they would never be reduced to want. “When rance of victory, and final triumph. After the my father and my mother forsake me,” said first emotions of nature have subsided, when the psalmist," the Lord taketh me up,” Ps. he had glanced at the objects around him, he xxvii. 10. Let us also say, if I leave my father rose superior to the things of this world, he and mother in their old age, or my children knew that death puts a period to all sublunary in their infancy, the Lord will protect them. connexions; that the titles of parent, friend, They will find a shelter under the wings of the and son, are only vain names, when we come Lord, and he will be their defence. 10 the last hour. He no longer recognised his Again, let us adınire the firmness and self- relations according to the flesh, he was going possession of our Lord: while beholding those to form a new relationship in heaven, to merge objects that were most likely to shake it, all earthly ties in the countless families of glo Christ was possessed of a tender heart. We rified saints, of whom he is the head. He aphave already noticed this, and will now consi- peared to know no longer that Mary who had der the principal circumstances in his life, that borne him, giving her no more the title of mowill justify this assertion. To this end, view ther, but said, Woman, behold thy son. him going from town to town, from province O, why cannot I communicate a portion of to province, doing good; see him discoursing this intrepid firmness of soul to those who comfamiliarily with his disciples when he showed pose this congregation; O that we may every them a heart full of loving-kindness. Behold one on the bed of death feel some of its influhim shedding tears over Jerusalem, and pro- ence, and be enabled to exclaim, Come ye specnouncing these affecting words, an everlasting tators of my agonies, draw near ye to whom memorial of his compassion, "If thou hadst nature has bound me by the closest ties, by the known, at least in this thy day, the things cords of love and friendship. Approach my which belong to thy peace, but now they are friends, my children, that I may bid you a final hid from thine eyes," Luke xix. 42. Behold farewell: come receive the last pledges of my him again, a short time before his death, occu- affection, let me, for the last time, fold you in pied with care for his beloved disciples, who my paternal embrace, and cover you with my were to remain on the earth, and addressing to tears of affection; but do not suppose, that I his Heavenly Father that affecting prayer for would now draw tighter the cords which are so them recorded in John xvii. with the feelings soon to be broken; think not that I would unite of a soul full of the tenderest emotions. Jesus myself to you still closer at the time when God was exemplary in the several relations of a warns me that I must leave you for ever. I friend, of a master, and of a son. While he know you no longer; I know not father, mobeheld around his cross only those whose ma- ther, or children, but those who exist in the lice delighted to witness his agony and aggra- realms of glory, with whom I am about to form vate his sufferings, he turned his thoughts from eternal relationship, which will absorb all my earth, to that eternal world into which he was temporal connexions. about to enter. But what was the effect pro Thus the opposite extremities of virtue duced on his mind, by the sight of Mary, of seemed to meet in the death of our Saviour as whom it is expressly said in Scripture, that he in a common centre, the perfections of the Godloved her. What did he feel when he beheld head, holiness, compassion, constancy, pierced the disciple whom he had distinguished by his through the thick veil which shrouded his peculiar friendship; and that other Mary in grandeur, his glory, his power, and his mawhose favour he had wrought such great inira- jesty. O, ye witnesses of his death, if his hucles, “ Ah, remove these beloved objects far miliation caused you to doubt his Godhead, from me, take away every tie that binds my his greatness of soul must have fully proved it. departing soul to earth, your presence inflicts Behold the tombs open, the dead arise, all naa sharper pain than the nails which pierce my lure convulsed, bears witness to the dying Sahands; the sight of you is more insupportable viour; the graces that shone forth in his death than that of my murderers." Is this the lan- are proofs of his noble origin, and his divine guage of our Lord? No: far otherwise; Christ nature; such was the death of Jesus Christ; remains firm, his courage is unabated. He may such be our end. “Let me die the death was armed with almighty power, and he en- of the righteous, and let my last end be like tered this dreadful conflict with the full assu- 1 his." Amen. Numb. xxiii. 10. THE END. GENERAL INDEX. men A ii 255 he is faithfully warned and refut- i 379 402 ii 399 ii 188 Ants, an emblem of the busy multitudes of ii 34 nation ii 348 i 266 the Roman Catholic religion i 167 ii 8 seven ways of apostasy i 239 the dreadful sin of an enlightened ii 212 ii 328, 329 the apostasy through weakness and ji 347 ib. four degrees of apostasy 331, 332 ii 350 an address to sinners who have not attained the highest degree of this sin ib. absurd, and the forgery of the 250 i 279 ii 355 ed the person of Louis XIV., ii 294 on pretended miracles i 197 to heathen philosophers i 211 i 415 Arians refuted in their false gloss on John xvii. 3 ii 157 417 sical gloss on John xvi. 13 ji 309 ii 7 Arminius, (Van Harmine,) three replies to his system ji 103 i 106 in the Bible practical duties are placed clear, and abstruse points ib. involved in depths, that Chris- 107 tians may have patience with one another 106 God is no wise accessary to the de- struction of sinners 116 i 193 Arnobius, his avowal of the Godhead of Christ i 279 273 eight cautions concerning it ib. 281 assurance of justification may be attended with a mixture of ib. doubts as to final salvation ib. it is incompatible with a state of sin 314 assurance is demonstrated by the experience of holy men ib. by the nature of regeneration 315 354 by the prerogatives of a Christian 316 by the inward testimony of the i 100 317 i 367 four cautions concerning it ib. means of attaining assurance 350 i 369 degrees of grace and assurance ii 182 Assurance consists in foretastes of heaven ii the bar of authority, at the bar of interest, of history, of reason, of conscience, and of scepticism it- 188 225 at the close of a sermon, ii 91 i 372 the want of it a horrible crime 414 it is the brightest ornament of re- 417 ii 392 i 279 Bodies of the glorified saints probably not visible ii 359 Brothels, the duty of magistrates concerning ib. ii 44 innocence of Christ i 191 primitive church, their belief that Jesus Christ subsisted before his birth- that he was of the same essence with the Father—and that he subsisted with him from all eternity i 277 i 287 C 295 Cesarea, two towns of that name i 157 of greater plagues in four respects ii 352 rouse sinners ii 359 of that book iis 230 Ceremonial law superseded by Christ i 288 whatever morality was contain- ed in the Jewish ritual law, &c. is still relained ii 374 i 171 the infidel ib. the miser ib. the temporiser ib. i 277 a man in public life, his danger ii 235 ii 312 ii 395 and repentance i 385 i 354 Christ would still weep over sinners 117 154 112 he is our reconciliation by the advo- cacy of his blood 155 113 ib. of death, being the everlasting Fa- ther ib. various opinions of Christ 157 inquiries of this kind may be put through pride, through curiosity, revenge, and benevolence i 388 Christ the brightness of ce Dieu, dont il est le marque engravee et le caractere 173 ii 147 not by the populace, but by divines and ecclesiastics ib. ib. joy it successors men against the objection of its being gion and one who does not en- 385 266 the primitive Christians were mo- dels of charity i 420 contentious Christians are only novices in religion ii 88 246 forbearance recommended in opi- nions 107 332 Christians should be distinguished by love 151 they are not of the world 164 ries i 420 his exposition of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost ii 328 274 Church, the, often established by the means which tyrants employ to destroy it i 76 the church has often varied her situa- 157 tion in regard of worldly glory, of 160 poverty and of persecution 348 162 ji 316 her children should love one another 157 with a superior attachment 313 ing the heart of Cæsar and saving Ligarius i 200 his gloomy notion of life ii 95 ii 419 i 5 ib. the importance of the com- mand to love one another 151 411 183 Conflict and triumph of Christian believers 418 417 ji 8 he is a fool who denies its power 322 it founds its decisions on three i 323 it is to the soul what the senses 366 175 ü 152 177 i 410 it must be adorned with chastity 407 exempt from slander in seven re- 409 from unfounded complaisance ib. and from idle words 410 i 148 five vices of conversation 411 three maxims of conversation 412 i 48 it consists in illumination and 245 ji 242 natural difficulties of conversion ib. 248 the habits of old age obstinately oppose conversion ib. it is greatly obstructed by the re- currence of former ideas 243 the habit of loving God, an essen- tial fruit of conversion, is diffi- 278 cult to acquire in old age 243 old habits must be counteracted, and new ones formod 244 don and grace genius of in old age Conversion, a powerful exhortation to conver- bend the knee, Psal. xcv. 6. 248 2 Chron. vi. 13. Gen. xxiv. 11. 2. To solicit or to confer good, Gen. xxiy. 35.-3. To imprecate 251 evil, Job i. 5, 11.-ii. 5. ib. on Matt. xxiii. 23. i 358 on Gen. vi. 3. ü 70 on Hosea xiii. 9. 115 252 Cross, five bucklers against the offence of the cross—the miserable condition of a lost world ži 148 ib. mankind 149 263 ib. disciples ib. i 305 the cross of Christ relatively consider- ed, assorts with all the difficulties and trials of this life 222 i 300 or immolated to the divine justice 224 i 398 ib. proofs of his love ib. ib. 399 225 ib. D 400 David, his preference of God's affliction ra- ther than of man's ii 42 ii 256. 305 403 his affected epilepsy before Achish was an innocent stratagem to save his life, and imitated by many illustri- ii 129 affliction 130 he was too indulgent to his children 25 his piety ii 283 ii 94 ii 21 ib. Death, the reflections of a dying man i 186 terrors at the aspect of death 295 306 death considered as a shipwreck 416 ji 41 301 126 41 eloquence 86 Jacob and Simeon both wished to die 140 very impressive ii 156 i 211 the death of Christ is to the Jews an atrocious crime 170 the death of Christ an expiation of sin, and a model of confidence 167 284 death vanquished by Christ 171 414 172 ii 130 234 the complete assurance of immortality i 192 and life, removes the terrors of death 232 |