going towards death and the grave. The place which now knoweth us, shall soon know us no more; in a little time we shall all be gone; our houses shall be inhabited by others, and we shall be sleeping in the dust; for dust we are, and unto dust we must return. To look on this is a melancholy prospect; and to consider it attentively and seriously it affords us no joy; it gives us nothing but dismay and dread; it fills our hearts with sorrow, and our minds with lamentation, as we know we cannot avoid it. We must all experience the grievous state into which we have brought ourselves!

We sinned, and death came by sin: we are all born to die; and as soon as we appear in this world, we begin our journey through this inhospitable, dreary scene of misery and woe; and every day brings us nearer to death and the grave. And from this state we cannot free ourselves, nor escape from its evils. We must go on from stage to stage till we arrive at the end, or last stage; and we must then bid adieu to this world, leave our goods, property, and possessions, and whatever we enjoyed here, and be covered with darkness in the vale and shadow of death!

Now this is a very dismal state, which we were the cause of; yet God in his goodness and mercy here caused to appear at a distance

a most glorious prospect, and shining light, at which we may behold, and rejoice.

When God banished mankind from his presence, yet his heart alone did not forsake us ; he had mercy upon us, and promised us a Saviour who should bring us back to God, and restore us to his favour and presence. As soon as our first parents sinned, and were driven out of Paradise, as soon did he assure them of his great mercy and kindness towards them. In the first ages of the world, he appeared to some, and spoke to them: he sent angels to them, to declare his truth; he inspired prophets, and ordered them to reveal his will to mankind. And this he continued to do till he sent them the Great Prophet, the Redeemer, his only beloved Son: that was then a very great and joyful time, for all the sinful, fallen race of Adam and Eve; when vice and ignorance, and darkness had overspread the world: then did the sun of righteousness arise in his full brightness and splendour, on purpose to disperse the darkness, remove the prevailing ignorance, and dispel the increasing errors and vices; so that in every age of the world; before the law, under the law, and now under the gospel, you see what God has done for us, and for our salvation and happiness. And, as we now live under the light of the gospel, we have

a greater light than the people had under the law, and more knowledge and information than they had before us.

Though it pleased God to reveal his will in former times, in the manner he had done, yet now has he performed for us most wonderful things; it pleased him to send his only begotten Son in human nature to preach the gospel of peace and salvation, and to make known truths which had been kept secret before. The Bible, or Word of God, is now our great and only light and director. There we see, how God created the world, that he made the first of mankind, that they had a law given them, and were ordered to keep it; for if they broke that commandment, they were then threatened with mortality and death. But the devil seduced them, and they broke that law, disobeyed God, and so brought mortality into the world, with all its ills and calamities. Now the Son of God, seeing what had come to pass in this lower world; what did he do? He said, as it were to his Father, Do not behave towards this sinful people as you have done to the fallen angels: spare them, and forgive them, I love them, I pity their condition, and am concerned about their redemption; they have broken thy law, and are now condemned at thy bar of justice; they must perish; justice must be satisfied, and punishment must

be inflicted on them. But as my love is great towards them, I have thought on a plan which will satisfy justice, appease thy wrath, and will restore them to thy favour and friendship; and will save them from death and hell, or from everlasting misery. God accepted of his Son's offer: and Jesus Christ really appeared on earth in the form of a man, so that he took our form and nature; and in that body you may see in the New Testament, what he did and suffered for us; as he became like to us in every respect, sin only excepted. He bore the ills of mortality, partook of sufferings, of hunger and cold, of poverty and misery; for the foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, but he had no where to lay his sacred head; he was persecuted and reviled by the wicked; he was despised and rejected by unbelievers; but in this condition he had a work to perform, and he performed it. He had a commission from God, to publish the gospel, and establish it in the world; and this he accomplished. But as man had brought death into the world, he must also die. As he had become man, so he must be a sufferer with man. He must not only be a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, but he must also die; the just for the unjust. He had offered his life a ransom to God for sinners, and, therefore, as they were condemned to die,

he died for them, and in their stead, that they might go free, and be delivered from death; not from a natural death; for as Adam and all his posterity were become mortal, all must die a natural death; for as we are dust, that dust must return to its original; none were ever exempted from this except Enoch and Elijah. The bodies of these two men were changed in a moment and made fit for heaven, and went there without suffering the pangs of dissolution and returning to the dust. And God no doubt made instances of these two holy men; to be an assurance of a future state. The one was done before the law, and the other under the law; and now, under the gospel, we have an instance of the man Christ Jesus who rose from the grave, and ascended into heaven. For the grave could not keep his body till it was dissolved; for he rose to triumph over sin, death, and the grave, and to show that as he arose from the grave, so we must rise at the last day.

Now, Christians, consider your fallen state, and all its ills; but observe that Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God, went through all the different scenes that you are now going through. And all this he did for our sakes, to be an example to us. For though we have mortal and sinful bodies, and in them suffer trials and tribulations; though God hath given us life; and