to so happy an end. Tell them, what you feel of the vanity of the world; and they may learn to regard it less. Tell them what you feel of the substantial supports of the gospel; and they may learn to value it more: for they cannot but know, that they must lie down on a dying bed too, and must then need all the relief which the gospel itself can give them.

And to enforce the conviction the more, give a solemn charge to those that are about you, that they spend their lives in the service of God, and govern themselves by the principles of real religion. You may remember, that Joshua, and David, and other good men, did so, when they perceived that the days drew near in which they should die. And you know not, how the admonitions of a dying friend, or (as it may be with respect to some,) of a dying parent, may impress those who may have disregarded what you and others may have said to them before. At least, make the trial, and die, labouring to glorify God, to save souls, and generously to sow the seeds of goodness and happiness in a world, where you have no more harvest to reap. Perhaps they may spring up in a plentiful crop, when the clods of the valley are covering your body: but if not, God will approve it; and the angels, that wait around your bed to receive your departing soul, will look upon each other with marks of approbation in their countenance, and own that this is to expire like a Christian, and to make a glorious improvement of mortality.

And in this last address to your fellow-mortals, whoever they are that Providence brings near you, be sure that you tell them how entirely and how cheerfully your hopes and dependence in this season of the last extremity are fixed, not upon your own merits and obedience, but on what the great Redeemer has done and has suffered for sinners. Let them see, that you die as it were at the foot of the cross: nothing will be so comfortable to yourselves, nothing so edifying to them. Let the name of Jesus, therefore, be in your mouth, while you are able to speak, and when you can speak no longer, let it be in your heart, and endeavour that the last act of your soul, while it continues in the body, may be an act of humble faith in Christ. Come unto God by him: enter into that which is within the veil,

It is an

as with the blood of sprinkling fresh upon you. awful thing for such a sinner, (as you, my Christian friend, with all the virtues the world may have admired, know yourself to be,) to stand before that infinitely pure and holy Being, who has seen all your ways, and all your heart, and has a perfect knowledge of every mixture of imperfection which has attended the best of your duties: but venture in that way, and you will find it both safe and pleasant.

Once more: To give you comfort in a dying hour, and to support your feeble steps while you are travelling through this dark and painful way, take the word of God as a staff in your hand. Let books, and mortal friends, now do their last office for you. Call, if you can, some experienced Christian, who has felt the power of the word of God upon his own heart; and let him bring the scripture, and turn you to some of those precious promises, which have been the food and rejoicing of his own soul. It is with this view, that I may carry the good office I am now engaged in as far as possible, I shall here give you a collection of a few such admirable scriptures, each of them infinitely more valuable than thousands of gold and silver. (Psalm cxix. 72.) And to convince you of the degree in which I esteem them, I will take the freedom to add, that I desire they may (if God give an opportunity,) be read over to me, as I lie on my dying bed, with short intervals between them, that I may pause upon each, and renew something of that delightful relish, which, I bless God, I have often found in them. May your soul and mine be then composed to a sacred silence, (whatever be the conimotion of animal nature,) while the voice of God speaks to us in language which he spake to his servants of old, or in which he instructed them how they should speak to him in circumstances of the greatest extremity!

Can any more encouragement be wanting, when he says, "Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee, with the right hand of my righteousness." (Isaiah xli. 10.) And "he is not a man that he should lie, or the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or, hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" (Numbers xxiii. 19.)

"The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psa. xxvii. 1.) "This GOD is our God for

ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death." (Psa. xlviii. 14.) Therefore, "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." (Psa. xxiii. 4.) "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord." (Gen. xlix. 18.) "O continue thy loving-kindness unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright in heart! For with thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light." (Psa. xxxvi. 9, 10.) "Thou wilt shew me the path of life; in thy presence is fulness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psa. xvi. 11.) "As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." (Psa. xvii. 15.) "For I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day." (2 Tim. i. 12.) "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope." (Psa. xvi. 9.) "For if we

believe that Jesus died, and rose again; those also that sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him.” (1 Thess. iv. 14.) "I give unto my sheep eternal life," said Jesus, the good shepherd, "and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” (John x. 28.) "This is the will of him that sent me, that every one that believeth on me should have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John vi. 40.) "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, Delieve also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you: and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John xiv. 1, 2, 3.) "Go, tell my brethren, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." (John xx. 17.) “Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them." (John xvii. 21, 26.)-"He that testifieth

these things, saith, Surely, I come quickly Amen: Even so come, Lord Jesus !" (Rev. xxii. 20.) "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to GOD, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Cor. xv. 55, 57.)

Thus may that God who knows the souls of his children in all their adversities (Psa. xxxi. 7.) and in "whose sight the death of his saints is precious," (Psa. cxvi. 15.) cheer and support you and me, in these last extremities of nature! May he add us to the happy number of those who have been more than conquerors in death! And may he give us those supplies of his Spirit, which may enable us to pour out our departing souls in such sentiments, as those I would now suggest; though we should be no longer able to utter words, or to understand them if they were to be read to us! Let us at least review them with all proper affections now, and lay up one prayer more for that awful moment! O that this, and all we have ever offered with regard to it, may then "come in remembrance before God." (Acts x. 4, 31.) A MEDITATION and PRAYER, suited to the Case of a dying CHRISTIAN.

"O THOU Supreme Ruler of the visible and invisible worlds! Thou Sovereign of life and of death; of earth, and of heaven! Blessed be thy name, I have often been taught to seek thee. And now once more do I pour out my soul, my departing soul, unto thee. Bow down thy gracious ear, O GOD, and let my cry come before thee with acceptance!

The hour is come, when thou wilt separate me from this world, with which I have been so long and so familiarly acquainted, and lead me to another, as yet unknown. Enable me, I beseech thee, to make the exchange, as becomes a child of Abraham, who being called of thee to receive an inheritance, obeyed and went out, though he knew not particularly whither he went; (Heb. xi. 8.) as becomes a child of GOD, who knows, that through sovereign grace, "it is his Father's good pleasure to give him the kingdom." (Luke xii. 32.)

I acknowledge, O Lord, the justice of that sentence by

which I am expiring. And own thy wisdom and goodness, in appointing my journey through this gloomy vale which is now before me. Help me to turn it into the happy occasion of honouring thee, and adorning my profession. And I will bless the pangs by which thou art glorified, and this mortal and sinful part of my nature is dissolved.

"Gracious Father, I would not quit this earth of thine, and this house of clay in which I have sojourned during my abode upon the face of it, without my grateful acknowledgments to thee, for all that abundant goodness which thou hast caused to pass before me here. (Exod. xxxiii. 19.) With my dying breath, I bear witness to thy faithful care, I have "wanted no good thing." (Psa. xxxiv. 10.) I thank thee, O my God, that this guilty, forfeited, unprofitable life, was so long spared: that it hath still been maintained by such a rich variety of thy bounty. I thank thee that thou hast made this beginning of my existence so pleasant to me. I thank thee for the mercies of my days and nights, of my months and years, which are now come to their period: I thank thee for the mercies of my infancy, and for those of my riper age; for all the agreeable friends which thou hast given me in this house of my pilgrimage, the living and the dead; for all the help I have received from others; and for all the opportunities which thou hast given me of being helpful to the bodies and souls of my brethren of mankind. Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life." (Psalm xxiii. 6.) and I have reason to rise a thankful guest from the various and pleasant entertainments with which my table has been furnished by thee. Nor shall I have reason to repine, or to grieve at quitting them: for, O my God, are thy bounties exhausted? I know, that they are not. I will not wrong thy goodness and thy faithfulness so much as to imagine, that because I am going from this earth I am going fron happiness. I adore thy mercy that thou hast taught me to entertain nobler views through Jesus thy Son. I bless thee with all the powers of my nature, that I ever heard of his name, and heard of his death: and would fain exert a more vigorous act of thankful adoration, than in this broken state I am capable of, while I am extolling thee,

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