....$4.4.. rejoice the hearts of faints, fhine only in the face of Jefus Chrift. Men are, as finful, guilty and defiled, children of wrath, and deserving of destruction. The kindness which is fhewn to them is free and undeserved. It is the love of God which is in Chrift Jefus our Lord. CHAP. III. In what Refpects the Favour of God is Life. AVING made a few remarks concerning HAVING the favour of God, and that life which is in it, we now proceed to confider, in what particular refpects his favour may be termed our life. And we apprehend it may juftly be faid to be the cause, the object, the rule, and the end of life to a good man. 1. The favour of the Most High is the cause of life. The apoftle James tells us, " that every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." Every natural endowment and accomplishment is derived from his favour, and much more that grace which makes us alive to him. This is the blessed product of divine and diftinguishing love. In our natural ....4..4.. eftate we are dead in trespasses and fins, and if we are brought out of that dreadful condition, into a ftate of spiritual life, it is not owing to any thing in ourfelves, but to the favour of God. Thus the apoftle Paul taught the Ephefian converts," God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in fins hath quickened us together with Chrift; by grace are ye faved." The important change fo abfolutely neceffary to our present safety and final happiness, is effected by his power, in confequence of his abundant mercy. The comfort, peace and joy attendant on a new and spiritual life, are the fruits of divine favour. Grace and peace proceed from God the Father, and from the Lord Jefus Chrift: grace to constitute us chriftians, and peace to keep our fouls comfortable in that ftate. The Pfalmift fpeaking of the felicity of God's children, makes use of thefe animating words, "They shall be abundantly fatisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou fhalt make them to drink of the river of thy pleasures; for with thee is the fountain of life." Pfal. xxxvi. 8, 9. The term life, which is in the plural number in the Hebrew text, may denote, that God is the fountain of whatever may be denominated life; the life of nature, the life of the life of comfort, of tranquillity, and of refined fatisfaction and grace, de ...4..4.. delight. He in whose presence is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore, is the Fountain of all. In his favour is life. 2. The favour of God is the object of life, as well as the cause of it. It is that to which a gracious foul looks for its felicity. The knowledge of God, as reconciled to us in Christ Jefus, gives life to our hope, our peace and our joy. "This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou haft fent. It is the work of faith to view the complete atonement of the all-glorious Redeemer, and to believe that in him the Father is well pleased. When faith prefents the Saviour's death, And whispers, "This is thine," Sweetly my rifing hours advance, And peacefully decline. While fuch my views, the radiant fun Each object fmiles, all nature charms, It is on this ground, that a just man is faid to live by faith. All his prefent life of comfort confifts in that which is apprehended by faith, the friendship and favour of God to him in Chrift Jefus. He therefore fays with the Pfalmift," When thou hideft thy ....4..4.. thy face, I am troubled. The world in vain tries to entertain me. All it can offer is like a jeft to dying men, or like recreation to those in mifery. On thy favour alone my tranquillity depends. Were I to be deprived of that, I fhould figh for happiness in the midst of paradife. Thy loving-kindness is better than life. I have, in seasons of darkness, waited for the renewed manifestations of it, more than they that watch for the morning. The returns of the light of thy countenance are more welcome than the fpringing day-light, after the horrors of a gloomy and melancholy night; more welcome than ease to the fick, than cold water to the thirsty soul, or than reft to the weary and fatigued traveller." When that gracious Being, with whom is the fountain of life, fhews his reconciled face, the drooping soul revives, like the opening flowers at the rifing of the fun. How heavenly, how divine are its comforts and joys! What indeed is the heaven we are waiting for, but the bleffed, the uninterrupted vifion of God? When the heirs of glory are admitted into his presence-chamber, and behold the King in his beauty, they will need nothing more to complete their happiness. "We now fee through a glafs darkly; but then face to face. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be fatisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." ......4.. 'Tis heav'n on earth to taste thy love, To feaft upon thy grace; And that for which I hope above, Is but to fee thy face. 3. The favour of God may be confidered, in some respects, as the rule of life. The will of God, as revealed in his holy law, is, properly speaking, the rule of our conduct, and ferves as a lamp to our feet, and a light to our paths. But does not a good man regulate his life and his actions with a confcientious regard to the divine approbation? When the apostle Paul fays, "We labour, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him," he does not speak fo directly of perfonal acceptance to eternal life; for of that he expreffes the fullest fatisfaction in the context, 2 Cor. v. 9. But it was his concern, and that of his fellow faints, that all their labours, fervices, and fufferings, might find gracious acceptance with God through Chrift; that fo they might enjoy the fupporting and confolatory manifeftations of his favour in all. A truly good man would undertake nothing in which he might not warrantably hope for the favourable approbation of the Moft High. We may obferve this in the cafe of Mofes, the man of God. His words are these, when pleading with the Almighty for the tokens of his favour; "Now therefore I pray thee, |