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EVEN fo, to the good Chriftian this world is the field of hard, though glorious warfare. In the fervice, and under the eye of God, he is now fighting against the armies of his own flefhly lufts, and of his own malignant pasfions. Ever and anon, he hears the voice of his great Captain-Perfevere and thou shalt conquer; endure unto the end and thou Jhalt be crowned. To him therefore the day of death is welcome as the last day of his toils and dangers. He is now going to exchange a long conflicting war for the bleffings of everlasting peace having fought the good fight, he is about to receive his wages, even eternal life, and to put on a crown of glory that shall never fade away. Sure that ferene look, beaming all the fweetness of love and hope, befpeaks the already half-formed feraph; and the heaven, almost opened on his placid countenance, gives glorious evidence of his intended

intended journey. Soon bidding farewell forever to thefe realms of woe, and haunts of malignant beings, he fhall join the bleffed fociety of angels and Spirits of just men made perfect. There he shall see health blooming eternal on each immortal face, friendship fmiling on every glorified countenance, and a perfection of love forming a paradife of happiness, unknown and unconceived by us who have dwelt in the tents of hatred.

BUT, above all, the sweetest motives to refignation in death, he is now going to fee him, whom oftentimes with trembling joy, he has longed to fee, even his God, his firft, his laft, his only friend, the author of his being and of all his mercies. Shortly fhall he fee his glorious face unclouded with a frown, and hear from his ambrofial lips the language of approbation and affection"Well done good and faithful fervant.”

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PRAISING God for advancing him to fuch an height of honor, and for setting before him fuch an eternity of happi-s nefs Praising God for all the loving kindnesses that have accompanied him through life, and efpecially for that greatest of all, the grace that brought, him to repentance and a good life: earnestly exhorting his friends to that love of God, which now not only fupports, but enables him even to triumph in this dying hour, an hour fo alarm-. ing to the fears of nature: rejoicing in a fenfe of the pardon of his fins, and· exulting in the hopes of the glory to be revealed, he breathes out his foul with these victorious words,-" into thy hands, O God, I commend my fpirit.”

WELL may his friends, edified by fuch an example, cry out with weeping joy,-“ Who can count the rewards of wisdom, or number the fourth part of the bleffings of virtue? Let us die the death of

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the righteous, and let our latter end be like theirs."

Bur divine love not only renders life pleasant, and death peaceful, but it accompanies us into heaven, and there gives us to enjoy the most exquisite pleafures, that God himfelf can confer on happy fouls: For there we fhall always live in the prefence of God, the great fountain of all loveliness and glory, and fhall love him with ten thousand times more ardour than we now do, or even can imagine; for the longer we behold, the more we fhall know him, and the more we know, the better we shall love him; and fo through everlasting ages, our love fhall be extending and enrapturing itself with his infinite beauty and lovelinefs. Now love is the sweetest and happiest of all paffions, and it is merely by accident that it is accompanied with any difquieting or painful feelings. Either the perfon beloved is abfent,

which corrodes it with unquiet defire, or he is unhappy, or unkind, which imbitters it with grief; or he is fickle and inconftant, which inflames it with rage and jealoufy; but, feparated from all these disagreeable accidents, and it is all pure delight and joy.

BUT in heaven, our love of God will have none of thefe difquieting circumftances attending it; for there he will never be abfent from us, but will be continually entertaining our amorous minds with the profpect of his infinite beauties. There we fhall always feel his love to us in the. moft fenfible and endearing effects, even in the glory of that crown which he will fet upon our heads, and in the ravifhing fweetness of those joys which he will infuse into our hearts. There we fhall experience the continuation of his love in the continued fruition of all that an everlasting heaven means, and be convinced,

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