the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." Those who walk with God, are sensible that the friendship of the world is enmity with God, that it is their duty not to be conformed to the world, and that it is their safety and happiness to come out from the world and to walk with God, that he may dwell in them, and walk in them, and be their almighty Father and friend, as he has promised. Now, if those who walk with God live such a holy and devout life as we have described, it is justly to be expected,

II. That he will manifest some peculiar tokens of his favor to them. God translated Enoch that he should not see death, as a testimony that he pleased him. Since God is pleased with those who walk with him, we must suppose he will give them some peculiar tokens of his favor. But as they do not merit any favor by walking with him, so he acts as a sovereign in granting his peculiar favors to one and another, when and how he pleases. And among the favors which he usually grants to those who walk with him, I will mention the following:

1. God will guard them against the frowns of the world. If they were of the world, the world would love his own; but because they are not of the world, but God has chosen them out of the world, therefore the world hateth them. It is impossible for men to walk with God, without declining to walk with the world, or without reproving and condemning the world, which never fails to excite their resentment and opposition. God knows therefore, that those who walk with him, stand in need of his constant care and protection; and accordingly, while they walk with him, he will walk with them, and keep them as in the hollow of his hand, from the innumerable seen and unseen dangers to which they are continually exposed. We read, "The Spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Oded. And he went out to meet Asa and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The Lord is with you while ye be with him; and if ye seek him he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you." This has always been God's usual conduct towards those who have walked with him. Enoch walked with God, and preached righteousness to an ungodly world. Though it is probable that the world, which then began to be filled with violence, wished to wreak their enmity upon Enoch, yet the Lord took him, and translated him, that he should not see death by the hand of violence, nor in any other way. This was a signal mark of the divine favor and protection. As Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and walked with God, so he found grace in the eyes of the Lord; who, while he was about to

sweep the whole earth with the besom of destruction, preserved him from sinking and perishing with an ungodly world. God delivered just Lot, when he condemned and overthrew the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob walked with God, who granted them peculiar tokens of his favor, care and protection, through the numerous evils and dangers to which they were exposed, while pilgrims and strangers on the earth. And while their posterity walked with God, he withheld not his care and protection from them; but when they were few in number, and went from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another, "he suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." So long as the friends of God walk with him, he never fails to spread the wing of his protection over them, which is a peculiar token of his favor.

2. God graciously guards his friends while they walk with him, from their invisible, as well as visible enemies. They are continually exposed to the subtle devices and violent assaults of him who goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He reigns in the hearts of the children of disobedience, and leads them captive at his will. But though his power and dominion are weakened in the hearts of real saints, yet he endeavors to get advantage against them in their present state of moral imperfection. He knows that they sometimes wander from God; and when he finds them at a distance from him, he knows that they are as weak as other men; and he does not fail to employ his power and subtlety to blind their minds, corrupt their hearts, and plunge them in darkness, doubts, disobedience, and distress. But while they walk closely with God, Satan will not dare to approach them; or if he does, God will enable them to resist his fiery darts, and not suffer them to be overcome. This the apostle assures christians for their encouragement and comfort. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." And again he says, "God is faithful, who will not suf fer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it." Though God suffered Christ to be tempted forty days in the wilderness, yet he enabled him to resist and overcome his subtle and malignant adversary. Though God gave liberty to Satan to tempt Job, yet while Job kept near to God, he guarded his heart, so that he sinned not. The apostle John says, in general, concerning every one who is born of God, "He keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." Though Satan desires most ardently to have those who generally walk most closely with God, that he may sift them as

wheat, yet God will bruise Satan under their feet. It is one of the privileges of the sons of God, and a peculiar token of his favor, that he will protect them, while they walk with him, against the wiles of their spiritual enemies.

3. God will give those who walk with him, peculiar evidence of their interest in his special grace. He loves those who walk with him, and will manifest his love to them. He loved Enoch while he walked with him, and before his translation he gave him this testimony, that he pleased God, and stood high in his favor. How he did this, we are not told; but we may justly conclude that he did it in some such manner as he made known his special love to other eminent saints. He expressly called Abraham his friend, when he offered up his son upon the altar. He sent a messenger from heaven, to declare that Daniel was greatly beloved. And he manifested his special love to David, by lifting the light of his countenance upon him. He acknowledges that he had received this peculiar mark of the divine favor. "There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased." That this gladness which God put in his heart, was a peculiar evidence of his being in a state of grace, appears from his praying for such an evidence, when he had lost it. "Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: and save me for thy mercies' sake." "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." And this was the peculiar favor which Moses and Aaron were commanded to ask God to grant his people. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." While saints walk with God, they may expect to have the light of his countenance, and the joy of his salvation. He will shine in their hearts to give them the light of the knowledge of his glory, which shines in the face of Jesus Christ. He will give them the spirit of adoption, cause them to cry Abba, Father, and make them know that they are his children, and heirs of everlasting life. This peculiar favor he will grant to his friends while they walk with him, but no longer. For when they forsake him, he will hide his face from them.

4. God will manifest his peculiar favor to those who walk with him, by giving them not only inward light, and joy, and

peace, and the full assurance of hope; but by granting them outward prosperity. We are not told, indeed, whether Enoch enjoyed outward prosperity; but we know that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Job, and David, and Solomon, enjoyed great external prosperity while they walked with God. It was also a proverb in Israel: "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich; and he addeth no sorrow with it." David declares," Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season: his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth, shall prosper." Though God does not bestow outward prosperity upon those who walk with him, exclusively; yet, when he does bestow it upon them, they ought to view it not only as a blessing, but as a testimony that they please him.

5. Those who walk with God, have ground to hope for another great and peculiar favor; that is, his gracious and comforting presence, when they leave the world. This peculiar favor he granted to Enoch in a signal manner. He exempted him from the pains and terrors of death, and miraculously translated him from earth to heaven, as a testimony of his being well pleased with his holy, exemplary and heavenly life. And he gave the same testimony to the holy and useful life of Elijah. "And it came to pass, as Elisha and he walked on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." Though these are singular cases, yet all who sincerely and closely walk with God in life, have ground to hope that he will afford them his gracious and supporting presence in their dying hour. He caused the pious patriarchs to die in peace. David expected to die in peace; for he said to God in health, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." And agreeably to this well founded hope, his last words expressed peculiar peace and consolation. "Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure; for this is all my salvation, and all my desire." With these bright prospects he fell asleep. It has been often and justly observed, that good men generally die in the same manner in which they have lived. If they have walked with God, and generally enjoyed his gracious presence, they commonly enjoy the light of his countenance in their dying moments, and leave the world in peace. God can disarm death of its sting, and the grave of

its terror; and those who sincerely and closely walk with him, have reason to hope, as well as to desire, that he will give them this peculiar testimony that they have pleased him, when they come to die.

IMPROVEMENT.

1. We may learn from the nature and effects of walking with God, how all true believers may attain to the full assurance of hope. It is a false and unscriptural notion, that assurance is the essence of faith. Men may become really reconciled to God, and cordially embrace the gospel, and yet remain very uncertain whether God is reconciled to them, and has received them into the number of his family. Indeed it is a very common case, that true believers are troubled with doubts and fears that they have not experienced a saving change, and are not in a state of grace and favor with God, even after they have had a prevailing hope of having experienced a saving change, and actually professed religion. But why do so many walk in darkness, and enjoy so little satisfactory evidence of their being the children of God, and entitled to his pardoning mercy through the divine Redeemer? It does not appear that Enoch walked in darkness, and saw no light, while he walked with God; but it appears, on the contrary, that he had this testimony, that he pleased God, and enjoyed the full assurance of hope. And it appears from the account we have in scripture of many other eminent saints who walked closely with God, that they enjoyed such tokens of the divine approbation, as banished all distressing doubts and fears from their minds. It must, then, be owing to some blamable cause, that real believers do not enjoy the full assurance of hope, and that evidence of their gracious state which excludes painful fears and doubts. If it be true that God gives peculiar tokens of his favor to those who sincerely and closely walk with him, then the proper and sure way of attaining satisfactory evidence of a gracious state, is to walk sincerely and closely with him. It is, therefore, because believers at this day do not walk with God, as Enoch, Abraham, and many other pious men under both the Mosaic and Christian dispensations walked, that they do not attain to the full assurance of hope, as they did. And this is certainly a blamable cause. Believers are now as capable of walking closely and constantly with God as Enoch was; and God is as ready now to give them the peculiar tokens of his favor, as he was to manifest his peculiar love to him. Why then do they not give diligence to make their calling and election sure? It must be owing to their voluntary and criminal negligence. They must blame themselves, if they wander from God, and