who, coming to the cross and earnestly desiring salvation, seek counsel and direction from you. Their knowledge and their faith may be very weak; but remember that your Master received a thief, helped a thief, sanctified a thief, and took this thief to himself, after he had pardoned him, as a pledge of his grace, and as a manifestation of his power. If we are conformable to his death, then we shall manifest great confidence in our heavenly Father. “Father, into thy bands I commend my spirit.' And if you, tried and afflicted parent, are made conformable unto his death, you will not say, "Oh, what will become of my child?" You who are pressed by difficulties will not say, See how all these circumstances are conspiring to bring me into distraction and confusion. No; but you will say as Abraham did, "Father, into thy hands I commend my Ishmael. O that Ishmael might live before thee!" You will say, "Father into thy hand I commend my circumstances; rule and regulate them for thy glory; be my guide and my friend for ever." This is to be made conformable unto Christ's death. Then, see what you have to do. Take this prayer home with you, and say, "Lord, I feel that my temper is not conformed, that my habits are not conformed; and the reason of it is my ignorance: I do not know Christ, I do not know the power of his resurrection, I do not know the fellowship of his sufferings sufficiently. Lord, increase my knowledge from this day; exert in me a desire after this knowledge." Then the sweet fruits will be perceived in all those who, by the power of faith and prayer, thus flee to him. The mediation of Christ's sufferings and death is the only way to make us holy and to make us happy. Some individual may be saying," This has been my prayer, for many years; but I find I do not make much progress." Perhaps you know some person who is always asking his friends to help him in difficulties in business, who makes no effort himself, and of course very often sinks, very often is in distress, never has that prosperity and enjoyment which he otherwise would have, even in this world. It is the same in spiritual things. A cold wish sent up to heaven will never bring much good into our souls: you may wish, and wish, and wish; but you will never obtain unless you ask. We know the sincerity of a man's wishes by his conduct. If a man wishes to be in the society of an individual whom he loves, he will so order his business that he shall have opportunity to do it. If a man wishes earnestly to rise in his business, and become honourable in the world, he puts forth his strength, he is continually engaged. And do you not wish to be a Christian in this way? Then prove the sincerity of your wishes by your conduct. And do not call this legal; it is evangelical, full of the Gospel and of the love of the Lord Jesus. "The love of Christ," says the Apostle," constrains me, not to live to myself, but to Him that died for me, and rose again." My young friends, be not content with any present knowledge or attainment which GOD may have granted to you; but follow on to know the Lord. Take care of the world. There are questions sometimes asked me, such as, "How far may a Christian go, and yet not contaminate himself with the world? Do you think it is right that, when my relatives wish it, I go into ungodly company, attend card tables, theatres, and so on?" There is one answer to such interrogatories: "Can a man take fire in his bosom and not be burned?" If we will turn to the world, and enter into it, and still hope to be friends with Christ, and make profession of the knowledge of his name, our souls will be ruined thereby, and be brought into confusion and distress. Wherefore let me beseech you, in the name of my Lord and Master, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. A Sermon, DELIVERED BY THE REV. J. HAMBLEDON, · AT HOLLOWAY CHAPEL, SUNDAY EVENING, AUGUST 18, 1833. Hebrews, xiii. 14." For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” THE world in general treats this text as though it were what is called a false reading. Look at the conduct of worldly men, and you would almost think that the text in their Bibles must read thus, "Here we have a continuing city, therefore we seek none to come.' But, my brethren, there is no false reading here; the text as it stands gives us the mind of the spirit of GOD. Then what inference follows? Worldly men are all wrong, faithful Christians are alone right. Two important topics of consideration are suggested to us by this text. First, THAT THERE IS NOTHING STABLE OR SATISFACTORY IN THIS WORLD EXCEPT IN CONNECTION WITH Secondly, THAT AN INHERITANCE LIGENT PURSUIT. May God grant us his aid, and the effectual grace of his Holy Spirit, while we at this time endeavour to meditate on these things. Our first topic of consideration suggested by the text is this, THAT EVERY THING IN THIS WORLD IS HERE "Here we have no continuing city." of her, therefore shall she not be moved." He "loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." Every thing seemed to promise Jerusalem pre-eminence among the cities of the earth; and, yet, within seven years from the time when the Apostle wrote this epistle, Jerusalem was taken by the Romans, her temple destroyed, her palaces levelled, more than a million of Jews perished in the siege, and not one stone was left standing upon another. Surely the Hebrew Christians, dispersed as they were among all nations, must often have remembered the Apostle's words, "Here we have no continuing city." The Apostle, you remember, was also a citizen of Rome; and on two occa sions knew how to assert his civil privileges; and Rome was often pronounced by her poets and orators "the eternal city," with her Capitol founded on an immoveable rock, with her power extended over the known world: yet the Apostle writing this epistle still says, “Here we have no continuing city." What is now become of the citizenship of Rome? Where is its record? What privileges does it bring? And where now is what then was Rome? Is it to be found in the mouldering columns, the ruined arches, the broken statues and crumbling relics, still discovered by the traveller on the banks of the Tiber? These things did not constitute aucient Rome. Where are her heroes with their conquering legions-where her senators and consuls-where her martial spirit, her liberties, her laws, her high-minded children? They are gone; and they have left us this lesson-"Here we have no continuing city." It is remarkable how the provi dence of GOD has brought destruction on all the cities, the most famed for strength and security, which once gave the fairest promise of continuance. Babylon was once the strongest of cities, with its massy walls so broad that six chariots could be driven on them abreast, and which extended for at least more than thirty miles its temples half a mile in circumference and a furlong in height its hundred brazen gates, that all seemed once to promise pre-eminence. And now what remains of Babylon! Broken hills of ruins, long lines and heaps of dust amid a death-like silence, interrupted only by the cry of doleful creatures, the wailing of solitary owls, and the dancing of wild satyrs. And where now is Nineveh? Its very site is difficult to be ascertained, so complete has been its destruction. And what now is Tyre, once the crown of cities, whose merchants were princes, and whose traffickers were the honourable of the earth? It is now, says a modern traveller, a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, and mountains; its only inhabitants a few miserable fishermen. And so with Carthage, Troy, and Ephesus-once amongst the fairest cities of the earth, but of whose splendour nothing now remains but a few mouldering fragments to mock their former splendour, and from time to time.re-echo in the Christian ear. "Here we have no continuing city." And, yet, men, even at this late period of the world's history, are as slow now in learning that lesson, as they were in former days. City after city, has come, to desolation, ruin looks them in the face on every side; and yet mankind will not persuade themselves but that they may find some continuing city here. mortality; every journal that appears contains its obituary. A city is also a place of great resort and concourse; there crowd follow crowd like an ever flowing stream. The walks of business, the haunts of dissipation, the halls of justice, the churches of GoD are continually thronged; but the individuals who compose the throng are ever changing. The stream still rolls on, but the drops which compose it are changed. Only analyze a single congregation, trace its individual members: a few years are found to witness an entire change. The same preacher, has other hearers; the same hearers have another preacher. A city is likewise a place of business and a focus for commerce. But in this sense also have we 66 no continuing city." The business of earthly cities will soon cease to engage our attention or occupy our thoughts. How trifling its importance, how slight its interest on a dying bed! What a nothingness will rest in it all the moment after death! Lastly, while some resort to cities for business, others we know frequent them for pleasure. There every one can find companions to his taste; multitudes keep each other in countenance; luxuries are there accessible; fashion reigns; frivolity, vanity, and vice, find there their favourite abode. Hence, in large cities, vice and ungodliness commonly abound. But in this regard also, there is here no "continuing city." The fashion of this world passes away; the pleasures of the world have a worm at their root; the end of all these things is death. Men may sin with a high hand; they may join together to laugh modesty and piety out of countenance, but there is no continuance in this course; it ends abruptly, for it fails. Some powerful disease treads on the heels of licentiousness-some lingering consumption follows in the train of dissipation-some murderous violence takes part in the angry quarrel-some apoplexy lurks among the guests at the sensual feast A city, as you all know, is a place of security. Now we have no continuing place of security here. What earthly city, town, valley, or house, is a city of refuge from death? Where is the city in which no mourners go about the streets-the inhabitants whereof never say, "I am sick?" I need not tell you, for every child of God knows some miserable end or other is there is no such city in our land-waiting for the drunkard. Oh, if we there is no such city in the world. Every week that comes has its bill of knew the secrets of large towns-if we could see the miserable beings whom sin is slaying by hundreds-if | for a mess of pottage; what think you I could present to your view a panoramic picture of the hospitals, the prisons, the workhouses, the graves, which intemperance, licentiousness, and sin, have filled-I think you would almost long to escape from such a world and rejoice to know that, “Here we have no continuing city." We have looked then at cities as places of security, of resort and concourse, of business, of pleasure; and, yet, in every case, we have uniformly found that, Here we have no continuing city." We, my brethren, have wants for the soul and eternity which no material perishable city can supply. The soul is a spiritual principle; and, therefore, nothing but spiritual things can satisfy its cravings. A man may bury himself in business till he has not leisure to think whether he has a soul; he may plunge into sensuality till it is hard to see in what he surpasses the beasts that perish; he may run the whole round of gaiety, try every vanity under the sun, drink deep of the cup of pleasure, and, in the midst of all, "There is no peace," no true and solid peace, "saith my GOD, to the wicked." There will be a secret dissatisfaction, a frequent remorse, the aching head and the aching heart, the conscious shame, the dread of death and the hour of judgment. Man has a soul, and that soul must have peace with GOD in order to be happy. Man is guilty and he must have pardon; he is unholy and must have a new nature; he has spiritual appetites which nought but spiritual food can satisfy. Man is also an immortal creature, and therefore nothing earthly present or transitory can fill his soul. If he were to live only in this world he might say, if he would, "Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die." But now, with eternity before him, and that eternity one of joy or misery, according to his principles and habits acquired here, nothing can give him solid satisfaction but that which ministers to his eternal welfare. You would smile at the folly of the child who should barter a piece of gold for a paltry toy; you pity Esau who sold his birth-right of a man who barters the joys of an inheritance in heaven for the toys, the trifles, the vanities, and the sensualities of this present passing world? Yet this is your own case if any among you are not acting on the conviction, that Here we have no continuing city.” But if you know any thing of the minds of the Apostles and the first Christians, then you know and feel this is not your rest, for it is polluted. The world treats you with coldness and indifference; no state honours, as it ought, your Lord; you are strangers and pilgrims on earth as all your fathers in the Christian life have been before you; you are like Noah's dove, who flew to and fro and found no rest for the sole of her foot, till she came back to the ark for refuge. Come, then, with me to our second part; and here have I promised to bring you good tidings-I announce to you the Gospel of Christ. There has been, I know, none of this in my first part, for there was none in my subject; there are no good tidings for those who expect to find their continuing city here. We go on to observe, then, that THERE IS A CONTINUING CITY TO COME, AND WE, BRETHREN, ARE TO SEEK IT. There is a continuing city; we can find none here, but there is one in heaven; heaven itself is that continuing city. And by this I understand not a material city like our earthly cities, with walls and towers and temples and streets. Such expressions when found in scripture in regard to heaven are figurative, and are used in condescension to our infirmities. You read of its "walls;" these denote the power and the omnipotence of GOD encompassing the redeemed. Its "foundations" refer to the depths of the divine counsels-the firm union of infinite wisdom, love, and power, which lie as the ground-work of the covenant of grace made with us in Jesus Christ. We read of the "light" which fills that glorious city; but it is to denote to us the brightness of the presence of GoD: "for the glory of GoD doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." It has no temples like earthly cities, for there is the living temple of Christ's body. The "precious stones" we read of as adorning the heavenly city, intimate the transparent lustre, the moral beauty, the richness, the brightness, the holy joys, the clear view of divine things, the perception of the glorious perfections of GOD, which are the portion of all those who are counted worthy to see that good land. Earthly cities, we said, are places of security but heaven is a place of continual security. There no thief can break in and steal; there no foe can ever scale the jasper wall; no sorrow, no sickness, no suffering, no death, and, above all, no sin and no tempter can enter there. Go round about our Zion; mark well her bulwarks; see the truth, the might, the glory of the Triune GOD, combined for its security: once safely there, you are safe for eternity. Earthly cities meanwhile may decay, generations may come and go, aye the whole world may be dissolved; yet the redeemed in heaven are secure from every danger. Earthly cities, we said, are places of resort and concourse, men of all nations flock there: but heaven is a place of continual resort; there the tribes of the Lord go up from all quarters of the globe; many go,-a few chosen ones in every age, and in some ages (GOD grant that it may be so in ours!) great numbers are persuaded to go up and possess the land; but none come away. It is like the sea, into which great rivers flow, and yet it never overflows. So heaven is continually being filled with inhabitants; never full till the whole number of the elect, a number known only to GOD, is complete. Therefore there is yet room; room for many, room for you. If all of you would but faithfully go to Christ, he would in no wise cast out one individual; and at the last day, we know, there shall be a great multitude that no man can number of all nations, kindreds, people, and tongues. And you that love good company, mind that you go to heaven: you shall have good Christians for your companions in going; you shall have saints, and angels, and Christ himself, for your companions in eternity. Earthly cities, we also said, are places of business; but heaven is a place of continual occupation, as well as of delight, for rest. Does this seem a paradox? They do rest from sin, from anxiety, from sorrow, from temptation; they rest not day nor night, praising and blessing God. We are to become, we are told, like unto the angels; and we know that they are full of fervour and obedience, never weary in well doing, never tired of holy worship. Earthly cities, we also observed, are frequented for pleasure; but heaven is the proper, the indigenous, the native land. "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever more." Whatever pleasure may here be found in loving GoD and obeying his commands, will there be found a thousand fold increased. The pleasures of heaven are pure, yet delightful. If the hope of heaven is a pleasure here, what will be the reality? If the communion of saints on earth, though they have infirmities and corruptions, is so refreshing, what must be their communion with each other and the Lord in glory? Heaven is pre-eminently the reign of spirituality and immortality. GOD is a spirit, and can make all the spirits around him partakers of spiritual pleasure. He only is immortal, yet he deigns to give immortality to all whom he admits into his presence. This is called "a continuing city," for it is a place of continuing security, resort, occupation, and pleasure; full of all that can satisfy a spiritual and immortal being. It is also a continuing city "to come." We have it now in promise from a faithful Gop; we have it in many a cheering hope of joyful expectation: even here on earth our citizenship and conversation may inhabit it; yet, in its fullest enjoyment it is ever, till we close our eyes on this world, it is ever a city to come." We walk by faith, and not by sight;" and here is a great difference between a worldly-minded man and a true believer. The worldly |