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I have ftudied plainnefs in this work, and endeavoured to be as intelligible to my Reader as poffible; not expecting that the consequence of the noble, the acquired knowledge of the fcholar, the wifdom of the critic, the refined judgment of the polite and gay, will ever fubmit to a perusal of any performance of mine, unless it be to cavil at it. To be fhort, if any part of the revealed will of God be made plain to the feeker or to the believer; if his judgment be informed, his doubts and fears removed; if any bleffing of the covenant be difcovered; if his mind be entertained, his faith established, and his covenant God endeared to him, I trust my end is answered; and what the outside profeffor, or the open enemy to truth may have to say, will have but little weight with me, except it be to pity him.

That the believer may read without prejudice, and profit by reading, is the desire and prayer of, Courteous Reader, thy willing fervant, and tried companion in tribulation,

W. HUNTINGTON.

THE

JUSTIFICATION, &c.

CUSHI having loft his royal mafter, took a folitary walk to reflect on the past experiences, and wonderful deliverances, left upon record by him; until, in a measure, he thought they became, according to his fenfations, like his own experience. He fuddenly found his understanding much opened, worldly things vanished from his mind, and every thought of his heart appeared at command, which he employed in reflecting on paft mercies, and in pleafing anticipations on future glory.

Reflections on his paft conduct brought many things fresh to his mind, which afforded matter for real contrition. But the thoughts of God's long forbearance and flowness to anger diffolved his foul, and excited his warmeft gratitude. He came fuddenly to the brow of a little hill, which is called the Hill Mizar. Here Cushi meditated upon the former deliverance of his royal master.

On this spot, faid he, his falfe hope gave way, and the burden of his fins funk him into the keenest fenfations of divine difpleasure, which involved him in all real and imaginary horror. Here it was that he prayed out of the depths of despondency; and his prayer was anfwered by the Saviour in an open vifion of death on the crofs.

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Here my bleffed mafter faw the crucifixion of the Son of God. Yea, he faw his perfecutors pierce his hands and his feet. He faw them part his garment among them, and caft lots on his vesture. made him fo dotingly fond of this little hill. Who can describe the feelings of a foul encompassed with the fears of death, and chains of guilt? When the great Redeemer appears burdened, as the finner's fponfor, in all the agonies of an unparalleled fufferer, burdened with all his fins, under the awful arreft of vindictive justice, and finking into the threefold fhades of treble death.

Oh love, love, love! Love fixed upon an enemy -an enemy in open rebellion: love that would undertake to cope with divine vengeance: love that would expofe truth, purity, and innocence, to ignominy, fcorn, and derifion; and all to redeem, rescue, and reconcile a rebel to the best of fovereigns, and make the completely miferable, eternally happy. My master's hope fprung from the vifions of death, and pursued the resurrection of his adorable Lord, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fhall never fade away.

Surely it was an imperceptible faith that made him importune; and it was patience in importuning that brought him to fuch a bleffed experience; and the experience of fuch a deliverance brought him to hope.

Oh that I may never forget, or lose the fenfe of his deliverance; the petitions that he put up; nor this facred spot, where his deliverance was wrought.

wrought. Here it was that he faid, Ob, my God! my foul is caft down within me, and thou raised me up; therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites from the Hill Mizar. Deep calleth unto deep. Pfalm xlii. 6, 7.

Here it was that the clouds of God's displeasure against his fins began to gather thick over his head, and to threaten a fatal discharge on him. The water-spouts were felt, and justice spoke in them, demanding perfect obedience, or infinite punishment. This made him try to haften his escape from the stormy wind and tempeft. Bleffed be God, who revealed his crucified Son to him, when under the cloud of impending judgment,' whose blood, from the becalmed confcience of my royal mafter, met with the approbation and favour even of divine juftice itself.

Well might the evangelical prophet fay, and a man fhall be an hiding-place from the ftorm, a covert from the tempeft, a river of water in a dry place, and the fhadow of a great rock in this weary land. The Lord God of Ifrael did not reveal his dear Son to my valuable mafter with a drawn fword, as he did to Balaam, who faid he should fee him, but not now, and behold him, but not nigh; but he accompanied the vifion with an appropriating faith. To fee a Saviour and a Judge in one perfon, without faith in his falvation, is of all fights the most afflicting, and would fink a foul for ever. I bad utterly fainted, unless I had believed to fee the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Pfalm xxvii. 13.

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Cufhi now defcended the Hill Mizar, which led with a gradual descent into a verdant valley. Here he was bleffed with a moft ravishing view of the covenant of promife, which afforded matter of pleafing and delightful meditation, and every frefh difcovery gave him fresh entertainment, which caufed his foul to fink down into the sweetest rest and quietude, while the glorious beams of light and love fhone with divine radiance upon his whole foul.

In this light, he faw a little river run through the midst of the vale, which his thoughts led him to trace to the fountain head; and he found it to be (what his royal master called) the still waters. Pfalm xxiii. 2. which came from the Father to the Son, and through the Son to us.

These waters forcibly reveal the Father's love, and the Son's falvation, and fanctify and make mete fouls for heaven, without whose aid no promise comes with power, nor does the word quicken or refresh the foul.

Poor Cufhi, finding the good work, formerly begun, to be revived, and restoring grace fo sweetly to operate on his foul, was afraid to engage again in state affairs, or in any other lawful calling, fearing a feccond relapse; which holy fear certainly was good. But as God does not light a candle to put it under a bufhel, nor under a bed, that it should be hid, but on a candlestick, that it may give light to all that are in the house, it is neceffary to let it shine before men, that they may fee the light within, while it reflects its holy

rays

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