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PAGE 08

countenance; the bed-clothes not in the least disturbed; the pillow under his head perfectly straight, and his hand in its wonted posture, under his cheek. Here let us pause, ponder, and consider; and we cannot but be persuaded, that his prayers had been answered and sanctified: and thus we have great cause to believe, that he has fallen asleep in the everlasting arms of his blessed Jesus. Behold! what manner of love is this? nothing short of Love Divine, infinitely transcending the finite comprehension of mortal man. - "Be still, and know that I am God." We adore, we admire, we are lost in wonder and amazement!

He, like David in the remarkable 23d Psalm, expressed his confidence in God's grace: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." His departure appears like that of the Patriach's of old.

"The soul was gone before we knew
"The stroke of death was past.
"Soft was the moment, and serene,
"That all his sufferings closed;
"No agony or struggle seen;
"No features discomposed."

It will be recollected by many persons, that this pious man preached a sermon, on a memorable occasion, after the revolutionary war, in the North Dutch Church in WIlliam-street. He observed, that this Temple, which had been consecrated to the worship of Almighty God, had been sacrilegiously despoiled of its altar, and its interior accomodations, by the hands of infuriated men, sent from the old world to disturb the peace and harmony of a few humble Christians, who had fled to this western world, in order to seek an asylum from prosecution.

PAGE 09

His text was from Psalm cxlvii. 20 - "He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them: Praise ye the Lord." He began by exhorting his congregation, in a most fervent manner, to look up to Almighty God, the fountain of all mercies, and to contrast their then happy condition with that which they had endured for seven long years of banishment from their homes, from their friends, and from their altars, which they had dedicated to Almighty God. He entered into the rise and progress of the persecutions of the church in the old world, which had operated so strongly on the minds of pious Christians both in Holland and other European countries, that they had determined to seek an asylum in this western world, where, under the blessing of God, they had succeeded in planting this and many other churches, which had continued, for a length of time, unmolested - It may not be improper nor unprofitable, to dwell a few moments on one remarkable fact, not noticed by the historians of our country; that during the revolutionary war, under the Confederation, there was on record in the Journals of Congress, three Presidents of Congress, whose ancestors were all Protestants, natives of France, and who had been compelled, under the Revocation of the Edict of Nantz, to seek an asylum in this western world, viz. John Jay, Elias Boudinot, and Henry Laurens. The ancestors of those disinterested patriots were persecuted by the mandates of a merciless potentate, whose whole intellect was maddened by the fanaticism and superstition of an unrelenting priesthood: the Protestants were chased and hunted down throughout the whole territory of that beautiful France, like so many wild beasts of prey; there was no resting place for the head or the sole of the feet, night nor day: such was






        
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