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Holy Spirit witnefseth in every city, faying, that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me; neither count I my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my courfe with joy, and the miniftry which I have received of the Lord Jefus, to teftify the gospel of the grace of God." There was uttered the voice, there breathed the spirit, of a brave and a virtuous man. Such a man knows not what it is to fhrink from danger, when confcience points out his path. In that path he is determined to walk; let the confequences be what they may.

This was the magnanimous behaviour of that great Apoftle, when he had perfecution and diftrefs full in view. Attend now to the fentiments of the fame excellent man, when the time of his laft fuffering approached; and remark the majefty, and the cafe, with which he looked on death. "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteoufhefs." How many years of life does fuch a dying moment overbalance? Who would not choofe, in this manner, to go off the fiage, with fuch a fong of triumph in his mouth, rather than . prolong his existence through a wretched old age, ftained with fin and fhame?

BLAIR.

SECTION III.

The good Man's comfort in Afliction.

THE religion of Chrift not only arms us with fortitude against the approach of evil; but, fuppofing evils

to fall upon us with their heaviest prefsure, it lightens the load by many confolations to which others are ftrangers. While bad men trace, in the calamities with which they are vifited, the hand of an offended fovereign, Christians are taught to view them as the well-intended chastisements of a merciful Father. They hear amidst them, that ftill voice which a good confcience brings to their ear: "Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God." They apply to themselves the comfortable promises with which the gofpel abounds. They difcover in thefe the happy issue decreed to their troubles; and wait with patience till Providence fhall have accomplished its great and good defigns. In the mean time, Devotion opens to them its blefsed and holy fanctuary: That fanctuary in which the wounded heart is healed, and the weary mind is at rest; where the cares of the world are forgotten, where its tumults are hufhed, and its miferies difappear; where greater objects open to our view than any which the world prefents; where a more ferene sky fhines, and a fweeter and calmer light beams on the afflicted heart. In those moments of devotion, a pious man, pouring out his wants and forrows to an almighty Supporter, feels that he is not left folitary and forfaken in a vale of woe. God is with him; Chrift and the Holy Spirit are with him; and, though he should be bereaved of every friend on earth, he can look up in heaven to a Friend that will never defert him.

SECTION IV.

The Clofe of Life.

WHEN We contemplate the close of life; the termination of man's defigns and hopes; the filence that now reigns among those who, a little while ago, were fo bufy, or fo gay; who can avoid being touched with fenfations at once awful and tender? What heart, but then warms with the glow of humanity? In whose eye does not the tear gather, on revolving the fate of pafsing and fhort-lived man?

Behold the poor man who lays down at laft the burden of his wearifome life. No more fhall he groan under the load of poverty and toil. No more fhall he hear the infolent calls of the mafter, from whom he received his fcanty wages. No more fhall he be raised from needful flumber on his bed of straw, nor be hurried away from his homely meal, to undergo the repeated labours of the day. While his humble grave is preparing, and a few poor and decayed neighbours are carrying him thither, it is good for us to think, that this man too was our brother; that for him the aged and deftitute wife, and the needy children, now weep; that, neglected as he was by the world, he pofsefsed perhaps both a found understanding, and a worthy heart; and is now carried by angels to reft in Abraham's befom.-At no great distance from him, the grave is opened to receive the rich and proud man. For, as it is faid with emphafis in the parable," the rich man alfo died, and was buried." He alfo died. His riches prevented not his fharing

the fame fate with the poor man; perhaps, through luxury, they accelerated his doom. Then, indeed, "the mourners go about the streets;" and while, in all the pomp and magnificence of woe, his funeral is prepared, his heirs, impatient to examine his will, are looking on one another with jealous eyes, and already beginning to difpute about the divifion of his fubftance.-One day, we fee carried along the coffin of the fmiling infant; the flower juft nipped as it began to blofsom in the parent's view: and the next day, we behold the young man, or young woman, of blooming form and promifing hopes, laid in an untimely grave. While the funeral is attended by a numerous unconcerned company, who are difcourfing to one another about the news of the day, or the ordinary affairs of life, let our thoughts rather follow to the houfe of mourning, and reprefent to themselves what is pafsing there. There, we fhould fee a difconfolate family, fitting in filent grief, thinking of the fad breach that is made in their little fociety; and, with tears in their eyes, looking to the chamber that is now left vacant, and to every memorial that prefents itself of their departed friend. By fuch attention to the woes of others, the felfish hardness of our hearts will be gradually foftened, and melted down into humanity.

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Another day, we follow to the grave, one who, in age, and after a long career of life, has in full maturity funk at laft into reft. As we are going along to the manfion of the dead, it is natural for us to think, and to discourse, of all the changes which fuch a perfon has feen during the courfe of his life. He has pafsed, it is likely, through varieties of fortune. He

has experienced profperity, and adverfity. He has feen families and kindreds rife and fall. He has feen peace and war fucceeding in their turns; the face of his country undergoing many alterations; and the very city in which he dwelt rifing, in a manner, new around him. After all he has beheld, his eyes are now clofed for ever. He was becoming a ftranger in the midft of a new fuccefsion of men. A race who knew him not, had arifen to fill the earth. Thus pafses the world away. Throughout all ranks and conditions," one generation passeth, and another ge neration cometh;" and this great inn is by turns evacuated, and replenished, by troops of fucceeding pilgrims. O vain and, inconftant world! O flecting and tranfient life! When will the fons of men learn to think of thee, as they ought? When will they learn humanity from the afflictions of their brethren; or moderation and wifdom, from the fenfe of their own fugitive state.

BLAIR.

SECTION V.

Exalted Society, and the Renewal of virtuous Connexions, two Sources of future Felicity.

BESIDES the felicity which fprings from perfect love, there are two circumftances which particularly enhance the blessedness of that "multitude who ftand before the throne;" these are, accefs to the most exalted fociety, and renewal of the most tender connexions. The former is pointed out in the Scripture, by "joining the innumerable company of angels, and the general afsembly and church of the firfl-born; by

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