it is apparent, whatever may be his ordinary elevation, that he is ensnared by material and carnal associations. That this impression is forced upon us, is yet more clear from the expressions adopted on the occasion. What are we to say of statements which describe the terrestrial paradise as warmer and more alluring; and which depreciate a spiritual state by calling it cold and shadowy? Is this the language of Scripture? Have we just conceptions of heaven in proportion as we render it warm and alluring to the senses? or in proportion as we ascend above their gross and seductive influence? Do the divine writers commend the things which are spiritual; or the things which are seen and tangible? Do they not labour to disengage us from the associations of earth and time and sense? Are they not most careful in guarding us against confounding the external images of spiritual things, with the very things themselves? If they speak of the body partaking of the heavenly felicity, are they not anxious to deliver us from low and material sympathies, by assuring us that it is "a spiritual body ?" To such frail creatures as we are, spiritual things may be dimly seen and difficult of conception; but what are we to say, when, instead of blaming our ignorance and carnality, these spiritual things are denounced as cold and

shadowy? Great God! if this is the judgment of erring mortals, it is not thy judgment. With Thee the earth is cold-the earth is shadowy and unreal! With Thee every thing is excellent as it rises into spiritual being; for Thou art a Spirit; and then it is approximating in nature, affinity, and blessedness to Thyself!

But surely evidence sufficient may be found against these conclusions, in the ordinary experience of every real Christian. Religion may condescend to employ carnal images to reveal spiritual things; but the design manifestly is, not that we should repose in the carnal, but ascend by its help to the comprehension of what is spiritual. This too is in agreement with the order of the divine government. In the opening of life man lives as an animal; from animal, he ascends into rational, life; and from rational life he passes to spiritual; and when the spiritual life is perfected in immortality, the man is perfected in dignity and blessedness! Carnal as we now are, are we not conscious, whatever may be the gratifications derived from the senses, of sources both of pleasure and of pain unspeakably deeper than they? Even now, to an awakened spirit, the things which are seen and present are as nothing, compared with the

realities of a hidden and a spiritual life. 0 I love to wander forth on the broad surface of this fair world of the Creator, finding beauty in every object, melody in every sound, and pleasure, like the river of God, gushing forth from a thousand sources for the refreshment of man; but-tell me not that this is heaven! Tell me not that any thing I have seen-any thing I have known-any thing I can comprehend-is heaven. This would be to make it less than nothing and vanity! Tell me rather, that the "earth is the footstool" of Deity-the lowest manifestation of himself; and that when I have been trained by outward symbols to communion with him, I shall see him "face to face." Tell me that heaven is unlike every thing visible and known. Tell me, that its joys are spiritual in their nature, and incomprehensible in their fulness; that it has a height and a depth, and a length and a breadth, which are immeasurable to all finite capacity. This is the heaven of Scripture; and this alone is the heaven which presents adequate objects to the ceaseless yearnings and boundless aspirations of our immortal nature! *

Throughout this argument, it has been the concern of the Preacher to use the denominations spiritual and material, as they have been employed by the writers in question, in their popular and not their philosophical import. He must not be conceived to deny

On a revision of the subject must we not fear, that even worse causes have contributed to generate the extravagancies, by which the passing time is unhappily marked? To a diligent observer, the history of these evils cannot be of very difficult explanation. Individuals have passed through childhood and youth under the full force of a worldly, and in the total neglect of a religious, education. In maturer life, however, Truth has suddenly burst on the mind and subdued the conscience to its power. Knowledge thus quickly communicated, has been mistaken for inspiration. What they know, they know assuredly; and whatever is yet to be known, they think equally at their command. The awakened faculties rush on a course of eager inquiry,

absolutely all material existence; but merely to maintain that the future modes of being will be so unlike, and so superior, to those with which we are conversant, as to entitle them to the appellation of spiritual rather than of material. The apostle, when he speaks of the risen body as a spiritual body, cannot be thought to utter himself absolutely but comparatively; and in this style of speech he is more than justified. Those who adopt a different phraseology teach the mind to nestle rather than to soar; whereas every scriptural intimation of the future life is meant to deliver the imagination from earthly associations-to expand the conception to the utmost, and still to surpass all comprehension.

The fault of all the theorising on this and on like subjects is, that it gives an undue importance to material existence; and especially that it professes to explain what the Scriptures assume to be inexplicable. It would be a decided evidence of improved taste, as well as of improved wisdom, if we could satisfy ourselves with the statements of Revelation.

fearing no danger, seeing no difficulty. As yet the young perceptions are dazzled by the light which pours upon them; and they detect not those dark spots on the face of celestial Truth, which are meant to rebuke presumption and to teach us, that, for the present, whatever we see, we "see but in part," and whatever we know, we "know but in part."

Perchance, it may have happened, in some cases, that an unbridled curiosity has been sustained by the latent vanity of the heart. Those who have been enabled suddenly to renounce the lusts of the world, have not been so readily freed from the more subtle action of the lusts of the mind. Their very deliverance from the one class of evils, too frequently exposes them to temptation from the other. They see what others do not see; they know what others do not know; they have renounced the things by which others are still held in bondage. This is evidently a comparative state, highly favourable to the motions of vanity and pride. If from ignorance or negligence these principles are allowed to take the name of virtues, and, instead of suffering rebuke, to find encouragement,, they work quickly and disastrously. The individual is not only eager to know, but equally eager, by knowledge, to obtain distinction. But to do as others do, or