from every

kind

blessed of every age, red, and nation, and tongue, who have died in the Lord, all cemented in the closest bonds of friendship, and each endeavouring to promote another's happiness, and united with one accord in singing the praises of their almighty and gracious Redeemer! What a blessed, what a glorious company, must that be, which fills the mansions of our Father's house above! God himself, the glorious and all-sufficient Jehovah, is present, displaying, in the most illustrious manner, his adorable perfections to the view of all its blessed inhabitants. It is here where the glorified body of our Saviour resides,where all the celestial hierarchies and the countless hosts of angels are represented as surrounding the throne on high. There believers of every age, from every quarter of the world, they who flourished in ages preceding and succeeding the promulgation of the gospel, they with whom we ourselves were personally acquainted, and whom we dearly loved, and they who believe in Christ until the end of time, now delivered from every remainder of sin and cor

and

1

ruption, are become glorified spirits, in a complete conformity to the image of their Saviour and their God. Although here compassed about with manifold infirmities and imperfections, they are now exalted into the presence of their eternal Father, and shine as the brightness of "the sun in the firmament, and as the "stars for ever and ever.

John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was favoured, before his departure from this scene of trial and valley of tears, with a vision declarative of the everlasting state and employment of the ransomed of the Lord. Listen, my friends, to the language he employs in describing them: "After this I beheld, and,lo, a great "multitude, which no man could num"ber, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the "throne, and before the Lamb, clothed "with white robes, and palms in their "hands;-saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, "and honour, and power, and might, be "unto our God for ever and ever. A"men."

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66

Much more might be said on this de

lightful subject, but you must be sensible no imagination can conceive, no tongue can express, no description can exhaust, the amount of the accumulated glory and blessedness provided for the faithful in Christ. Indeed, it is eternity alone which can unfold the whole to our view ; and the successive ages of eternity shall roll on, while their happiness will be ever new, their employments ever delightful, and their measures of knowledge and holiness ever in increasing progression. The inheritance which they are to gain is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away. To its joys there is no interruption, and their duration is without end. The heavens shall pass away, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up; but the felicity of the righteous shall at that time be only in its commencement; and when millions of ages have elapsed, it shall have suffered no diminution, but shall be found to have gone on augmenting in the purest and most exalted spiritual enjoyment. O blessed Eternity! when faith can draw aside the veil, and look unto

thee, what scenes rise to the astonished eye! We behold joy above joy, and glory above glory, till the enraptured imagination is overcome with the amplitude of the view,-is lost in the boundless contemplation,

Thus have I attempted, my brethren, to give you a faint description of what is implied under that rest, into which the people of God shall be received upon their leaving this sinful and wretched world. This shall be the glorious termination of all their trials and afflictions, their labours and sorrows. What then is the practical tendency of all that has been said on this subject? Is it not, to excite you to comply with the apostle's exhortation in the verse following my text, viz. "to labour," and to labour earnestly, "to "enter into that rest." Your resolutions must not be transient :-your exertions must not intermit :-your faith must not waver. Take unto you the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always, with all prayer, and supplication, and watching thereunto with

all perseverance, that you may finally enter into that rest which remaineth to the people of God. Some may have a longer course in this world to run than others, and a greater fight of affliction to endure; but in heaven all the redeemed of the Lord shall at last safely land, and find an abundant recompense for all the labours and sufferings they were appointed to undergo in a present state.

But I fear there are some amongst you, who, notwithstanding the powerful motives which this subject affords to animate their exertions to lay hold on the hope set before them, and stedfastly to persevere in the exercise of the means granted to prepare them for entering into the rest of the people of God, will still choose the service of the world, and la- ́ bour in the work of sin. Alas! my hearers, pride not yourselves on your wisdom; for you are making a most foolish, a most miserable choice. Sin is a hard taskmaster, and the world's service laborious indeed. And though the pleasures of sin be gained, though the riches and honours of the world be to satiety obtained, what profits do you therefrom reap?