God. And if that was the cafe, O but it was illtimed! Song, v. 1. 2. Ye have flipt a precious season, ye know not if ever it may return. Review, therefore, your carriage and way at this occafion; awaken timeoufly, and repent, elfe you may come to get an awakening ftroke from the Lord, which may go very deep: 1 Cor. xi. 30. "For this caufe many are weak and fickly among you, and many fleep."-Learn to blefs God, be thankful, and walk worthy of your privilege, you who have had the diftinguishing mercy of communion with God. To whom much is given, much alfo fhall be required. Did he bring you into his banqueting-houfe? Then follow on in the way of holinefs, as ftrengthened by what you have experienced. Let not his grace bestowed on you be in vain. Here a queflion may be proposed, How may a perfon know whether he had communion with God or not? Anf. Communion with God confifts in the Lord's vouchfafing the influences of his grace to the foul, and the foul's returning them again in the exercise of grace. There are many marks of grace. I offer you two distinguishing ones from the text.

Mark 1. The foul's giving itself wholly to the Lord, without exception of any thing, and standing to it: Whofe I am. People may give their hand, tongue, many things of theirs to the Lord, but none but these who have communion with him, will honeftly give themselves wholly, without exception of one luft, or one crofs, to him; and being deliberate, they stand to it. This is an evidence that the Lord has given himself to them, and they have received him by faith; for man's heart will never give their all to the Lord, till it receive better.

Mark 2. Has religion now become your bufi

nefs?

nefs? Whom I ferve. Have ye truly renounced the service of the devil, and of lufts, taken on the yoke of Christ in all its parts, making religion no more a by-hand work, to ferve yourselves of it, but your chief work, your continual work, to ferve the Lord in it? If you have had these, you have had communion with God; if not, you have not had it.-To this fome may reply, But, alas! I have not had what I would wish to have been at. In answer to this, confider what is remarkable here: There were others who were the Lord's, befides Paul, in this fhip; Luke, at least, whom, though the Lord left not without communion with himself in that dark hour, yet Paul only had the vifion of the angel. You will accordingly obferve, that every faint is not admitted to the fame degree of communion with God, fome enjoy more than others. All the difciples were not taken up to the mount of transfiguration, but only three of them. John was the beloved difciple, though Jefus loved them all, except the son of perdition. Some may be brought farther forward at one time, others at another time. Some may be full to the brim, when the enjoyments of others are very scanty. There is no reason to complain here; for,

(1.) Ordinarily God proportions his people's prefent lifting up to their former down-cafling: Ifa. xl. 4. "Every valley fhall be exalted." Some need more communion with God in the way of conviction and humiliation, others in the way of comfort; but the heaviest heart, and the most humbled fpirit, needs the greatest outletting of comfortable manifeftations. And if God speak moft comfortably to those who moft need it, it is unjuft to complain.

(2.) The greatcft privilege is ordinarily followed Dd 2

with

with the greateft piece of work, 1 Kings, xix. 7. God has hard pieces of fervice to put into fome people's hands beyond others. Paul must appear before Cæfar for the defence of the gofpel, and therefore stood in moft need of this manifeftation to comfort and fortify him:

(3.) The backs of God's people are ordinarily ftrengthened in proportion to their burdens; and therefore the more liberal feast that a faint gets, he may expect the greater trial. If we compare the life of Ifaac and Jacob, you will observe, that the latter had the greatest enjoyments of God; but fo also had he the greatest trials of the two.

As a fuitable improvement of what has now been obferved, let us, who have had communion with God in any measure, however small, not overlook the mercy, but thankfully entertain it. There is real communion with God in these two things. (1.) In longing defires after Christ: Pfal. xxvi. 9. "With my foul have I defired thee in the night, yea, with my fpirit within me will I feek thee early." When the foul is touched with a defire of him above all perfons and things, longing for the enjoyment of him as their portion, longing for his blood to sprinkle them, and his Spirit to fanctify them, it is an evidence of the Lord's dif covering himself in some measure to that foul.There is real communion with God, (2.) In real love to him, well-pleafedness with his covenant : Matth. xi. 6. "And bleffed is he, whofoever shall not be offended in me.". There can be no true love to Chrift, which is not produced by his love to the foul John, iv. 19. "We love him, because he first loved us. And no heart will be truly fatisfied with the covenant, with the tenor, benefits, and duties of it, but that which, by the influences of the Spirit, is framed in conformity

to

to it: "Thy people fhall be willing in the day of thy power," Pfal. cx. 3. If this has been your attainment, then cherish the spark. Quench not the Spirit. Satan will endeavour to rob you of it but if it be tenderly watched and preserved, the Spirit will break out into a flame: Hof. vi. 3. "Then fhall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord."- Let those who have had a more than ordinary meeting with God, and have been filled with confolation, admire God's mercy towards them, and prepare themselves for trials and temptations, which will try their ftrength. God's children are fuffered to eat no idle bread. Watch, therefore, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. Carefully cherish and preferve what God has done for you, and improve it to your progress in sanctification. This is the true way to keep your candle fhining. Let us attend,

III. To the posture of the Angel. He stood, he did not fit down, because he was not to stay. This was an extraordinary vifit to Paul, he was not to look for this as his ordinary entertainment from heaven. Extraordinary manifeftations are what we cannot expect to be continued, without interruption, while we are here. God will have a difference betwixt heaven and earth. And as two fummers are not to be looked for in one year, fo a lafting heaven of comfort upon earth will not be found. Though the Lord may fometimes feed his people with strong fenfible manifeftations in this world, this is not their ordinary. They must for the most part live by faith, without extraordinary manifestations: 2 Cor. v. 7. "For we walk by faith, not by fight." Let Chriftians then lay their account with a struggling and Dd 3 wrestling

wrestling life, with the clouds returning after the rain. For we are as those who travel by night, with the light of the moon, which fometimes fhines clear, at other times hides her head under a cloud Pfal. xxx. 7. « Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled." We are,

IV. To confider the time of this manifeftation : This night. It was a fad night in that fhip, all hopes of being faved were loft, and then the Lord appeared to help. This may lead us to obferve, that when things are brought to an extremity, this is a special opportunity which the Lord takes to appear for thofe that are his. This is the promife: Deut. xxxii. 36. " For the Lord will judge his people, and repent himself for his fervants, when he fees that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left." And agreeable to this has been the experience of the faints in many cases. Thus, as to the church of God in Egypt, their bondage was most hard, before the Lord delivered them. The reafons why the Lord does this are many. Among others,

1. By this the hand of God appears most eminent in the deliverance. The more desperate that the cafe be, the love of God in thinking upon his people, his wifdom in contriving their deliverance, his power in bringing it to pass, appear the more confpicuous: Ifa. xxxiii. 10. "Now will I rife, faith the Lord; now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself." He has the greater revenue of glory, by curing the disease when past all hope.— Another reason is,

2. That it brings the greater advantage to the faints: John, xi. 15. " And I am glad for your fakes that I was not there, to the intent you may believe." For hereby their eyes are opened to fee