of friendship and friendly commerce with the Supreme Being, is the highest wisdom and greatest happiness, and at the same time, the most absolutely necessary of all affairs, about which we can possibly busy ourselves in this world of our pilgrimage. You are, dear Madam, in the number of those who lie under infinite obligations to heaven for giving you a sight and taste of these things, of which others know nothing, and to which they are strangers. May your improvement and enjoyments in divine love be equal to your own hearts wish.—

XXXVI.

The privilege of having God as ours.

1736, FEB. 6.-Considering the uncertainty of the health and life of our relations and of ourselves too, and the very short continuance of all earthly enjoyments, we cannot act wiser, or better consult our own lasting happiness, or in any way more effectually guard against sore distresses in life and death, than by making a free-will offering of ourselves to God, and resign our all to his will, and become sincerely willing in our minds to be content to suffer the loss of all things for the sake of being his and of his being ours. "Blessed are the people that are in such a case; yea, blessed are the people that have the Lord for their God;" they have a goodly heritage, a portion that is accompanied with the perfection and and fulness of every comfort, and which shall never be taken away from them.

What infatuation it is to be fond of enjoyments that cannot abide, nor yield the desired satisfaction. O dear Madam, the Divine Spirit hath opened your eyes to see (though most

men are still stark blind to it,) that the best inheritance without comparison, and the surest entail for the secure possessson of it, are contained in these words of the Most High, "I will be your God;" that is, he will bestow himself upon us, with all the riches of his grace and glory, his Son and his Holy Spirit; his perfections and attributes, his power, providence and holy angels shall all be employed for our good. He will love us with the freest, dearest, tenderest and endless love. He does not say that he is only, but he will be our God; that is, he will continue to be ours, when all things else vanish. He will be so at all times, and in all conditions, in prosperity and adversity, in health and sickness, in life and death, and for ever, to all eternity. Oh! under what endearing and soul-reviving similitudes does God condescend to express his kindness to his people. He, who is to the wicked the severest judge, will be to them the tenderest Father; he who is to others the severest enemy, will be to them the surest friend; he who is to others an insupportable terror, will be to them a faithful comforter. The punisher of the wicked will be a deliverer to them; he will be to them a sun and a shield to defend and warm them. He will be their strong tower and rock of defence from their enemies; their refuge and hiding-place, when the terrible fiery deluge of his wrath cometh. He will be their householder to provide not only food, but feasts of endless joy, for his peculiar family. He will not only be their Father, but the Husband of their souls, to delight in and rejoice over them for ever more. He gives many gifts for a time to others, but bestows himself upon his own people. This promise of God's giving himself, compre

hends all mercies; it is the sum of the new covenant and the soul and spirit of all the gospel privileges; we may well say, God and all; and without him nothing.

What a blessing have they received, who have obtained grace to become a willing people to him, to love him, and to live to him a life of faith and holiness, and of fervent zeal and ready obedience. Surely they cannot but find great pleasure, when they converse with their fellows about the things of their God. These candidates for heaven cannot but feel something of heaven among them, when they sweetly converse together about the affairs of their Father. His word delights them; his commandments to them are not grievous; his ordinances are their spiritual feasts. They have peace within, though not always assurance; because they want larger degrees of love; and they are therefore jealous of themselves, because. they do not see that they love him enough, yet do they devote their best affections and the entireness of their hearts to him every day. And where should their hearts be, but where their treasure is? They really, heartily and frequently give themselves anew unto God. His Spirit is at work within them, working in them softness of heart, a mournful sense of their hardness, a spiritual thirst and striving after holiness in heart and life, enabling them to labour hard to forsake every sin, to obtain and exercise every grace, to practise and perform every duty, to use all means, and to delight much in those that affect their spirits and bring them nearest to God, and to bear most willingly every burden or suffering from love and faithfulness to him. Their God by the kindly influence of his Spirit, will carry them on from strength to strength

that they may daily endeavour to increase in his grace, to mortify their sins more effectually, to believe more stedfastly, to pray more fervently, to walk more evenly, and to become more spiritual, heavenly and humble in every thing.

This is the blessed generation of men who are the peculiar favourites of heaven, who have the God of heaven, even the good and gracious God, the merciful and glorious God, the faithful and eternal God, to be their God for ever; which will be found in a dying hour to be a much better portion than thousands of gold and silver, when their bodies grow cold with the agonies of death. The lively sense of this covenant relation with God, lying warm upon their minds, will be a reviving cordial, or rather an ecstacy of joy to their departing souls.

It is a matter of great lamentation and astonishment, that our hearts are so loath to let go their hold and quit their delights in every thing else, for the sake of so lovely a privilege, purchased for us by the Redeemer's blood; I mean, the enjoyment of God, and the having of him for our God for ever; of which even death itself cannot deprive us; for it cannot dissolve his covenant relation either with our souls or bodies. His presence and power will always be our support and comfort: in his favour and smiles of his countenance we shall find such exceeding, nay, ravishing repast and pleasure, to which others are as great strangers, as the man born blind is to light and colours; and which will not depart, but come to perfection at the time, when every thing which we call our own here below, will forsake us; and in which we shall exceedingly rejoice without any fear of excess, or of losing it.

Methinks, my soul, in thinking of this, (may

it hold its present disposition) is willing to become dead to all I call my comforts in this world, as a child weaned from the breast, that I may wait to taste the more delicious and lasting comfort of the divine promise-that the Lord will be our God and portion. A most precious and delightful promise it is; yea, the richest in all the scripture, even the mother promise of all other promises, containing in it all that we can desire or need. Surely it is the want of more faith, and the strange power of corruption, sensuality and earthliness, that blinds our minds to the beauty and excellency of spiritual enjoyments, else we could not but be highly delighted with so high and lovely a privilege, as that of having the great Jehovah for our God; a greater favour or a more precious and delightful promise, infinite love could not have given us.

But, though all the promises are most precious cordials and of the greatest use to support, comfort and encourage the Christian's life, for they relieve and revive us, when all other hopes and comforts fail, and they bring real delight and pleasure; yet their worth and sweetness, their glory and excellency, are not to be seen, till the Holy Spirit opens the Christian's eye and gives him new light. There is a vail upon the promises, or rather a film upon our eyes, and until that is removed, the promises are dark, and, like their Author, have no beauty nor comeliness in the eyes of blind men; so that though they be sweet and precious in themselves, they will not appear so to us, till the divine promise and the divine light come into the soul together. Our own understanding is too short to derive comfort from them, and therefore the illumination of the Holy Spririt