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sanctuary, and the earthly Sabbath, sweet and cious to your soul? and do you ever catch in them a glimpse a foretaste of the fulness of glory and happiness to be manifested and enjoyed in the heavenly sanctuary, and the heavenly Sabbath? and above all, do you cordially desire, love, and follow after that holiness, "without which," Scripture assures us, "no man shall see the Lord;" and without which, as we have seen, no man could be happy in His presence, even if permitted to dwell for ever there?

If these things be not so, but the very reverse of all this if the presence of God be dreaded, not desired, reluctantly remembered, when the remembrance of it is flashed or forced upon your mind, and as soon as possible forced away and forgotten; if the worship of your closet be a mechanical and lifeless form of words, in which the heart takes no part or pleasure; if the society of God's chosen people be shunned rather than sought, and, when it cannot be avoided, if it be endured, not enjoyed; if the services of the earthly Sabbath and sanctuary be a very weariness to you, and the desire and language of your heart concerning them be this"when will they be over!" and if, amidst all the wishes you have ever cherished and expressed, you have never cordially cherished or expressed this wish in prayer-Oh! that I were more like God in holiness—more closely conformed to the Saviour's

character-more fully renewed in the Saviour's image; then, however intellectual your tastes, or refined your manners, or honourable your principles-yea, however unblameable your character, according to this world's standard of morality, I conjure you to fling away your ruinous hope of heaven, on whatever foundation that hope may rest; for, believe me, it is a foundation of sand; it will not stand in the day when the deluge of fire shall descend from heaven, and sweep away every false foundation-every refuge of lies. But do I, therefore, bid you fling away all hope? God forbid. No-I only desire to lead you to fix your hope of heaven on a solid foundation-on a rock-the everlasting rock of ages; to come, even this day, to Him who is able, and as willing as He is able, to give you both a title for heaven, written in His own blood, and a meetness for heaven,

Fling yourself at His

imparted by His own spirit. feet, and there pour out, in humble prayer, the language of that broken and contrite heart, which He will not despise "Son of God, Saviour of sinners! in Thee is an infinite fulness of all I can ever want or wish! I am wretched and helpless, and polluted and lost! but Thou art all-merciful to pity-almighty to protect-all-powerful to purify

and all-sufficient to save! Give me, in the riches of thy grace, an inheritance among Thy people, and fit me, by the influences of Thy Spirit, for the

enjoyment of that inheritance! Deliver me alike from the punishment and the power of sin, that, being at once redeemed by Thy love, and renewed in Thy likeness, I may become every day more meet for the foretasted heaven of Thy service, in this world, and the full heaven of Thy presence, in that which is to come, for ever, and ever! Amen!"

SERMON IX.

MEETNESS FOR THE INHERITANCE.

[CONTINUED.]

COLOSSIANS, i. 12.

"Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light."

WERE a wise, benevolent, and munificent Sovereign to visit one of the humblest cottages in his dominions, and to take from thence a child, to be adopted by him as his own, made an heir of his kingdom, and thus placed on a level with the princes of the blood royal, in all their privileges and honors, it is manifest that to make this act of adopting love really a blessing to its object, he should bestow on him not merely a princely title and fortune, but also a princely education, and as far as possible, a princely spirit, to capacitate him for the enjoyment of the high destination that awaited him, and enable him to fill at once with

honor and happiness, the exalted station to which he designed to raise him. Now, one of the most obvious means of effecting this most important purpose (without which it were vain, or worse than vain, to raise him to a rank for which he was altogether unfitted) would be to impress him with a suitable sense of the dignified and lofty station for which he was destined, the elevated society into which it would introduce him, and the grandeur of the inheritance conferred on him by his Sovereign's bounty; that he might thus acquire a corresponding dignity of mind, and loftiness of spirit-might be raised above every thing low, and mean, and debasing in his tastes, and purposes, and pleasures; and so be at once persuaded to walk worthy of the high vocation wherewith he was called, and made meet for the high destination for which he was designed. It is for this purpose I would desire to impress on all in this congregation who are children of God, by a living faith in His dear Son Jesus Christ-all in whose hearts the spirit of adoption has been shed abroad, whereby they are enabled to lift their souls in filial confidence to a reconciled God, crying, Abba Father!—all who being thus the adopted children of God, as children are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ-I would desire to impress on their minds a deeper sense than they have ever yet entertained, of the value, the blessedness, and the glory of the inheritance reserved

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