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their caufe." We use to fay," He is rich whom God loves," and it is a certain truth; for his favour is life. With the enjoyment of that, a little will go a great way. A good man not only defires to have the divine permiffion to enjoy the bleffings of his providence, he would also tafte his love in them, and along with them. "Lord," fays he, "I have little, very little, which I can call my own in this world; but let me enjoy thy benediction, and thy favour with what I have, and I fhall be fully fatisfied. I am poor in this world, but let me be rich in faith, rich towards God, and I ask no more.

Suppose a good man to fuffer in his name and character, the favour of God is his support. In fuch a cafe he may fay, "I am denied the favour of men; they reproach, perfecute, and opprefs me; but be not thou, O Lord, a terror unto me; for thou art my only hope. Many of my fellow-creatures are against me, but let me enjoy thy friendship and favour, and then I may bid defiance to

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The officers took a bed-curtain, fpread it on the floor, poured the meal upon it, and fold the cheft. But God, by his favour, can fuftain his children in trials like these, and even in fufferings ftill more fevere. "Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that ye have, in heaven, a more fure,and enduring fubftance."

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the world. Thy approbation more than counterbalances all that I fuffer from the cenfures of men. Let perfons of evil intentions report what they please concerning me, I defire to have a good report of the truth itself, and pray, that by the power of grace, I may be fo helped to exercife myself, as to have a confcience void of offence, towards God and towards men, and then, the flanders of the world will not much difquiet me. If I am reproached for the fake of Christ, I ought to look upon it as a fingular honour conferred upon me, as Mofes counted the reproach of Chrift greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he had respect to the recompense of reward. I find the persecuted difciples of Jefus thus addressed, If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of God and of glory refteth upon you." His followers of old rejoiced that they were counted worthy to fuffer fhame for his name. My mind is compofed to a divine calm, when I hear the Lord thus fpeaking in his word, "Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and forgetteft the Lord thy Maker, who hath ftretched

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forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and haft feared continually every day, be. cause of the fury of the oppreffor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppreffor?

Are the children of God attended with difeafes in their outward man? Nothing is fo defirable to them as the favourable and confolatory fmiles of their heavenly Father. When a good man is visited with fickness, and brought low by the power of difeafe, a variety of gloomy thoughts may becloud his mind, and add weight to the calamity under which he labours. The company, the converse, and the prayers of his religious friends may, in that cafe, afford him relief and encouragement. But, above all, the favour of God is life to him, and he efleems it as fuch. If it please the Lord, in infinite condefcenfion, to visit him with the kind tokens of his love, to speak comfortably to him, by applying the promises of grace to his defponding heart, his darkness is turned into day, and his mourning into joy. It is a fovereign fupport under oppreffive disorders, to find the Eternal God to be our refuge, to be upheld by his mighty arm, and to be ftrengthened by his cheering prefence on the bed of languishing, when most we need his aid. When the Lord, according to

his own merciful promise, makes all our bed in our fickness, we fhall furely find ease in the midst of pain; and though the outward man feem to be perifhing, the inward man will be renewed day by day.

Sometimes the people of God are afflicted in their relative capacity, and have much trouble on account of those who are bone of their bone, and flefh of their flefh. Some of those who lie nearest their hearts, are oppreffed with all the weight of violent attacks of fickness, or otherwise wear out a dying life under the languors of flow disease. A feeling heart cannot but be deeply affected in fuch cafes. Others of their relations are funk in all the depths of poverty and neceffity; while others, if not poor, are profane, and have not the fear of God before their eyes. They are violent opposers of all that is good, and in them the words of our Redeemer are verified, "A man's enemies are they of his own house." In any of these cases the trial is heavy, and the chriftian is under the neceffity of looking to the Lord for relief and comfort, as in the circumstance last mentioned, the prophet Micah refolved to do. "Truft ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bofom. For the fon difhonoureth the father, the daughter rifeth up

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against her mother. Therefore I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my falvation: my God will hear me." As if he had faid, "I am willing to lofe the favour of my father, my mother, my wife, my brothers or fifters, if I may but enjoy the favour and friendship of the God of my life. From him I expect all my felicity."

Thus in all outward troubles, the favour of God is life. If it is inquired for what ends, and on what accounts it is so earnestly desired in these circumstances, much might be said in reply; but I fhall only obferve, That a fenfe of God's favour fweetens the bitter potion of affliction, and lightens the burden of distress. Our heavenly Father most certainly corrects his children in love, in wisdom and in faithfulnefs. The end he has in view, is their profit, to make them partakers of his holiness, and to fit them for his heavenly kingdom. Affliction in itself is not joyous, but grievous, and if not alleviated by divine confolation, it would be still more fo. Hence the afflicted chriftian sometimes fays, "If I can but fee that the heart of my hea. venly Father is towards me, while his corrective hand is upon me, I fhall be fatisfied. If he is pleased to wound me in the tendereft part, I fhall be contented, if I may but be affured that it is the wound of a friend. I will fay, "It is

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