he has brought them into; so that they delight in his precepts, and yield him a cheerful, habitual, and universal obedience, from the constraining sense they have received of his inexpressible love.

2. All blessings are at his disposal. Is not this a welcome declaration to awakened souls? What is the blessing you want? Seek to Jesus, and you shall not be disappointed. Hear his gracious invitation, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and "" ye that have no money; come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price.-Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, "and your soul shall live*." The promised blessings which he holds in his hands, are the very same that the awakened enlightened conscience must have, and can have only from him.

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1st, Pardon. How needful, how valuable is the pardon of sin to those who know what sin is, what it deserves, and what a share they have in it! Such are incapable of taking comfort till they know how God may be reconciled, and sin forgiven. These are the persons to whom Jesus says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved.

I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions "for mine own sake, and will not remember thy "sinst."

2dly, Righteousness. By believing in him sinners are not only pardoned, but justified. They are accepted in the beloved, and accounted righteous by his righteousness imputed to them, which we are assured is unto all, and upon all that believe, without any difference or exception. Hence his people adore him, and glory in him, by his name, the Lord our Righteousness.

* Isa. lv. 1. + Isa. xlv. 22.; xliii. 25.

Rom. iii. 22.

In him they possess a righteousness answerable to the demands of the Holy law, have confidence and liberty of access to God at present, though conscious of innumerable deficiences in themselves; and they shall stand with boldness before him in this righteousness, and not be ashamed in the great day of his appearance, when he shall come to judge the world.

3dly, Strength. The forgiveness of sin that is past would little avail, unless there was provision made for a continual supply of needful grace. Without this we shall quickly grow weary, yield to the force of surrounding temptations, till at length the latter end would be worse than the beginning. But now every sincere soul may be freed from this fear. The way of prevention is pointed out, and the success infallibly secured by that one promise, though there are many to the same effect, "They that wait on the Lord shall re"new their strength*."

4thly, Healing. This is often necessary; for the spiritual warfare is not to be maintained long without wounds. Our great enemy is so subtle, so watchful, so well provided with temptations adapted to every temper and circumstance; and we are so weak, unpractised, and so often remiss and off our guard, that he will at times prevail to bring us into a dark, barren, backsliding state, despoiled of comfort, and oppressed with fears. But see what a good and gracious Shepherd we have hear his comfortable words: "I will seek "that which was lost, and bring again that which was "driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, "and will strengthen that which was sick."

5thly, Support under trouble.

* Isa. xl. 31.

He has engaged to

Ezek. xxxiv. 16.

lead his people safely*, through fire and through water. He gives them leave to cast all their care upon him, with an assurance that he careth for them. He has said, "all things shall work together for their good; "that his grace shall be sufficient for them; and that "in good time he will bruise Satan under their feet, "make them more than conquerors," and place them out of the reach of sin and sorrow for ever. Besides the habitual peace which arises from the believing consideration of these truths, he has likewise peculiar seasons of refreshment, when he manifests himself to the soul in a way the world knows not of, and often makes the hour of their sharpest trials the time of their sweetest and highest consolations: "As the sufferings "of Christ abound in us, so our consolation aboundeth "by Christt."

3. All dispensations are under his direction. He is Lord of all, and does according to his pleasure among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. He is the supreme disposer,

1st. Of those external dispensations which are distinguished by the name of providential.

(1.) Those that are welcome and prosperous, are both his gift and his purchase. To his people they come free; but he paid dear for them. And this gives them their chief value in the judgment of those who know him, to receive them as the pledges and fruits of his redeeming love. When the blessings of common providence are received and enjoyed as the gifts of God reconciled in Christ, they are then, and not otherwise, truly comfortable. It is this thought enables the poor believer

* Isa. xliii. 2.; 1 Pet. iii. 17.; Rom. viii. 28.; 2 Cor. xii. 19. † 2 Cor. i. 5.

often to taste a sweeter relish and flavour in bread and water, than the voluptuary ever knew in the wasteful profusion and studied refinements of luxury. To be able to look back, and see how the hand of our gracious Lord has led us from our childhood, chose and managed better for us than we could have done, corrected our mistakes, and in many things exceeded our desires; to look round and see all our concerns in his sure keeping, who delights in our prosperity, and will suffer nothing to grieve us, but what he intends to employ as means for our greater advantage; to look forward and see, that he has prepared still better things for us than ever our eyes beheld, or our hearts conceived,-how cheering are these views! Those who are thus stayed upon the Lord Jesus, as over-ruling and managing all their concerns, are not terrified with every shaking leaf, "their hearts are fixed, trusting in "the Lord."

(2.) Afflictive dispensations are likewise of his sending. And the consideration of his hand in them, the good he designs us by them, the assurance we have of being supported under them, and brought through them; according to the degrees in which these things are apprehended by faith, and accompanied with a humbling sense of their own demerits, his people submit to his appointment with patience and thankfulness, and say, after the pattern which he has left them, The cup which my Saviour puts into my hand, shall I not drink it?

In brief, it is he who appointed the time and place of our birth, and all the successive connexions of our lives. Our civil and our religious liberties are both owing to his favour; and in these he has been peculiarly favourable to us. "He has not dealt so with

every nation."

2dly, The dispensation of grace. It is he who raises up instruments to preach his Gospel, appoints them their places, furnishes them with that measure of gifts and sufficiency which he sees requisite and best. And it is he only that makes their poor labours successful. 1 He sends his word to some, and brings others to his

word and in both cases he so makes use of ordinary means, that to a common eye he seems to do nothing, when in reality he does all. He brought St. Paul to Corinth, and maintained him there a considerable time against all the efforts of his enemics*. He over-ruled the thoughtless rambling of Onesimus†, and led him by a way which he knew not, to the means by which he had appointed to bring him to the knowledge of himself. And these instances are recorded for our instruction, as specimens of what he does in the same kind every day.

3dly, The dispensation of death. Our times are in his hands. He claims it as his own prerogative +, that he keeps the key of death and the invisible state. None can remove us sooner, none can detain us a moment longer, than his call. In this likewise he is little observed. We charge death to fevers, frights, and falls : but these are only the messengers which he sends. Sin has brought us all under a sentence of death; but the moment and the manner of the execution befall us according to his good pleasure. Till then, though his providence leads us through fire and water, though we walk upon the brink of a thousand apparent, and a million of unseen dangers, we are in reality in perfect safety. Having appointed St. Paul to stand before Cæsar, though the tempest greatly assaulted, and seemingly overpowered the ship he was in, St. Paul was as

*Acts xviii. 10.

+ Phil. 11.

Rev. 1. 18.