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From this fource are derived all the glorious gifts of gofpel grace; the gift of God's eternal Son, the revelation of him in the promises and proclamations of the divine word, the remiffion of our fins, the juftification of our perfons, the fanctification of our hearts, our communion with God, and our everlasting falvation. All the divine bleffings and privileges which the people of God enjoy in this world,. and all the felicity and glory which they fhall poffefs in the world to come, proceed from the favour of God. His favour therefore is life, both spiritual and eternal. The faith by which we live to him here, is his gift, and a fruit of his favour. This is life eternal begun in the foul; it is that which is worthy to be called life, without which we are dead, in a moral sense, and must die eternally. The divine Redeemer faid to the woman at Jacob's well, "Whofoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, fpringing up into everlafting life. It is no wonder therefore that the gracious foul fays with the Psalmist, in his requests to God, "Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou useft to do unto those that love thy name." The love of God to his people is their life, both fpiritual and eternal.

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4. The favour of God sometimes is to be under. flood of the sweet, comfortable, and satisfying manifeftation of it to the foul. When the Pfalmift

fays, I entreated thy favour with my whole heart;" we are to understand it in this sense. He not only prays for the bleffings of his grace, but for the manifestation of his love, the light of his countenance, the fhining of his face, the comfortable affurance of his fpecial favour. Thus he expreffes himself in another place, "Make thy face to fhine upon thy fervant." This is fometimes called the beauty of the Lord, his fplendour, the light of his countenance; "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.". For the enjoyment of this, the Pfalmist defired that he might dwell in God's houfe, to "behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." The fervants of the Most High in geneneral, earnestly feek the manifeftation of his favour, and look upon it as their light, their help, and health; nay, they value it as life itself. We find them frequently breathing out their fouls in fuch language as this, "Turn us again, O Lord God of hofts, cause thy face to fhine, and we shall be saved. O God, be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause thy face to shine upon us."

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dependents, he looks upon them with complacency, and converses with them with a placid and fmiling countenance. This gladdens their hearts, and inspires them with chearfulness and pleasure. The light of the king's countenance is life, and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain. Solomon obferved this in his courtiers; and it ferves to illuftrate the affertion of his father David here, In his favour is life. When God manifefts his love to his children, it turns their mourning into joy, it exhilarates and revives their drooping spirits, and gives them new life and vigour. While the men of the world are faying, "Who will fhew us any good?" their language is, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us; thou haft put gladness into our hearts, more than in the time that their corn and wine increased." Their joy on this occafion is far fuperior to the gladness which men feel in the time of vintage, or that of harvest; it is a joy bright and pure, as the regions whence it descends.

In the words," Lift thou up the light of thy countenance, the Pfalmist alludes to the lifting up of a banner instead of the defence of an army with banners, he requests for his comfort and fecurity amidst many enemies and dangers, the manifestation of the divine favour. As if he had faid, " Men have their friends and confederates to afford them help in

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time of need; but, Lord, I defire no other comfort than thy favour; affure me of that and I fhall be happy; give me but a confolatory sense of thy love, let me behold the brightness of thy reconciled face, and every threatening cloud will be difpelled. Then will my foul rejoice, with joy unfpeakable and full of glory."

The joy which arises from a sense of God's favour, is indeed fuch as cannot be described. It is hearty and fincere; it is full, intimate and fatisfying. It is fo reviving to the fainting spirits of a poor finner, who was before perhaps in a state of despondency, that it restores him, as it were, from death to life. Reader, if you have known this by your own experience, you will better underftand the doctrine of our text, than others can by all that we can fay upon it. A fense of God's displeasure is killing to him who puts such a value on the divine favour, as to look for all his felicity from it. But the sweet beams of his love, in the returning manifeftations and affured tokens of it, give new life to the difconfolate foul. A child is deeply affected by the frowns of its earthly parent, but animated and cheered by his reconciled father's favourable fmiles. It is even fo with a child of grace. The favour of God gives him a new life of divine joy, elevated pleasure, and heart-felt fatisfaction.

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Reader, this is the life of heaven; it is feafting on the grapes of Canaan; it is living in paradife; it is feeding on the tree of life; it is leaning on the bofom of Jefus, having the kiffes of his mouth, and tafting the joys of his falvation.

It must be owned, this is not a privilege to be enjoyed without interruption, in the present ftate. But it is the good pleasure of the God of all confolation, at some seasons to indulge his children with thefe foretaftes of celeftial felicity. When that eminent Scotch divine, Mr. Robert Bruce, was afked by his friends, in his languifhing moments, how it was with him, he answered to this effect, "When I was young and in health, I was enabled to be diligent, and lived by faith in the Son of God; but now I am old and feeble, and it is his good pleafure to feed me with fenfible comforts."

The Pfalmift thus defcribes the felicity of gracious fouls. "Bleffed is the people that know the joyful found; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For thou art the glory of their ftrength; and in thy favour our horn fhall be exalted."

The two laft particulars relating to the divine favour, I apprehend, are principally intended in The favour of God which bestows fpiri

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