whom you must allow have equalled you in ability and industry. Remember, at the same time, the evidence you have had, from your own experience, that this is a wilderness, through which you are passing. It is in vain to hope for happiness from the world. Earthly things are unsatisfying, and incapable of making any one truly blessed. In fact, those that idolize them most, find the greatest share of disappointment and vexation, and the most numerous snares attending them. Remember, how evidently is suffering the consequence of sin! How often have you suffered as the immediate consequence of your own sins, or the sins of others! Remember, what innumerable proofs you have given all through life, that the native disposition of your heart is enmity against God. He has tried you, with mercies and chastisements; but you have always formed some idol to prefer to him. You have utterly neglected his glory, and disregarded his will. Though God has been loading you with benefits, you have requited him evil for good. Some have gone on in open sin and irreligion. Some love the instruction which causeth to err from the words of knowledge. Some have neglected the means of grace, and the warnings of providence; have stifled convictions; have returned to God feignedly, and not with the whole heart; have violated his law, and slighted his gospel. And now, some are grown old in the service of sin. Others are giving the prime of their days to God's enemy. And will you still persist? still justify yourself before him? still flatter yourself you shall have peace, though you go on in the way of your own heart? Oh remember how near you are to your journey's end! And where is it likely to end? SECONDLY: It is peculiarly the duty of Christians to notice the gracious dealings of God with their souls, and to consider the wise and kind designs he has in view in all his conduct toward them. As the Lord, at your first birth, brought you out of non-existence into life; so at your new birth, he brought you out of that state which in its issue would have been worse than non-existence-into a new, spiritual, and divine life. This was, indeed, like deliverance from Egyptian bondage; when he delivered you from the curse and from the dominion of sin, and guided your feet into the way of peace and holiness. Remember, the way of reconciliation was planned and discovered, by God himself, without your having any hand, either in contriving or effecting it. Remember, who induced you to comply with this way of salvation; how ignorant of it, how averse to it, were you once. The very means of your being brought under the gospel, and induced to attend to it, were wonderful, especially in some cases. The subserviency of providence to the purposes of grace is admirable and endearing. The religious connexions into which you have been led, and which have conduced to your spiritual welfare, demand a grateful recollection. Remember, how innumerable have been your backslidings and transgressions, even since your return to God. But though you have multiplied offences, yet God has multiplied pardons. How patiently has he borne with all your ingratitude, perverseness, distrust, and murmurings! How often has he restored your soul, healed your backslidings, and showed that he loved you freely! Remember, how graciously has he assisted you in duty; and how has he supported you under sufferings, by the consolations of the gospel; and brought your trials so often to an unexpected and happy issue, beyond all that you could have imagined possible. Remember the manner in which God has defeated the plots of your adversaries to ensnare you, and to draw you into sin: this demands the warmest gratitude. Remember, how punctually he has fulfilled his promises hitherto; and how amply and positively he has engaged for all that remains to be accomplished, in order to your final salvation. From the whole retrospective view, what proof may you gather, that your salvation originated solely in grace; and that grace must have all the praise. What evidence also, that God's love is everlasting and immutable! He hateth putting away. At the same time, what proof that the Lord is an holy and jealous God, who will not connive at sin, in his own people, nor let them follow after idols, without multiplying their sorrows. What tokens have you found of his power, all-sufficiency, wisdom, and faithfulness! What cause to trust him all the rest of the way! What reason have you for deep humility, and for continual watchfulness, prayerfulness, self-denial, and readiness to take up your cross, and follow Him, who can open fountains in the deserts, and feed with manna from on high! What cause for repentance and godly sorrow! and holy joy! And what ground for faith Let the youngest recruit wait on the Lord and boast in him; and let the oldest veteran confide no where else. What reason have all true pilgrims to expect a happy end to their journey, in the Canaan above. The weakest soldier shall be more than a conqueror; for the land is not to be got in possession by their own sword, neither is their own arm to save them. Much of the happiness of the future state will result from a perfect recollection of the events of time, and a clear discernment of God's end in them. V. THE DAYS OF HEAVEN UPON EARTH. DEUT. xi. 21. As the days of heaven upon the earth. THIS remarkable expression is contained in an address which Moses made to the people of Israel, a little before his death; wherein he most earnestly exhorted them to personal obedience, and also to the careful instruction of their children in true religion; assuring them that this would be found the way to insure present prosperity to themselves, and to secure to their posterity the continued possession of the land promised to their fathers. By comparing the whole of this verse with the 8th and 9th of the same chapter, it seems probable, that the phrase relates more directly to the duration of their prosperity in the earthly Canaan, than to the spiritual nature of their enjoyments. However, as that temporal inheritance was, to true believers among them, a figure and a pledge of a better country, i. e. an heavenly; so we may very justly improve such a striking expression, by applying it to the exalted nature of those spiritual enjoyments, which, even in this life, are often connected with a close walk with God: and inquire, FIRST, When may our days be said to be like the days of heaven upon earth? When we enjoy much of a sense of the divine presence, and live in the contemplation of the glorious perfections of God. "Not all the harps above, The presence of God makes heaven, his absence hell. His presence makes heaven on earth. There they shall see his face; but if we have a glimpse of it here, we are happy. "Whom have I in heaven but thee," &c. Then is heaven on earth enjoyed, when we experience much of a delightful sense of the divine favor, and know we are accepted in the Beloved. So the Apostle describes true saints, as rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and putting no confidence in the flesh. And Peter represents them as rejoicing with joy unspeakable, and full of glory, in an unseen Saviour. The Lord God and the Lamb are the light of heaven; and when Christ is enjoyed by us, heaven is enjoyed upon earth. A lively sense of the work of redemption contains in it much of the essence of heaven. Heaven is then enjoyed upon "He earth, when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit; and when our hearts are directed into love to him, as well as into the knowledge of his love to us. that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." 1 John iv. 16. A spirit of gratitude and praise will do much towards making our days like the days of heaven upon earth. Much of heaven consists in praise. Rev. xiv. 2, 3. xv. 3. xix. 6. They praise God for every thing there. Much brotherly love, and enjoyment of the happiness of our fellowsaints, will make our days like heaven upon earth. No envy is known there; but the most cordial delight in each others felicity. The happiness of one does not in the least diminish the share of another, but adds to it most sensibly. Great victories over sin, and an intense love of purity, would make a heaven upon earth. There, God's name is in their foreheads. Here, true saints are changed into the likeness of their Lord, the more they contemplate his glory. Cheerful obedience to the commands of God, and delight in doing his will, would make our days like those of heaven upon earth. There his servants serve him without reluctance, impediment, or weariness. The more this is the case here, the more will earth resemble heaven. Frequent meditations on the heavenly state, strong confidence of soon entering upon it, and the sensible enjoyment of sweet foretastes of it, will make heaven seem to begin on earth. There were three excellent men of the name of Thomas Shepherd, in New England.: the grandfather, at Cambridge ; the father, at Charlestown, near Boston; and the son, who succeeded him. The last died before he was twenty-seven, and said, the day before his death, to Dr. Cotton Mather: "My hopes are built on the free mercy of God, and the rich merit of Christ; and I do believe that if I am taken out of the world, I shall only change my place; I shall neither change my company, nor my communion!" Secondly: What course should we take, in order that our days may be like the days of heaven upon earth? We We must be partakers of vital faith in Christ, and be renewed in the spirit of our minds. None ever came unto God but by him, who is the only Mediator, who made peace by the blood of his cross. Nor can any one walk with God, except he be agreed. Nor see God, except he be born again. must make glorifying God our highest aim, and treat the enjoyment of God as the chief good. Our hearts must be weaned from earthly things; we must be careful so to live in the world, as those who are not of the world; and so to use it, as not abusing it. We must begin and end every day with God; and "be in the fear of the Lord all the day long." Prov. xxiii. 17. Being continually watchful against whatever would tend to grieve the Holy Spirit, and cause him to with |