ཐ》.�《ཆུར་ར་

its importance, as may conftrain you to fay, on all occafions, "In his favour is life; his loving-kindness is better than life." But the objects of fense are so near you, and so apt to captivate attention, that you perhaps too frequently lose the sweet and comfortable sense of the love of God in Christ Jefus our Lord.

Few of us, I fear, are fo affected with this fubject as we ought to be. We do not ftir up ourfelves, as the prophet speaks, to lay hold on God, to claim intereft in him, as reconciled to us through the death of his Son. We do not labour to quicken our dull and drowsy fouls, to aspire after an assured evidence of his favour, and an habitual sense of the greatnefs of this privilege. We are too indifferent about it, and can live day after day, at ease, without any peculiar manifestation of our Father's love. Moft certainly it ought to be otherwise. We fometimes fit down pleased and contented with the common bleffings of his hand, without afpiring after endeared communion, intimacy and fellowship with him who should be our all in all.

My dearly beloved, are the confolations of God small in your esteem? Have you but little regard for his tokens of favour? Is it a matter of indifference with you, whether he lift up the light of his countenance upon you or not? The great con

cern

cern of the Redeemer upon earth, the important business he had to accomplish by his agonies and his blood, was to reconcile you to God, that you might be brought into a state of friendship with him. This is the grand fubject of all the promises of grace. The gospel is the word of reconciliation. The office of the Holy Spirit is to make application of this to your hearts, and to give you the comfortable affurance of it. The Lord of life and glory declares, that he waits to be gracious unto you. And is it poffible that you should be indifferent about it!

There is a day coming when an affured sense of the divine favour will be deemed of the greateft importance by you, and when your former indif ference about it will occafion painful reflections. Be ashamed then of your present sluggishness. Think within yourselves, how unaccountable it is, that the children of God fhould prize their Father's love no more. What can be of equal value with it? The full enjoyment of it constitutes the felicity of that world to which all your wishes and hopes are, or fhould be directed. For in the prefence and at his right hand If therefore you put

of Jehovah is fulness of joy, are pleasures for evermore.

not a proper value on it at present, it is too evident, that you are greatly defective as to your meetness

for the inheritance of the faints in light. You want more fpirituality of mind, and heavenlinefs of temper.

There are others of God's children who frequently call in queftion their own intereft in his favour. They are greatly dispirited, discouraged, and dejected on this account. They have many fears, jealoufies, and mifgivings of heart about it. Like the Pfalmift in his gloomy hours of defpondency, they remember God, and are troubled; they complain, and their spirit is overwhelmed with grief. They are ready to fay, "I fear the Lord is not my God; I fear I have no interest in his favour," They approach to his throne with fad and forrowful hearts, or are kept at a diftance from him through fears of his displeasure. And the more they think of their own finfulness and unworthinefs, the more they are deterred from drawing nigh to him. Confcious guilt, and oppreffive fears damp the fpirit of devotion. My fins," fays fuch a one," hang heavy on my foul. I dare not lift up mine eyes to heaven. The juftice of the great Judge of all terrifies me, and his mercy, I fear, is far from me. My foul is fhut up in darknefs, and my mind is filled with terror. I am afraid God will call my fins to remembrance, and instead of enjoying the light of his countenance, I have

66

rea

reason to fear he will look on me in his awful displeasure. I dare not neglect the exercises of devotion which I know are matter of duty, but I cannot come boldly to the throne of grace, and cry, Abba, Father."

This uncomfortable ftate of mind is, much to be lamented. Where is that fenfe of God's love, that truft in the divine mercy, that delight in God, that rejoicing in his falvation, to which we are every where encouraged? Legal terrors prevail, in the room of evangelical tenderness, in many minds. The heart is full of fear, which fhould be conftrained by love. Devotion borders upon fervility, inftead of being the exercife of filial affection. In the room of that reverence and godly fear which the divine word recommends, the poor foul is kept at diftance through a fpirit of bondage.

Let fuch perfons contemplate the grace of the gofpel, the complete redemption which is in Jesus Chrift, his ability to fave to the uttermoft all that come to God by him, and the free promises of grace and mercy. Jefus faid to his difciples, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth fhall make you free." Such perfons would do well to confider, that he who is infinitely great and holy, is alfo infinitely gracious. His mercy triumphs over all the fins and unworthinefs of man. In mercy he de

....སྲུར་

lights. His favour is towards them that fear him; he takes pleasure in thofe that hope in his mercy. It is his will that his poor unworthy children fhould rejoice in his salvation, while they are deeply humbled for their offences against him. The joy of the Lord is their firength. Unbelief and defpondency tend to weaken their hands, to deprive them of comfort, and to rob God of the glory due unto his

name.

Sometimes this gloomy state of mind is, in fome degree, occafioned by a mifinterpretation of providential difpenfations. You are vifited with perfonal or domeftic afflictions, you fuftain heavy loffes, or you meet with continual disappointments in the concerns of this prefent world. And you conclude from thefe, that instead of being interested in God's favour, you are marked out as a monument of his difpleafure. But this is not a juft interpretation of God's myfterious difpenfations. In many paffages of his holy word, God affures his children, that his heart is towards them when his afflicting hand is upon them. "Whom the Lord loveth he chafteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. As many as I love. I rebuke and chaften." His corrective rod is the rod of love." My fon, despise not thou the chaftening of the Lord,

nor