out deliverance for you. Let not these inftances of divine favour be overlooked. "In the day when I cried," fays the Pfalmift," thou answeredst me, and ftrengthenedft me with ftrength in my foul. I called upon the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me out of my diftreffes." The tokens of divine favour have been granted to you when you have been seeking them, by prayers, and tears, and humiliations. The gracious promifes of the God of truth have thus been accomplished in your behalf, fo that you have been conftrained to fay," Thou haft dealt well with thy fervant, according to thy word."

You can, perhaps, recollect fome happy feafons when the Lord has manifested himself to you with fuch clear discoveries of his fpecial love, as that you could not then doubt of your intereft in it. The Holy Spirit brought his own evidence along with him, bearing witnefs with your fpirits that you were the children of God, fo that you could fay, with humble confidence, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." The Lord was ready to fave you when your heart was fainting, and your flesh failing; his fatisfying comforts came in fo feafonably, as to bring you back, as it were, from the gates of death. When you were faying, " Will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean

No. XV. 1.

gone

... 4.4.

gone for ever? Will he be favourable no more ?" You have then, in the hour of your extremity, experienced, that he has turned your darkness into day; he has put off your fackcloth, and girded you with gladnefs. The effects of these manifestations gave evidence to you whence they proceeded. For if the king's favour is as dew upon the grass, the favour of the King of kings must have a kindly influence on the heart to draw it to himself, and to make the foul fruitful in his ways.

This leads me to ask you, What is your behaviour towards God? When indulged with tokens of his love, do you welcome them, prize them, and bear them in remembrance? We pay great attention to the tokens of love which we receive from our earthly friends. Their gifts are laid up among our choiceft treasures. We put a high value on the leaft expreffions of regard from those whom we fincerely love. Surely then we should be greatly affected with every indication of our Redeemer's favour, and fay to him, "Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips fhall praife thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live; I will lift up my hands in thy name. My foul fhall be fatisfied with marrow and fatnefs; and my mouth fhall praise thee with joyful lips, when I remember thee upon my bed, and medi

tate

tate on thee in he night-watches; becaufe thou haft been my help, therefore in the fhadow of thy wings will I rejoice." *

After fuch gracious manifestations of divine favour, are you excited to watchfulnefs and circumspection? A perfon who travels in a ftrangecountry, having rich jewels, and other valuable articles in his poffeffion, is conftantly on his guard, left he should be robbed of his treafure. Do you proceed with the fame caution, left fin, Satan, or a deluding world fhould deprive you of your. spiritual comforts? What Ezra fays, in respect to

John was called the difciple whom Jefus loved. And where will heraldry, among all her boasted titles of honour, find one that can stand in competition with that which was conferred upon him? He was beloved of Jefus, who was himself the beloved of the Father. Could we fuppofe a prince to reign univerfal monarch over all the kingdoms of the world, the sole fountain of every kind of earthly honour to every individual man under the whole heavens, how gladly, at the hour of death, would he refign all, to be the beloved difciple of such a Master? And if nothing be esteemed too high a price for the favour of an earthly fovereign, a man, whose breath is in nis noftrils, how fhould we value the love of him who abideth for ever, and will make us partakers of his own immortality!'

Bp. Horne's fermon on The beloved Difciple.

...4.4.

the Ifraelites in general, may be justly referred to in this cafe; "And now, for a little space, grace hath been fhewed from the Lord our God, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage; fhould we again break his commandments, would he not be angry with us?"

Do you endeavour to comfort others with the comforts wherewith you have been comforted of God? Do you speak well of his name? Do you tell of his falvation from day to day, among fuch as are likely to profit by the relation? Are you faying, "Come and hear, ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for my foul?"

Do these inftances of divine favour make you long for the heavenly state, where you shall be in no danger of offending God, or of being deprived of the light of his countenance? Do you love and long for the Redeemer's appearance? Is the language of your foul like that of holy men of old," • When shall I come and appear before God in Zion! How long fhall I dwell in Mefech, and fojourn in the tents of Kedar? When fhall I be in the presence of my Saviour, where there is fulness of joy, and at whofe right hand there are pleasures for evermore! When fhall I behold his face in righteousness, awake in his likeness, and be fatis

fied! I fhall then know that in his favour is life. If it be fo delightfully transporting to taste that he is gracious here below, what will it be to dwell with him for ever above! In my flesh fhall I fee God, in the perfon of his Son, not through a glafs darkly, but face to face. O bleffed day! When shall it dawn; when my willing soul shall take her flight above the fun, the moon, and the ftarry lamps of heaven, into the immediate prefence of my Saviour!

Come love, come life, and that bleft day
For which I languifh, come away!'

What is you,

your

beha

But let me farther afk viour towards God, in the general course of your life? If you are the beloved of God, and called to be faints, fome evidence of this must appear, both in the frame of your fpirits, and in your outward conversation. Are you afraid of doing any thing that may grieve the Holy Spirit? Do you hate fin, and fly from it, because it is offenfive to the Moft High? When temptations to that which is evil present themselves, do you repel them like Jofeph, "How fhall I do this wickedness, and fin against God!" Do you reverence the commands of Zion's King, endeavouring to yield obedience to them, and making it the conftant care and buff