my being." Because we have life or being from him, and are dependent on him for the support and continuance of it.

moment.

The outward comforts of life are alfo the fruits of God's favour. As it is of his mercy that we are not confumed for our unnumbered offences againft him, it is owing to the fame benignity that his mercies are renewed to us every morning, yea, every His favour is the life of our enjoyments, the mercy of our lives. On his goodness our daily comforts depend. He not only redeemeth our life from deftruction, but he crowneth us with lovingkindness and tender mercies. When we receive a benefit from a fellow-creature, we do not fix our attention on the hand that bestows it, and own our obligation to that; it is the kind difpofition of our benefactor which affects us, and excites our gratitude. In like manner, the bleffings of providence. are to be received with thanksgiving, because they are the fruits of divine favour. That is the fource. of all our supplies, fince by our offences against God we have forfeited every enjoyment. Let us pay our conftant acknowledgments to him for them, and fay with the grateful patriarch, "I am not worthy of the leaft of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou haft fhewed unto thy fervant."

then

We must ftill recollect the diftinction already obferved, between God's fpecial favour to his own children, and that which is common to all men. As to the latter, it is extended to the good and the bad, the juft and the unjuft. "No man knoweth either love or hatred, by all that is before him. All things come alike to all, there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that facrificeth, and to him that facrificeth not: As is the good, fo is the finner; and he that fweareth, as he that feareth an oath." God is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. Even his avowed enemies often partake largely of his bounty.

But let it be observed, that God's peculiar favour is infinitely better than all outward and worldly enjoyments. There is fo great a difference between these, that they will not bear a comparison.

Among the ancient heathen philofophers there were long difputations about the chief good of man, They bewildered themfelves in endless inquiries, and were unable, after all their researches, to bring the matter to any fatisfactory conclufion. But divine revelation determines the point at once. The chief good of man confifts in the enjoyment of the divine favour. That alone conftitutes his complete felicity. There be many," fays the Pfalmist,

"that.

"that fay, Who will fhew us any good? But, Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." Let us be affured of thy favour, and we ask no more. Let others make the beft of what this world can afford;

Yea, let them ftretch their arms like feas,
And grasp in all the fhore;
Grant us the visits of thy face,

And we defire no more.

The favour of God is the fpring and fountain of all favours; and without difpute, the original cause hath more in it than the effects. His favour is a full and plentiful inheritance, for he is the fountain of living waters, while created comforts are but broken cifterns, which can hold no water.

His favour alone can fatisfy the boundless cravings of a rational and immortal foul. Created com. forts cannot do it. This only gives folid peace and quietnefs to the otherwise restless mind, and affords full contentment to all its enlarged wishes. The Author of our being formed our souls for himself, and they will never be at reft till they centre in him. "Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your foul delight itself in fat nefs; I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the fure mercies of David."

The foul of man is fpiritual in its nature, and therefore carnal and corporeal objects cannot be a fuitable good for it. He is denominated a foolisli man, who would fay to his foul,

66

cafe,-thou
eafe, thou haft goods laid up for

What were thefe goods to his foul?

Soul take thine

many years." There is no

proportion between earthly goods and the cravings of the foul. But the favour of God, the enjoyment of infinite excellence, is a suitable good for it. The sprinkling of the dew moiftens the surface only of the grafs and herbs of the field, but when God fends a plentiful rain to water his inheritance, the foil itself is faturized, and the parched ground drinks its fill, and is fatisfied. It is thus with the foul when it is filled, as the apoftle speaks, with all the fulness of God. A fpiritual good alone fuits the nature of fpiritual faculties and capacities.

The favour of God is to be defired for itself, as the ultimate object of our wishes. Created enjoyments are only defirable for inferior ends. Bread is defirable to fatisfy hunger, and phyfic for the recovery of health; but God is to be defired for what he is in himself, and the productions of his. hand only in fubordination to him. All created things must be referred to their great Original, as the efficient caufe and end of them. They may be journey, but

confidered as helps to a man in his

they

བཅ.�《《《་བར་

they are not the end to which his views fhould be directed.

The favour of God is an independent good. The foul that enjoys it has enough to conftitute its happiness in the absence of created objects. The felicity of the faints in heaven is not dependent on any thing external. The vifion and enjoyment of God conftitute all their blifs.

Bleffed are the pure

He himself fhall

in heart, for they fhall fee God.
be with them, and be their God.
of their happiness. And thus it is,
degree, with holy fouls on earth.

This is the fum in an inferior

The favour of God is an infinite good. It can at once fill and fatisfy millions and millions of the fpirits of good men made perfect in heaven, as well as faints on earth. The natural fun gives light only to one hemisphere at a time, but the light of God's countenance, in a glorious manner, diffuses celestial felicity through all the regions of paradise at the fame period. All the bleffed angels and faints above enjoy the full beams of God's favour, and the more diftant rays of it gladden many hearts upon earth. That which fills and fatisfies both heaven and earth at once, though in different proportions, muft needs be infinite.

The favour of God is unmixed, pure, and perfect, like the pure river of the water of life, clear

as