that the whole family together may arrive at some superior degrees of blessedness. And O may divine grace grant me the pleasure to be a witness to your exalted stations, and to worship and rejoice amongst you there! Amen.

THE END.

Brightly and Childs, Printers, Bungay.

JOB Xxiii. 3.

O that I knew where I might find him!

A

MONG all the various kinds and orders of God's intellectual creation, there is not one that uses this language besides a mourning saint in this lower world. As for all other spirits, whether dwelling in flesh or not, their wishes are expressed in a very different manner; nor do they seek and long to find out an absent God.

If we ascend up to heaven, and inquire there what are the wishes of those blessed spirits, we shall find that their enjoyments are so glorious, and their satisfactions rise so high in the immediate presence of God amongst them, that they have nothing of this nature left to wish for; they know that their God is with them, and all their wish is, what they are assured to enjoy, That this God will be with them for ever.

If we descend to the regions of hell, where God reigns in vengeance, we shall hear those unhappy spirits groaning out many a faithful wish. "O that I knew where I might avoid him, that I might get out of his sight, out of his notice and reach for ever! I feel his dreadful presence, and O that it were possible for me to be utterly absent from him, and to find a place where God is not!"

If we take the wings of the morning, and fly to the utmost parts of the eastern or the western world, we shall find the language of those ignorant Heathens, "O that I knew where I might find food, and plenty, and all sensual delights!" but they send not a wish after the great God, though he has been sq

many ages absent from them and their fathers. He is unknown to them, and they have no desires working in them after an unknown God.

If we tarry at home and survey the bulk of mankind around us, the voice of their wishes sounds much the same as that of the heathen world. "O that I

knew where I might find trade and merchandise, riches and honour, corn, wine, and oil, the necessaries or the superfluous luxuries of life!" But God is not in all their thoughts. If they frequent the temples, and attend the seasons of worship, they are well enough satisfied with outward forms without the sight of God in them. There is no natural man that with a sincere longing of soul cries out," O that I knew where to find him!"

As for the children of God that live in the light of their Father's countenance, they walk with him daily and hourly, they behold him near them by the eye of faith, and they feel the sweet influences of his gracious presence; their highest ambition and their dearest wishes are, "Oh that he might abide for ever with me, and keep me for ever near to himself!"

The words of this scripture therefore can only be the language of a saint on earth in distress and darkness; when God, who was wont to visit him with divine communications, and to meet him in his addresses to the throne of grace, has withdrawn himself for a season, and left the soul to grapple with many difficulties alone.

This was the case of that holy man, whose sorrows and complaints have furnished out almost a whole book of scripture, and supplied the saints in all succeeding ages with the forms and speeches of pious mourning. It is the voice of a sacred impatience that Job here utters, "O that I knew where I might find him!" and by a plain paraphrase we may learn both the meaning and the reason of such language,

and be taught by his example to lament after an absent God.

Let us suppose the saint therefore pouring out his soul in such sort of expressions as these, in which I shall not entirely confine myself to the darkness of the patriarchal dispensation under which Job lived, but indulge the language of the New Testament, and personate a mourning Christian.

"Time was when I had a God near me, and upon every new distress and difficulty I made him my present refuge; I was wont to call upon him in, an hour of darkness, and he shone upon my path with divine light. He has often taught me to read my duty in his providences, or in his word, or by some secret hints of his own Spirit, even while I have been kneeling at the throne of grace; but now I find not my usual signs and tokens, my guide and my counsellor is withdrawn. "O that I knew where I might find him "

"He was once my kind assistant in every duty, and my support under every burden; I have found the grace of my Lord sufficient for me in my sharpest conflicts, his strength has appeared in my weakness. When my spiritual enemies have beset me round, he has scattered them before me, or subdued them under me; and being held up by his everlasting arms, I have stood my ground, and borne up my head under the weight of heavy sorrows; but now I am attacked on all sides, my soul wrestles hard with sins and temptations, and I find no assistance, no victory; I sink under my present sorrows; for my God, my strength, and my comforter, is absent, and afar off. "O that I knew where I might find him!"

My God was wont to deal with me as a compassionate friend; when Satan accused, he has justified. He has shown me the ail-sufficient sacrifice of his Son and that spotless righteousness of his which has an