of old, between "the precious and the vile." Solomon remarked ages since, and a very blessed remark it was: "all things (said he) come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked: to him that sweareth, as him that feareth an oath." (Eccles. ix. 2.) But while these things are so arranged by infinite wisdom, in relation to outward providences, that all appear to a superficial observer as the same, the inward accompaniments of grace to the people of God change the very nature of their exercises ; and what to the ungodly becomes a source of terrors, sometimes inexpressible, to the children of God become sources of joy. As for example, we behold the same fever, the same consumption, the same burning ague, or what not, visiting the saint and sinner. But who shall calculate the difference of feeling, under the same circumstances of disease? Upheld by the Lord, Paul could, and did, send forth a triumphant voice amidst his various exercises: "As dying, (said he) and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed: as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing as poor, yet making many rich: as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." (2 Cor. vi. 9, 10.) Here we see how grace, accompanying the Lord's providence, makes the mighty difference; and soothes the sufferer of the Lord's household under the direst affliction. Would you behold the contrast? The Bible is full of illustrations. The Lord, speaking of the anguish of the wicked, saith to them: "The Lord shall give thee a trembling of heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee: and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, would God it were even, and at even thou shalt say, would God it were morning; for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see." (Deut. xxviii. 65-67.) And in

a

another scripture the Lord hath drawn the portrait of the trembling sinner, in the most finished colouring of misery: "The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked!” (Isa. lvii. 20.)

*

But we must not stop here. The sicknesses of the Lord's people are none of them in a way of penal judgment, but in a way of love. As the fruit of Adam's transgression, it is proper that the people of God should taste the effects of that awful apostacy: but not the curse. Every rod of God hath a voice, and speaks, as well as corrects. "Be still and know that I am God!" (Ps. xlvi. 10.) "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." (Prov. iii. 19.). "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him." (Prov. iii. 11. Heb. xii. 5.) Hence, in a sea of affliction, there is not one drop of wrath! Moreover, the child of God is at peace with God. Jesus hath borne all his sins. He hath drunk the cup of trembling to the dregs, and wrung them all out. And he hath put the cup of salvation into their hands, that they may drink of it, and call upon the name of the Lord. So that their sickness is but their retired chamber, where the Lord visits them. And hence the prophet, speaking of their everlasting health and welfare, describes it under the similitude of a city, "where the inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” (Isai. xxxiii. 24.) The prophet did not mean that any place upon earth possessed that healthly soil which no sickness could invade; but that sickness lost all its pains, in the consciousness that their iniquities were forgiven in the blood and righteousness of Christ. Yea, death itself is among the privileges of the Lord's people. (1 Cor. iii. 20.) John heard a voice from heaven, declaring them "bles

sed which die in the Lord." (Rev. xiv. 13.) And Paul echoed to the same, when he said," For none of us liveth to himself: and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." (Rom. xiv. 7, 8.) Oh! what a blessed confirmation of the Lord's covenant promise. There are "none of the diseases which the Lord brought upon the Egyptians ever put upon Israel." Jehovah saith, "I am the Lord that healeth thee!"

Neither must we omit, or overlook, that sweet sympathy of Christ, who hath engaged to be with his people alway, and to manifest himself otherwise than to the world. He owns his relation to them, and makes their sorrows his own. "For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie, (will not dissemble with me, but will feel and confess the plague of their own heart) so he was their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted; and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love, and in his pity, he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old." (Isa. Ixiii. 8, 9. xliii. 1—4.) And who is there, of the Lord's people, that would shrink from a sickness of the Lord's sending, when he knew that the Lord would accompany him through all? Who, that knew himself at peace with God in the blood of the cross, would wish to decline those hallowed seasons which by wakefulness of body affords the better opportunity for the sweet communion with the Lord in the soul? Oh! the unspeakable felicity (I hope I know somewhat of it) when laying sleepless in the night, to find Jesus by the bedside, looking in upon us, sweetening every bitter, "and making all our bed in our sickness!" Brethren, what know you personally of these things? Is not the word of the Lord thereby as much confirmed now, as when pro

claimed to Israel of old; "I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: I am the Lord that healeth thee!"

I had intended to have said much more to you on this interesting subject, coming as I have immediately from my chamber of sickness, where these things have been realized to my soul's joy. But I find my strength unequal. One word more before I withdraw. I have before observed, that my appearance among you this day, is not to enter at present upon my ministry until it shall please the Lord to renovate me for it. Those ordinances which I have in times past enjoyed in this place must for a while be withheld from me. But I bend to His sovereignty who thus appoints. Blessed be God! though I shall not have the ordinance, I have always the God of ordinances and while I have the substance I shall have no cause to regret in not having the shadow. I have somewhat of the same feeling as David had in his flight from Jerusalem. Zadok the priest in his zeal for the Lord, and in his affection for David, would have taken the ark of God, which was a symbol of the divine presence, with them; but David suffered him not. "Carry back the ark of God (said he) into the city if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and its habitation. But if He thus say,-I have no delight in thee: behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him." (2 Sam. xv. 25, 26.) This is precisely my situation. Until the Lord, "who giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength," shall be pleased to grant me suited restoration, I am incompetent to labour. But if the Lord bring me again among you, very sure I am, that I shall come unto you" in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." But if his holy will hath appointed other

wise; good is the will of the Lord concerning me. I shall exchange ordinances for the Lord's more immediate presence: and from those outer courts, enter within, to see Him as He is, "and to know, even as I am known.”

In the mean time I commend you to the Lord, as I am persuaded you commend me. Your prayers will still follow me, as they have been called forth before. I feel very highly interested in them: both for myself and my brother in the ministry, whom I leave with you to go in and out before you in the word and doctrine. We both seek this from you, as a boon from the Lord to the church. For it is highly observable, that upon every occasion, in which he is about to bless his people, he for the most part pours out upon them a spirit of grace and supplication to pray for it. By his servant the prophet the Lord notified this. "For thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." (Ezek. xxxvi. 37.) The Lord loves to be reminded of his promises. He takes it kind (if one may presume so to speak,) when you tell the Lord what the Lord hath first told you, of his loving tendencies towards you. And so abundantly gracious is the Lord in this particular, that he seems to send down blanks for his people to fill in, putting his Almighty name as a promissory note at the bottom of it. This we read in that wonderful Scripture: "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker: ask me of things to come, concerning my sons, and concerning the works of my hands command ye me." (Isa. xlv. 11) "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.". (John xv. 7.)

And I cannot help observing farther upon this subject, to shew you with what importance holy men of old had respect to the prayers of the Lord's people,