heavenly 'Jerusalem, and a seat near the throne of God? Who would not joyfully quit his frail and perishable tenement of clay, for a glorified, immortal, and incorruptible body, fashioned like that of Christ himself a body, fit for the reception of a purified soul, and for the participation of its eternal blessedness?

Let us all learn the useful lesson enjoined in the text. In whatever rank or condition of life we may be placed, to whatever sufferings we may be exposed, either from the malice of others, or from the weakness and corruption of our own nature, let us learn to submit patiently to God's will,-to trust in his mercy and love,-to wait for the due seasons of his returning favour,-to be of good courage ourselves, and yet to implore Him, in constant, fervent, and holy prayer, that he will strengthen and purify our hearts. Let us seek continually the counsels and instructions of his revealed wisdom,-and acknowledge him in all our ways. Let us ever copy the example of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, and earnestly strive to obey his precepts ;-and then, whether our days shall be many or few, we shall find rest to our souls.

SERMON XXIII

ONE DAY IS WITH GOD AS A THOUSAND YEARS.

2 PETER iii. 8.

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

THE two Epistles of St. Peter were written to his converts and fellow Christians, while they were suffering persecution. In the former of these Epistles, he endeavoured to console them with the expectation, then prevalent, that Christ was coming a second time upon earth,-to save his faithful disciples from all the calamities, to which, through the maliciousness of their adversaries, they were exposed. He intreated them, that, as they were suffering for religion's sake, and according to the Divine will, they would "commit the keeping of their souls to God, in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator,"-" casting all their care upon Him,”—and persevering in all the practices,

through which he had "called them to eternal glory, by Christ Jesus." He prayed that, "after they had suffered a while upon earth, God would make them perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle them." As persecutions, however, still raged, and afflicted the Christians in the severest degree, he wrote this second Epistle, at a considerable interval, perhaps, after the former one, to raise the spirits of his desponding friends, to renew his assurances, that, if they would keep free from the corruptions of the world, they would be "partakers of a divine nature," and to urge the habitual and steady practice of "virtue," of "temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, and charity." He assured them, that the religion which enjoined that holy practice was not made up of cunningly devised fables;" but that "the power and coming" of Christ were attested by the voice of God himself :—that Prophets had aforetime predicted his coming, and, by such predictions, had given light in the midst of darkness; but that the day of spiritual truth had now dawned, and the hearts of believers were illuminated. They knew, by incontestable evidence, that Christ was come; that he had suffered for the sins of the world;—and that, to all such as, by faith and obedience, "made their calling and election sure," he would give "abundant entrance" to his kingdom of glory.

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But it seems that Christians were now, with regard to their worldly condition, more deplorably circumstanced than ever. Besides the persecutions

that affected their property and their lives, they had to encounter a new enemy, in the cunning of profligate infidels, who ridiculed the notion of a future recompense, and of the second coming of Christ.

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Where," said these scoffers, "is the promise of his coming?"—and they insinuated, that, from the very nature of things, He never would, and never could come; for that "since the fathers fell asleep, all things continued as they were from the beginning of the creation." This was, in fact, asserting that the course of things had always been, and would invariably continue to be, the same as it then was. St. Peter denied the assertion. He charged those sophists with wilful ignorance; for he declared that the universe was originally created by the word of God, and that the earth was afterwards deluged, and would finally be dissolved.

The very attempt, indeed, on their part, to ground an argument on the length of time in which no changes had happened, was fallacious; and it shewed that they had no clear notion of time, as relative either to the Creator himself, or to the material and rational parts of his creation. "Beloved," says the Apostle therefore, "be not ignorant that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." On this ground, he admonished them not to impute tardiness to the Almighty, or to suppose that his divine promise would never be accomplished, or that his declared purposes would fail. We are not to judge of his delays as we judge

of delays in human conduct; for the whole duration of man's existence is as nothing, when compared with the eternal existence of the Deity. "God is not slack, as some men count slackness; but he is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The great day of judgment will assuredly come, though the time of its arrival is to us uncertain :—and it will come suddenly, "as a thief in the night." We know, therefore, "what manner of persons we ought to be, in all holy conversation and godliness;"-"how diligent we should be, to be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless ;"-" how vigilant, that we may not be misled by the errors of wicked men, or fall from our own stedfastness," but that we may be "growing continually in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."

Shallow and perverse as the objections were, that were raised by the infidels of those times, to invalidate the truths of divine revelation, they are sometimes urged, for the same purpose, even in our days. But though many years and many centuries have elapsed, since they were first brought forward, and, therefore, may seem to have given them strength, we shall find, upon a little examination, that they are as unsubstantial as ever. Let us turn our thoughts, for a moment, to this point, in order to fortify our minds from erroneous notions and from rash judgment.

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