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ger and an unwelcome visitant! Happy ar they who can say with the great Addison, when on their death-beds, "See with what

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peace a Christian can die!" and happier still that can say with Job, "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall "stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this

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body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: "whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes "shall behold, and not another, though my "reins be consumed within me," Job xix. 25.-27. And with the sweet Psalmist of Israel, "Although my house be not so with "God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and 66 sure; for this is all my salvation and all my desire," 2 Samuel xxiii. 5. And with the apostle, "For me to live is Christ, and "to die is gain," Phil. i. 21. "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in "the Lord, from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their "labours; and their works do follow them," Rev. xiv. 13.

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By the sides of this rill grow a few willows, which bring me in mind of those by the streams of Babel, on which the disconsolate Israelites hanged their harps, Psalm cxxxvii. 2. as having no more use for them : yet it is not said they broke them, or threw them into the river, but hung them on the willows; which argued their hope that after a very long time, the term of seventy years, foretold by the prophet, Jer. xxix. 10. they should again take them up and rejoice with them, singing the songs of the Lord in the temple of Jerusalem.

And what reason have we of this land to be thankful that we are not obliged to hang our harps as it were upon the willows, and mourn with a bitter lamentation, on account of our being removed from our native land and the gospel, or the ordinances thereof taken from us, because of our ill improvement of it, which is of itself glad tidings of great joy, and the most precious thing on earth; but how little do we rejoice and be glad at the ever-blessed and salutary news! angels no doubt are struck with wonder and amazement at our stupidity and careless

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It is an old proverb, The well is never missed till it go dry: The Jews made but light of their privileges and Mosaical ordinances when in their own land; but, after they were carried captive to Babylon, sensible of the value of these, how did they mourn for their loss! In like manner should we, if deprived of the blessed ordinances of the gospel.

Strange, then, that we should now esteem them so little, and prove so barren under them! Much need have we to pray that the Lord would accomplish that promise to us,

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I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, “ and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and they "shall spring up as among the grass, as wil"lows by the water courses," Isaiah xliv.

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As willows delight to grow by the courses of water, so ought we to delight to grow up by the refreshing and healing ordinances of the everlasting gospel. Seeing that the Lord hath planted us in a fruitful field in this land by great waters, even by, and un

der the ordinances of the ever-blessed gospel, (which are more refreshing to the people of the Lord, than waters are to a thirsty land) and set us as a willow tree; we ought to prove fruitful as a vine, in holiness and good works; being humble before him, and turning our branches of thankfulness and love towards him who hath thus planted us, and bestowed upon us in this island, such great privileges, whereas, if we misimprove them, and bend our roots, and shoot forth our branches towards sin and Satan to his dishonour, and find more pleasure in the ways of sin than in holiness, seeking satisfaction and happiness mainly in the enjoyments of carnal things; we may justly be afraid, that, though we have thus been planted in a good soil by great waters, even those ordinances of the gospel, for the purpose of bringing forth the fruits of holiness; he will pull up our roots, that they shall wither, and blast all the leaves of our spring; and the Lord, for ought we know, may do this without the power of a foreign enemy or people, to deprive us of those inestimable privileges, even by insensible decays *.

* See the ground of all this applied rather differently by the Prophet, Ezek. xvii. 5.-10.

And have we not reason to fear that this may prove the case with us in this land, and that we are already begun to wither? Where are now the visible tokens of God's favour; the power of the word, and the heart meltings under sermons which used to be seen and felt in the days of our forefathers ?

When the shadows wax long, as the pious Gray observes, is it not a sign that the day is hastening to an end, and the night fast approaching? And is it not lamentable to observe, that the shadows of religion are more delighted in by many than the substance thereof? and hath not church-discipline of late years been more in shadow than in substance, and growing still more and more so? All which call loudly in the ears of church members, to sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof, Ezek. ix. 4.

May I be among this happy number of Zion mourners, so that I may have a mark set upon my forehead, which may distinguish me for safety in the day of destruction.

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