his shoulders in their sight, and, as through excess of grief, to cover his face, so as not to see the ground ; in order to shew the people what should be done by them, both king and people, in their approaching siege and captivity0. Thus "he was to them as a sign '.
And have we no sign, confirming God's word to us?
[Yes, (the departed year is a sign to us ; or our departed brother is a sign to us ;) every person who dies around us, and every sound of his funeral knell, is a sign to us, that the visions of God are taking effect, and that soon they shall take effect with respect to us. We may, in our imagination, " put the evil day far from us ;" but every day and hour brings it nearer to us : and when " the day is fully come," not all the universe can arrest the hand of death, or protract our exist- ence here one single moment. Then, whatever be our age, whatever our rank, or whatever interest the lohole nation may
have in our lifee we must obey our summons, and go
into the presence of our God. Prepared or unprepared, we must stand naked before him, and receive from him that doom
which his word has taught us to expect I say again,
therefore, to you, that every person that is called^ into the eternal world is precisely such a sign to you as Ezekiel was to the Jews — a sign that the visions of God are true, and that 4> every one of them, in due season, shall take effect."]
And now, what encouragement had the prophet to discharge his painful office ? It was but a per- adventnre : " It may be they will consider11." With that humble, but feeble hope1, I address you, my Brethren. 1 . It may be that some of you will consider — [O that God would incline your hearts to consider all the visions which from time to time are set before you ! Truly, not one has ever been kept back from you: no ; "I have de- clared unto you, as far as I have been able, the whole counsel of God." Your lost estate has been set before you with all fidelity ; and the way of salvation proclaimed to you, in all its freeness, in all its fulness, in all its excellency : and that record has been explained to you in an infinite diversity of ways, that
e ver. 3 — 12. f ver. 6, 11.
s It was preached in Jan. 1827, on account of the death of the Duke of York.
h ver. 3. l 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26,
bb2