fiercest of) serpents, Luke x. 19. Old Simeon, clasping the child Jesus in the arms of his flesh, and the glorious Mediator in the arms of his faith, departs with tranquillity and peace. That bitter persecutor Saul, having won Christ, being found in Christ, longs to be dismissed from cumbrous clay, and kindles into rapture at the prospect of dissolution, Phil. i. 23.; 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. Methinks I see another of Immanuel's followers, trusting in his Saviour, leaning on his beloved, go down to the silent shades with composure and alacrity, 2 Pet. i. 14. In this powerful name an innumerable company of sinful creatures have set up their banners, and "overcome through the blood of the Lamb." Authorized by the Captain of thy salvation, thou also mayest set thy feet upon the neck of this king of terrors. Furnished with this antidote, thou also mayest play around the hole of the asp, and put thy undaunted hand on this cockatrice den, Isa. xi. 8. Thou mayest (Acts xxviii. 35.) feel the viper fastening to thy mortal part, and fear no evil : thou shalt one day shake it off by a joyful resurrection, and suffer no harm.

Resurrection! that cheering word eases my mind of an anxious thought, and solves a most momentous question. I was going to ask, Wherefore do all these corpses lie here, in this abject condition? Is this their final state? Has death conquered? and will the tyrant hold captivity captive? How long wilt thou forget them, O Lord! For ever? No, saith the voice from heaven, the word of divine revelation, the righteous are all "prisoners of hope," Zech. ix. 12. There is an hour, (an awful secret that, and known only to all-foreseeing wisdom), an appointed hour there is, when an act of grace will pass the great seal

thoughts give the highest entertainment to the fancy, and impart the noblest improvement to the mind. They not only refine our taste, but prepare us for death, and ripen us for glory. I never take up this admirable piece, but I am ready to cry out, "Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens;" i. e. "Inspire me with such a spirit, and life shall be delightful, nor death itself unwelcome."

above, and give them an universal discharge, a general delivery from the abodes of corruption. Then shall the Lord Jesus descend from heaven, with the shout of the archangel, and the trump of God. Destruction itself shall hear his call, and the obedient grave give up her dead. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, they shake off the sleep of ten thousand years, and spring forth, like the bounding roe, "to meet their Lord in the air.”

And, O! with what cordial congratulations, what transporting endearments, do the soul and body, those affectionate companions, reunite! But with how much greater demonstrations of kindness are they both received by their compassionate Redeemer! The Ancient of days, who comes in the clouds of heaven, is their friend, their father, their bridegroom. He comes with irresistible power and infinite glory. But they have nothing to fear from his majestic appearance. Those tremendous solemnities, which spread desolation and astonishment through the universe, serve only to inflame their love, and heighten their hopes. The Judge, the awful Judge, amidst all his magnificence and splendour, vouchsafes to confess their names, vouchsafes to commemorate their fidelity, before all the inhabitants of the skies, and the whole assembled world.

Hark! the thunders are hushed. See! the lightnings cease their rage; the angelic armies stand in silent suspense; the whole race of Adam is wrapt in pleasing or anxious expectation. And now that adorable Person, whose favour is better than life, whose acceptance is a crown of glory, lifts up the light of his countenance upon the righteous. He speaks; and what ravishing words proceed from his gracious lips! What ecstasies of delight they enkindle in the breasts of the faithful! "I accept you, O my people! Ye are they that believed in my name: Ye are they that renounced yourselves, and are complete in me. I see no spot or blemish in you; for ye are washed in my blood, and clothed with my righteousness. Renewed

by my Spirit, ye have glorified me on earth, and have been faithful unto death. Come, then, ye servants of holiness, enter into the joy of your Lord. Come, ye children of light, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom that shall never be removed: wear the crown which fadeth not away, and enjoy pleasures for evermore !"

Then it will be one of the smallest privileges of the righteous, that they shall languish no more; that sickness will never again shew her pale countenance in their dwellings. Death itself will be "swallowed up in victory." That fatal javelin, which has drank the blood of monarchs, and finds its way to the hearts of all the sons of Adam, shall be utterly broken. That enormous scythe which has struck empires from their root, and swept ages and generations into oblivion, shall lie by in perpetual uselessness. Sin also, which filled thy quiver, thou insatiate archer! sin, which strung thy arm with resistless vigour, which pointed all thy shafts with inevitable destruction—sin will then be done away. Whatever is frail or depraved, will be thrown off with our grave-clothes. All to come is perfect holiness, and consummate happiness; the term of whose continuance is eternity.

O eternity! eternity! how are our boldest, our strongest thoughts lost and overwhelmed in thee! Who can set land-marks to limit thy dimensions, or find plummets to fathom thy depths! Arithmeticians have figures to compute all the progressions of time; astronomers have instruments to calculate the distances of the planets; but what numbers can state, what lines can gauge, the lengths and depths of eternity!"It is higher than heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, broader than the sea," Job xi. 8, 9.

* Isaiah, speaking of the new Jerusalem, mentions this as one of its immunities, "The inhabitant thereof shall no more say, I am sick.” Another clause in its royal charter runs thus: "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain." Isa, xxxiii, 24. Rev. xxi. 4.

Mysterious, mighty existence! A sum not to be lessened by the largest deductions; an extent not to be contracted by all possible diminutions. None can truly say, after the most prodigious waste of ages, "So much of eternity is gone." For, when millions of centuries are elapsed, it is but just commencing; and when millions more have run their ample round, it will be no nearer ending. Yea, when ages, numerous as the bloom of spring, increased by the herbage of summer, both augmented by the leaves of autumn, and all multiplied by the drops of rain which drown the winter; when these, and ten thousand times ten thousand more-more than can be represented by any similitude, or imagined by any conception-when all these are revolved and finished, eternity, vast, boundless, amazing eternity, will only be beginning!

What a pleasing, yet awful thought is this! full of delight, and full of dread. O may it alarm our fears, quicken our hopes, and animate all our endeavours! Since we are soon to launch into this endless and inconceivable state, let us give all diligence to secure our entrance into bliss. Now let us give all diligence, because there is no alteration in the scenes of futurity. The wheel never turns; all is steadfast and immoveable beyond the grave. Whether we are then seated on the throne, or stretched on the rack, a seal will be set to our condition, by the hand of everlasting mercy or inflexible justice. The saints always rejoice amid the smiles of heaven: their harps are perpetually tuned; their triumphs admit of no interruption. The ruin of the wicked is irremediable: the fatal sentence, once passed, is never to be repealed-No hope of exchanging their doleful habitations; but all things bear the same dismal aspect for ever and ever.

The wicked! my mind recoils at the apprehension of their misery. It has studiously waved the fearful subject, and seems unwilling to pursue it even now. But it is better to reflect upon it for a few minutes, than to endure it to eternal ages. Perhaps, the con

sideration of their aggravated misery may be profitably terrible; may teach me more highly to prize the Saviour, who "delivers from going down to the bottomless pit;" may drive me, like the avenger's sword, to this only city of refuge for obnoxious sinners.

The wicked seem to lie here, like malefactors in a deep and strong dungeon, reserved against the day of trial. "Their departure was without peace." Clouds of horror sat lowering upon their closing eyelids, most sadly foreboding the "blackness of darkness, for ever." When the last sickness seized their frame, and the inevitable change advanced; when they saw the fatal arrows fitting to their strings-saw the deadly archer aiming at their heart, and felt the envenomed shaft fastened in their vitals: Good God! what fearfulness came upon them! what horrible dread overwhelmed them! How did they stand shuddering and aghast upon the tremendous precipice! excessively afraid to plunge into the abyss of eternity, yet utterly unable to maintain their standing on the verge of life.

O! what pale reviews, what startling prospects, conspire to augment their sorrows! They look backward, and behold a most melancholy scene! Sins unrepented of, mercy slighted, and the day of grace ending. They look forward, and nothing presents itself but the righteous Judge, the dreadful tribunal, and a most solemn reckoning! They roll around their affrighted eyes on attending friends: If accomplices in debauchery, it sharpens their anguish to consider this further aggravation of their guilt, that they have not sinned alone, but drawn others into the snare: If religious acquaintances, it strikes a fresh gash into their hearts, to think of never seeing them any more, but only at an unapproachable distance, separated by the unpassable gulf.

At last, perhaps, they begin to pray. Finding no other possible way of relief, they are constrained to apply unto the Almighty: with trembling lips and a faltering tongue, they cry unto that sovereign Being