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to be gracious. Flee then to Him, while the of mercy is yet open to receive you. Confess to Him your manifold transgressions, "repent and turn from your evil ways,"-and He, whose grace hath "called you to repentance," "will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins and iniquities will He remember no more.'

And O! brethren, let us all fervently pray for the mighty aid of God's Holy Spirit, which can alone renew and purify our corrupt hearts, raise our thoughts and affections to high and heavenly things, and thus, even in this world of sin and sorrow, give us peace and tranquillity, and at length make us "meet to be partakers with the saints in bliss."

Thus, in the strength of divine grace, let each, let all of us, beloved brethren, labour with unceasing diligence, to "make our calling and election sure." Yea, now, "while it is called today," let us strive to "work out our own salvation;" knowing that "it is God which worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." And ever remembering our high and glorious privileges, and those "exceeding rich and precious promises," which the Lord, by his Gospel, has made known to us, let us separate ourselves from all evil, "cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and perfecting holiness in the fear of God:" that so, the Lord Almighty may receive us, and consecrate us a

holy temple to Himself; yea, that He may become "a Father to us, and own us for His sons and His daughters."

Finally, brethren, if "the Spirit bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God," then may we have a sure hope in Christ Jesus, that when "the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it," we may, through His merits, be admitted at once to "Paradise," the region of the blessed, there to enjoy the peace and happiness of the intermediate state;—and at the general resurrection-the season of the Redeemer's final triumph over death and hell-when He shall throw open the doors of the prison-house, and say to His redeemed, "go forth,"-we may "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," "in the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

SERMON XXX.

THAT THE BLESSED IN HEAVEN WILL DISTINGUISH AND KNOW THOSE WHO WERE DEAR

TO THEM UPON EARTH.

HEBREWS XII. 22, 23.- "Ye are come unto Mount

IN

Sion, and unto the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the First-born, which are written in Heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect."

my last discourse, brethren, I addressed you on the nature of the intermediate state,—the state between death and the general resurrection and endeavoured to prove, from the unerring Word of God, that the spirit, on returning to Him who gave it, is still in a state of conscious existence,-in the possession and exercise of active powers, and consigned at once, either to "Paradise,"-the happy region

of repose and rest, where the souls of the righteous abide in joyful hope of the consummation of their bliss;-or, to that fearful prison-house, where, (like the rich man in the parable,) the souls of the wicked are reserved, in unutterable torment, unto the judgment of the great, and to them, the terrible day, "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

In that discourse, it was my chief object to expose the fallacy of the fatal Sadducean error,

that there is no spiritual part in man ;'—and also, to refute the scarcely less dismal idea, of the soul's sleep or lethargy, in the interval between death and the resurrection.

I would now call your attention to a subject, fraught with universal interest; the discussion of which, (in meek reliance on the teaching of God's Holy Spirit) I humbly trust, can be neither unseasonable, nor unprofitable; while I fervently pray, that its careful examination may, by the divine blessing, prove to many, a source of comfort and consolation; more especially to such as mourn for the dead, "and will not be comforted, because the loved one is not."

Let us, then, with profound humility, proceed to enquire,—whether the Scriptures afford us good ground to hope, that the blessed in

heaven will know and distinguish those who were dear to them upon earth?

That, in a future state, the sources of celestial happiness will be infinitely varied, as well as multiplied, both reason and revelation lead us to believe. Nor can we for a moment doubt, that the Omniscient will, in his wisdom, adapt the enjoyments of the saints in bliss, to the perfected, glorified state of our fallen nature and though "no eye hath seen, nor heart conceived, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him;" yet may we safely venture to conclude, that the joys of heaven will bear some analogy to the most refined and exalted of those moral feelings and inclinations, which solace and cheer man's chequered life, during "the time of his sojourning here." And surely, among the purest of these, may be regarded, that divine principle of love to our neighbour, inculcated by our blessed Lord Himself, by which we are knit together in the bands of christian unity, as "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." Yes, brethren-" He who is our peace," whose precious blood hath reconciled mankind to God, and to each other;-He who "hath broken down the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles, preaching to all, the glad tidings of peace and salvation ;-He whose atoning sacrifice hath not only "abolished all enmity," but tended, most effectually, to establish

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