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could not give up the point, though every thing feemed to make against her. This hath frequently been the cafe with those who are the objects of the divine favour. We find one faying, My foul followeth hard after thee;" another, "Though I cry and shout, yet he shutteth out my prayer;" and a third, "Though he slay me, yet will I truft in him." These are ftrong expreffions of love to God, and, as fuch, evidences of interest in his favour.

Where fhall the tribes of Adam find
The fov'reign good to fill the mind?
Ye fons of moral wisdom, show
The spring whence living waters flow.

Say, will the Stoic's flinty heart
Melt, and this cordial juice impart?
Could Plato find these blissful streams,
Amongst his raptures and his dreams?

In vain I afk; for nature's pow'r
Extends but to this mortal hour:
'Twas but a poor relief she gave
Against the terrors of the grave.

JESUS, our kinsman, and our GOD,
Array'd in majefty and blood,

Thou art our Life; our fouls in thee
Poffefs a full felicity.

All

ཅ་ཅ《ཉྩར་་ར་

All our immortal hopes are laid
In thee our Surety and our Head;
Thy cross, thy cradle, and thy throne,
Are big with glories yet unknown.

Let atheifts fcoff, and Jews blafpheme
Th' eternal life, and Jesus' name;
A word of his almighty breath

Dooms the rebellious world to death.

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'Tis heav'n on earth, 'tis heav'n above,
To fee thy face, to tafte thy love.

CHAP XII.

The Subject farther improved, by Way of Inftruction

and Exhortation.

PERMIT me to address you, my dear fellow

finner, who are refting fatisfied with the com

mon bounties of God's providence, without being concerned to know your interest in his special favour. The bleffings you daily receive from the indulgent hand of the univerfal Parent of mankind, fhould excite in you earnest defires after those special tokens of his love, by which his peculiar

people

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people are diftinguished from all others. God is good and kind to all. His tender mercies are over all his works. He is kind to the unthankful and the evil; but his own children are partakers of bleffings of a more exalted nature than those which are bestowed on men in general. He bleffeth them with all fpiritual bleffings in heavenly things, in Chrift Jefus. The Lord maketh his fun to shine promifcuoufly on the just and the unjuft; but on those who fear his name, he causeth the Sun of righteousness to arise, with healing under his wings. To those who acknowledge him not, he gives rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness; but his falvation is nigh them that fear him. Can you be fatisfied with the former without the latter? Do you crave nothing more at his hands than health and wealth, earthly honours and outward comforts? Do not know, that many have had a large share of these things, who have lived without God in the world, died in their fins, and gone down to the regions of darkness? Dives fared fumptuously every day; but what was his end? He died, he was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes. *

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*The fading nature of all thofe things on which worldly men place their affections, is fet forth to us

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It is recorded concerning Martin Luther, that he ufed to fay, I will not be put off with a worldly portion.' And is such a portion all that you defire? Sup

in the fcriptures, under the expreffive image of a dream. A dream is fleeting and tranfitory, a whole night paffeth away in it as one hour, or one moment, fince, during fleep, we have no idea of the fucceffion of time. "Knowest thou not this of old," fays Zophar, in the book of Job, "fince man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is fhort, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he fhall perish for ever like his own dung; they who have seen him shall say, Where is he? He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found; yea, he fhall be chased away as a vifion of the night."

"How are they brought into defolation," fays David," as in a moment; they are utterly consumed with terrors! As a dream when one awaketh, fo, O Lord, fhalt thou make their image to vanish." Such a ftate of delufion is the ftate of the world; fo vain, fo incoherent, so tranfitory, are the schemes and defigns of worldly men. And however important they may appear to the projectors of them, at the time, yet most certain it is, that what the fcripture faith of Pharaoh, may be faid with equal truth of every man when he comes to die, whofe chief thought and care have been taken up about the things of this world, "He awoke, and, behold, it was a dream!"

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Suppofing your wifhes were gratified with riches in abundance, houses and lands, and all manner of earthly profperity; what would all these avail in that awful hour which is approaching, when your foul must be summoned to appear before the judgment-feat of Chrift? Will the fuperior advantages you have enjoyed in this world procure you favour in that court? Will the Judge fupreme be a refpecter of perfons, regarding the rich more than the poor? No; all worldly diftin&tions will then be over. Little do thofe confider this, who are eagerly grasping after what the scriptures call filthy lucre, and violating conscience to acquire it. But let them know, that " as the partridge fitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not, fo he that getteth riches, and not by right, fhall leave them in the midft of his days, and at his end shall be a fool."

Let me entreat you, reader, to direct your aims to fomething higher than fuch a portion as a man may poffefs in this world, and yet be miserable in the next. Look, with earnest folicitude, for that of which death cannot deprive you. "Godliness is profitable to all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." In the favour of God is life everlasting. "This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jefus Chrift whom thou haft fent." His fa

No. XV. 2.

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