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taken up their abode, and neglect the search where the blessings are to be found. Righteousness, and

peace, and joy, are only to be obtained in the kingdom of God-in the possession of true religion. Some of you, perhaps, have been seeking for satistisfaction from the enemies that must necessarily deprive you of it. As professed Christians the vows of God are upon you. You have engaged to renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh. But instead of renouncing, you have submitted to their tyranny, and they have disappointed your expectations. Oh correct your mistake, and no longer give credit to the deceivers who would destroy you! Look to the Author of every good and perfect gift to change your inclinations and your desires, to adorn you with the graces of his Spirit, and to clothe you with the robe of his righteousness. And thus the "work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever."

2. From this subject we are led to see some of the grounds of that misery which will be the portion of the wicked in a future state.

Unrenewed and ungodly men, carry with them into the eternal world the seeds of their own woe. There is no renovation of the soul after death. Whether we die under the influence of sin or of holiness, death will not change the elements either of the one or the other. "He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still and he that is holy, let him be holy still."

ingredients of a temporal nature, and make us drink of it all the days of our life, this would fall short of our desert as sinners. If sin merits hell, as it necessarily must, since a just and holy God has declared it; then, my brethren, while suffering in the furnace of affliction, reason with yourselves in some such manner as the following:-" Are my present pains equal to one paroxysm of the torments of damna'tion? Will my light afflictions, which are but for a moment, bear any comparison with that eternity of misery which my sins have merited ?— Though my affliction for the present be grievous, yet how thankful ought I to be that by God's mercy I have not been cut off in sin and impenitence, and sent to the place where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched! Who shall liken the sufferings of this present time to never-ending woe? Who shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Compare your sufferings with your demerits, and this will be a motive to render you patient and contented. We can prefer no claim to happiness. All our prosperity, every earthly good, is derived solely from the bountiful favour of God. If therefore we judge ourselves aright, we shall be constrained to say with Jacob, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant.” That we have not been deprived of all our engagements-that we have not been deprived of all our comforts-is owing to the sovereign mercy of God.

2. Another motive to influence you to the exercise of contentment with your lot, is the reflection that your condition might have been much more afflictive than it is.

You have not sunk, dear brethren, to the lowest degrees of adversity. If you have been deprived of some of your mercies, many others are left. Suppose you are poor, yet you may be in the enjoyment of health and a variety of other blessings, of which the affluent may be destitute. And what is poverty? A state which many wise and good men have borne, not only with patience, but with cheerfulness :--a condition which the Son of God himself hath dignified by his choice, and sanctified by his example. Suppose again, you should be unjustly censured by slander, persecuted by malevolence, or abused by oppression-well, some of the wisest and the best of men have met with the same cruel treatment. Your case is not peculiar. Be content, then, and commit yourselves in well-doing to your Saviour and your Judge. "Fret not thyself because of evil-doers. . . Commit thy way unto the Lord: trust also in Him, and He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him." Suppose, once more, that your situation may be still more deplorable; yet can you affirm that it cannot be worse?-or that God in his righteous providence, might not justly make it so? Suppose, like Job, you should be stripped of all your present comforts-be divested of your property--be bereaved of your relatives and

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SERMON VII.

REFLECTIONS ON MAN.-WHERE IS HE?

JOB XIV. 10.

MAN GIVETH UP THE GHOST, AND WHERE IS HE?

THERE are some truths so plain, and so open to daily observation, that none can deny their stern reality. But although they are universally acknowledged, they are not generally so felt as to become leading motives of our conduct. We know that "it is appointed unto man once to die." "There is no discharge in that This world's ever-shifting scenes forcibly

war.

"For

demonstrate the brevity of human existence. what is our life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." We see these things written as with a sun-beam in the Holy Scriptures, and constant experience confirms their truth. Our relations, our friends, our neighbours, are continually removed from us by the stroke of death; sometimes by lingering diseases, and sometimes suddenly and without previous warning. Yet how few are there among us, who so realize these affecting events, as to be influenced by them? We are convinced also, that when man is removed from his present state by death, he takes his flight into the

invisible world, and returns no more to the concerns
of this life. But how little are the minds of men in
general affected with the consideration of their
mortality, and the infinitely important consequences
connected with it! May God, my brethren, awaken
our minds to an abiding sense of the important truth
that "in the midst of life we are in death;" and
may
He "so teach us to number our days, that we
may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

We have in the book of Job many reflections on the subject of death, and the circumstances connected with it; among which the passage selected for our text is not the least striking and affecting. "Man giveth up the ghost; and where is he?" The text will not easily admit of the regular division usually prefixed to a sermon. The words however affirm our mortality, and suggest a serious inquiry into our future existence. For the sake of some degree of order, let us consider them as containing,

I. An impressive remark on the mortality of

man.

II. A devout reflection on its consequences.

I. We are to consider the words as containing an impressive remark on man's mortality.

Before Job introduces this observation on man's giving up the ghost and leaving the world, he makes some important remarks with reference to the nature of his life. Let us briefly notice them.

1. In the first place, he speaks of the shortness and uncertainty of life. "Man that is born of a and full of trouble. He

woman is of few days,

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