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my voice: let thine car be attentive to the voice of my supplications. My distress is great, and thou alone canst relieve me: my burdens are heavy, and thou alone canst remove them. Thus guilt, like the avenger of blood, drives the awakened soul to the city of refuge.

2. His enemies followed hard after him. Satan did so, and once and again caused him to stumble and fall. He provoked him to number the people, whereby God was provoked to lessen their number : he also was that traveller to whom David sacrificed the poor man's ewe lamb. David had also many temporal enemies as well as spiritual ones; and in the verse following our text he speaks of them as seeking after him, while he was seeking after God. My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me. But those that seek my soul to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. Whenever he was compassed about with enemies, he would compass God's altar with prayers and tears. In his distress he did not seek assistance from neighbouring states and princes, but from God alone, whom he had often: found to be an overmatch for all his enemies. Keep me as the apple of the eye: hide me under the shadow of thy wings, from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies who compass me about; from men which are thy hand, oh Lord, from men of the world. They could do nothing without divine permission, and he could do nothing without divine assistance. By the rage and malice of wicked men, God stirs up his people to watchfulness and prayer, and keeps them nearer to himself; so that their trials improve their graces, and give them a fuller experience of their own weakness and the power of God. Those who thought they could do much, now see that they can do little; and those who leaned upon a broken reed, now learn to cleave to God alone.

s. He had followed hard after other things to no purpose. The cisterns which he had hewed out unto himself were broken, and the refuges to which he had betaken himself were found to be false. He had proved that men of low degree were vanity, and men of high degree a lie; and that the way to have no disappointments from either was to have no expectations. God hath wisely ordered it that the hearts of his people should be loosened from other things in order to their being fixed upon himself, and gives as it were a commission to all the creatures to withhold the comfort they desire, that they may seek it alone in him. Things below are embittered to us that we may set our affections on things above. The christian looks backward and forward, to the right hand and to the left, for deliverance or support in time of trouble, but looks in vain then he lifts up his eyes and his heart to God, saying, Whom have I in heaven but thee; and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee!

4. We may add, the powerful attractives of divine grace. The reason why David followed after God was, that goodness and mercy followed after bim. This was the source of every holy desire, and every pious resolution. God said, Seek ye my face: then his heart replied, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Being sought of him, we seek: being drawn, we run. All we have is from the divine fulness, and all we do is from divine assistance. It is God that worketh all our works in us. I live; yet not I; but Christ liveth in me. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of water, in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble. Jer. xxxi. 9.

And now let us seriously enquire what we are following after. Some follow after riches and honour, and others after sensual enjoyments; some fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and others of the mind; but

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all this, like Ephraim, is following after the east wind, and will daily encrease lies and desolation. The end of these things is death. But those who follow after God shall not lose their labour: spiri tual desires shall be succeeded by spiritual enjoyments. God hath never said to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. Here, every one that seeketh findeth, and every one that asketh receiveth; but it is not so in any other case. Therefore, Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord: glory ye in his holy name!

""Twas in the watches of the night
I thought upon thy power,
I kept thy lovely face in sight
Amidst the darkest hour.

My spirit labours up thine hill,
And climbs the heavenly road;
But thy right hand upholds me still,
While I pursue my God.

Thy mercy stretches o'er my head
The shadow of thy wings;
My heart rejoices in thine aid,
My tongue awakes and sings.

But the destroyers of my peace
Shall fret and rage in vain ;
The tempter shall for ever cease,
And all my sins be slain."

The Spiritual Wilderness.

SERMON IV.

EZEKIEL Xx. 35.

I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

MANY awful threatenings and delightful promises

are scattered up and down in the word of God. Our text seems to be of a mixed nature: the threatening and the promise are blended together, to excite a holy fear of God, and a humble trust in him.

I. I will bring you into the wilderness of the people.

This was spoken of Israel of old, yet not of them only, but of all those who have wandered from God, and for whom he has mercy in reserve. This is the method which God takes to recover them from their wanderings, and manifest his good will towards them ➡he brings them into the wilderness.

By the wilderness we are sometimes to understand an unregenerate state, to intimate that it is an unfruitful and dangerous state. But that cannot be the meaning here; for though God may leave us in such a wilderness, yet he does not bring any into it; and if any are brought out, it is by his mighty hand. By the wilderness we are therefore here to understand

any state of trouble or distress into which the people of God are brought.

Are they oppressed with poverty or want? Into this wilderness the Lord hath brought them for their good. Thus the prodigal, having spent his substance in riotous living, began to be in want, and no man gave unto him. And the distresses of many others which have been brought upon them either by their indolence or intemperance, have been overruled by the providence and grace of God for their good.

Are they in a tempted state? This also is a wilderness. Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. It was a wilderness before; but the conflict he met with there made it more so. The place gave advantage to the temptation, and the temptation encreased the gloom and horror of the place. The apostle Paul being caught up into paradise, was in danger of being exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations given unto him, and God therefore lets the prince of pride loose upon him to teach him a lesson of humility. This was like bringing him into the wilderness.

Are they forsaken by their friends, and do those who once honoured and caressed them, now treat them with coldness and contempt? Are lovers and friends put far from them? Into such a wilderness as this was Job brought; and so also are many others of the people of God, that they may learn the instability of human friendships, and be instructed in all their straits and difficulties to place their whole confidence in the Lord alone. My friends scorn me, said holy Job, but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

Are they in a state of spiritual desertion? This is indeed a wilderness. When God hides his face, and leaves us to grapple with afflictions in our own strength; when there are sensible impressions of divine wrath, and withdrawments of divine love, the

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