"They that turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever." Thou wilt gain the bleffing of those ready to perish; and if thou fhouldft not gain, thy point, yet thy work fhall not be in vain: If. xlix. 4. "Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; yet furely my judgement is with the Lord, and my work with my God."--But here fome who are under difficulties may propose this

Queftion, How fhall a perfon manage this duty? I anfwer, Follow after the copy we have in the text, in these three particulars.

1. Speak to the commendation of him and his fervice. The world have mean and low thoughts of God; fpeak to his greatness, that the fouls of others may be awed by it; to his goodnefs and loving kindness, that their fouls may be ftirred up to love him, hope in him, trust him. Speak to the advantage of his fervice, how comfortable, pleasant, and beneficial it is, Pfal. xxxiv. 6. 7. 8.

2. Prudently communicate your experiences of his goodness to you. Tell what you have seen, heard, tafted, and felt of him, that others may be excited to wait on him. Tell it to those who are abfolute ftrangers to God, when there is any hope of thus doing them good, as in the cafe of the text; but otherwise we must beware of cafting these pearls before fwine. Tell it to fellow Chriftians who need to be strengthened: Pfal. lxvi. 16. "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my foul." And tell it even to those who see no beauty in ordinances: Zech. viii. 23. "Thus faith the Lord of hosts, In those days it fhall come to pafs, that ten men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations, even fhall take hold of the fkirt of

him that is a Jew, faying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."

3. Confidently avow your choice of God and his fervice before the world. Let them fee that you have made your choice, and does not repent it. Say, with Joshua, chap. xxiv. 15. "As for me and my houfe, we will ferve the Lord." The being afhamed of confeffing the Lord and his way before an evil generation, does much hurt to religion; but a confident profeffion is a practical teRimony to it.--To thefe three may be added,

4. A converfation becoming the gospel, and those principles which you profefs. In the text, The first thing we have is, Paul's intercourse with heaven, his communion with God: There food by me, &c.

The fecond thing is, Paul's fpecial relation to the God of heaven: Whofe I am, and whom I ferve.We begin with the

First thing in the text, Paul's intercourse with heaven, his communion with God: There ftood by me this night, the angel of the Lord.-In this feveral things offer themselves to our notice, which we shall shortly explain.—There is,

I. THE party employed to bring him the comfortable meffage from God: The angel of the Lord. II. The peculiarity of this manifestation and intercourfe with heaven.

III. The posture of the angel: He flood.

IV. The time of this manifestation: This night.

LET us then attend,

I. To the party employed to bring him the comfortable meffage from God: An holy angel, who appeared to him in the fhip. This was often the privilege of the faints in the Old Teftament, and

fometimes

fometimes in the New, in the first times of it. We are not, however, now to expect fuch appearances. The facred volume is completed, and we are not to expect new revelations. Angels are employed to ferve for the good and benefit of those that are the Lord's. We know little of the ministry of angels, but the fcriptures are plain, that this is the privilege of all who are his : Pfal. xxxiv. 7. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Heb. i. 14. "Are they not all miniftering fpirits, fent forth to minister to them who fhall be heirs of falvation." And the angels being invisible, we know not how much we are indebted to them for their ministry; we will know it better afterwards, when we will be in no hazard of abufing it.

The improvement I would make of this is, to point out the dignity and advantage of the children of God. Kings' children have honourable attendants; these, however, are only men. But if thou be a child of the family of God, angels attend thee. They have a concern for thy welfare, to promote it, as devils are trying to hinder it. And these angels will attend thee,-during thy life in this world. The fcripture is plain, that God gives his angels charge concerning those who are his, to keep them while in the way. It is a promife of the covenant that has been fealed to us: Pfal. xci. 11. 12. "For he fhall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, left thou dafh thy foot against a stone." As a father of a family charges the elder children with the care of the younger ones; fo does God the angels, with the faints on earth, the young heirs of glory; and they diligently execute their charge, however little we know about it. This appears from the scrip

tures

tures already quoted.-The angels will attend thee at thy death, they will wait on thy foul removing

from the body, and convey it away home to your Father's houfe in glory: Luke, xvi. 22. "And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bofom." When the child comes out of its mother's belly into this world, fome inhabitants here receive it, and take care of it; and when the foul of a believer comes out of the body, and is born into another world, the angels, inhabitants there, take it, and convey it away to their country. This honour have all the faints.-Let us attend,

II. To the peculiarity of this manifestation and intercourfe with heaven.-The angel food by me. They were all in the fame fhip, but none knew what paffed betwixt the Lord and Paul; none faw nor heard the angel but Paul himself. And two things are here remarkable.

1. There were many strangers to God in the fhip; but Paul was his own, and with him God keeps communion; but with none of them, though in the fame ship with him.-Whence obferve, that there is a fecret conveyance of intercourse with heaven to those who are the Lord's, in the midst of a crowd of perfons who know nothing of the .matter. Many a time matters go on betwixt God and a gracious foul, as betwixt Jonathan and David, when they only knew the matter, 1 Sam. xx.

39.

The Lord knoweth who are his, and who are not, however mixed the multitude may be, 2 Tim. ii. 19. Whatever fair appearances a hypocrite puts on, he can fee through the disguise; and however iniquity prevail in his own, he can difcern the pearl of faith and love in a dunghill of corruption. The arrow is fhot at venture, but

the

the Spirit of the Lord directs it. Communion with God, and intercourfe with heaven, lies in inward, not in external things: 1 Tim. iv. 8. "For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godlinefs is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." Every perfon might fee who went to the table, what vifible thing was done there, who received the bread and wine. But what paffed in the retirements of the heart there, whofe fpikenard fent forth the fmell, who received Christ into their hearts, whofe faith and love were exercifed, with whom the idol of jealousy was preserved, or who put the knife to the throat of it; the whole is a fecret betwixt God and the foul itself.-The improvement of this is, to learn, that it is a fad thing to have been where that intercourse with heaven was, and to have had no fhare of it; to be persons whom God goes by, and comes by, manifefts his grace on the right hand, and on the left hand, while they have no fhare of it. We have no ground to doubt but communion with God was enjoyed by fome in that church-yard, and at the Lord's table. what was your share of it? If you have had none, it is a token, either that you were dead in your fins, and in a state of alienation from God, and not come out of the devil's family, though you were by profeffion among God's children: Amos, iii. 3.

O!

Can two walk together, unless they be agreed?" Dead folk cannot converse with the living, nor dead fouls have communion with the living God. Habitual estrangement from communion with God, is a black mark of a graceless state, 2 Cor. vi. 16. Let that ftir you up yet to come out from among them, and leave the congregation of the dead, while yet there is hope.- Or it is a token, that ye were afleep, and all out of cafe for communion with VOL. II. D d

God.