THE MOURNERS OP ISRAEL. 635 heal and lead him : and when this healing work begins, then the soul begins to mourn sensibly for its old back- slidings, and conies under that promise ; Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Ans. Il. The mourners of Israel may imply fellow christians, that sought the Lord for him, and that mourned for his wanderings. All his friends, that have been of flicted for his sins and departure from God, shall rejoice in his return, and in his consolations. The ministers of the gospel, that have mourned over wandering souls, shall delight to see them returning to their great shepherd. The watchmen shall rejoice, with.the voice together they shall sing, when they shall see the people belonging to their charge, face to face, in the presence of the Lord. When the Lord shall bring the children of Sion back again to their father's course, and his ordinances, front their captivity to sin and Satan. And our thoughts may from hence take a rise, and meditate upon the overflow- ing joys of that day, when all the backsliders of Israel shall be brought home ; when all the mourners shall be comforted; when they shall return to Sion ; when they shall arise to heaven with everlasting joyupon their heads,, and sorrow and sighing shall fly away. SERMON V. 2 Colt. vi. 9. As dying, and beholdwe live. LET us read the account which St. Paul gives of him- self, his dangers and his sufferings, in 2 Cor. xi. 23, &c. and we shall see the words in my text abundantly exem- plified and confirmed ; in stripes above measure, in la- bours more abundant, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one ; thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep: in journeying often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in périls by my own country- men, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. The apostle is in all these suf-.
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