your stations, and unblamable in every relation; you are perpetually magnifying your religion; you "adorn "the doctrine of God your Saviour;" you put to "filence the ignorance of foolish men;" you fometimes allure them, according to the inftructive admonition of our Saviour, "Let your light fo fhine before men, that they may SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS, AND <c GLORIFY YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN." And with what is all this connected? "They fhall be my people, and I" will be their God." This fhews us, IV. The bleffed PRIVILEGE of the righteous. For here we are to contemplate their honour and their happiness; every thing depends upon this relation. "Bleff"ed are the people that are in fuch a cafe, yea, happy "is that people whose God is the Lord." When "God gave promise to Abraham, because "He could fwear by no greater, He fware by himself;" when he would blefs his people, becaufe He could give them no greater, He gave himself. They are all a nation of Levites, for "the Lord is their inheritance;" and it is "a goodly" one; it "gives grace and glory, "and no good thing does" it "withhold from them "that walk uprightly." "It is profitable unto all .. things, having promife of the life that now is, and of "that which is to come." Confider the meaning of the language. It is more than if He faid, I will be thy friend, thy helper, thy benefactor; for these are relations derived from creatures, and therefore notions of limited fignificancy. But when He fays, "I will be thy God," He takes an image from Himself, and engages to do us good ac L cording to the all-fufficiency of an infinite nature; to bestow upon us bleffings which are peculiar to Deity; to do for us what Deity alone can do, and to do it DIVINELY; to pardon, and to pardon like a God; to fanctify, and to fanctify like a God; to comfort, and to comfort like a God; to glorify, and to glorify like a God; God appearing all along, in the manner, as well as in the mercy. Confider alfo' the nature of the claim. He is really yours. In nothing else have you fuch a propriety. Your time is not your own; your riches are not your own; your children are not your own; your bodies, and your spirits, are not your own; but God is yours by abfolute promise and donation; and you may join with the church of old, and fay, "God, even our own "God, fhall blefs us." And He is wholly yours; all He is, all He poffeffes; the perfections of his nature, the difpenfations of his providence, the blessings of his falvation, the treafures of his word, all are become your own; and what Benhadad faid to the king of Ifrael, and what the father of the prodigal faid to the elder brother, God fays to each of you, “I am thine, "and all that I have:" "Son, thou art ever with me, "and all that I have is thine." And He is yours for ever; the union is indiffoluble; his duration is the tenure of your blifs; as long as He lives, He will be your God. Once more; Confider the final iffue of the connection. The relation is intended to display the immensity of his benevolence, and of his munificence towards his people. It does much for them here; and when they reflect upon their original meannefs, and continued unworthiness, and confider what they have received, "What they are filled with wonder, and exclaim, tr manner of love is this!" "what fhall I render to the "Lord for all his benefits towards me!" But "they "fhall fee greater things than these." They have now only" the firft fruits of the Spirit :" "the earneft of "their inheritance." Their alliance with God is often concealed from others, and from themselves; and the advantages it produces are circumfcribed by the world in which we live, and the body of this death; it has not room in which to operate, or time in which to expand. We are therefore led to look forward; and what the apoftle fays with regard to the patriarchs, will apply to all his people; "wherefore God "is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath "prepared for them a city." What an intimation of his infinite goodness is here! He would be afhamed of the relation into which He has entered, if He conferred no more upon his followers than the benefits they derive from Him on earth. Behold then an eternity fucceeding time; a new fyftem prepared to receive them; an happiness in referve, of which they can now form no adequate conception! When He has exchanged their dungeon for a palace; when He has "wiped away all tears from their eyes;" when He has eased every pain; fulfilled every defire, realized every hope; when He has changed "this vile body," and fashioned it like the "glorious body" of the Saviour; when He has entirely expelled fin from their nature, and presented them, "faultlefs before the presence "of his glory with exceeding joy," then the character will be fully difplayed, and the relation completely justified; and all hell and heaven will exclaim, "He has not deceived them, He HAS been their "God.". -I divide this affembly into three claffes; and, firft, I addrefs those who are carelefs of this bleffed relation. Such were many of the Jews of old; "Ifrael," fays God, "would have none of me." And you are of the fame number. You fay by your actions, if not by your words, "depart from us, for we defire not the "knowledge of thy ways." You are afking, "who will fhew us any good?" but you do not, and you know you do not, pray, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me." But is it a vain thing to feek God, or to ferve Him? Allowing other things to be valuable, are they to be compared with God, who is the portion of his people? But they are not valuable; they cannot give fatisfaction; they leave. a void unfilled; they cannot eafe the anguifh of a troubled confcience, fuftain the foul in trouble, or subdue the fear of death; they fail in those seasons and circumftances, in which you most need their aid. And for thefe, will you hazard the lofs of the fupreme. good? Will you "follow lying vanities, and forfake your own mercies ?" "Have the workers of iniquity "no knowledge?" Now you know not the magnitude of your lofs. You are not aware of the full meaning of the word "depart;" go from the God of life, go from the Source of all confolation, go from all mercy and grace for ever. Now you are not abandoned to reflection; you are bufied, and entertained; and though not fatisfied, you are diverted. But, -O ye gay dreamers of gay dreams, How will you weather an eternal night, A lofs is to be measured by the worth of the thing we lofe; and you lofe God! Other loffes may be corrective, but this is deftructive; other loffes may befall friends, but this only befalls enemies; other loffes may be retrieved, this is irreparable. Is He willing to become mine? He is; He condefcends to expoftulate, to invite, to press: "Wherefore do ye fpend money "for that which is not bread, and your labour for that "which fatisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, " and eat ye that which is good, and let you foul de"light itself in fatnefs: incline your ear, and come "unto me; hear, and your foul fhall live; and I will “make an everlasting covenant with you, even the "fure mercies of David." "Seek ye the Lord while "he may be found; call upon him while he is near.” ૮૯ Secondly, I would addrefs thofe who are of a doubtful mind. For while fome claim the relation, to whom it does not belong; fome, to whom it belongs, are afraid to claim it. Now this is lamentable; for if God be yours, and you know it not, you sustain a vaft lofs of confolation. Befides, it is poffible for you to obtain "a good hope through grace. The promife implies a poffibility of decifion; "They fhall call upon my name, and I will hear them: I will say it "is my people; and they fhall SAY the Lord is MY "God." And why cannot you fay this? Have you diffolved connection with the world, and taken "hold "of the fkirt of him that is a Jew, faying, I will go " ❝ with you, for I have heard that GOD is with you?" Can you eafily make the language of his praying followers your own? and is this the effence of every defire you feel?"Remember me, O Lord, with the |