X.

magna loquimur fed vivimus, fhall be the DISC. device adopted by the Chriftian philofopher; and the precepts of the Gospel shall be practised with as much diligence as that with which it's evidences are ftudied.

And, lo, for our encouragement, in the portion of Scripture this day appointed for the Epiftle, the veil is rent which feparates the two worlds; the profpect is opened into another fyftem; the "holiest of all" is disclosed; the celeftial mount is difcovered; and on it's fummit "we fee a Lamb “stand, with an hundred and forty four "thousand," of the like fweet and innocent difpofition, having his Father's

66

66

name written on their foreheads. Thefe "are they which follow the Lamb, whi"therfoever he goeth. These were re"deemed from among men, being the "first-fruits unto God and the Lamb. "And in their mouth was found no guile, "for they were without fault before the "throne of God." From their ftation they beckon us after them, fhewing us, U 3 for

DISC. for our inftruction and direction in the

X.

way, that "of fuch is the kingdom of "heaven."

And now we are ready, perhaps, to say with St. Peter, on an occafion somewhat fimilar, It is good for us to be here! Let us make our abode on the mount! But the time is not yet. We must return, and conclude, as we began, with the lamenting mothers, whom we left behind us, in the valley of tears.

Their cries, like those of Rachel, portending the birth of a Benoni, a fon of forrow, teach us, his difciples, to expect forrow for our portion in this life, and to look forward to another, for comfort and joy,

In the world, as in Rama, " a voice is heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning." Earthly poffeffions and fatisfactions of every fort are, by their nature, tranfient. They may leave us; we muft leave them. To him who views them,

X.

in their most settled ftate, with the eye. of DISC. wisdom, they appear, as the air in the calmeft day does to the philofopher through his telescope, ever undulating and fluctuating. If we place our happiness in them, we build upon the waye. It rolls from under us, and we fink into the depths of grief and despondency.

Children, relations, friends, honours, houses, lands, revenues, and endowments, the goods of nature and of fortune, nay even of grace itself, are only lent. It is our misfortune to fancy they are given. We start, therefore, and are angry, when the loan is called in. We think ourselves mafters, when we are but stewards; and forget, that to each of us will it one day be faid, "Give an account of thy fteward

ship, for thou must be no longer "steward."

Youth dreams of joys unremitted, and pleasures uninterrupted; and fees not in the charming perspective the cross accidents

DISC. that lie in wait, to prevent their being X. fo. But should no fuch accidents for a while intervene, to disturb the pleasing vifion, age will certainly awake, and find it at an end. The fcythe of time will be as effectual, though not fo expeditious, as the sword of the perfecutor; and without a Herod, Rachel, if the live long, will be heard lamenting; fhe will experience forrows, in which the world can adminifter no adequate comfort. She must therefore look beyond it.

The patriarchs and people of God, in old time, were often delivered. from adverfity. They often enjoyed profperity. But after all the wonders wrought for them, and all the bleffings conferred upon them, the iffue of things was ftill the fame. These friends and favourites of heaven still faw their relations, frequently their children, falling around them, and at length dropped, themselves, into the grave, to be mourned over by those that survived them. This was the cafe even in the land of

Promise

X.

Promise itself. Deplorable indeed, there- DISC. fore, and defperate, like the worst of the heathen, would have been their condition, had they not been taught, through temporal deliverances, and temporal profperity, in a temporal land of Promife, to contemplate another deliverance from the power of the destroyer, another profperity that should have no end, in another land of Promife, which should never be taken from them, and from which they fhould never be taken; where they, their parents, and their children, fhould meet again, to part no more. What else is "the hope of Ifrael," what else can it be, but a "refurrection. " from the dead"?"

Nothing can be plainer than the words of the Apostle on this fubject. Having enumerated the ancient worthies, from Abel to David and the fucceeding prophets, he thus concludes; "These all, having ob"tained a good report through faith,

b Acts xxiv. 15. xxvi. 6. xxvii. 20.

"received