How unlike every present meeting! Here our intercourse is chilled with the certainty of separation. There we shall meet to part no more; we shall be for ever with each other, and for ever with the Lord. Now affliction often enters our circle, and the distress of one is the concern of all. Then we shall "rejoice "with them that rejoice," but not " weep with them "that weep ;" for "all tears shall be wiped from our <c eyes, and the days of our mourning shall be ended."

Come then, my dear hearers, and invite the religion of the blessed Jesus, this one thing needful, this universal benefactor of mankind. It has "the promise "of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." It secures our individual and our relative happiness; it brings peace into our bosoms, and joy into our dwellings. Let us resolve to pursue it ourselves; let us enforce it upon our connections; let us dedicate our tabernacles to God; offer the morning and evening sacrifice of prayer and of praise; and whatever be the determination of others, let us say for ourselves, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

SERMON XX.

HAPPINESS IN DEATH.

2 PETER . 11,

FOR SO AN ENTRANCE shall BE MINISTERED UNTO YOU ABUNDANTLY, INTO THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

MY Brethren, among the various motives with which Revelation abounds, there are none more solemn and impressive than those which are derived from-DEATH. Hence the sacred writers often refer to it. They remind us of the suddenness of its arrival. They forewarn us of the nearness of its approach. They also intimate the importance of its consequences as terminating this state of trial, sealing up our characters, and transmitting them to the judg ment of the great day, to be opened and published before an assembled world.

The apostle Peter urges the MANNER of our dying. He would have us die WELL, not only in a state of sal vation but of peace and triumph; "So an entrance "shall be ministered unto you abundantly, into the "everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus

"Christ." To do justice to this subject, it will be necessary to consider three things. I. The state to which the Christian looks forward, "the everlafting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Chrift." II. The mode of his admission, "an entrance minis"tered abundantly." III. The condition on which the privilege depends, it is the consequence of something clearly implied; "So, So AN ENTRANCE SHALL ABUNDANTLY, INTO THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND "SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST."

6

BE MINISTERED UNTO YOU

I. Christians, we know very little of "the hope "which is laid up for us in heaven;" it is "the glory "which shall be revealed in us." While we are in this weak state of flesh and blood, the full disclosure would be too dazzling for the feeble eye. It would also, by making too ftrong an impression, operate injųriously, unhinging us from our present connections, and depriving those concerns which demand a subordinate share of attention, of all power to ftrike and engage our minds. "We walk by faith, not by sight;" but "we know in part." We have some representations of our future blessedness accommodated to our faculties, and derived from scenes with which we are familiar.

It is a KINGDOM, a state of royal empire, expanding over a better, a heavenly country, where there is no curse; whose laws are equity and perfection; whose riches and honours and resources are infinite; whose subjects are all wise and good; living together as friends, all princes themselves, all happy, escaped

from the troubles of life, the infirmities and diseases of body, the distresses and accusations of conscience, the remains of ignorance and of sin, and innumerable vexations, which now make us groan, and long to emigrate thither. Two things are spoken of this king. dom, which deserve remark.

The first concerns its permanency and duration.→→ It is "the EVERLASTING kingdom of our Lord and "Saviour." Every thing here is perishable and tran sitory. We tremble to look at our possessions and enjoyments, left we should see them in motion, spreading their wings to flee away. Many already in talking of their comforts are compelled to go back; “I "HAD a husband, children, health, affluence, and I "said, I shall die in my neft."

As it is with individuals and families, so it is with communities. "The fashion of this world passeth "away." Where now is the city whose top was to reach to heaven and defy a second flood? What have become of the kingdoms of the earth, whose fame fills the page of hiftory? The Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, Roman empires arose, aftonished mankind for a season, and disappeared. And not only the moft magnificent and durable productions of human power and skill, but even the established frame of nature shall be demolifhed; "The heavens fhall pass away with a

great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent "heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein

fhall be burnt up. Nevertheless, we according to "his promise look for new heavens and a new earth, "wherein dwelleth righteousness." Then follows a kingdom not marred by sin, not liable to declension

or change; a kingdom which cannot be fhaken, secure from internal decay and external violence; a kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, and which shall survive its dissolution, and having seen the sun turned into darkness and the moon into blood, fhall flow on through eternal ages.

The greater any good is which we possess, the more does it awaken our concern, and the more anxious are we to inquire after security and tenure. But here is no room for apprehension; the happiness is as certain as it is excellent, as durable as it is vaft; and the scripture never overlooks this important consideration. Is it "meat?" It "endureth to everlasting "life." Is it a "treasure?" "Moth and ruft can"not corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal." Is it "a crown of glory?" It "fadeth not away.' Is it a "house?" It is "a building of God, not made "with hands, eternal in the heavens." Is it a " city?” It is "a city which hath foundations, whose builder "and whose maker is God." Is it a "kingdom?" It is "everlasting."

Behold the second circumstance with regard to this. blessed state. It is "the everlasting kingdom of our "LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST." And what means this relation? It is surely designed to distinguish him from a mere possessor, and to intimate peculiar prerogative, residence, administration. It is his by claim. As the Son of God he is "Heir of all "things: being made so much better than the angels, "as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excel"lent name than they. For unto which of the angels "said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have