fhall then ceafe from troubling, and their weary fouls, fouls weary of the world, the devil, and of fin, fhall be at reft. Job iii. 17. Lo! this is part of that falvation, part of that happinefs our bleffed Lord intended for his people; but 66 eye hath not feen, ear hath not heard, nor has "it entered into the heart of man to conceive what "God has prepared for those that love him.

The blifs of the righteous will be inconceivably rapturous and compleat, inafmuch as 5thly, They fhall be with Chrift; what heart defires more? What more can be defired or wifhed for? This would be heaven in the hottest place of hell, and heaven itself would be no place of happiness if Chrift the Lord was not there. I am ready to go with thee, faid Peter, to prison and to death. It was well spoken honeft Peter, doubtless there was a willingness of fpirit, though a weakness in the flesh, as upon trial it appeared, but with God the will, (when his children can no more than will) is accepted for the deed, and Peter was afterwards comforted by the gracious promife of the Lord, that his defire fhould be accomplished. "Let not your heart be troubled," said the dear Redeemer, ye believe in God, believe also in 66 me, in my father's houfe are many manfions, "I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go. "and prepare a place for you, I will come again "and receive you to myfelf, that were I am there "ye may be alfo. John xiv. 1, 2, 3. Nothing gives a greater wound to love than abfence, but the prefence of the beloved object creates new and fenfible delight; "we love him" (is the language of every believer,)" becaufe he firft loved us." 1 John iv. 19. But this love makes the true be

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liever so as to defire Jefus, that while absent from him in the body, he is as one in a strange country, and far from home; and his defire is to depart and be with Christ, which faith he is better. Our bleffed Saviour knew that this was fo effential a part of the happiness of his people, that he particularly prays for it in their behalf, John xvii. "Father I will that they also whom thou "haft given me be with me where I am." God's people in this world are like fhips at fea in a violent ftorm, but Jefus ftands upon the fhore, or walks to their affiftance on the waves, and brings them to the peaceful port, the quiet harbour of his breaft, where ftorms and blasts shall disturb them no more. The comfortable contemplation of this happy state, accompanied with a lively hope of the enjoyment thereof, was thought more than enough by the apostle Paul, to allay the disquietudes and counter-ballance all the trials and af flictions the people at Theffalonica should be exercifed with; and therefore reminds them particularly of this part of the felicity that awaited them, that they should be with Jefus ; for faith he; "The Lord himfelf fhall defcend from heaven, "with a fhout, with the voice of the archangel, " and with the trump of God; and the dead in "Chrift fhall rife firft; then we which are alive “and remain fhall be caught up together with "them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, "and fo fhall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Theff. iv. 16, 17. Again, 6thly, This happiness will be heightened by an open and full vifion of our adorable Saviour; the cleareft views the believer has of Chrift here are obfcure and clouded, for "we now fee through a glafs," and therefore with

lefs

lefs perfpicuity, and " that darkly," therefore cannot fee in fuch lively strokes the beauty that ravishes the foul; but then we shall fee bim face to face. Glorious fight! To fee our father, brother, benefactor, and our friend; now praised, revered, adored by all. His frowns more terrible than hell itself, will drive the difpifers of his grace, and rebels to his royalty, to feek a fhelter in the thickeft gloom of the tartarian fhades; and gladly plunge into the hottest flames of everlasting fire, to escape the terror of his angry brow. His fmiles, who can conceive the blifs? His fmiles will tranfport the foul with pleasure never tasted, never known before. Jefus will then appear to be, what he has ever been esteemed by his bride, "the "fairest among ten thousand fairs, and altogether "lovely." Abraham rejoiced to fee his day at a distance, the day of his incarnation which was to be a time of fuffering, fcorn, and contempt and to iffue in death; how much more will Abraham and all his faithful children rejoice to fee him now exalted, fovereign Lord, not crowned with piercing thorns, but with a crown of light and glory. It is faid of Auftin that he greatly defired to have feen Chrift in the flesh; but how will this lofs be compenfated by feeing him in the spirit; that is, having now reaffumed his dignity and glory, the glory he had with the Father before the world was, and as king of kings and lord of lords, now adored by all heaven's hoft; for we fhall now feé him as he is. 1 John iii. 3, one with the Father and the fpirit, one co-effential undivided Lord. Once more, Jefus intending nothing fhort of falvation the most perfect, moft confummate and complete, as the purchase of his

pre

precious blood; has affured his people as the crown of all their joys the full enjoyment of himfelf. Language is poor and infufficient when defcribing this tranfcendant felicity, to fupply us with ideas adequate, and fuitable thereto; for who can conceive how much is comprehended in that promife, I will be to them a God." When the When the great partriarchal pilgrim was called from his country and his father's houfe, this promife was to be his ftay and fupport in every ftrange land where he fhould fojourn; "I will eftablish my covenant "with thee, to be to thee a God." Gen. xvii. 7... And that he might fear no force, no famine, the Lord faid unto him, ver. 1ft, "I am the Al"mighty God, the all-fufficient God;" all thy 永 wants fhall be fupplied by me, and flow from me, as the inexhauftible fource of all bleffings. And the fulfillment of this promife in its utmost import, is the completion of thofe joys referved for the 0 juft. This beatific fight, and fruition of God isten beautifully defcribed by the royal pfalmift, Pfa xvi. II. "In thy prefence is fullness of joy, joy moft pure without mixture of pain; joy moft full without interruption or dimunition. 66 At

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thy right hand there are pleafures for evermore. Pleafures that never cloy, never pall upon the appetite, or lose their relifh by continued enjoyment; bi but are pleasures ftill to-day, to-morrow, and for s evermore. When highly favoured John faw hea- o ven opened, in extatic vifion, and heard the holy harpers in the most lofty strains adore the eternal king; it was told him, that their happiness was perfected in that "the Lord God should dwell among them;" the confequence of this would be," they fhall hunger no more, neither thirst

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any more, neither fhall the fun light on them. cr nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the "midft of the throne, fhall feed them, and shall "lead them to living fountains of water; and "God fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Rev. vii. 16, 17. If any thing can be fuppofed to make an addition to happinefs fo perfect, fo compleat, it must be this, that it is eternal.-7 Here, tides of the most confummate felicity flow without ebb, or intermiffion; pleafures in ceafelefs fucceffion roll, and in perpetual circles run. The river of God is full of all the foul can wifh, or heart conceive, whose limpid streams shall never, never ceafe to flow. How rapturous is that fong, Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, "which was, and is, and is to come." And how nobly grand and glorious is the chorus; when thofe beasts give glory, and honour, and thanks, to him that fat on the throne, the four and twenty elders fall down, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever.

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This is the falvation our bleffed and adorable Jefus intended for his people; this is the falvation. he has purchafed for them, at the expence of his precious blood. This is the falvation that is no lefs certain, and infured unto them, than that the facrifice made of himself in order thereto was fufficient; which has been proved in the preceding difcourfe. For if Chrift's facrifice was propitiatory, God is reconciled in him, and every believer in the triumphant language of the apostle Paul, may now fay, "who fhall lay any thing to the

charge of God's elect. It is God that jufti"fieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Chrift "that died, yea rather that is rifen again."

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If

Chrift's