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found in their sins, it will be immaterial whether they had been rich or poor. Therefore it becomes your duty to examine, not so much the marks of poverty under which you may exist, as the state of your soul in the sight of your God. You perceive, that in this paper I have attempted to state in what the happiness of God's children consists, independent of their external station and circumstances, and you may easily inquire on what your real happiness is founded; from what source it flows; and to what object it is directed. If you have reason to believe that Christ has engaged your heart and hand, to enjoy peace and communion with God as your heavenly Father; and although you now walk in the shades of poverty, it is your meat and drink to do the will of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. If this be the case, you certainly have reason to rejoice in all your tribulations. Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Hebrews xiii. 5, 6. Remember, also, that riches are not the best things in the world, else God would give the greatest share of them to those who love and serve him. The more a man lives upon in the world, the less of God he feels in his heart, and the less he is prepared to die. As you are advanced in years, your poverty, pain, and infirmities, can last but a little longer, and it will make very little difference to the safety and happi

ness of your soul, die when or where you may, or whether your body be laid in the grave in obscurity, or attended with a sumptuous funeral. Forget not the case of Lazarus at the rich man's gate. He had no home; he was full of sores; dogs were his only physicians; the crumbs of the rich man's table were denied him; none to regard his burial; yet his soul became the charge of angels, and laid in the bosom of Abraham. If you have no earthly friends, let it teach you the inestimable value of the friendship of Jesus, who is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. The poor old sinner who wraps himself up in the tattered filthy garment of his ignorance, stupidity, and depravity, despising the tender mercy of the Saviour, is doubly poor, and doubly wretched, demanding your pity and your prayers, while you have reason to rejoice in the treasures of a Redeemer's grace, more valuable to you than the riches of the globe! And in addition to these sentiments, designed to reconcile your mind, and promote, what I call your HAPPY POVERTY, I will close by saying, that a pious poor man has the honour of most resembling the outward appearance of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Though he is Lord of all, yet while here below, he had no where to lay his head, and was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, therefore look above, and heaven will make amends for all.

TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

On passing through Death to Eternity.

QUESTION I. Whether God, consistent with his truth, law, and justice, could not, by virtue of the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ, receive his redeemed people to his presence in glory, without passing through death?

QUESTION II. What reasons can be assigned, why God has appointed the passage of death, through which his believing children must enter into the mansions of eternal felicity?

To a person who professes a confidence in Christ for his everlasting salvation, the consideration of the vale of death, which leads to eternity, becomes a subject of the most serious importance; and the more so as sickness or old age may assure him that speedily he may realize the scene. realize the scene. Few, however, consider this subject farther than its being the ordinary appointment of God, that man, as a sinner,

should die, and that the possession of faith in Christ Jesus will afford sufficient support and consolation in the trying hour. But when the same person advances in years, and his growing infirmities give practical admonitions of approaching mortality, he is anxious to receive every word of instruction on the nature, design, appendages, and every thing which may have connexion with the subject of death, so that he may more clearly see the will of his God, and be the more habitually prepared to meet his final change. For these reasons these two important questions are proposed, presuming that an examination of them may be the means of producing some additional rays of light upon his mind, and strengthen his confidence in Christ, the Conqueror of death. I may venture so far to anticipate the discussion of the questions as to say, that the Christian may perceive some of the rich truths of the Gospel combined with the valley of death, which, like golden lamps, may dissipate the mortal gloom, so that he may cheerfully say with David, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psalm xxiii. 4.

THE FIRST QUESTION.

"Whether God, consistent with his truth, law, "and justice, could not, by virtue of the redemption "accomplished by Jesus Christ, receive his re"deemed people to his presence in glory, without

"passing through death?"-On this question we will indulge the following investigation :

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1. THE NATURE OF REDEMPTION. Man, as a rational being, is bound to the authority of his Creator, by a good, holy, just, and in flexible law, bearing the penalty of death to its transgressors. Mankind have sinned, and are exposed to the penalty of death in all the variety of its forms, and wrathful consequences, in which it can possibly be conceived. But God, according to the riches of his grace, unfolded his purpose by the gift of his Son Jesus Christ, who by his assumption of our nature, the substitution of our persons, the imputation of our sins, bearing our iniquities, and making his soul an offering for sin in death, has thus obtained eternal redemption for us. Hebrews ix. 12. By this great work of Christ, the precepts of God's law, which we had violated, are now magnified; its penalties, which we had incurred by sin, are satisfied and made honourable; the penal evil of death is destroyed, and wrath, with all its horrible qualities, was borne by Christ, so that we are saved from wrath through him. Romans iii. 9. This has been accomplished according to the determination of God-I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes; (Hosea xiii. 14;) that is, the Lord will never repent of his decree, and the accomplishment of the work; the ransom and conquest of the Redeemer shall be

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