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2. The happiness of Heaven is also figured to us by the metaphor of Peace.

"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; "for the end of that man is Peace.*" "The Righte"ous are taken from the evil to come, that they may "enter into Peace."

This peace, to men who are born at enmity with God, and all goodness, must be unspeakably desirous! To have our consciences quieted against future apprehensions of sin, disobedience, and punishment; to have our souls purified from all the fell passions and inclinations of degenerate nature, from Malice, Anger, Wrath, Clamour, Evil-Speaking; to have our Hearts opened to the divine Impressions and inexpressible Sweets of Love and Friendship, which unite the spirits of the Just, and call them with the accordant voice of Joy and Happiness, to pour forth before the throne of God, their unwearied Anthems of Adoration and Praise-This is happiness, indeed, to all who love peace, and seek for Relief from Discord, Strife and Care.

3. Again the Scriptures, addressing the Devotees of worldly Riches and Wealth, represent the joys of Heaven as a treasure-a treasure which cannot be consumed, but shall ever abound and flourish" a treasure, which neither Moth nor Rust can corrupt; which Thieves cannot break through, nor steal; which cannot take Wings and fly away in our need, and which shall remain our portion and inheritance, forever." For, in the "new Jerusalem,

* Ps. xxxvii. Ver. 57.

« we shall drink and be satisfied out of the rivers "that flow by the Throne of God, whose Waters are

pure as Chrystal, and shall eat the Fruit of the "Tree of Life, whose Leaves heal the nations."* Some there are likewise, whose whole lives are devoted to the pursuit of what they call Pleasure; now, to draw their attention---the Happiness of Heaven, is called "Pleasures for evermore, nay Rivers of Pleasure; which do not cloy the taste, enfeeble the Body, unnerve the very Soul, and generally terminate in Poverty, Shame, Disease and Death; but the pleasures of Heaven, when we shall have put on Immortality, instead of weakening and wearying the Powers of the Soul, more and more inspire it with renewed Vigour, exalting it to the Strength of Angels, and a Taste for Happiness, as boundless and sublime as are the employments in which we shall be engaged, and the objects with which we shall be forever surrounded. The sons of Adam are as busy as he himself was, in shaking the boughs and scrambling for the fruit, of what is considered as the tree of Happiness and Pleasure; but in Heaven we shall be led to stand by the Tree of Life, to taste of its fruits forever and ever.

4. There are others again who, in this life, consider power and dominion and worldly grandeur, as the Supreme Happiness.

To them also, the bliss of Heaven is represented as Glory, Honour, Power and Dominion eternal.

* Rev. Ch. xxii. Ver. 1, 2.

See a fine passage in Cudworth's intellectual System, which led to this thought.

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The upright shall have dominion over the wicked "in the morning of the resurrection---in that everlasting Kingdom which Christ shall establish, "wherein they only who are rich in faith shall be "the joyous heirs." No outward enemy shall ever be able to rob or despoil the righteous of this honour and dominion; to which they shall be exalted, with the angels on high, in subordination to the King of kings, to execute his high commands, and to be his ministers of love, through the infinite bounds of his creation. We shall then have true glory and dominion; eclipsing, beyond comparison, all the little pageantry of what we call glory here. For we shall receive from Christ himself, a Crown of Life, and Diadem of Glory. The veil of our present weakness and ignorance, shall be taken away: we shall behold with open face, and in beatific Vision, the glory of the living God; and not only behold, but be changed into the image of Him, and advanced from glory to glory, through endless duration!

Oh, ravishing thought! Do not our Souls exult within us, and enlarge themselves as ready to burst beyond the bounds of this mortal scene, and to grasp the happy moment, when we shall spring from this earth like a bed of new-blown flowers, and shaking off the dross and lumber of the flesh, have our outward part clothed upon anew, with Glory, Honour and Immortality; and not only this outward clothing, but clothed upon within, by the glories of the Son of God.

Let us then dismiss from our mind, the Tinsel Splendor of earthly glory, from its lowest Dregs to

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Its highest Pomp of Thrones and Crowns---Ye that upon the former, and wear the latter, hide your diminished heads, and blush at your pageantry, when you think of this true glory which is prepared for those who shall inherit the kingdom of God!

But we must proceed a little farther in considering the circumstances of this heavenly glory, to which we are called to aspire. And it consists not only in the Perfection to which we ourselves shall be ad

vanced; but in the place, the company and the employ, to which we shall be admitted---even unto Mount Zion, the city of the living God---the Heavenly Jerusalem--the company of the innumerable Hosts of Angels; the delightful employment of rising and mixing, and joining in their Songs of Praise; in the instruction to be derived from their conversation, whose Faculties are enlarged beyond our present Comprehension; who are filled with the Knowledge of great and wonderful Things; each of them happy in Himself, and rejoicing in the Happiness of each other!--

If, therefore, Love and Friendship complete; if Rest and Peace undisturbed; if Treasure and Riches which cannot decay; if Power and Dominion secure from every Foe---if these can constitute a happy society, with the everlasting God, and Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant, and the blessed Spirit of grace, ruling at the head of all, and supplying and diffusing new irradiations of love and goodness, and perfection without measure, to all eternity--if this be Happiness---But I am lost in the contemplation and description of its immensity---in the joy to be

derived from the vision of God, the displays of his love, the fellowship of spirits so highly exalted, the raptures of converse and union, with intelligences so perfect and enlarged---so full of all that is great and good and heavenly, having the whole works of God, and all the ways and wonders of his Providence which we now so little understand, as the everlasting objects of their investigation and praise!

"The works of the Lord are great, sought out "of all them that have pleasure therein. How ma❤ "nifold are his works---in wisdom hath he made "them all!" "This is the language of good men, "even in this world." But how small a portion of his ways and works, do we now understand? In the blessed World above, it will not be so. Here indeed we may examine a little corner of this little speck of earth; we may strive hardly to analize a plant, a flower, an animated substance, and think to explain the laws of vegetable and animal motion. We may assist our dim Sight to view some Planets and Stars, which we call distant, and that traverse a small portion of universal Space; but all that fills the immeasurable Tracts beyond, lies hid from our keenest Search!

Yet still if that little, which is subjected to our li mited view, appears so great, so beautiful, and wonderfully grand and harmonius to an inquisitive mind; with what rapture shall we be filled, when with faculties more enlarged, we shall be enabled to survey all the works of God, to have for our instructors and associates, the angels that have surrounded his throne from the morning of the creation; to teach us on

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