LORD, 0 JEHOVAH, &c: 97 and (hallfuflain them. * When they are oppreffed, He will undertake for them : Hewill deliver their Souls from Death, their Eyes from Tears, and their Feet from falling. Let themwait thenfill upon GOD; and, e'er long, they shall perceive what Realön they have to praife their mighty Redeemer, who is the Health oftheir Countenance and their GOD. Remember, O Chriftian, if thou haft any Life, or Hope, or Defire, in yefus, that it is not thy own Life, but the Life of ChrUt in thee;-1- and that, therefore, it can never perk, nor utterly fail. Thy finful Nature can afford no Hope, nor the Shadow of an Hope ; not a, Deere, nor even a Wifh to delire, the leaft good thing that relates to Jefus ChriH. Thefe are Exotics on Earth, and muff be tranfplanted from Heaven. No Fruit or Flower of Grace can fpring from thy carnal Nature ; nothing naturally flourifhes there, but the baleful Weeds of Free-will, or rather Self-will, of Unbelief and Pride. Thy Soul itfelf is a thorny, wafte Wildernefs; and none but ChriH, the Hufbandman of the Church, can con- vert it into a Garden. And, when the divine Redeemer has once made this Wildernefs to bloffom as a Rofe ; will he not keep, as well as water, it every Moment, and drive away the wild Beafts of the Foreft, with every noxious and creeping thing ? Will JEHOVAH bellow fo much Affeffion and Care upon his People at one time ; and then fuller an apoftate Spirit, one of his Creatures, to ravage and deftroy them at another ? Rea- fon, and Scripture the Perfei Lion and Miftrefs of Rea- fon, renounce the abhorred Thought for ever. Take Courage, then, believing Soul, and look for thy inefti- mable Privilege of a good Hope through Grace: And be affured, from the Teftimony of yefus, that thou thalt never look in vain. Thy heavenly Father defpifeth not the Day of (mall Things; and why fhouldeft Thou ? Thy precious Faith, though now perhaps minute as the * Piaba lv. 22, j Gal. ii. 20. finalleft
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