blood of fprinkling, and the grace of the Spirit, more completely to heal all its diforders, and more fully to establish its health. Obferve and study the temper of the holy Apostle. Take notice with what little concern he speaks of his afflictions and decays. His language in effect is, "If the outward man muft perish, let it perifh: I am not folicitous about that. If this tabernacle muft come down, let it come down. What is this to me, fince the inward man is ftrengthening and improving daily-fince my hope grows more ftrong and lively?" Nor was fuch holy courage and indifference about the ftate and concerns of the outward man peculiar to St. Paul as an apostle. Other chriftians have manifefted a like temper. When that pious and laborious minifter, Mr. Jofeph Alleine, had been long confined to his bed by a painful disorder, which deprived him of the use of all his limbs, he was asked by one of his friends how he could be content to lie fo long in that condition : to which he answered, "What! is God my father, Chrift my faviour, and heaven my inheritance, and fhall I not be content without health and limbs? He is an unreasonable

Howe.

16

reasonable wretch who cannot be content with a GOD, though he hath nothing else." It ought to be your great ambition, my suffering fellow-chriftians, to attain fuch a temper as this; and, in proportion as it prevails in your hearts, you may welcome your infirmities, as the forerunner of eternal health. A few pains and ftruggles more, and the outward man will be put off, with all its aches and forrows; and the inward man will appear in all its vigour; without a cloud upon any of its faculties, a clog upon any of its operations, or an allay to any of its enjoyments. A foul that hath this hope may rejoice, even in the views of death. Holy Mr. Baxter, who had not enjoyed a waking hour free from pain and fickness for many years, when he was asked, juft before he expired, how he did, anfwered," Almoft well."It is my earnest prayer for you who are aged and infirm, that God would ftrengthen you with all might by his Spirit, in the inner man, unto all patience and long-fuffering with joyfulness; and then, when flesh and heart fail, he will be the ftrength of your heart, and your portion forever. Amen.

4

Difcourfe IX.

JACOB'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE DIVINE CARE, AND BLESSING HIS GRAND-CHILDREN, CONSIDERED, AND RECOMMENDED TO THE IMITATION OF AGED CHRISTIANS.

GENESIS XLVIII. 15, 16.

And he [Jacob] bleffed Jofeph, and faid, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Ifaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Ifaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

text presents us with a very af

Tfecting scene; the patriarch Jacob

bleffing his grand-children, the children of his beloved fon Jofeph, whom he never expected to have seen alive, much lefs gover

nor

nor of the land of Egypt. The good old man was now above an hundred and forty years of age, and fo weak that he could not fit upright; yet his piety towards God, and his affection to his pofterity, continued warm and ftrong even to the laft. There is fomething very tender and folemn in this tranfaction, which 1 propofe now to confider; as it will fuggeft fome hints of inftruction to all; efpecially to you, my aged and honoured friends, whom I would now refpectfully addrefs and entreat.-I fhall,

I. Illuftrate the words, and

11. Confider what leffons of inftruction aged chriftians may draw from them. I am,

1. To illuftrate the text.

And here are two things obfervable: Jacob's recollection and acknowledgment of the divine goodness and care-and his prayer for his defcendants.

1. Here is Jacob's recollection and acknowledgment of the divine goodness and

care.

S

He

He acknowledgeth God, as the God of his pious ancestors, and as his conftant pre-.. ferver, and benefactor. He acknow

ledgeth God, as the God of his pious-anceftors :-God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Ifaac did walk :-An inftructive: phrafe; intimating that they believed in and worshipped Jehovah, the living and true God, were in a state of friendship with him, and made it the bufinefs of their lives to act as in his prefence, and in all things to ferve and pleafe him. It was an inftance of divine goodness to him, that he was defcended from fuch pious ancestors; and it gave him pleasure to recollect their piety-He alfo acknowledgeth God as his conftant benefactor:-"He hath fed me all my life long unto this day;" not now and then, when difficulties occurred, but every day; ever fince I had a being, as the original is; before I was capable of thinking or contriving for myself. He looks. beyond all fecond caufes to God, as the author of all the conveniences and comforts which he had enjoyed through so long a fertes of years. He acknowledgeth God as his conftant preferver: The Angel which redeemed