And is it not, my Afflicted Friend, an infinite mercy, if, by any means, God will enter with fuch a light?-that he will roufe fuch a fleeper?—that by his minifter Death, he will arreft the attention of him who has flighted every other minifter? What patience! what long fuffering to take fuch an one apart ;bring him from noife and occupation into the fecret and filent chamber; speak to his heart; and feal the most important truths on it, by the most affecting impreffions? Is it not faying,How Ifhall I give thee up, Ephraim? how fhall I make thee as Admah ?'*-Certain it is, that queftions, which before only reached the ear, often now, like barbed arrows, remain fixed in the confcience-confcience, no longer ftifled or amufed, discovers the CONTENDER, and trembling before him, cries, Thou haft chaftifed me, and I was chaftifed as a

*Hofea xi. 8.

'bullock

bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned, for 'thou art the Lord my God."*

This, I fay, is often the cafe, and fhould it be realized in yours, as it has been in that of your prefent Visitor;—if, instead of flying for relief to every object but God, you are brought humbly to his feet with patient fubmiffion, ferious inquiry, fervent prayer, holy refolution, and firm reliance; if, in a word, by the fevereft ftroke, the enchantment is alfo broken, your foul escaped as a bird out of the fnare of the fowler,† and returned to its proper REST; what reafon will you have to fay,

Thofe we call wretched are a chofen band.

Amid my Lift of Bleffings infinite,

Stand this foremoft,

That my heart has bled.”

For All I blefs Thee ;-Moft, for the severe;

Her death-my own at hand

Jer, xxxi. 18.

+ Pf. cxxiv. 7.

C 2

But

But death at hand (as an old writer expreffes it) fhould be death in view, and lead us to confider next

OUR PROSPECTS from this House of Sorrow, as the inhabitants of a prefent and future world.-Many fuppofe that they can beft contemplate the present world, by crowding the house of mirth ;* their whole deportment, however, fhews that it makes them much too giddy for ferious obfervation;-having eyes they fee not.†

Look at the deceased, and contemplate prefent things. His days an hand breadth;-his beauty confumed like the

* Eccl. vii. 4.

+ Mark viii. 18.

moth

moth-fretten garment; his cares and pleasures a dream;-his attainments as the grafs, which flourisheth in the morning and in the evening is cut down and withereth ;-his years, a tale; -his strength, labour and forrow. So foon is the whole cut off and fled, that we cannot help repeating with the Pfalmift, Verily,-every man-at his best eftate-is altogether VANITY,*—or a vapour that appeareth for a little while, and then vanishes away.†

Few, perhaps, reflect, when they follow a friend to his grave, that life itself exhibits little more than a funeral pro ceffion, where friend follows friend, weeping to-day and wept for to-morrow. While we are talking of one, another paffes-we are alarmed, but behold a third! There is, however, relief in this very reflection; my friend is gone, but

* Pf. xxxix, and xc.

+ James iv. 14.

am

am I weeping as if I were to stay? Is he fent for in the morning? in the

afternoon I fhall certainly be called.' Inconfolable diftrefs, therefore, may ungird our loins, may wafte our hours, and caufe us to make fatal mistakes in the journey, but does not bring us forward a fingle ftep towards meeting our Friends in that state, where present joys and forrows will be recollected only as the dream of a diftempered night.

If, after many former admonitions, an ENEMY ftill urged us to climb; and, as we afcended, pointed to the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

if our hearts have been the dupes of the vanishing profpect, and our ears eagerly heard the propofal, all these things 'will I give thee;'t let us now hear the voice of a FRIEND, calling us, though in an unexpected way, to commune with

* Matth. iv. 8.

+ Matth. iv. 9.

our