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text, that a thorough humiliation is a certain forerunner of future exaltation. “ "Every one "that humbleth himself fhall be exalted." When men propose to build high, they dig deeper for the foundation. Paul was laid exceeding low at his converfion, that he might be better fitted for the important fervice to which he had afterwards the honour to be called.

Let these confiderations reconcile you to the humbling work of the fpirit of God: And if any thing you have heard hath touched your hearts, feek not relief among foolish companions, but retire to your closets, and on your bended knees befeech the Lord to perfect the good work he hath begun, and he who comforteth those that are caft down, will not leave you in the Red Sea, but carry you fafely through to the farther fide, and put the fong of Mofes and of the Lamb into your mouths, "giving you beauty for ashes, the "oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Amen.

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SERMON IV.

PSALM CXIX. 173, 174, 175.

Let thine hand help me ; for I have chosen thy precepts. I have longed for thy falvation, O Lord; and thy law is my delight. Let my foul live, and it fball praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.

HESE words were immediately addref

TH

sed to God, moft High, whose workmanship we all are, even to him that quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things that be not as though they were. Here David appeals to the Searcher of hearts, and lays before him not the product of his own labour and fkill, as though he poffeffed fomething whereof he might glory before God, but what he gratefully acknowledges to be the doing of the Lord; a heart in fome measure renewed after his image, and panting after a nearer and still more perfect resemblance.

I

I fhall therefore confider this account, which, in the form of a folemn addrefs to God, the Pfalmift here gives of his own temper and conduct, as an approved model or pattern for our imitation. What this holy man was, that ought we to be; and fuch we fhall certainly endeavour to be, if we afpire to the character whereby David was diftinguished by the Supreme Judge himself, when he dignified him with the most honourable of all appellations, even that of the man after his own heart.

The paffage contains,

I. The diftinguishing character. And,
II. The leading requests of a truly godly

man.

Each of these I shall briefly illustrate and improve; the one for the prefent trial, and the other for the future direction of thofe, who have this day* made a public profeffion of their faith in Chrift, over the facred, fymbols of his broken body, and fhed blood, in the holy facrament of his fupper.

I begin with the diftinguishing character of a truly godly man; and you will obferve the

* Pr.

following

~ of the Lord's fupper.

following particulars diftinctly marked, viz. The matter of his choice-The object of his defires-And the fource of his joy.

.

The godly man's choice-is the precepts of God. David had said, verse 3, That he had chofen the teftimonies of God for his heritage; by which he probably meant the promises of that everlafting covenant, ordered in all things and fure, to which he afterwards reforted in the immediate profpect of death, as all his falvation, and all his defire. These promises are indeed exceeding great and precious, fuited to all the neceffities of the faints, and extending to every bleffing that can be denoted by these two fignificant and most comprehenfive words, GRACE and GLORY. But one may choose, or rather covet, the heritage of a child, who hath an averfion to the duties that refult from that relation: And therefore the chufing the law or precepts of God, for regulating the heart and life, is, of all others, the moft difcriminating character of a true child of God; for there can be no doubt, that one who fincerely devotes himself to the service of God, will moft fincerely and

ardently

ardently with to be happy, in the poffeffion of the promised inheritance.

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Let us next attend to the object of the godly man's defire. "I have longed," saith David, "for thy falvation :" a prefent falvation from the guilt and power of fin, and future falvation, in the full and everlasting enjoyment of God in heaven. David was already poffeffed of the firft of thefe; for he fpake from his own experience, when he faid, "Bleffed is the man whofe tranfgreffion is for

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given, whofe fin is covered, unto whom the "Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose "spirit there is no guile." He had the happiness to be a partaker both of pardoning mercy and of fanctifying grace; yet still he longed for more of this falvation, that is, for a more affured faith of pardoning mercy, and larger measures of fanctifying grace. It is a juft obfervation, with respect to earthly things, that NATURE is contented with a little, and GRACE with lefs. But it is quite the reverse as to fpiritual things. Here grace is not contented with a little; on the contrary, it is infatiable; the more it hath received, the more it defires to receive. Enjoyment, instead of furfeiting,

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