may not prefume upon time, but hold ourfelves always ready for its approach. Stand, therefore, with your loins girded and your lamps burning; for you know not what hour your Lord will come. At midnight, in your moft fecure and unfufpecting moments, the cry may be made. We have no affurance that he is not even now preparing his throne.And if, at this moment, he fhould defcendif the heavens above our heads were cleaving to make way for the Judge-if the flames were now feizing on the universeand the trumpet of the Arch-Angel were calling the living and the dead to judgment, how are we prepared for the great event? Where fhould we ftand? What would be your destiny my brethren? O my foul ! what would be thine ?-Although the period of the world is not arrived, Death, who is the messenger to arreft us for judgment, is always near, and ready to feize upon his prisoners. And in whatever ftate he lays upon us his frozen hand, he seals us up to the day of retribution. My beloved brethren, let us, therefore, be ever prepared for the moment of our departure, as for the awful and decifive moment of our judgment. And grant, O righteous and merciful Judge

of the world! through the merits of thy own most precious death and refurrection, that, in that day, we may ftand at thy right hand, and rife with thee to everlafting life!

AMEN!

DISCOURSE XVI.

ON THE HAPPINESS OF GOOD MEN

IN A FUTURE STATE.

REVELATION XIV. 13.

That they may reft from their labors, and their works do follow them.

HIS is the benediction pronounced by

Tthe Spirit of God on there by

the Lord. It was probably delivered to that beloved disciple, and evangelical prophet, who is generally held to be the writer of the revelations, during the rage of fome of those deftructive perfecutions that wafted the primitive church. The faithful disciples of Chrift, were then often called to feal with their blood, their attachment to their Lord, and to the precious truths which they had received from him. Their way through life was encompaffed with

enemies, they were engaged in frequent and arduous conflicts, expofed to perpetual dangers, and were daily obliged to meet death furrounded with thofe circumftances that render it moft formidable to the weakness of human nature. To confole and support them under fo many fufferings and trials, this gracious benediction was pronounced. But it is not confined in its application to the martyrs who glorified their Saviour by an illuftrious, but painful death. As every part of the word of God is of general use, fo this is applicable to every believer who dies in the Lord-who fincerely profeffes his name, in the midst of a finful world-who is educated in his school, and imbibes his fpirit-and who is united to him, as a member to the head, by a vital faith. In virtue of this intimate and indiffoluble relation they triumph with him over the miseries of life, over the power of fin the fource of all our other evils, over the terrors of death, and over the dominion of the grave.

The world is filled with many causes of affliction and diftrefs to every good man, that must render the grave to him at length a defirable retreat. And the promise of

eternal life, after his labors and fufferings are terminated here, offers to his hopes a state of peace and felicity, after which he muft often fecretly figh-He fhall rest from his labors, and his works fhall follow him. Of thefe expreffions, both of which are figurative, the firft implies a profound and eternal repofe, not only from all the fatigues of duty, but from all the agitations, the conflicts, the griefs, the miferies, that afflict this mortal flate. The fecond points to the felicity of a true believer, when he fhall finally receive the reward of his virtue, and especially of his pious and faithful labors in the service of his Redeemer.

It is with a view to illuftrate, as far as without prefumption I may attempt it, the future happiness of good men men, I have chofen the text, which I make the ground of the following difcourfe.

They reft from their labors, and their works do follow them.

Thefe figures point out to them a double fource of happinefs-Reft, and Enjoy

ment.