the whole political world; producing a moral convulsion throughout the whole frame of society, so as to remove out of their places the false religions of the Gentile, and the temporary dispensation of the Jew, in order to make room for the everlasting Gospel. Such is the change which," with the word of his power," the Voice of Christ in his Church has either already effected, or is still effecting in the earth; until at length, "when the Gospel of the kingdom shall have been preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, the end shall come,” and a farther, a still more momentous change ensue, not merely of one dispensation, but of one world, for another; so that not the earth only, but also heaven shall literally be shaken, the Gospel itself still abiding, through the wreck of worlds and the fire of the great day, unto eternity. Such is the consummation which the word of prophecy ultimately contemplates; the last convulsion to be produced by that divine Voice, which now addresses us in the Gospel in the language of earnest, affectionate entreaty, and which man, in his folly, is so prone to despise. It now invites us to repentance: then it will summon us to judgment; and before it the earth shall pass away, and the heavens themselves be drawn aside as a curtain, or folded up as a vesture that is done with, and changed as a soiled raiment; the things that are shaken and admit of vicissitudes being removed, as things "made" to answer only a temporary purpose, that the city which hath foundations that cannot be shaken, the heavenly Jerusalem, the glorified Church of the Redeemer, may remain for ever.

With such prospects before us, well may we be expected, brethren, to endure to the end in our Christian course, even though it should occasionally be trying and afflictive; especially when we think upon the consolatory assurances which, in this chapter, the Apostle has given us, that God never visits us with afflictions unnecessarily, but to convince us of the things that belong to our peace ;-that in his severest dispensations he still deals with us as a father with his children, yea with love and wisdom infinitely superior to what the best of human parents have ever shown or felt; and that our own improvement and peace are the ends intended even in our greatest troubles. If affliction befel us by chance, then indeed we might despond; or if it were to be regarded as a proof of the divine displeasure, then might we sink beneath its weight. But, when we reflect that trouble is part of our necessary discipline for immortality, that, if we would reign with Christ in heaven, we must first suffer with him upon earth', and that, in passing through tribulation, we are only journeying on to our eternal home, our heavenly country, as fellow-citizens with saints made perfect and angels that have never fallen; surely there is enough to sustain our drooping spirits, enough to animate our souls under the severest trials of this transitory life. For a kingdom what will not men endure? How readily, with a crown in view, have the soldiers of the world resisted unto blood,

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we

striving against those that opposed may serve God accept

1 Rom. viii. 17, &c.

ably with reverence and godly fear. ver. 28.

them, and that too even when they knew, how uncertain their success ! And shall not the soldiers of Christ strive against sin even unto blood, should the divine wisdom require it, for the sake of a kingdom which cannot be moved, "eternal in the heavens ?" But alas! man of himself is sadly prone to neglect his best interest for the sake of securing present enjoyments or of avoiding transitory trouble. The weightiest considerations of eternity are too often easily overbalanced at the moment by the veriest trifles of time; and the kingdom of heaven willingly sacrificed for what this poor earth can give. May we, brethren, be on our guard against this deceitfulness of the human heart; and, not trusting in ourselves, or in any knowledge which we may have acquired of the glorious prospects of the Gospel, may we "have grace" from on high, by which alone we can render unto God' true and laudable service, that we may so faithfully serve God in this life, that we fail not finally to attain his heavenly promises '!' It is not sufficient that the truth of the Gospel be clear to our understanding, or that it captivate our imaginations, we must obey it also from our hearts, which we cannot do without the grace of God drawing up our minds to high and heavenly things "'

"Wherefore let us have grace." Such is the Apostle's exhortation. That we may have it, he takes for granted; having, in fact, already taught us, that we have in Christ an intercessor with God, who can feel for our infirmities, and through whom we may approach

1 Collect for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.

2 Art. XVII.

with boldness to the throne of grace, so as to obtain mercy, and to find grace, for our seasonable assistance. If then we have not grace, the fault is our own, in not praying for it to Him, who giveth his Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. "Ask," then," and ye shall have:" plead not your own natural weakness, neither rest on your own natural strength; but pray for divine grace, and rest not till you have it, and till you show that you have it, by "serving God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." For though our privileges are great and our prospects glorious, yet remember that notwithstanding, or rather that for that very reason, because we have great privileges and glorious prospects, the brightest possible hopes to stimulate our service, and the grace of God himself to assist us in it, our sin will be the greater, if we draw back and fall short of our heavenly destiny. God is still to his enemies a consuming fire; as the faithless Christian will assuredly find in that day of "fiery indignation,” “when the Lord Jesus," the present Saviour, the future Judge of mankind, "shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus." Oh! may we escape that "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power," with which the disobedient shall be "punished!" may we, with reverence and godly fear, and holy circumspection, strive continually, through the merits of Christ and by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to serve God acceptably, and persevere in the same all the days of

For our God is a consuming fire. ver. 29.

our life, whatever be our temptations or our trials; ever remembering, on the one hand, the everlasting glory which awaits us if we endure unto the end, and on the other, the loss which we shall sustain, yea and not only the loss, but the dreadful punishment we shall incur, if we "draw back unto perdition!"