to the Author of the benefit," By thy right hand, and thy holy arm, because thou hadft a favour unto them." God's favour was their armour; it pro duced weapons of fuccefs, both offenfive and de fenfive. For thou Lord wilt blefs the righteous, with favour wilt thou compafs him, as with a fhield. To this we are indebted for all that protection, that fafety, and that comfort, which constitute what may be emphatically called life. "Thus," faid David to his men, " fhall ye say to him that liveth," that is, to him that is in the full poffeffion of ease, plenty, and profperity.

It is in this sense we are to understand the term to live, as ufed by the apoftle Paul; " Now we live, if ye ftand fast in the Lord." Does he mean, that they would die if it were otherwife? No; if ye ftand fast in the Lord, we fhall be very happy and comfortable. Rebekah complained of being weary of her life because of the daughters of Heth, "and," added fhe," if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, what good fhall my life do me?" A life of forrow is a dying life, scarcely worthy of the name of life, in the estimation of him who is bitter in foul. But God's favour produceth relief, deliverance, comfortable provifion and accommodations, which may be termed a kind of refurrection, or returning from death to life; fo very great is the

change.

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change. We have an inftance of this in Hezekiah, when God restored him from a mortal disease, and in love to his foul, redeemed it from the pit of corruption. "Thou wilt," fays the Pfalmift, "save the afflicted people; thou wilt light my candle; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness." A thoufand dangers are prevented, preffing calamities are removed, and we are loaded with multitudes of benefits, whereby our lives are again rendered comfortable unto us. The ground of all this is the divine favour. It is owing to this that our life is not a continued fcene of bitterness and woe, as our fins have deserved, but at times, through merciful deliverances, and favourable turns of providence, we taste the sweets of tranquillity, reft and joy, to that degree, that our hell is turned into a kind of paradise. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! We hear him saying of the man who is governed by his fear; "Because he hath fet his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will fet him on high because he hath known my name. He fhall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honour him. With long life will I fatisfy him, and fhew him my falvation." The Lord's people acknowledge themselves to be indebted to his fa-t

vour for the happy change of their circumftances. "Lord, thou haft been favourable to thy land: thou haft brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou haft taken away all thy wrath: thou haft turned thyfelf from the fiercenefs of thine anger." All this may ferve to confirm and illuftrate the doctrine under confideration, In his favour is life.

3. By God's favour may be meant, his special and diftinguishing grace and kindness, vouchsafed to his own children. It is in this fense we are to underftand that ardent and pathetic request of the Pfalmift, "Remember me, O Lord, with the fa vour which thou beareft unto thy people; O vifit me with thy, falvation!" From this peculiar favour our fpiritual life flows, as well as all the ftreams which nourish and feed that life. It is the fountain of regenerating and converting grace, whereby we are made to live unto God. It implants the feed of divine life in the heart; and they who thus live, live not unto themselves, but to him that died for them, and rofe again. It is the favour of God which makes us his people. "It hath pleased the Lord," faith Samuel," to make you his people." It is owing to this favour that the Lord takes compla cency and delight in his faints. "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will fave, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will reft in his love, he will joy over thee with finging."

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From this fource are derived all the glorious gifts of gofpel grace; the gift of God's eternal Son, the revelation of him in the promises and proclamations of the divine word, the remiffion of our fins, the juftification of our perfons, the fanctification of our hearts, our communion with God, and our everlasting falvation. All the divine bleffings and privileges which the people of God enjoy in this world, and all the felicity and glory which they fhall pof fefs in the world to come, proceed from the favour of God. His favour therefore is life, both spiritual and eternal. The faith by which we live to him here, is his gift, and a fruit of his favour. This is life eternal begun in the foul; it is that which is worthy to be called life, without which we are dead, in a moral sense, and must die eternally. The divine Redeemer faid to the woman at Jacob's well,

Whofoever drinketh of the water that I fhall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. It is no wonder therefore that the gracious foul fays with the Pfalmift, in his requests to God, "Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou useft to do unto those that love thy name." The love of God to his people. is their life, both spiritual and eternal.

4. The favour of God fometimes is to be underftood of the fweet, comfortable, and fatisfying manifeftation of it to the foul. When the Pfalmift fays, "I entreated thy favour with my whole heart;" we are to understand it in this sense. He not only prays for the bleffings of his grace, but for the manifestation of his love, the light of his countenance, the fhining of his face, the comfortable affurance of his fpecial favour. Thus he expresses himself in another place, "Make thy face to fhine upon thy fervant." This is fometimes called the beauty of the Lord, his fplendour, the light of his coun tenance; "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." For the enjoyment of this, the Pfalmist defired that he might dwell in God's house, to "behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." The fervants of the Most High in geneneral, earnestly feek the manifestation of his fayour, and look upon it as their light, their help, and health; nay, they value it as life itself. We find them frequently breathing out their fouls in fuch language as this, "Turn us again, O Lord God of hofts, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be faved. O God, be merciful unto us, and bless us, and caufe thy face to fhine upon us.

When a prince, a fovereign, a man of power and authority, is well pleased with his friends and

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