........

nefs of your lives to cleave to God with full purpofe of heart, and to walk worthy of him who has called you to his eternal kingdom and glory? Can you fay with the apoftle Paul," Herein do I exercife myself fo as to have always a confcience void of offence, both towards God, and towards men?"*

Do you daily wait upon God in all those ways and ordinances where he has promifed to meet his children, and to afford his gracious presence? Do you seek to enjoy him in the use of the appointed means?

* If the Son of God became the Son of man, why should it seem a thing incredible, that the sons of men should become the fons of God? Beloved, now are we the fons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we fhall be; but we know, that when Chrift, who is our life, fhall appear, then shall we alfo appear with him in glory; for we fhall fee him as he is.

6

To a christian the advice of the philofopher comes with redoubled force; Reverence yourself.' Confider to whom you are related, by whom you have been begotten again to a lively hope of an unfading inheritance. The ftock from which you are sprung is noble, it is royal, it is divine. Difgrace it not by bafe and unworthy actions. Your inheritance is with the faints in light; have no fellowship with the works of darkness. Let your education be suitable to your birth, your conduct answerable to your expectations.'

Bp. Horne's Sermon on The Word Incarnate.

means? And are you

•�ར་ར་ར་

diffatisfied when you have

not nearness to God, and communion with him in thofe means? He who looks for his felicity in the divine favour is ready to fay, "One thing have I defired of the Lord, that will I feek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. When thou faideft, Seek ye my face, my heart faid unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I feek. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy fervant away in anger; thou haft been my help; leave me not, neither forfake me, O God of my falvation." If this be your cafe, you will be troubled when your heavenly Father with-holds the light of his countenance, and fufpends the comfortable sense of his favour. You will lay it deeply to heart, and fay, "Caft me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy falvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit."

What is the difpofition of your minds towards those who are of the household of faith? Are those your favourites who appear to be interefted in God's favour? Do you efteem thofe the excellent of the earth, and is your delight in them? Do you honour them that fear the Lord? Are they amiable in your eyes, because they bear the image

of

......4.

of Chrift, embrace his truth, obey his commands, and follow his example? "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him."

pa

Is the body of fin your greatest burden? Striving against it, weary of it, and groaning under it, do you cry, from time to time, with the holy apostle Paul, "O wretched man that I am! Who fhall deliver me from the body of this death ?” Are you laying aside every weight, and the fin which easily befets you, that you may run with tience the race which is fet before you? Are you hungering and thirsting after righteousness, forgetting the things behind, and reaching forth to the things before, do you prefs towards the mark for the prize of your high calling of God in Chrift Jefus? This is the difpofition of those who are interested in the divine favour. "He that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure."

Finally, do you love God, though you have fome doubts respecting his love to you? Is he the object of your fupreme defire, when you have no fenfible experience of his favour? The woman of Syrophenicia followed Jefus when he feemed to flee from her; fhe renewed her request, and repeated her entreaties, when he appeared to be deaf to her cries, and to treat her with total neglect. She

could

.་.》《ར་་ར་་

could not give up the point, though every thing feemed to make against her. This hath frequently been the cafe with those who are the objects of the divine favour. We find one faying, "My foul followeth hard after thee;" another, “Though I cry and shout, yet he shutteth out my prayer;" and a third, “Though he flay me, yet will I truft in him." These are ftrong expreffions of love to God, and, as fuch, evidences of intereft in his favour.

Where fhall the tribes of Adam find
The fov'reign good to fill the mind?
Ye fons of moral wisdom, fhow
The spring whence living waters flow.

Say, will the Stoic's flinty heart
Melt, and this cordial juice impart ?
Could Plato find these blissful streams,
Amongst his raptures and his dreams ?

In vain I afk; for nature's pow'r
Extends but to this mortal hour:

'Twas but a poor relief she gave

Against the terrors of the grave.

JESUS, our kinfman, and our GOD,
Array'd in majefty and blood,

Thou art our Life; our fouls in thee
Poffefs a full felicity.

All

ཅ་་》ཉར་་རས

All our immortal hopes are laid
In thee our Surety and our Head;
Thy cross, thy cradle, and thy throne,
Are big with glories yet unknown.

Let atheists fcoff, and Jews blafpheme
Th' eternal life, and Jesus' name;
A word of his almighty breath

Dooms the rebellious world to death.

But let my foul for ever lie

Beneath the favour of thine eye;

'Tis heav'n on earth, 'tis heav'n above,
To fee thy face, to tafte thy love.

ར་་་་་ར་བར་ར་་ར་ར

CHAP XII.

The Subject farther improved, by Way of Inftruction

and Exhortation.

PERMIT me to address you, my dear fellow

finner, who are refting satisfied with the com

mon bounties of God's providence, without being concerned to know your intereft in his fpecial favour. The bleffings you daily receive from the indulgent hand of the univerfal Parent of mankind, fhould excite in you earnest desires after those special tokens of his love, by which his peculiar

people