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And how should we daily pray for God's Pre

sence with us? We may pray for it with a chearful Hope, if we read some of his Predictions.

In Exod. xxxiii. 14. God says, My Prefence fhall go with thee. In Pfal. cxl. 13. It is said to God, the Upright shall dwell in thy Prefence.

In Ifa. xli. 10. God says, Fear thou not, for I am with Thee. In Deut. xxxi. 8, It is faid, The LORD, he it is that doth go before thee, he will be with Thee, He will not fail Thee, neither forfake Thee.

And in John xiv. 23. Christ says, If any Man love me, he will keep my Words: And my Father will love bim, and we will come unto him, and make our Abode with him.

Let serious Christians contemplate these Declarations frequently; and with the Influence of the Holy Spirit, they will derive much Comfort from them.

2. It is likewise predicted, that God will hear the Prayers, and grant the Petitions of his Children.

It is a great Advantage for a Man to have a rich and compaffionate Friend, able and willing to supply and help him on every Occasion :

But the Favour of God affords inexpressibly more abundant Confolation.

And there are gracious Predictions that he will regard the Prayers of his People.

In Pfal. iv. 3. It is faid, But know that the LORD hath fet apart him that is godly for himself: The Lord will hear, when I call unto him.

In Pfal. xxxiv. 15. It is written, The Eyes of the Lord are upon the Righteous, and his Ears are open unto their Cry. ver. 17. The Righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their Troubles.

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In Pfal. cxlv. 19. It is faid, He will fulfill the Defire of them that fear him: He also will bear their Cry, and will save them. Comfortable Predictions!

In Zech. xiii. 9. Our good God fays, They shall call on my Name, and I will bear them: I will say, It is my People, And they shall fay, the LORD is my God.

In Matt. vii, 7. Our loving Redeemer says to his Disciples, Ask, and it shall be given you: Seek and ye shall find: Knock and it shall be opened unto you.

And in Matt. xxi. 22. he says, And all Things whatsoever ye shall ask in Prayer, believing, ye Shall receive.

These are comfortable Predictions; and many, very many more of like Import I might mention; for the Sacred Scriptures abound with them. They are Evidences of our Heavenly Father's Loving-kindness to his Children.

O what Encouragements has he given unto us to the Duty of Prayer? And to pray with humble Hope of Success to our Petitions? None of his Children ever fought his Face in vain, nor trusted, nor hoped in him in vain.

If ferious Christians did record the Petitions they ask of Him, and the gracious Answers to them, which they receive from Him, what a Display of the Divine Power, Goodness, Mercy, and Faithfulness might they behold in God's Dealings with them?

The Predictions mentioned, and the Accomplishment of them, should be improved to confirm our Faith, heighten our Love, and our thankfulness to our Father, which is in Heaven; and they should more and more endear our glorious Saviour and Mediator to our Souls,

As

As we offer up our Supplications at the Throne

of Grace in his Name, and as He is continually making Interceffion for us, so it is for his Sake, that we are accepted with the Father, and that our Requests are granted.

In John xvi. 24. Christ said unto his Disciples, Hitherto, ye have asked nothing in my Name. Ask, (q. d. in my Name,) and ye shall (for my Sake,) receive, that your Foy may be full.

III. SANCTIFICATION, is another of the great Blessings predicted for true Believers, and is that Work, by which polluted Sinners become Holy in Heart and Life, and are renewed more and more after the Image of God.

This, is the Work of God's Holy Spirit: It begins when true Faith begins in the Soul of a Sinner.

The Bleffings of Justification and Adoption, tho' different the one from the other, yet are conjoin'd, and are bestowed on the Believer, in the same Article of Time; and at the fame Time the glorious Work of a Sinner's Sanctification does also begin.

But this is gradually carried on through the Course of a Believer's Life, from his first being born again to the Time of his Death; when Believers are made perfect in Holiness..

This, indeed, is a most blessed and important Work of the Holy Spirit. It is that Divine Operation by which we are renew'd in the Likeness and Image of God. A Blessing absolutely neceffary to fit us for the happy Enjoyment of him; Because without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord. Heb. xii. 14.

But this Bleffing (as is evident from the Sacred Scriptures,) belongs to them that believe in Chrift. The holy Jesus, when he pray'd for all his true Disciples to his Father, said, Sanctify them through thy Truth: thy Word is Truth. John xvii. 17. And ver. 19. he adds, And for their Sakes I Sanctify myself, that they also may be fanctified through the Truth.

The Apostle Paul said to the believing Thessalonians, For this is the Will of God, even your Sanctification. I Thes. iv. 3. And in 2 Thef. ii. 13. God bath from the Beginning chosen you to Salvation, through Sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the Truth.

The Apostle Peter calls the true Believers, Elect according to the Foreknowledge of God the Father, through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience. Peter i. 2.

The Apostle Paul says to Titus, Chap. ii. 11. The Grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath (by the Gospel) appeared to all Men, teaching us that denying Ungodliness and worldly Lufts, we shou'd live soberly, righteously, and godly in this preSent World; looking for that blessed Hope, and the glorious Appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Chrift; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all Iniquity, and purify unto himself (by the Operation of the Holy Spirit,) a peculiar People, zealous of good Works. See also Tit. iii.

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The Way which infinite Wisdom has contriv'd, for the Recovery and Salvation of fallen Man is most remarkable: For as our first Parents fell into a State of Sin and Misery, through a proud Ambition of being wiser, and in a higher Rank than their glorious Creator thought fit; and through Unbelief of God's Word to them; for they believed the Words of the Devil, and difbelieved the Words of the Lord, who made them: So the righteous and wife God has seen

fit to require Men to believe his Word; the Word of the Truth of the Gospel, and to difbelieve the Suggestions of the Devil.

And he requires all Men to believe in his Son Jesus Chrift, and to follow after Holiness; and sent his beloved Son into the World that they might be saved from their Sins, sanctified and fitted to dwell with Him.

It is the Will of God that we should be holy; holy in our Hearts, in our Lives and Conversations. But we cannot make ourselves holy: No, therefore our merciful God and Saviour, has sent down the Holy Spirit to perform the Office of a Sanctifier to us. And the more attentive to, and observant we are of the Word of God, that Word of Truth, and of the Motions of the Holy Spirit, the more profperously proceeds the Work of Sanctification in us.

But they who always resist the Holy Ghost, and quench the Spirit, are not like to have the holy Fruits of the Spirit in them.

We should daily pray for the Holy Spirit always to dwell in us, and guide us in the Way wherein we should go, and always to help us to perform every Duty, and restrain us from every Thing that is finful, and enable us to withstand and overcome every Temptation.

But notwithstanding the Holiness of fincere Christians, God fees fit by Afflictions to try their Faith and Patience; and to moderate their Affections to this World, to purge away their Dross, and to keep them circumspect in their Passage through it.

Man that is born of a Woman is of few Days, and full of Trouble. (Job xiv. 1.) And the Troubles of the Saints are some of the Means of their Sanctification.

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