must now feel what it is to be without Christ in the world.

It will be far otherwise with the children of God, the once despised and reproached, but now honoured and blessed people. As soon as Jesus sits on the clouds and all the heavens are opened, and their innumerable hosts blowing their trumpets, and harping on harps to the Lamb that was slain, how will they lift up their heads! the first smile they get from their dear Lord shall more than reward them for all that they have undergone and suffered on his account -in the world; but he shall confess them in the presence of his Father, and before all his holy angels, These, will he say, are they that have followed me, these continued with me. "Come, ye blessed children of my father, come up hither." Those arms which were once bound to the cross shall embrace them, and the same lips onde struck by the officer shall kiss them. They shall be caught up to meet him, they shall sit down with him on the throne; and when he shall ascend from his judgment-seat, they too shall ascend with him, and enter into the wedding chamber, before the door is shut. They shall have a right to enter by the gates into the holy city, and to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God, and shall live for ever with him.

Ah! do not you wish to be among these children of the bride-chamber? do not you long after this happiness? and is not Balaam's wish the desire of your heart," Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my latter end be like his?" Methinks I hear you say it is. Why then, nothing can hinder you but your own poor bad self-will. Ask any thing of Jesus, and he will do it for you. Come to him honestly, and with an upright and sincere heart, and seek his salvation, and you shall find it. Be in 2 B 2

earnest,

earnest, for his name sake, and for your own soul's sake; leave all the world, and from this moment retire out of it, and devote and give up yourselves wholly to follow him, nor satisfy yourself with a selfdenying and mortified behaviour, or with an innocent or strict life, but look for the inward witness, the seal and mark which I have been treating of, and which is on the hearts and foreheads of all the inheritance of the Lord; I mean, get such a confidence of his love to you, and such a secret and hidden witness of his Spirit with your spirits that you are children of God, and that you are destined by him to be with him for ever, and you will not be ignorant what is his mark, nor will you any more dread death, or have a fearful looking for judgment; you will sit down at his feet in peace, you will sleep and wake happy; live and die to the Lord, and be saved with an everlasting salvation, will be blessed in this world and in the world to come, in time and in eternity, and nothing shall be for ever able to pluck you out of his hands; you will bless yourselves in the Lord, and have your hearts leap for joy, when you are called hence to be no more seen; for then you will go in peace to God your Saviour: or should you stay till he comes, you would meet him with eternal joy and gladness. To him be glory and thanksgiving, and salvation, and praise, for ever and ever. Amen.

DISCOURSE XXXVI.

THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH; OR THE EXPERIENCE OF A TRUE CHRISTIAN.

ISAIAH XXXviii. 17.

Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

THE

HESE words are a part of that writing which Hezekiah the good king of Israel wrote after a recovery from sickness, and is a sort of a song of thanksgiving, and a relation of his happy experience, viz. of his own natural estate, and of the work of conversion on his heart.

I prize this portion of holy scripture the more, because under the law, the believer generally walked in a cloud, and but few seem permitted to look behind the veil, and to experience the blessedness which, through the gospel, is every child of God's proper right and privilege.

From Moses until Christ, that veil which was upon all nations darkened the Israelites also, and in great measure overshadowed the whole church of God which was among the Jews; and only a small number of choice and chosen men and women, such as the prophets, and those who believed their report, had true ideas of the kingdom and redemption of 2 B 3 him

him that should come; and hence it was that the prophets who spoke plainly of Christ, and who having searched diligently and found out the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, in a sort of ecstacy and rapture uttered the glad news, were as coldly received, and often, if not always, the most persecuted and most despised of their time.

The truth was, they could not relish the testimony of the men inspired, but liked rather to hear of being the greatest people in the world, to be prospered in all their wars, to be rich, to reign, to enjoy a flow of milk and honey, and to abound in all plenty, and to have kings among themselves whose dominions should have no end, and to see all the heathen hewers of wood, and drawers of water subject to them. They loved this world, and erred in their hearts about the world to come; and this made their chief minister sigh over them, when he was finishing his course, "Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!" They were, as too many of us are, fond of things temporal, and careless of things eternal; lovers of the shadows, but thoughtless and inattentive to the substance.

But stiff-necked and disobedient as they were, there were among them in all ages, men, who like Hezekiah, sought after the best riches, and who followed the example of their fathers, "counting themselves in the world strangers and pilgrims, and looking for a heavenly country and a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

These sought and found the Lord: These received the remission of their sins, and their songs of praise are often filled with expressions of the assurance of faith. These abqund among the Psalms, which however collected by the sweet singer of Israel, are not his alone, but the work of many saints, who

with him partook of the same faith, and were illuninated by the same Paraclete and Comforter.

It is easy to prove out of the Psalms of David and others, as well as out of Isaiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah, that they who believed truly in our Saviour, though so far off, knew their sins were forgiven and blotted out, to be remembered no more; and this grace they prophesied should come unto us: But there is something particularly beautiful in that writing of Hezekial, out of which I have been reading. It is to me a solid and weighty account of God's dealings with him, and tallies with the experience of all true christians in the world.

Three things are particularly to be observed in his relation:

First, The distress he was in before our Saviour spoke peace to him and delivered him from his sins.

Secondly, The assurance he had of being pardoned, and accepted by his heavenly Father, and saved; and how boldly he testifies that this must be the case with all the children of God.

Thirdly, The cause of all; which he says, was the love of Jehovah to him: of each of these let me speak a little.

And first, I will mention his distress. He was outwardly troubled with sickness, and within with fears and heaviness: he wept sore for fear of dying, and was in bitterness about his peace with God. He expected every morning to be cut off, through a grievous boil that caused his illness; and every evening he dreaded more than meeting a lion, that the Lord would remove him, while a more heavy burden lay on his heart; for he doubted if he should ever see the Lord in the land of the living. There are few lovers of Jesus who read this pathetic writing, but with tears in their eyes, think, "Ah, dear Saviour, so it was with me; thus 1 thought once;