the Lord, let him do to me as feemeth good in his fight." But how can I bear the preffure of affliction without a sense of his favour!"

Let the afflicted chriftian confider well these divine declarations, and take the comfort of them.. "If ye be without chaftifement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not fons. We had fathers of our flefh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: fhall we not much rather be in fubjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chaftened us, after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holinefs. By this fhall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit, to take away his fin. For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father the fon in whom he delighteth. I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as filver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they fhall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will fay, It is my people; and they fhall fay, The Lord is my God."

But befides the outward troubles which we have juft mentioned, there are troubles of a more internal and spiritual kind, in respect to which, the favour of God is the beft relief. Such, for inftance, as arife from confcious guilt, and an apprehenfion

........

prehenfion of God's difpleasure, because of fin. What can a guilty, condemned malefactor defire, fo much as the Judge's favour? To one oppreffed with the fear of God's anger, the only remedy is a discovery of his love.

Much inward trouble arifes from a fenfe of the power and prevalence of the impurity and corruption of the heart. This makes the chriftian often cry out with the apoftle Paul, "O wretched man that I am, who fhall deliver me from the body of this death." A fenfe of the divine favour will lead us also to say with him, "I thank God through Jefus Chrift our Lord.”

The furious affaults of temptation are likewife very trying to the children of God, and affurance of his favour the beft fhield of defence, whereby they are enabled to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. The temptations of the grand adverfary of fouls, who goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, occafion much trouble to the pious man. He often fays within himself, When fhall the happy moment arrive, that God fhall bruife Satan under my feet? O when fhall it once be? When the enemy comes in like a flood, may the Spirit of the Lord lift up a standard against him. When the meffenger of Satan comes to buffet me, may Jesus manifeft his favour, and say

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unto me, My grace is fufficient for thee, my ftrength is made perfect through weakness." May he who was tempted in all points like as we are, and who knows how to fuccour them that are tempted, fuccour me, and furround me with his favour, like a fhield. He knows how I am hurried and haraffed, and fometimes even terrified by the roaring lion of the bottomlefs pit, may he ftrengthen me with ftrength in my foul, to fight the good fight of faith, and make me more than conqueror through his love.

CHAP. V.

The Favour of God is Life to dying Perfons.

WE

E come now in the last place, under this head, to confider the words of our text with reference to dying perfons. In that awful period to which we must all come, when we must pass through the valley of the fhadow of death, meet the king of terrors, and be perfonally engaged in close conflict with that laft enemy, we fhall find, that an intereft in the divine favour will be of the greatest importance. When, not only all created enjoyments must be given up, but life itself must be re

figned,

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figned, and our heart and flesh fail us, it will be of the greatest consequence to know, upon fure and certain grounds, that God is the

heart, and our portion for ever.

ftrength of our

The good man

will then, more than at any former period, be lead to fay, In his favour is life.

The sweet experience of the divine favour will be above all things defirable, to fatisfy the foul of its being in a state of fafety. Perhaps the dying man hath been often doubting and difputing his intereft in the Redeemer, and his title to the heavenly inheritance, while in health and vigour. If, under the power of a threatening diftemper, and in the immediate profpects of his diffolution, these hesitations ftill remain, the bed of languishing will be very uneafy to him. He will probably express the anxieties of his mind in fome fuch language as the following:

"Alas! what fhall I do? I believe myself to be a dying man, and my foul, I fear, is in a dangerous ftate. I am pailing into another world, and I know not where I fhall land. I am going the way I fhall never return; it is a great journey, and an awful one. O eternity, eternity, how folemn is the profpect! How near am I now either to heaven or hell, to eternal falvation, or everlafting damnation! My paft fins and follies crowd afrefl into my remembrance

membrance, and difquiet my confcience. I am doubtful of the truth of my repentance, because my heart is deceitful, the work is great, and attended with many difficulties. It is certain many do deceive themselves, and think they are fomething when they are nothing. I tremble, and am fore afraid, left I fhould be found one of that number.

Shall I fay, with the dying Emperor of Rome, "O my poor wandering, trembling, self-flattering foul, whither art thou going! Thou must no longer hold converse with men, nor enjoy thy former delights any more; ah, whither art thou going!" Or fhall my cafe be like that of him who faid, I have lived anxiously, and I die doubtingly!' Alas! I am afraid to part with life, and leave this world, not knowing whether God be my friend or my enemy. O what would I give for a fatisfying teftimony of my reconciliation with God! The affurance of his favour would be worth more to me than ten thousand worlds. Would he be graciously pleafed to fmile upon my foul, and lift up upon me the light of his countenance, I fhould not be afraid to die. Lord, thy favour is life to a dying man; grant me, O grant me fome kind token of it; how elfe fhall I pass this gloomy vale, and launch forth. into the unknown abyfs of eternity!

"Death