first to last. Love is the spring; the divine goodpleasure the reason of what he bestows; and on whomsoever he bestows it, 'tis to the praise of the glory of his grace. So that the Text promises what is the fum of the faints happiness, and ensures to them the treasures of earth and heaven : It shews by whom, and in what manner true happiness will be bestowed; as also, the ground of their hope, and the supply they shall have by the way, till they arrive at final and compleat blessedness. No good thing will God with-hold, but freely bestow every defirable bleffing on them who walk uprightly; to the doing of which he is ready to afsist us by his Grace. The rigour of the first covenant is abated; and after the violation of it, we who believe on Christ, are restored to a state of hope. Tho' our innocency is loft, and finless perfection in this life unattainable, the fincerity of penitent believers shall be gracioufly accepted, and mercifully rewarded.

The words of the text, then, are as a voice from heaven, inviting us up thither, and answering all the doubts and fears of such as believe, and follow, the joyful found.

Am I in darkness, and Fear, I shall never find the way? Open thine eye, O my foul! look up to the father of lights: the Lord is a Sun, whose steady beams shall direct thy steps.

Is there an inward veil to be removed from my mind, as well as Obscurity from my Path? He is fufficient for both. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, can shine into the heart, to give the light of the knowledge of his glory, and lead on to it. 2 Cor. iv. 6. He

can make the day dawn, and the day-star to arise in our hearts; (2 Pet. i. 19) and by both, guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke i. 79.

Doth the same light that discovers my way, discover what opposition I am like to meet with ? what enemies and dangers I am to go thorough? Hear, O my foul, the Lord is a shield. Light and strength are conjoined; none can miscarry under his conduct, nor have any reason to be difcouraged. With this he comforteth Abraham. Gen. xv. 1. Fear not: 1 am thy shield. Do I groan under a sense of my unmeetness for the heavenly kingdom? Let this support my foul, the Lord will give Grace. Am I altogether unworthy of so high a happiness? It springs from his own most free unbounded Love; Lord will give glory. Am I urged with a thousand wants that need supply, what more can be added? No good thing will be with-hold from them that walk uprightly. Nothing that is evil can be defired; and nothing that is good shall be denied. Here, O my foul, is a fountain opened; Here thy eager thirst may be fully fatisfied; thy largest defires filled up; and thy mind be for ever at reft.

The

The words of the text give us the reason of the different defires and choice of the godly and the wicked. The wish, that each of them make, you have, Pfalm iv. 6. There be many that fay, Who will sherw us any good? This is the cry of the men of the world, who have their portion in this life: But the Pfalmist, and all holy men, unite in this, Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. And what reason they have for for it, is evident here; for the Lord God is a fun and shield; who can and will shew them the path of life, and guide and protect them in walking therein.

The happiness desired by the short-fighted sensualist, is terrene and temporary; springs from earth, and will perish with it. Large crops and full barns, fruitful showers, and a warm fun, the fading enjoyments of this lower world, bound their hopes: but the refined foul aspires higher, looks upward, and knows upon what ground he prays, Lord lift up the light of thy countenance: for the Lord will give grace and glory; grace, which can only fuit and fatisfy their spirits now, and glory to receive them when they go hence. The sense and hope of this may well put more gladness into their hearts, than others experience in the time that their corn and wine increase, Pfal. iv. 6, 7.

Here is the wisdom of the faints regulated by eternity. God is their portion by the most deliberate choice; He, with whom is the fountain of life, and who will abundantly provide for them in both worlds; for their safety and comfort here, and their compleat blessedness above.

The Lord will give grace, &c. Here you may confider,

1. All mankind are in a state of alienation from God, as to his life and likeness; at enmity with him, and by apostacy liable to his wrath; universally corrupt and turned from him; not fubject to his law, devoid of his love and image, and "dead in trespasses and fins." Rom. iii. 9, 10, &c. Ephef. ii. 3.小・ム

2. Among this corrupt mass, GOD bath a chofen number, whom his eye pitied in their foreseen misery, and whom he refolved to save, in a way becoming his majesty, by giving his Son to be their Redeemer, through whom he is now carrying on the purposes of his love.

3. By Christ's dying, justice is fatisfied, God reconciled; and, as an instance of it, a new covenant is established in his blood, wherein pardon, peace, juftification, adoption, and endless glory are offered to all that return unto God in the appointed way. To this end, repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, are strictly required by the highest authority, on pain of forfeiting all the before-mentioned bleffings, and falling under greater condemnation.

4. Notwithstanding this, such is the natural depravity, the hardness and obftinacy of our hearts and wills, that we need the special efficacious grace of God to work us up to a compliance with the proposed terms, and bring us into a covenant ftate. 'Tis by the peculiar efficiency of the divine power, and display of his victorious grace, that his people are made willing and favingly changed. They are born of God, from above, from heaven, to shew the author of it. Again, tis set forth by regeneration, a refurrection, a new creation, the father's drawing, and that by the exceeding greatness of his power, like that employed in raifing Christ from the dead. Ephef. i. 19, 20.

5. The divine power and grace, thus neceffary, shall, in the appointed way and time, be infallibly exerted and displayed, for the actual recovery of

all

all God's chofen; effectually to call and convert them, and work in them that faith and repentance that he requires, in order to their entering into a state of favour and reconciliation, being pardoned, justified and accepted with him. This may be concluded,

1. From God's eternal purpose, which shall never fail.

2. From his absolute promife, which we have Ezekiel xxxvi. 26. A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony beart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. So Jer. xxxi. 33.

I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, " and they shall be my people." They that would have God for their God, must have new hearts; which because none can attain of themselves, and yet God will have a people in the world, therefore he undertakes to prepare them for himself, and to work that in them that he plainly requires. He knows whom his purpose respects as to the bestowing of this grace, and his faithfulness will fuffer none of them to be forgotten.

3. This is the defign of Christ's death, and his special intention in it, viz. to purchase saving grace for his sheep, for whom he laid down his life: and his blood shall not be spilt as water upon the ground without fruit. Tit. ii. 14. For this has he his name JESUS, because he was to save his people from their fins. His people, those that the father had given him. For their fakes he is said to fanctify himself, and in confideration of