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have found out a few chofen friends, and have begun to enjoy that little circle in which we would wish to live and to die, an unexpected stroke difappoints our hopes, and lays all our schemes in the duft. When, after much labour and care, we have reared the good. ly ftructure; when we have fenced it, as we fond ly imagine, from every ftorm that blows, and indulge the pleasing hope, that it will always endure, an invifible hand interpofes, and overturns it from the foundation. Who knoweth what awaits him in life? Who knoweth the changes through which he is destined to pafs? Son of profperity! Thou now lookest forth from thy high tower; thou now glorieft in thine excellence; thou fayeft that thy mountain stands strong, and that thou art firm as the cedar of Lebanon-But ftand in awe. Before the migh ty God of Jacob, and by the blast of the breath of his noftrils, the mountain hath been overturned, and the cedar in Lebanon hath fallen like the leaf before the whirlwind. At this very moment of time, the wheel is in motion that reverfes the lot of men; that brings the profperous to the duft, and lays the mighty low. Now, O man! thou rejoiceft in thy ftrength; but know, that for thee the bed of languishing is spread; pale, ghaftly, and stretched on thy couch, thou fhalt number the tedious hours, the restless days, the wearifome nights, that are appointed to thee, till thy foul fhall be ready to "choose "death rather than life." Thou now removest from thee the evil day, and fayeft, in thy heart, thou shalt never fee forrow; but remember the changes of this mortal life; for thee the "cup of trembling" is prepared, and the "wine of aftonishment is poured

"out." How often, in an inftant, doth a hand unfeen fhift the scene of the world! The calmeft and the stillest hour precedes the whirlwind, and it hath thundered in the ferenest sky. The monarch hath drawn the chariot of state, in which he was wont to ride in triumph, and the greatest who ever awed the world have moralized at the turn of the wheel.

In the fecond place, The propriety of this temper will appear, if we confider the scene that foon awaits us, and the awful change of being that we have to undergo. The fentence of the Lord is paffed upon all flesh.. Man, who art born of a woman! one day thou must die. The decree is gone forth, and the time appointed for its fulfilment is approaching faft. Short is the period which is allotted to mortal man. In a little time the scene changes, and the places that knew us fhall know us no more. We bid an eternal adieu to all below the fun; we enter on a new state of being, and appear in the immediate prefence of God. After death comes the judgment. Thou must answer, O man! to the Searcher of hearts, for the deeds done in the body. The actions of thy past life fhall rise up to thy remembrance; the fecrets of thy foul fhall be disclosed; and thy eternal doom be fixed by God, the Judge of all. In thy laft moments, thou wilt be ferious and stand in awe. The most thoughtless finner will stand aghaft, and the ftouteft heart will tremble at that awful, that parting hour, when, to the clofing eye, God appears, with as full conviction, as if the curtain between both worlds was withdrawn, and the Judge in very deed defcended to his tribunal. How serious wilt thou be when furrounded by the fad circle of thy

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weeping friends, thou readeft in their altered looks, that thy hour is come; when cut off from all connection with mortality, thou takeft thy laft look of what thou heldest dear in life; when the cold fweat, the fhivering limb, and the voice faultering in the throat, announce thy departure into the world unknown! What manner of perfons ought we to be, who have fuch events awaiting us! Ought we not to ftand in awe; to join trembling with our mirth; to commune with our hearts alone, and be still as in the prefence of that God, before whofe tribunal we have foon to appear ?

In the third place, This frame of mind is pecu. liarly proper for you now, as a preparation for that folemnity which you are foon to celebrate. Holy is. every ordinance of the Lord; but this is the holiest of all, and fhould infpire us with reverence and godly fear. You are to be engaged in the most folemn ordinance of our religion. You are to be employed in the most important work of your lives, to feal your vows in the faith of everlasting redemption. You are going to tranfact with the God of Glory, before whom ten thoufand times ten thousand angels and archangels bow down and admire and adore. You are about to commemorate the most tremendous event which is to be found in the records of time; that fcene which made the fun grow dark, and which the earth trembled to behold. God fhows himself to be awful, even when he manifests his mercy, and caufes all his goodness to pass before you. When he blesses men with the greatest testimony of his love, it is by fmiting his own Son; when the gate of heaven is fet open to the world, it is opened by the blood of

One who is higher than the heavens. Whilft thou rejoicest therefore at the remembrance of thy redemption, think with wonder upon the ranfom by which it is accomplished, and implore the affiftance of the Divine spirit, that you may ferve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.

SERMON VI

JOB XXX. 23.

For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the houfe appointed for all living.

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THIS book of Job contains the histo

of a righteous man, fallen from the height of profperity, into scenes of great diftrefs. Almoft every affliction which falls to the lot of mortal man embittered his life. His goods were taken away by robbers; his body was fmitten by a loathsome and tormenting disease; his family was cut off, and all his company made defolate by a fudden ftroke from heaven; his furviving friends proved miferable comforters, and, instead of relieving, added to his afflictions. His head was bare to every blaft of adversity, and his heart bled with all the varieties of pain. In the course of his complaint, he utters the genuine voice of forrow, and pours forth his foul in lamentation and wo. He fets before us the evil day; he shows us the dark fide of things, and prefents to view those shades in the picture of human life, which must one day meet our eye. From these calamities, he paffes, by a natural tranfition, to the confideration of the laft evil in human life: "I know that "thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house ap"pointed for all living.

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Man is a ferious being. There is a ftring in the heart which accords to the voice of forrow, and im

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