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his comforts, and vifit us with affliction; yet he will speedily manifeft his pardoning mercy, remove the chastisement which indicated his displeasure, and reffore to us the joys of his falvation. This renewed manifestation of favour will produce fo great a change in our ftate of mind, that it may be termed, a calling us back from death to life.

As my defire is to inftruct and edify the reader, and not to perplex him, I fhall not introduce the laboured criticisms of fome learned writers upon the words under confideration, nor attempt any farther explication of them, but immediately propound this doctrinal proposition arising from the text,

That In God's favour there is life; or that his favour is a good man's life.

This is the branch of divine truth held forth to our notice, by the royal Pfalmift here. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he advanced this, as a faithful saying, and worthy of acceptation. Mofes feems to affert the fame thing, when he says of JEHOVAH, "He is thy life, and the length of thy days." That is, he is effectively fo; he is the cause of thy life; whatever justly deserves the denomination of life, confifts in the enjoyment of him, and consequently, in being conformed to his holy will.

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In the profecution of my design, I shall attempt to give a folution of the following inquiries;

I. What are we to understand by the favour of God, and what that life is which is said to be in it ? II. In what refpects is his favour to be confidered as life?

III. To whom is it fo, and in what feasons and circumftances?

IV. Why do these persons put such a value on the divine favour, as to account it life?

When I have given a short answer to these feveral important queftions, I fhall attempt a suitable application of the whole,

ར་སར་་ར་ར་་ ར་་་ར་

CHAP. II.

What God's Favour is, and the Life which is enjoyed

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in it.

are in the first place to inquire, what we are to understand by the favour of God, and what that life is which is faid to be in it. For the fake. of brevity, we unite these two necessary branches of investigation, in the prefent chapter, humbly requesting the reader to favour us with his candid, pious and impartial attention. The nature of the subject undoubtedly calls for it.

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The word for favour, in the facred original, fignifies good will, or good pleasure. In the bleffing wherewith Mofes the man of God bleffed the children of Ifrael before his death, we meet with this elevated apoftrophe, "O Naphtali, fatisfied with favour, full with the bleffing of the Lord!" The latter clause explains and illuftrates the former. When men are full of the bleffing of the Lord, they enjoy his favour; and it is that which gives them fatisfaction. The word alfo fignifies acceptance. The prophet Ifaiah ufes the fame expreffion as that in our text; when speaking of the spiritual facrifices which God's people shall present unto him, through the Mediator, he fays, in the name of the great Jehovah, "They shall come up with acceptance, with favour, upon mine altar." Sometimes the term, in our English verfion, is rendered defire. As when the Pfalmift fays, "He fhall fulfil the defire, the good will, of them that fear him." But as the expreffion is ufed concerning the Author and Fountain of all good, it implies, in its lowest fenfe, kindnefs or regard and it may be confidered in feveral points of light.

1. The favour of God may intend his common Providence towards all, both good and bad. Fayour is shown to fome who are little influenced by it. "Let favour be fhewed to the wicked," in the

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bounties of an indulgent providence, "yet will he not learn righteousness." In this fenfe, the divine, favour is our natural life, both as to its original, and its continued preservation. All men, whether they be good or bad, are dependent on God's fupporting hand; for he holdeth our foul in life. When a human artificer has conftructed a machine, and put it in motion, he leaves it to itself. But our Almighty Maker has not formed us to fubfift independent of his care. To his favour we are indebted, both for our being, and our well-being. It was the devout acknowledgment of Job, "Thou haft "granted me life and favour, and thy vifitation preferveth my fpirit." Life itself is a grant of his goodness, an instance of his favour, as well as that conftant beneficence, whereby we are furnished with every needful and comfortable accommodation. The very heathens were fenfible of this. When Paul had afferted, in his address to the Athenians, that God is near to every one of us, because in him we live and move and have our being, he quoted their own poet Aratus, in confirmation of what he had faid,

For we his offspring are.

The ftouteft champion on earth, the proudest monarch in the world, is dependent on God's favour, and lies at his mercy every moment. Daniel faid

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to the impious, the ftout-hearted Belshazzar,
God in whofe hand thy breath is, and whose are all
thy ways, haft thou not glorified." O that men
did but confider, and keep it constantly in their re-
membrance, that they owe all that they are, and all
that they have and poffefs, to the favour of their
Maker, their divine Benefactor and Sovereign! A
late poet has well faid,

Our breath is forfeited by fin,
To God's revenging law;

We own thy grace, immortal King,
In every gafp we draw. *

2. By God's favour may fometimes be intended, the fignal acts of difcriminating providence. Thus the Lord fhewed kindness to his ancient people Ifrael, in driving the feven heathen nations out of Canaan, the measure of whofe iniquities was full, and in planting the feed of Jacob in their room. Why did he do this? It was not done because of their deferts; it was not effected by the power of their own fwords, or their other weapons of war, but, fays the Pfalmift, in devout acknowledgment

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* The reader, it is hoped, will pardon the Editor's intrufive hints, as they are defigned merely to il luftrate the fenfe of the Author, and, in fome fort, to enliven and modernife the performance. See the advertisement at the beginning.

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