shrink, and thou hast many uneasy thoughts about thy dissolution-remember that all thy salvation is in and from him, and he has made thee a free gift of salvation, and of all the things which accompany salvation. He undertook it all. He has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He has conquered death. It is now a vanquished foe. In his hand it is the royal way to the kingdom-the only way. Trust him, he will not suffer it to hurt thee. Trust him, and thou wilt find there is nothing in it that ought to frighten thee. Breath may be failing thee, but Jesus will not fail thee. He has pronounced them blessed, he will infallibly make them blessed, who die in the Lord. Only believe, and thou wilt experience that he has dying consolations for his dying friends. They live in death. He makes them blessed in dying: yea, sometimes to encourage the faith of others, and to recommend his own grace, he has vouchsafed to give them, at the time of their death, a foretaste of the glory which was just going to be revealed. In this faith they leave the world, casting all their care for time and for eternity, for body and soul, upon him who careth for them. Jesus, into thy hand I commend my spirit, for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, thou God of truth. I believe in the resurrection of the body: thou hast promised it, and I hope it shall be done unto me according to thy word. Christ is the first fruits, and afterward they that are Christ's at his coming, when he will bring the joyful harvest with him: therefore into his faithful hands I commit my body. I take my leave of it in faith. It is not possible that the grave should hold me in, any more than it

could him. And I not only hope to be raised from the grave, but I shall be brought out of it in triumph on that day of wonders, when Jesus Christ, the great God and our Saviour, shall change this my vile body, and shall make it like unto his own most glorious body. O what a change! O what a miracle! This very body, which is now sinful dust, shall be like the Son of God, who is the standard of all perfection-even this body of mine shall be conformed to his most glorious body: although it be now a house, so infected with the leprosy of sin, that it must be taken down, yet out of its ruins will the Lord raise it a monument to his eternal praise, even a habitation of God by his Spirit. Come then, thou blessed of the Lord: O welcome, welcome death!-thou art the smiling messenger from my Jesus, bringing with thee glad tidings of great joy—of a salvation secured from all possible evil, and the enjoyment of all possible good. In sure and certain hope of this complete and eternal salvation, I resign my body into thy hands, thou Lord of life, and Giver of glory-I intrust it with thee to be kept against that day, when all that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this prospect, for believing views of it, for the earnest, and for some little foretaste of it, to the Eternal Three be eternal praise. Amen.

Such are the hopes of a real Christian, which he is warranted, which he is commanded to entertain in the hour of death, which God in his infinite grace actually favours his people with, to the strengthening of their faith, and to the silencing of unbelievers. Never did he display his faithfulness more signally

than in our times. Many instances might be given, but I select one, who thus expressed himself to his friends surrounding his death-bed:-

My soul is abundantly comforted and refreshed: my body is dying, but my mind is still vigorous and alive. I feel the cold hand of death is actually upon

Blessed be God,
He is a welcome

me; and you may feel it too, if you touch my feet and legs: they are once more clay. death is no king of terrors to me. messenger, because sent by my heavenly Father. Here I am, O Lord, waiting thy pleasure; ready to obey the summons: thy will, O Lord, be done. Blessed be God that the attack is made below: my head is as yet very clear, and untouched; and till my heart feels the damp, I hope to be engaged in work suitable to a death-bed. It is not to me a bed of languishing or wasting: this poor remainder of a body is hardly capable of any greater decay, till it moulders in the grave; and there let it moulder. Who would not part with it as it is? It is now my burden, my bar to happiness, a hinderance to a lively spiritual communion with God. But, O my friends, it is united to Christ, and shall therefore one day become a glorious body. This corruption shall put on incorruption, and shall be for ever with the Lord." Thanks be to God for such a witness -may my latter end be like his !

CHAPTER X.

The Character of the Persons who have most reason to Triumph in Christ.

In

THEY are such as know most of themselves, and have seen the deepest into the mystery of iniquity. The Holy Spirit has convinced them of sin-of original sin, the fountain from which all the streams flow of actual sin in thought, word, and deed. this conviction he has put life and power: it is far more than a moral persuasion-he makes it practical and abiding: for the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus quickens the dead sinner, and, making him free from the law of sin and of death, gives him the faith of God's elect; and by the daily use and exercise of that faith, makes him more sensible of his obligations to Jesus. In every act of faith, he leads the believer out of self to the Saviour-humbles him, that he may exalt Christ-empties him of self, that he may fill him with the good things of Christ-casts down, and keeps down, every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. İn his hand, and by his blessing, this work prospers. The loftiness of man is humbled, and the haughtiness of man is bowed down, and Jehovah alone is exalted in that day; according to the oracle of truth

"He shall glorify me"-which is the office of the Holy Spirit to testify of Christ, and to glorify

Christ, by taking of the things of Christ, and by putting the believer into the possession of them.

In this school of humility, every view that can be taken of self is abasing: and as the lesson becomes more and better experienced, sin more discovered in its exceeding wickedness, and more felt in its exceeding great danger, the believer is enabled to rejoice more in Christ Jesus, as he has less confidence in the flesh. And when he attains to the highest of his triumph, which he can have in Christ in this world, he is then the lowest in his own eyes

When he looks back and surveys what he was by nature and practice→→→→

When he considers what he is now, although he be renewed by grace

And when he looks forward to what he hopes to be at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ

Every thing in the Scripture doctrine, and every thing in Scripture experience, leads him to conclude -Behold, I am vile, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes: so that whenever he is tempted to glory, he has nothing left him to glory in but the Lord-self always abased, that Christ alone may be exalted.

When he looks back on what he was by nature and practice, the more he knows, he will be the more deeply humbled for what he was when under the law and under sin, and for what he still feels of a body of sin and of death. He was the creature of God's power, made out of nothing: distinguished by his being in the image of God, and by being capable of communion with him in all the graces and blessings of his love. He was under the best law