see God may imply some new and unknown faculty; by which the saints may contemplate in God all truth and goodness: for truth and goodness subsist in him substantially; and by that contemplation shall be raised to high degrees of illumination, perfection, and happiness. We reckon it a delightful thing to behold the light; to contemplate this beautiful theatre of the world; and to look on the sun, by whose beams all other things are seen. How much more delightful must it be, to behold the Creator of the sun and of the world, in the unveiled beauties of his nature! He who delighted to dwell in pure hearts, will reveal himself in a more plentiful manner; and the purer a soul is, clad in a glorified body, but no longer clogged by corporeal infirmity, it will the better see and comprehend the mysteries of God's nature; and will be the more absorbed, with love and admiration, in contemplating the dimensions of redeeming love.

From all beatific vision of God, the impure in heart will be excluded. The truth is, God, in his wisdom, has so contrived our nature and our duty, that piety and happiness are one and the same,—differing but in the particular prospect under which they are contemplated. The good begin their heaven upon earth; and finish above, what was imperfect below. The more they are enabled, by the aid of grace preventing and following, to mortify sinful appetites, purge off corruptions, acquaint themselves with God by frequent prayer and meditation; by these means, the more they are spiritualized; and are more qualified for entrance into the many mansions which a holy Saviour has gone to prepare for their reception. Such disciples settle in a country, of whose language, laws, and customs they have laboured to acquire some previous knowledge. To the unclean, heaven itself would be a place of torment. How can the children of darkness open their eyes to the beams of divine glory? How shall obscene and blasphemous tongues join in the praise of a spotless God? Let us not deceive ourselves. To think that, without holiness, a man shall see the Lord, is not to hope, but to presume. He that soweth tares, will not reap wheat: and he that soweth unto the flesh, shall, of the flesh, reap corruption.

§ 8. Happiness of a peaceable disposition. MATTHEW, v. 9: HAPPY are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

To those who desire happiness, it must appear strange, that whom the world counts miserable, Christ pronounces happy; and whom the world extols, Christ depresses. Military renown, splendid trophies, captured standards, these are the glorious themes of poets and historians: but Jesus affirms, "Happy are the peace-makers." The words well become the lips of him who was himself the greatest peace-maker; who made peace not by the blood of victims, slaughtered upon the altars of worldly ambition; but by his own blood shed upon the Cross.

That we may, in some degree, ascertain the reasons why Christ commended the peaceful man; let us endeavour to analyse his character.

1. The peaceful man is free from all inordinate self-love, which embroils with all who oppose or offend it.

2. The peaceful man is patient under many ill things which are said of him. A too easy belief, on such occasions, leads to quarrels.

3. The peaceful man foresees the evil of dissension. The contentious man is involved in quarrels, before he is aware of the consequences.

4. The peaceful man is ever ready to disarm animosity by a candid and ingenuous confession of guilt.

5. The peaceful man is not injurious: he is ready to relax his own rights, whenever a temperate concession is likely to terminate animosity.

6. The peaceful man labours to repress all distracting and revengeful passions, which war against the tranquillity of the soul. Thus St. James decides, that wars and fightings among us come even from the lusts that war in our members.'

7. He discourages whisperers and tale-bearers, who 'separate chief friends.'

8. The peaceful man is careful not to inflame those at variance, by aggravating to each the unkindness of the other: knowing, that where no wood is, the fire goeth out.'

9. He persuades, as discretion may allow, the contending

parties to refer the matter in dispute, to the decision of some wise and prudent neighbour.

10. He endeavours to incline both parties to coolness and moderation; reminding them of their Christian obligations in the words, "Sirs, ye are brethren."

This disposition of mind marks the peaceful man in all his relations. As a citizen, he will not employ his ear in listening to seditious clamour, nor his tongue in calumniating his rulers, nor his pen in perversion of truth. As the member of the Church of Christ, he will not distract its peace by hasty and crude opinions; nor will he kindle the fires of persecution. As the member of a family, he will evince himself an affectionate husband, a careful father, a dutiful son.

This disposition leads to the honour of being called the children of God.

As the peace-makers carry a striking resemblance of some of the most amiable perfections of God, in the prevailing temper of their minds; as by their disposition and endeavours to establish and promote love, harmony, and order in the world, they concur with and imitate the best and greatest of all beings in his most beneficial and glorious works; they are justly to be accounted his children by being the sons of peace, they are the sons of the God of peace.

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The peace-makers labour to resemble Jesus Christ, the onlybegotten Son of God. He came down from heaven, to declare and establish the terms of reconciliation and peace between God and man; and by his doctrine and example, inculcated most strenuously and affectionately the law of universal benevolence; which tends to remove whatever excites vexation and disturbance in the world. When he was born, peace was proclaimed; when he left the world, peace was bequeathed from the Cross, to them that were near or afar off. The peace-makers tread in these sacred steps; and are happy in imitating labours of the same generous and beneficent kind. The features and linea ments of peace, impressed upon their souls, discover them to be the children of God, by being brethren of Christ.

A peaceable temper disposes us for the reception of those graces which peculiarly mark the children of God in this world, as heirs of future glory. If a rebellious spirit expelled from heaven the apostate angels, a peaceful spirit tends to facilitate

admission. Among other blessings of the peaceable temper, it is said (Ps. cxxxiii. 3) that God commands it to be attended with life for evermore. And among the things which prevent entrance into heaven, St. Paul includes "hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, and strife."

The very title, children of God, is a sufficient argument of their blessedness. The immense dignity, honour, and felicity resulting from this privilege, made Luther declare that if we could but affect our minds with a just and lively sense of them, it must necessarily over-whelm us with a joy which we should not be able to survive. What, then, remains, but that we are diligent in cultivating this excellent temper? Whatever may be the opinion of men concerning us, and whatever difficulties we may find in the way to peace, let us not less sincerely and less vigorously pursue it. And may the God of peace endow all of us with that wisdom which cometh from above; which is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

Let us in imagination, when deeds of carnage have been brought to a close, traverse the field of blood. Let us labour to count the numbers of those whose gaping wounds cannot be closed; dying in pain and thirst, and feeling that they die; thinking, if thought can be exercised, of wife or children or parents never again to be seen in this world; sent into the next state without having made-up the account of their souls. Let us pass from the field of battle, and represent to ourselves not merely villages and cities plundered by a licentious soldiery, and devoured by flames; nay whole provinces drained of inhabitants, desolated by famine, and rivers literally purpled with blood; then let us open the Gospel of Christ; and ask, If the peaceful are the children of God; who is the father of sanguinary heroes and ambitious conquerors?

§ 9. Happy are the persecuted. MATTHEW, V. 10-12. LUKE, Vi. 22, 23. HAPPY are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are ye when men shall hate you, and when they separate you from their assemblies as unworthy of communion; and shall reproach, revile, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against

you falsely for my sake; and cast out your name as evil, in civil and ecclesiastical matters, on account of your adherence to the Son of Man. Rejoice ye in that day; be exceeding glad; and leap for joy: for behold, great is your reward in heaven: for in like manner did their fathers, who so persecuted the prophets, Moses, Elijah (1 Kings, xviii.), Jeremiah, Ezekiel; who were before you, the ambassadors from God to them. (2 Chron. xxxvi. 16. Acts, vii. 51. Heb. xi. 36.)

To be persecuted for the sake of righteousness is to be evilentreated even unto death, for unshaken perseverance in maintaining the doctrines and in observing the duties which are sanctioned by the revealed word of God. It is the cause, therefore; and not the suffering, which constitutes the martyr.

That a religion, announcing peace among men and brotherly affection, should awaken the fires of persecution, is strange. But Christ, while apprising his disciples of these melancholy results, not only displays his own prophetic spirit, but he deters all hypocritical disciples; and proves the divinity of the Gospel which the wrath and malice of man could not prevent from taking root.

To his disciples who were summoned, many of them, to perish by the most agonizing tortures of the most ingenious cruelty, he proposes "a great reward in heaven" inasmuch as martyrdom implies the full and uniform exercise of many Christian qualities of these, the more eminent, are, 1, faith; 2, love; and, 3, courage.

1. The faith of a martyr is that which overcomes the world. In the catalogue of afflictions which the Saints of God have endured, we find this principle of faith as the cause of their patient submission to mockings, scourgings, imprisonment, destitution, and death, in all its variety of painful forms. It thus realizes St. Paul's definition in being "the substance of things hoped-for, and the demonstration of things not seen" inasmuch as it makes the future world present; and represents the Son of Man standing at God's right hand, ready to receive and reward those who, for his sake, have despised the shame and pain of the Cross.

2. The patient suffering of persecution for Christ is a testimony of the greatest Love. He himself declares, that "greater