ftruck dumb. The Voice of Joy ceafes. Howling Beafts roam abroad for Prey: Ominous Birds come forth, and fcreech: The Heart of Man fails, and a chilling Horror feizes the foreboding Mind. So, when CHRIST hides away his Face; when Faith lofes Sight of that Confolation of Ifrael; Oh! how gloomy are the Prospects of the Soul! Our GOD feems to be a confuming Fire, and our Sins cry loudly for Vengeance. The Thoughts bleed inwardly; the Chriftian walks heavily: all without is irkfome; all within is difconfolate.-Lift up then, moft gracious JESUS, thou nobler Day-fpring from on high! O lift up, the Light of thy Countenance upon thy People; reveal the Fulness of thy mediatorial Sufficiency; make clear our Title to this great Salvation; and thereby impart What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, Pope. IN one Inftance more, let me purfue the Similitude. The Sun, I obferve, fhoots his Beams every Way; both backwards and forwards; to every Point in the Compafs, as well as to every Quarter under Heaven. The Eaft reddens with his rifing Radiance, and the Western Hills are gilded with his ftreaming Splendors. The chilly I 4 Regions Regions of the North are cheared by his genial Warmth, while the Southern Tracts glow with his Fire. Thus, are the Influences of the Sun of Righteousness diffufive and unconfined. The Generations of old felt them, and Generations yet unborn will rejoice in them. The Merits of his precious Death extended to the First, and will be propagated to the Laft, Ages of Mankind.May they, ere-long, vifit the remotest Climates, and darkest Corners of the Earth! Command thy Gospel, bleffed JESUS, thy everlasting Gofpel, to take the Wings of the Morning, and travel with yonder Sun. Let it fly upon ftrong Pinions among every People, Nation, and Language; that where the Heat broils, and the Cold freezes, Thou mayft be known, confeffed, and adored; That Strangers to thy Name, and Enemies to thy Doctrines, may be enlightened with the Knowlege, and won to the Love, of thy Truth! O! may that beft of Æras come, that wifh'd for Period advance, when "All the "Ends of the World shall remember them"felves, and be turned unto the LORD; and "all the Kindreds of the Nations worfhip before "him!" FROM the Heavens, we retire to the Earth. --Here, the Drops of Dew, like fo many liquid Crystals, Crystals *, sparkle upon the Eye. How brilliant and unfullied is their Luftre! How little inferior to the proud Stone, that irradiates a Monarch's Crown! They want nothing but Solidity and Permanency, to equal them with the finest Treafures of the Jeweller's Cafket.-But here, indeed, they are greatly deficient; fhort-lived Ornaments; poffeffed of little more than a momentary Radiancy. The Sun, that lights them up, will foon exhale them. Within another Hour, - we may "look for their Place, and they shall be "away."-Oh! may every good Refolution of mine, and of my Flock's; may our united Breathings after GoD, not be like these transient Decorations of the Morning; but like the subftantial Glories of the growing Day! These shine more and more, with augmented Splendors; while thofe, having glittered gayly for a little while, difappear, and are loft. How fenfibly has this Dew refreshed the Vegetable Kingdoms! The fervent Heat of Yefterday's Sun had almost parched the Face of Nature. But what a sovereign Restorative are these cooling Diftillations of the Night! How they gladden and invigorate the languishing Herbs! Sprinkled with these reviving Drops, their Colours * Now Morn, her rofy Steps in th' Eastern Clime Advancing, fow'd the Earth with orient Pearl. lours deepen, and they affume a more florid Afpect. So, does the ever-bleffed SPIRIT revive the drooping, troubled Confcience of a Sinner. When that Almighty Comforter sheds his fweet Influence on the Soul; difplays the all-fufficient Sacrifice of a Divine Redeemer; and "wit"neffes with our Spirit," that we are interested in the Saviour, and, by this means, are Children of GOD; then, what a pleafing Change enfues! Former Anxieties are remembred no more. The inward Gloom is diffipated, and every uneafy Apprehenfion vanishes. Soothing Hopes, and delightful Expectations, fucceed. The Countenance drops its dejected Mien; the Eyes brighten with a lively Chearfulness, while the Lips exprefs the Heart-felt Satisfaction, in the Language of Thanksgiving, and the Voice of Melody. In this Senfe, merciful God, be as the Dew unto Ifrael!" Pour upon them the continual Dew of "thy Bleffing." And Oh! let not my Fleece be dry, while Heavenly Benediction defcends upon all around. WHO can number these pearly Drops? They hang on every Hedge; twinkle from every Spray; and adorn the whole Herbage of the Field. Not a Blade of Grafs, not a fingle Leaf, but wears these watery Pendants. So vaft is the Profufion, that it baffles the Arithmetician's Art.-Here, let the benevolent Breaft contemplate, with De light, that emphatical Scripture, which describes the Increase of the Meffiah's Kingdom, from this elegant Similitude: The Royal Prophet, speaking of CHRIST, and foretelling the Success of his Religion, has this remarkable Expreffion*, The Dew מרחם משחר לך טל ילדתך .3 .Palm cx * The most exact Translation of this difficult Paffage is, I apprehend, as follows; Pra rore uteri aurora, tibi eft ros juventutis vel prolis tue. The Dew of thy Birth is larger, more copious, than the Dew which proceeds from the Womb of the Morning.- -I cannot acquiefce in the new Verfion; because that disjoins The Womb of the Morning, from The Dew of thy Birth: Whereas they feem to have a clear Affinity, and close Connexion. The Womb of the Morning is, with Abundance of Elegance, applied to the Conception and Production of Dews; agreeably to a delicate Line, in that great Mafter of juft Description, and lively Painting, Mr Thomson: The meek ey'd Morn appears, Mother of Dews. Summer. Job, I remember, has a fine Expreffion, that may ferve to confirm this Remark, and illuftrate the Propriety of the Phrase used in this Connection: "Hath "the Rain a Father, or who hath begotten the Drops "of Dew?" It feems, the Oriental Writers delighted to represent the Dew, as a kind of Birth, as the Offfpring of the Morning. And if fo, furely there could be no Image, in the whole Compafs of the Universe, better adapted to the Pfalmift's Purpofe; or more ftrongly fignificant of those Multitudes of Profelytes, which were 66 born, not of Blood, nor of the Will of "the Flesh, nor of the Will of Man, but of GOD;" by |