redeemed fhall dwell in the prefence of God, who alone can fill the unlimited extent of their defires-there they live in the delightful exercife of an eternal love, and in the full poffeffion of all that can render them fupremely bleffed-for, "in his prefence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forever more."*

There they cease not celebrating in fongs of extacy, the infinite perfections of God, and the boundless riches of redeeming love.

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Hallelujah! Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power unto the Lord our God."+ Worthy is the Lamb that was "flain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blef fing!" There, according to the emblematical language of the revelations, they are feated on thrones, and receive from his hands celestial diadems-for, faith the fpirit, "they fhall reign with him forever and ever."§

If human nature, notwithstanding all its prefent imperfections, is destined to

* Pfalms xvi. II.

+ Revelations xix. 1. Revelations v. 12. Revelations xxii. 5.

fuch improvement and felicity, much more is it reasonable to believe that the eternal habitations of the pious, and the temple of the immediate prefence of God, are infinitely superior in fplendor and glory to all that we now behold in the fublimell, or the moft beautiful works of nature. When this veil of fenfe fhall be withdrawn, what an unutterable scene of wonders fhall be difclofed! Imagination cannot picture them, language cannot defcribe them, we have no powers, at prefent, capable of admitting or fuftaining the view. Could we fuppofe a mole that grovels in the earth, enveloped in abfolute darkness, and circumfcribed to a few inches, to be endued with the powers of vision and reason, and fuddenly admitted to contemplate, with the eye of Gallileo, or the mind of Newton, the fplendors and boundless extent of the univerfe, its ravishments, its tranfports, its extafies, would afford but a faint image of the raptures of the foul opening her immortal view on the glories of that celeftial world.

But the glory of the heavenly flate confifts not only in the augmented powers of

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human nature, and the external magnificence that adorns it, but in the holy and devout, and, may I not add, the benevolent and focial pleasures that reign there.

There "the pure in heart fee God,"*-there they "know even as also they are known”†—there they love without fin him whom it was their fupreme delight to contemplate and to love on earth.—And if, with the divine philofopher of Greece, I may venture to speak fo, there they mingle themselves with God.-But this is a fubject which I dare not touch. I fear to profane it by the imperfect colouring, or the mifguided fervors of fenfe.-Sometimes the humble and devout believer, in the communion of his foul with God, or in the celebration of the precious myfteries of his grace in his temples here below has enjoyed fuch discoveries of his infinite goodness and mercy as have been almost too powerful for the feeble frame of flesh and blood-Ah! what then will be the manifeftations of Heaven! My beloved brethren, an Almighty power, a

*Matthew v. 8.

Corinthians xiii. 12.

celeftial regeneration will be necessary to enable you to sustain the unutterable bliss!

I have ventured to mention alfo the focial and benevolent pleasures of that flate. And it will not, perhaps, be the smallest part of the felicity of pious fouls to enter into the fociety, to participate the joys, and to receive the congratulations of those perfect fpitits who have never fallen from their rectitude, and of the faints redeemed from among men, who have gone before them to take poffeffion of their promifed_reft."There is joy in Heaven, faith Christ, over one finner that repenteth"-how much greater will be their joy, when he has efcaped the dangers of the world, when he has no more cause of repentance, when he has kept the faith, when all his conflicts and temptations are finished, and he has arrived at the end of his course where nothing fhall even be able again to shake the security of his ftate, or to impair the plenitude of his happiness? What high enjoyment will it be to meet there his fellow travellers through the dangerous pilgrimage of life, efcaped

Luke xv. 7.

from its pollutions and its fnares. To meet there with "Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob and all the prophets," with all the holy apostles and martyrs of Chrift! To meet there the friends who were moft dear to him on earth, whose fouls were mingled with his! To meet there his fellow Chriftians out of every denomination, on whom, perhaps, he had been accustomed to look with dif trust and jealoufy! Nay more, to meet there devout men like Cornelius from every nation under Heaven; and to fee the grace of God infinitely more extended than those narrow limits which probably his prejudices had prescribed to it! What immortal confolations muft fill the breafts of those who " are come unto mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerufalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general affembly of the Church of the firft born, who are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of juft men made perfect.*"

The immutability of the happiness of Heaven is another character of it, that deferves our confideration. The power of

* Hebrews xii. 22, 23.