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his comforts, and vifit us with affliction; yet he will fpeedily manifeft his pardoning mercy, remove the chaftifement which indicated his difpleafure, and reftore to us the joys of his falvation. This renewed manifeftation of favour will produce fo great a change in our state of mind, that it may be termed, a calling us back from death to life.

As my desire is to inftruct and edify the reader, and not to perplex him, I fhall not introduce the laboured criticifms of fome learned writers upon the words under confideration, nor attempt any farther explication of them, but immediately propound this doctrinal propofition arifing from the text,

That In God's favour there is life; or that his favour is a good man's life.

This is the branch of divine truth held forth to our notice, by the royal Pfalmift here. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he advanced this, as a faithful faying, and worthy of acceptation. Mofes seems to affert the fame thing, when he says of JEHOVAH, "He is thy life, and the length of thy days." That is, he is effectively fo; he is the cause of thy life; whatever juftly deserves the denomination of life, confifts in the enjoyment of him, and consequently, in being conformed to his holy will.

In

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In the prosecution of my design, I shall attempt to give a solution of the following inquiries;

I. What are we to understand by the favour of God, and what that life is which is faid to be in it? II. In what refpects is his favour to be confidered as life?

III. To whom is it so, and in what seasons and circumftances?

IV. Why do these perfons put fuch a value on the divine favour, as to account it life?

When I have given a fhort answer to these feveral important questions, I fhall attempt a suitable application of the whole.

CHAP. II.

What God's Favour is, and the Life which is enjoyed

in it.

E are in the first place to inquire, what we

WE are

are to understand by the favour of God, and what that life is which is faid to be in it. For the fake of brevity, we unite these two necessary branches of investigation, in the prefent chapter, humbly requefling the reader to to favour us with his candid, pious and impartial attention. The nature of the fubject undoubtedly calls for it.

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The word for favour, in the facred original, fignifies good will, or good pleasure. In the bleffing wherewith Mofes the man of God bleffed the children of Ifrael before his death, we meet with this elevated apoftrophe, "O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, full with the bleffing of the Lord!" The latter clause explains and illuftrates the former. When men are full of the bleffing of the Lord, they enjoy his favour; and it is that which gives them. fatisfaction. The word alfo fignifies acceptance. The prophet Ifaiah uses the same expreffion as that in our text; when speaking of the spiritual facrifices which God's people shall present unto him, through the Mediator, he fays, in the name of the great Je hovah, "They fhall come up with acceptance, with favour, upon mine altar." Sometimes the term, in our English verfion, is rendered defire. As when the Pfalmift fays, "He fhall fulfil the defire, the good will, of them that fear him." But as the expreffion is ufed concerning the Author and Fountain of all good, it implies, in its loweft fenfe, kindnefs or regard: and it may be considered in several points of light.

1. The favour of God may intend his common Providence towards all, both good and bad. Favour is shown to fome who are little influenced by it. "Let favour be fhewed to the wicked," in the

boun.

bounties of an indulgent providence, "yet will he not learn righteousness." In this fenfe, the divine favour is our natural life, both as to its original, and its continued preservation. All men, whether they be good or bad, are dependent on God's fupporting hand; for he holdeth our foul in life. When a human artificer has conftructed a machine, and put it in motion, he leaves it to itself. But our Almighty Maker has not formed us to fubfift independent of his care. To his favour we are indebted, both for our being, and our well-being. It was the devout acknowledgment of Job, "Thou haft "granted me life and favour, and thy vifitation preferveth my spirit." Life itself is a grant of his goodnefs, an inftance of his favour, as well as that conftant beneficence, whereby we are furnished with every needful and comfortable accommodation. The very heathens were fenfible of this. When Paul had afferted, in his addrefs to the Athenians, that God is near to every one of us, because in him we live and move and have our being, he quoted their own poet Aratus, in confirmation of what he had faid,

For we his offspring are.

The ftouteft champion on earth, the proudeft monarch in the world, is dependent on God's favour, and lies at his mercy every moment. Daniel faid

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to the impious, the ftout-hearted Belshazzar, “ The God in whofe hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, haft thou not glorified." O that men did but confider, and keep it constantly in their remembrance, that they owe all that they are, and all that they have and poffefs, to the favour of their Maker, their divine Benefactor and Sovereign! A late poet has well faid,

Our breath is forfeited by fin,
To God's revenging law;

We own thy grace, immortal King,
In every gafp we draw. *

2. By God's favour may fometimes be intended, the signal acts of difcriminating providence. Thus the Lord fhewed kindness to his ancient people Ifrael, in driving the feven heathen nations out of Canaan, the measure of whose iniquities was full, and in planting the feed of Jacob in their room. Why did he do this? It was not done because of their deferts; it was not effected by the power of their own fwords, or their other weapons of war, but, fays the Pfalmift, in devout acknowledgment

to

*The reader, it is hoped, will pardon the Editor's intrufive hints, as they are defigned merely to il luftrate the fenfe of the Author, and, in fome fort, to enliven and modernife the performance. See the advertisement at the beginning.