power of God through faith unto sal"vation."

The New-Testament writers speak of this matter not in a dark or doubtful manner, but in language of the highest assurance and delight." We know,” says St Paul," that if our earthly house of this "tabernacle were dissolved, we have a "building of God, a house not made with "hands, eternal in the heavens." But, my brethren, it is unnecessary to multiply passages in support of a doctrine so clearly asserted in the words of the text. They alone are sufficient to establish our belief of this essential article of the Christian faith; for the Apostle positively affirms, that "there remaineth a rest to the people of God."

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Both nature and revelation concur in declaring, that this world was never designed to be the place of our everlasting bode. Melancholy, indeed, would be our anticipations, if this life, which comes so speedily to an end, were the whole of our existence, and if we had no prospect and no hope beyond it. But, blessed be God, who has made an original and indelible impression upon the soul, and who has still

more clearly revealed it in the gospel of his Son, that man, when he dies and descends into the dark mansions of the dead, does not cease to be,-that he is not for ever to be confined in the prison of the grave, but that the termination of the present life is the commencement of a never-ending existence. We are taught to consider this world as a state of trial and probation, as a school of discipline, where we are trained up and fitted for immortality; and that according to our present character and conduct, our everlasting state shall be fixed. Let us, therefore, in the remainder of this discourse, endeavour, under the divine blessing, to illustrate the nature of that rest, which is said in our text to remain for the people of God, and which is held forth to us as a powerful motive to animate our exertions, and which is more than sufficient to compensate for all the labours and sufferings we are required to undergo in order to its attainment.

In entering upon this subject it may be necessary to observe, that it is impossible to handle it in such a manner as to gratify all the curious inquiries of the hu

man mind. It is a subject not fully revealed in the word of God, and though it were, it is not probable that our limited faculties could comprehend it. Paul himself, with all his inspired knowledge and eloquence, did not pretend clearly to understand nor fully to describe it. He was conscious that mortal man was unequal for the task, is possessed neither of faculties to conceive, nor of language to express the nature and extent of celestial bliss. When he relates that he himself had been caught up into paradise, and had a view of the third heavens, and was so deeply impressed, so enraptured with the prospect, that whether he was in the body or out of the body he could not tell; the only account which he finds himself able to impart of its stupendously glorious scenes, is, that "he heard un

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speakable words, which it is not lawful "for man to utter." In like manner, the provision which Infinite Goodness has made for the everlasting enjoyment of believers in the world of spirits, is thus described by the same apostle, in the 2d chapter of 1 Corinthians, in reference to a passage from the 64th chap

ter of Isaiah: "Eye hath not seen, nor

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ear heard, neither have entered into "the heart of man the things which "God hath prepared for them that love " him."

In order, however, to aid our conceptions, the richest and most brilliant ima ges, which nature and art can afford, are employed in Scripture to give us some faint ideas of the grandeur and happiness of the New Jerusalem. There we find it set forth as a garden, a feast, a kingdom, a throne, a crown, an incorruptible inheritance, an exceeding weight of glory. But there is perhaps no way of describing it, which gives to us more clear and solid notions on the subject, than the one used in our text,―of its being a place of “rest” which remains to the people of God. When heaven is said to be a place of rest we then can understand something of what is meant. When we have it for our edification recorded, that "blessed are "the dead who die in the Lord, for they "rest from their labours," we then more distinctly apprehend the nature of that happiness which is to be bestowed; be

cause we know what the labours are from

which we are to "rest."

Many are the hardships and sufferings of body to which we are exposed in this valley of tears. What is the life of the generality of mankind, but a continued succession of toil and labour! From the cradle to the grave they are doomed to "earn their bread with the sweat of "their brow." But this is not all. How soon may they be deprived of health and strength? How soon may disease cause them to wish, that their portion of mortal life was at its close?-But, amidst sufferings of every kind to which their mortal condition is subjected, believers in Jesus can with delight look forward to that rest from their labours which in our text is promised. This assurance and hope infuse comfort into the heart of the beggar at the gate, as well as of the rich man clothed in purple and fine linen, when under bodily affliction. In the bosom of Abraham Lazarus is made whole, and is freed from all the diseases, and relieved from all the wants which he had to encounter on his earthly pilgrimage. There, in that blessed abode, " shall be no

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