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his wifhes, and far exceed his most enlarged expectations. Let him bear with patience and fortitude the trials and troubles of his wafting and tranfitory life, and reckon that the afflictions of the prefent time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.' Let him look on death as a vanquished foe, and even bid him welcome when he approaches; for the favour of God is life to the dying believer. Let him fay, as fortified by a well-grounded hope of interest in this, "I can now bid adieu to this vain world, and to all it contains; I can venture down into the peaceful grave, where my body fhall fleep, as in a bed of fpices, till the great rising day, while my foul afcends to Abraham's bofom. My heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh alfo fhall rest in hope; for I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he fhall ftand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flefh fhall I fee God: Whom I fhall fee for myself, and mine eyes fhall behold, and not another, though my reins be confumed within me."

"When death appears before my fight

In all his dire array,

Unequal to the dreadful fight,

My courage dies away.

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How fhall I meet this potent foe,
Whose frown my foul alarms?
Dark horror fits upon his brow,
And vict'ry waits his arms.

But fee my glorious Leader nigh!
My Lord, my Saviour lives;
Before him all death's terrors fly;
My fainting heart revives.

Lord, let thy love be my defence,
My fhield for ever near;
Then faith fhall triumph over fense,

And never yield to fear.

Then fhall I meet the dreadful hour,
With fortitude divine;
Suftain'd by thy almighty pow'r,
The conqueft must be mine.

What though fubdu'd this body lies,
Slain in the mortal ftrife;

My fpirit fhall unconquer 'd rife

To a diviner life.

Lord, I commit my foul to thee;

Accept the facred truft, Receive this nobler part of me, And watch my fleeping duft:

Till that illuftrious morning come,

When all thy faints shall rise,

And, cloth'd in full, immortal bloom,

Attend thee in the skies.

When

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When thy triumphant armies fing
The honours of thy name,
And heav'n's eternal arches ring
With "Glory to the Lamb!”

Then may I join the raptur'd lays,
And, with the blissful throng,
Refound, "Salvation, pow'r, and praife,"
In an eternal fong."

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What that Life is which proceeds from the Favour of God.

BEFORE we difmifs the doctrinal part of our fubject, we shall briefly confider, What that life is, which the favour of God confers. In the explication of the terms of our text, we hinted, that natural life, fpiritual life, and the life of comfort and happiness are all dependent on the divine favour. To amplify the fubject a little more, we would proceed to say, That a life of justification originates in the fame glorious cause. A ftate of juftification may be emphatically called a state of life. A man actually condemned, is legally dead. A full pardon gives him, in a law fense, a new

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life. So in a fpiritual respect, a juft, or justified perfon is faid to live, and to live by faith.

The juftification of a finner before God is not by any works of his own; but only through the rightcoufnefs of Jefus Chrift imputed to him, and received by faith. It is one of the most glorious truths revealed in the fcriptures, and that which diftinguishes the gofpel fyftem from every other fyftem of religion, that our divine Redeemer fhould become the end of the law for righteoufnefs to every one that believeth; that he who knew no fin, fhould be made fin for us, fhould bear our fins in his own body on the tree, put them away by the facrifice of himself, to the end that we, by his obedience unto death, might be made righteous.

On this divine plan, the merit of human works is cut off, and all boasting in ourselves entirely and for ever excluded. The juftification of a finner in the fight of his Maker and his Judge, is not of debt but of grace, or free favour. "We are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jefus Chrift." The God of all grace, according to his abundant mercy, provided, appointed, and accepted the wonderful expedient, so needful for poor, ruined, helplefs finners, and fo honourable to all his own attributes. "To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

But

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But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that juftifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteoufnefs."

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The whole is the contrivance of infinite wisdom, and unbounded love. The poor finner, who can. not pay one mite, in order to fatisfy divine juftice for his multiplied offences, is fet clear of every charge, and of all condemnation, upon his accepting of Chrift by faith, as the Lord our righteousness. The faith itself, by which he receives him, is the free gift of God. Here is grace upon grace, or favour upon favour, all entirely and abfolutely free. poor arrefted debtor accounts it a great favour, if a friend will become furety for him, and ftill greater, if he will difcharge all his debts, and fet him perfectly free. Jefus Chrift, our great Surety, has done this for us, miferable offenders; so that whofoever believeth in him is juftified from all things, and everlastingly accepted in the fight of God. "Who fhall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that juftifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again. For as he died for our fins, he rofe again for our juftification. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Chrift Jefus, and, as a proof of their being so, walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." What aftonishing fa

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