmony and purity, crying, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me"? Then one of a thousand promises uttered from the heart of God replies, "I will sprinkle dean water upon you; from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you; a new heart will I give unto you, and a new spirit will I put within you."

4. Does the heart, pre-designed for Divine love and fellowship, feel restless for its adapted element — a good which it knows not, and without which it must inly burn and pine for ever? To all this multitude of weary, feverish souls there comes from the Father of spirits such exceeding great and precious promises as these: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters: and he that hath no money, come."

5. Again, does the universal soul of man believe in and anticipate immortal life? Does the savage from his instincts, and the sage from his reasonings, expect to live for ever? Does even the bad man inly shudder at the prospect of annihilation, and the good man long for immortality? Then the certainty, the nature, and the path of endless life are the subject-matter of transcendently "great and precious promises."

6. Finally, as to the wants of the soul and their Divinely promised supply. The life and immortality — rather incorruptibility — brought to light by the promises of the gospel meet another demand of our nature — "the resurrection from the dead." And are they not "precious" — "precious" as the free pledges of sovereign, paternal, everlasting grace? — "precious" as the fruits of Jesus' death-enduring love? — "precious" as the subject of the Comforter's ministry to the heart, and the medium of His sanctifying energy therein? They are precious for their past beneficent history in healing wounded spirits and raising fainting hearts. Their greatness and preciousness have been in part realised by the first advent of Christ and this present "dispensation of the Spirit." This, however, is but the introduction to the vast volume of "good things yet to come." The sons of God are now adopted, but not manifested.

III. This is rendered still more evident by THE DESIGN of the promises: "That we might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

1. This declaration inevitably implies that man has lost that participation in the Divine nature which is called "the image of God," and which consisted in "spiritual knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness."

2. It also implies that there is in man's nature, however fallen, a constitutional capacity (though we know, alas! a deep disinclination) to receive back and reflect the moral character of God.

3. It suggests that all the needful influences are given by the God of the promises, and lie within our reach for the recovery of the Divine nature; and that God holds us responsible for the earnest, prayerful use of those gracious means whereby we may grow into His likeness, and ascend to fellowship with Himself.

4. And this involves most inspiring views of what redeemed humanity may attain even on earth, much more in heaven.

5. This fellowship with God is the only means of escaping the infectious pollutions of moral evil that abound in the world on every side, and that spring from the desires of the heart turned from God to impure and forbidden objects.

6. The promises, then, are indispensable to the attainment of this end. They reveal the "Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness," and assure the gift of the Holy Spirit to renew and inhabit the soul.

(John Graham.)

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KJV: According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

WEB: seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue;