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neceffity of leaving those, with painful fears that we shall never fee them numbered with the faints at God's right hand, in the day when he maketh up his jewels.

Since the danger of being deceived is fo great, and the confequences fo awful, of what importance, my dear reader, is a real fenfe of intereft in the divine favour! Ought it not to be fought with the greatest and most earnest solicitude? While men live in prosperity and affluence, and enjoy abundance of worldly comforts, they may live in a kind of fecurity; drowning the noise of confcience, and lulling themselves asleep in the cradle of ease; yet a day is coming which shall burn as an oven, when all the proud and the profane shall be as stubble, and the day fhall confume them, and leave them neither root nor branch. Their worldly wealth fhall perish, and their delufive hopes give up the ghost, when the heavens fhall be diffolved, and the earth tremble under their feet. O what will God's favour, and the fmiles of the Redeemer's love be worth in that day, when he shall call the dead out of their graves, and command them to ftand forth, that they may hear their final fentence of abfolution, or of condemnation, according as their ftate fhall be! Then, O then to have the favour of the Lord, the great Judge of heaven and earth, will be worth more than it is poffible for language to exprefs!

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The Almighty will prefently fummon us hence by his messenger death, the king of terrors, and fay to us, "This night fhall thy foul be required of thee; thou must go hence, and give an account of thy stewardship! O then what will a well-grounded hope of interest in God's favour be worth to us! Such a confidence is indeed of great importance to us while we live, whatever be our circumstances in outward respects. In profperity, what can give reft to the capacious mind, which is ever looking beyond fublunary things for fatisfaction? His favour alone can do it, the letters of whofe name, the Hebrew language, are called quiefcent, even the great JEHOVAH. In adverfity, there is still greater need of the divine favour. When he giveth quietnefs, who then can make trouble? But when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? In the day of calamity, God's favour is most seasonable, when it frequently happens that the favour of men is withdrawn, and all things look dark about us. What a fovereign support in trouble is the light of God's countenance! It is indeed light in darknefs;" it is life even in a dying hour.

Hence it is, that the children of God have earnestly desired and fought some tokens of his love, while they have been in this vale of tears. Let others think lightly as they please, of this their importunity, the divine word gives encouragement to

it.

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it. "Call upon me, and I will anfwer thee, and fhew thee great and mighty things, which thou knoweft not." Our gracious Redeemer fays, that loveth me fhall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." This is a fufficient warrant for our prayers and expectations in God's way. We have the divine precept to direct and regulate our defires, and the promise of grace to encourage our hope of fuccefs. God has promised great things to those who seek him, and his promises have been made good in inftances without number.

What that token for good was, for which holy David prayed, P. lxxxvi. 17. I will not pofitively determine; but without doubt it was fome evidence of God's favour to him, in his ordinances, or by his providence, for the confirmation of his faith, the quickening of his foul, and the comforting of his heart.

It must be owned, if this man after God's own heart, had some special ground to expect extraordinary manifestations of divine power in his favour, in a miraculous way, it becomes not us to follow his example in this inftance. We have no fuch ground to go upon as he might have. Let us adhere to the law and to the teftimony, and look for fuch tokens of the divine favour as God has promifed to afford.

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The ordinances of God are tokens of his favour. He gave the fabbath to Ifrael as a fign of his being their fovereign, as a nation. The ark was a token of his prefence, as the word and ordinances are among us. God forbid that we fhould be deprived of these indications of his mercy. A famine of the word would be a fore calamity indeed. The people of Antioch were fo fenfible of the privilege of fitting under the lively and fervid miniftrations of the gospel, that they once faid, in the warmth of their zeal, "We had better be deprived of the light of the fun, than of the preaching of Chryfoftom.

It is a token of God's favour when the word and ordinances are rendered efficacious. When this and that man are born in Zion, it is a fign of his mercy to her, and that the Moft High will eftablifh her. O that the Spirit of the Lord may be poured forth on his minifters and churches in this our day! Where is the Lord God of Elijah? It is a rich and great mercy to fee a day of his power, when finners are made willing in the beauties of holiness.

It is a token of God's favour when the Spirit of fupplication is plentifully beftowed, and his people stirred up to earnestness in seeking him. When he prepares the heart to pray, it is an indication that he will cause his ear to hear. A lukewarm and flothful difpofition is a fad token of God's anger and abfence."There is none that calleth upon thy

name,

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name, that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee : for thou haft hid thy face from us, and haft confumed us because of our iniquities."

It is a token of God's regard when he bestows a penitent heart, and a deep concern for reformation. This is apparent in the cafe of the Ninevites. O that God may pour upon us his Holy Spirit, in his humbling, quickening, and fanctifying influences. This will be a token indeed of our intereft in his favour.

The heavenly Comforter bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, is a bleffing of unspeakable value, and greatly to be defired. "I entreated thy favour," fays the Pfalmift, "with my whole heart," the comfortable fenfe and enjoyment of it, the sweet affurance of interest in it. This is life indeed. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us! fhed abroad in our hearts the love of Chrift, by the Holy Ghoft given unto us, that we may no longer anxioufly doubt of our fafety, but, according to the command of our divine Redeemer, rejoice that our names are written in heaven. Let the Holy Spirit of promise feal us, by way of fecurity, to the day of redemption, that we may know, with heart-felt fatisfaction, that when the earthly houfe of this tabernacle is diffolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens !

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