and west ; nay, walk the land in the length and breadth of it, for unto thee will I give it *

Christian brethren ! let us animate our steps, by viewing the glories of the city which our God has prepared, and where we hope ere long to arrive. Can you conceive

any happiness equal to the immediate enjoyment of the great God our Saviour; of having every power engaged in the admiration of his unveiled excellence; in the review of all his dispensations; and in the unceasing praises of the grace he so freely conferred ?

This will constitute a part of the employment above. We shall dwell with the Lord; we shall see him as he is; we shall be satisfied with his presence; we shall admire the wisdom and propriety of the darkest, severest, and most mysterious dispensations of his providence ; and we shall ascribe glory in the highest to that adorable Saviour, who brought us through so many tribulations, washed us from our sins, guided us by his counsel, comforted us at death, raised us from the dead, confessed us before assembled worlds, and received us to his glory.

Again ; can you conceive any joy equal to what must be experienced, when all the saints are placed beyond the possibility of temptation, sorrow, and sighing, of pain and death; when their many trials will only be remembered to increase their joy; when the afflictions of this life will be exchanged for an eternal weight of glory; when death itself shall be swallowed up in victory; and when this corruptible frame has put on incorruption and immortality?

Say, men and brethren, do not you feel an ardent wish to be fully prepared for mingling with that glorious society above? Are you not striving to enter in at the strait gate? Are you not giving all diligence to work out your salvation, laying hold on eternal life, and aspiring after the full perfection of future transcendent bliss ? May this be the happy effect of having called your attention to the rest which remains for the people of God, to the contemplation of that glorious city which our God has

prepared for the faithful, to which your wishes

and

and your hopes should daily be directed, and in which your supreme desires should entirely centre !

Let it be farther remarked, that our text styles these heavenly mansions, which the Holy One of Israel has prepared, a better and heavenly country. These titles of commendation and distinction lead our thoughts to the pleasing comparison and contrast between the present and future state of the saints. Every enjoyment here, however good in itself, is earthly, or mingled with much imperfection, frailty, and decay ; all beyond is heavenly, and therefore far better; the place is better, the society is better, the employments are better.

The place allotted for the future residence of the faithful in Christ, is far better than this earth which they inhabit. This is indeed a goodly world, and it exhibits a sublime manifestation of the wisdom, power, and goodness of its great Creator; yet its evening shades and midnight darkness, its famine and pestilence, its lightnings and tempests, remind us that it is earth, and tending to dissolution. But your future abode, O humble Chris" I saw,” says

tian! can never be subject to those changes and commotions; to dreary nights, or setting suns; to threatening skies, to lowering clouds, or dreadful storms : 66 John, “ the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven; and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: and there shall be no night there; and they need not the light of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof*' If this world is so fair and noble a fabric, how glorious must heaven be! This world was created to continue only for the period of a few revolving ages, and to be the abode of creatures who, an omniscient God foresaw, would soon violate his commands, and incur his indignation ; whereas heaven is the residence of angels and archangels, of cherubim and seraphim ; prepared by the God of infinite wisdom to be a suitable and perpetual abode for the selected objects of his everlasting love.

We next remark, that heaven is styled a better region with respect to society. Con

template template what unutterable happiness must flow from an intercourse with just men made perfect; when all the ransomed of the Lord shall hold delightful fellowship together, and will tell what God has done for them and theirs; when they who, amidst many imperfections, worshipped together on earth, and prayed, and watched, and wept together, shall unite in celestial songs of unceasing praise ; when they, who on earth were companions in tribulation, in labours, in dangers, and in duties, shall share together the happiness and the honours of the heavenly kingdom; when the vast multitudes redeemed from wrath and ruin, through the blood of the Lamb, shall testify how much they were debtors to that matchless Saviour, whose grace they long resisted, whose dying love they long despised, whose unwearied patience they long abused, and whose endearing offers they continued to scorn; how he himself subdued their unbelief, and brought them to the light of spiritual life; how he did not desert their

: feeble souls and fainting hearts, but sanctified them by his Spirit, guarded them through dangerous snares, kept them from

yielding

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