Deuteronomy 14:1,2

There is a vast deal of gospel in this, and if read under the teaching of the HOLY GHOST; with an eye to the covenant mercies of GOD in CHRIST, it will not fail to bring sweet comfort to the soul. My brother! let me ask you or rather beg you to ask your own heart, are you of the children of the LORD your GOD? Are you distinguished from the ungodly world in being set apart for GOD'S glory, the purchase of JESUS'S blood, the subject of the HOLY GHOST's work? If you say yes to these and the like questions, will you not say also, I am distinguished no less by his grace from all the ungodly customs of a world professedly at enmity with GOD. Oh! for that sweet evidence which JESUS points at: John 15:18. If I were to detain the Reader any longer upon those two verses, it would be just to remark to him, that the HOLY GHOST hath graciously drawn the line of distinction between believers and unbelievers, at the loss of friends. While they sorrow as those that have no hope, because if they lose their earthly father they know nothing of an heavenly one; true believers in CHRIST JESUS know, that if all earthly connections cease, their FATHER, their Saviour, their sanctifier, ever liveth, who is the father of the fatherless, and the husband of the widow. Compare Jeremiah 2:27, with 49:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13.