" his foul may be cast down, and dif" quieted within him," though his whole nature may be shocked by the violence of the blast, yet will he still hope in "GOD," yet will he still speak comfort to his dejected spirit; as he is well affured, that all this could not happen without the Divine Permiffion; that the Sun of Righteousness still shines in the firmament of his glory; and that the Prince of the Power of the Air, with all the horrors that furround him, must foon vanish before his all-piercing beams, and fink confounded to his infernal abode.

The Pfalm from whence my text is taken, presents us with a lively picture of a True Believer struggling under some violent affaults from the enemies of his peace. Whether the distress of David was occafioned by the perfecution of Saul, or the straights to which he was reduced by the unnatural rebellion of his his son Abfalom; whether it proceeded from a deep sensibility of those remains of corruption, which lurk in the most regenerate breasts; or from an apprehenfion, that God had withdrawn "the Light of his countenance" from his soul; in either of these cases, his affliction must have been acute indeed, and he might well break forth into this affecting strain of religious melancholy: "Why art thou cast down, O my foul? "And why art thou disquieted within "me?" Why dost thou suffer these outward afflictions to bear down thy constancy, or these inward struggles to weaken thy faith?" Hope thou in "GOD."-Hast thou not heretofore experienced, in innumerable instances, the Wonders of his Love? Hath not his Arm supported thee in the greatest extremities? Hath not his countenance cheered thee in thy darkest moments?-Why, then, this strange dejection now? O where is all thy wonted heroism fled ?where

where that lively trust and confidence in thy God, that has heretofore steeled thy breast against the arrows of adversity? " Is his arm shortened that it can"not save? Is his mercy clean gone for "ever? And hath God forgotten to be "gracious?"-No, my foul!-already do I feel his Animating Prefence-Sure I am, that " I shall yet praise him," for delivering me out of my present diftresses-Sure I am, that the sweet Influences of his BLESSED SPIRIT, will yet footh my deep disquietude, and give health and chearfulness to my dejected countenance-yea, sure I am, that he is still " my God," my God by Covenant, my Guardian God, the God of my Life, the God of my Love.

that hath enlisted under the banners of JESUS CHRIST, and commenced his Christian Warfare! - Come then, ye Candidates for Heaven! ye Followers of the LAMB! ye Strangers and Pilgrims upon earth! that have already entered upon your journey, through this valley of tears, to the Heavenly Canaan! Come, let us take a view together of the difficulties and dangers which we are taught to expect upon the road! let us trace the fources of that uneasiness and difquietude, to which the best of Chriftians are frequently exposed, and as we proceed, apply to them the noble prescription pointed out by the text: Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my

"Countenance and my God.”

The first, and, I believe, the principal sources of the fincere Christian's heaviness and disquietude, are those remains of fin and corruption, which stain the pureft purest and most regenerate breasts. Under the first openings of Grace, the first dawnings of Divine Light and Love upon the foul, the change from death to life is frequently so great and transporting, that the young unpractifed convert is lost in admiration.-From the depths of his own mifery and corruption, he is raised to fuch stupendous profpects of Redeeming Love, that, like the disciples on Mount Tabor, he is unwilling to leave the Divine Effulgence that furrounds him, to defcend from the height of Gofpel Comfort, and to encounter the innumerable obstacles that await his progress in the world below. But when once the fervours of this first love are abated; when once the young candidate is called forth to testify his affection for his SAVIOUR, by acts of obedience, patience, resignation, fortitude, under temporal as well as spiritual trials and calamities-then it is, that the clouds begin to gather-the day of distress approaches