and wither away. Ambition too has its | the character for eternity. This is the day, and often a short one. Its votaries spring-time of everlasting life; according seem to be raised, but the more sensibly as we now sow, hereafter we shall reap; to feel their fall. The same whirlwind on our present conduct, depends our hapthat snatches them up from the crowd, piness or misery for ever. There is neibrings them down at even with tenfold ther repentance nor apostasy beyond the fury. Not to mention these more violent grave. The righteous can never fall away, revolutions, its natural period soon comes. and to the wicked there remaineth no He who runs the race of human glory, is more sacrifice for sin. From the judg lost in the very dust that is raised around ment-seat of the Immutable, the voice is him. And such is the sudden end of all heard, "He that is righteous, let him be terrestrial enjoyments, when, after the righteous still; and he that is unjust, let study and the labor of years, we have him be unjust still." with much pains and care gathered to- But even here, too, appears that goodgether the requisites and materials of a ness of God which is over all his works. happy life, and say to yourselves, "Soul, For while we know not of any addition to take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up the torments of the wicked, the happiness for many years," the warning voice is of the righteous shall be for ever on the heard, "Thou fool, this night thy soul increase. That capacity of improvement shall be required of thee." So transient which we formerly ascribed to the soul, is is the date, so short the day of power, and a capacity of improvement without end. pleasure, and greatness! But wisdom The progress which begins here, is carried never dies; but virtue is immortal. We on hereafter. Heaven is indeed the resihave a higher life than that which beats dence of the spirits of just men made perin the pulse, and when the dust returns to fect; but it is not to be imagined, that the dust as it was, the spirit returns to they are all at once advanced to a perfecGod who gave it. It is indeed an awful, tion which they shall not to eternity exthough a pleasing thought, that we have ceed. They will indeed find their state an eternity before us. When the sun shall happy, when they are taken from this be extinguished in eternal darkness, when world; they will all be presented without the heavens shall be rolled together like a spot or blemish in the presence of God, scroll, when the earth with all its works with exceeding joy; but still there is shall be dissolved, the soul shall survive room left for their improvement in perfecthe general wreck, and exult in the enjoy- tion and happiness. It cannot, indeed, be ment of youth immortal! To think of an otherwise. For the more we know of the infinity of years of existence enduring be- Divine perfections and works, our venerayond all the numbers which we can add 'tion and love of God will increase the together, beyond all the millions of ages which figures can comprehend, and that, when all this vast sum of duration is expended, our existence is but just beginning, is, indeed, beyond imagination to grasp. Never to come to an end, never to be nearer an end, is indeed amazing, overwhelming, and incomprehensible to the mind. But such is thine inheritance, O man! "Because I live," saith the Lord, ye shall live also." Our duration shall be coeval with His years who sits upon the throne for ever; the Ancient of days, who is, and was, and is to come. In the last place, To show you the value of the soul still more, after death its state is unalterable. This is our state of probation, and now is the time to fix As our more. Now, it is impossible that we can of immortality, press upon natures of a superior order; but that we shall make advances in moral perfections, and improve in the beauties of immortality. God shall behold his great family for ever brightening in holiness; for ever drawing nearer and nearer in likeness to himself. The river of their pleasures increases as it rolls. The fulness of their joy grows more and more full. Throughout all the ages of eternity, there is still a heaven which is to come; still a glory which is to be revealed. banquet for his friends; when the Spirit saith, Come; when the Church saith, Come; when he that is athirst is invited to come; and happy will it be when the friends of Jesus prepare to meet with their Lord, if those who have hitherto been strangers to the holy hill, shall be attracted with the beauty which is in true holiness, also to come and to take the waters of life freely. For thus runs the gracious promise of Heaven: "The strangers who join themselves to the Lord, to love him and to serve him, even them will If the soul then be of such infinite I bring to my holy mountain, and make value, how inexpressibly great must the them "joyful in my house of prayer." lass of it be! Over the mansions of utter In further treating on this subject, what darkness, the Scriptures draw a veil which I intend at present, is, in the first place, does not authorize our conjectures. What To explain the nature of that approach is comprehended under these awful em- which the devout make to God; and, in blems, the worm that never dies, the fire the second place, Set before you the adthat is not quenched, everlasting destruc-vantages which accompany such an aption from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power, we do not know. May the Almighty forbid, that any of us should ever know! But of this, the Scriptures assure us, that from these mansions there is no return; that the gates of the eternal world shut to open no more, and that when the soul is once lost, it is lost for ever and for ever! SERMON XIII. ON THE CELEBRATION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. PSALM XLIII. 4.-"I will go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy." CHRISTIANS, as we are next Lord's day to go to the altar, and approach unto God, it may be proper for me now to explain the nature, and set before you the advantages, of such an approach. The pleasures of devotion have been the theme of good men in all ages; and they are pleasures of such a kind as good men only can feel. In what I am now to say therefore, I must appeal to the heart, to the hearts of those who, in times past, have felt the joy of spiritual communion, and who will again feel that it is good still for them to draw nigh unto God. This is the time when Jesus prepares a proach. I am, in the first place, then, To explain the nature of that approach which the devout make to God. It This earth is not the native region of that spirit which is in man. It finds not objects here congenial with its nature, nor a sphere adequate to its faculties. wants room to expand to its full dimensions; to spread so wide, and stretch so far, and soar so high, as its immortal nature and unbounded capacity will admit. Descended from heaven, it aspires to hea ven again. Created immortal, nothing that is mortal can satisfy its desires.. Made after the image of God, it tends to that God whose lineaments it still bears.. When we approach to God, therefore, wefind objects suited to our nature, and engage in the employment for which the Here we are at home in. soul was made. our Father's house. Here our spirits aspire to hold communion with the everlasting Spirit; and we tend to heaven with exceeding joy, as to our native country. The sense of Deity is akin to the perception of beauty and the sensibility of taste.. We are formed by the author of our nature to feel certain movements of mind at the sight of certain objects. Even inanimate things are not without their attractions. The flowers of the field have their beauty. Animal life rises in our regard.. Rational excellence and moral perfection. ing and adoring, as Moses to the burning bush, and as the High Priest of old to the holy of holies. They look beyond the externals of a sacrament, and, under the symbols in the communion, they discern the mysteries of redeeming love. Notwithstanding the veil with which a greater than Moses covers himself on this holy mountain, they behold his beauty, and cannot bear the brightness of his counte rank still higher in our esteem, and when expressed in action, and appearing in life, awake emotions of the noblest kind, and beget a pleasure which is supreme. Let any person of a right constituted mind place before his view a character of high eminence for generosity, fidelity, fortitude; let him see these virtues tried to the utmost, exerted in painful struggles, overcoming difficulties, and conquering in a glorious cause, and he will feel their efnance. When they sit down with him at fects in his admiring mind; he will be ac- his table, they are sensible of his pretuated with respect and love to such illus- sence: while their hands receive the trious virtues. We account that faculty sacred symbols, their eyes behold the of the mind which gives us a relish for Lord of Glory. In the spirit of devotion, these pleasures, a perfection in our nature, and on the wings of faith, they rise from and a high one; we look upon an insen- earth to heaven; they pierce beyond the sibility to such enjoyments as a radical clouds, and enter within the veil. The defect. Let us apply this principle to everlasting doors are thrown open; the religion. Who can behold the vastness King of Glory appears upon his throne; and magnificence of the works of God Angels and Archangels cover themselves without emotion; and infinite perfection with their wings, and all the pillars of the without wonder and awe? Can our firmament tremble. thoughts be fixed upon infinite goodness. and everlasting love, without affection and without gratitude? Can we behold Divinity in a form of flesh; the Son of God extended on the cross for the salvation of the world, and our hearts not burn within us with love to him who loved us unto the death? Can we behold the veil drawn aside from the invisible world, the heavens opened over our head, and the treasures of eternity displayed to view, and after all continue cold and dead; cold to the beauty of the heavens, dead to the love of immortality? Where there is any sensibility at all, where there are any affections that become humanity, they will be excited to their most lively exercise by the presence of spiritual and divine things. But not to heaven is the Divinity confined. He fills the earth; he dwells with men. Look around you, and behold the marks of his presence, and the impression of his hand. In the gay and lovely scenes of nature, behold him in his beauty smiling on his works. In the grand and awful objects of creation, in the tempest, in the thunder, in the earthquake, behold him in the Majesty of Omnipotence. When, like the prophet who retired to the wilderness, you hear that voice which rends asunder the mountains, which breaks. in pieces the rocks, and which shakes the pillars of the world, you hear behind it a still small voice, saying, "It is I, be not afraid." Thus, good men see the Creator in his works; they have the Lord always before them. They know where they can find him, and can come nigh to his seat. They go forward and he is there, backward, and they perceive his footsteps; on the right hand his wonders are seen; on the left his goodness is felt. They cannot go but where he is. The Great Universe is the temple of the Deity, built by his hands, consecrated by his presence, bright with his glory. Under the influence of these objects, and the impression of Deity, the devout enter into their chamber and shut the door; they turn aside their eyes from beholding vanity; they charge their passions to be silent, their minds to be still; and pour out their hearts to Him who made them, in all the fervency of prayer. Thus prepared to seek the Lord God of their fathers, they come to his temple to meet with him there. They are seized with a The second thing proposed, was, To set religious awe in the presence of the sanc- before you the advantages which accomtuary, and approach to the altar wonder-pany this solemn approach to God, which are the following: there is honor in approaching to God, there is joy in approaching to God, there is consolation in approaching to God, there is preparation for heaven in approaching to God. earthly king, how truly glorious are they whom the King of heaven delighteth to honor! No wonder then, that though exalted to the highest dignity which the world can bestow, the king of Israel was ambitious of higher still: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will Ï seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.” among the trees of the garden; they held converse with him face to face, and found that the chief honor of their nature consisted in drawing nigh to God. Nay, it is the happiness of higher natures, it is First, then, There is honor in approach- the glory of superior beings, of the prining to God. The superiority of man to cipalities and powers in heaven, to dwell the animal world has been inferred from in the presence of their King, to worship the structure and formation of his body. at the throne of infinite perfection, and While the inferior animals, prone and draw nearer and nearer to the fountain grovelling, bend downwards to that earth of all felicity. But this honor have all which is their only element, man is formed the saints. To thee, O Christian! it is with an erect figure, and with a counte- given to hold communion with the Creanance that looks to the heavens. His tor, and to become the friend of the Alerect figure is given as the indication of mighty. Truly your fellowship is with an elevated mind, and the countenance the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ. that looks to the heavens is bestowed, If it be great and honorable to be near in order to prepare us for the contem- the person and round the throne of an plation of what is great and glorious. With this formation of body, and with this tendency of mind, man feels that the earth is not his native region; he looks abroad over the whole extent of nature; he has an eye that glances from earth to heaven, and a mind, which, unconfined by space or time, seizes on eternity. The eye that glances from earth to heaven, the mind which seizes on eternity, draw the line between the intellectual and animal world. The beast of the Secondly, There is joy in approaching field, indeed, beholds the face of the to God. "I will go to the altar of God, heavens; the bird of the air is cheered to God my exceeding joy." The idea of with the splendor of the sun; but man a perfect being is the most joyful subject alone has the intellectual eye, which be- of contemplation that can be presented to holds in the heavens the handiwork of man. Moral qualities, even when they Omnipotence, and which traces in the sun shine in a lesser degree, have a charm for the glory of its Creator. To him, high- the soul. The prospect of natural beauty favored of his Maker, a scene opens, un-is not more pleasant to the eye, than the seen by the eye of sense; a new heaven contemplation of moral beauty to the mind. and a new earth present themselves; the A great and good action, a striking inintellectual world discloses its rising won-stance of benevolence, of public spirit, of ders, and seen by his own light, in the magnanimity, interests us strongly in bemajesty of moral perfection, God appears. It was reserved to be the glory of man, that he alone, of all the inhabitants of this lower world, should be admitted into the presence of his Creator, and hold intercourse with the Author of his being. Accordingly, in the happy days of the human race, when the age of innocence lasted, and the Garden of Eden bloomed, there was an intercourse between heaven and earth, and God did dwell with man. Our first parents in Paradise were scnsible of his presence; they heard his voice half of the performer, and makes the heart glow with gratitude to him, although he be unknown. We take delight in placing before our eyes the illustrious characters that stand forth in history, wise legislators, unshaken patriots, public benefactors of mankind, or models of goodness in private life, whose virtues shone to the past, and shine to present times, whose lives were glorious to themselves, and beneficial to the world. If an imperfect copy gives so much satisfaction, how will we be affected at the contemplation of the great Original? If a few faint traces and lineaments of goodness, scattered up and down, yield us so much pleasure, the pleasure will be supreme, when we contemplate His nature in whom every excellence, every moral perfection, all Divine attributes, reside as in their native seat, flow as from their eternal source, and ever operate as vital and immortal principles. For all created beauty is but a shadow of that beauty which is uncreated; all human excellence but an emanation of that excellence which is Divine; all finite perfection but a faint copy of perfections which are infinite; and all the traces of goodness to be found among men or angels, but a few faint rays from the Father of lights, the uncreated, unclouded and unsetting Sun of nature, who at first gave life to the universe, who kindled the vital flame which is still glow ing, who supplies all the orbs of heaven with undiminished lustre, and whose single smile spreads joy over the moral world. Thus, the very idea of a perfect Being is a source of high pleasure to the mind; but to us there is more implied in the idea of the Deity. For these perfections are not dormant in the Divine nature, they are perpetually employed for the happiness of man. This glorious Being is our Father and our Friend. He called us into being at first, to make us happy; he hath given us many proofs of his goodness, and he hath allowed us to hope for more. He is soon to give us an opportunity of commemorating the most signal display of his grace, his noblest gift to the children of men. And, if he spared not his own Son, but freely gave him up to the death for us all, may it not be depended upon, that with him he will give us all things? Entering into these ideas, and animated with this spirit, the pious man is never so much in his element, as when he is drawing nigh to God. The mind never makes nobler exertions, is never so conscious of its native grandeur and ancient dignity, as when holding high converse with its Creator: the heart never feels such unspeakable peace, as when it is fixed upon him who made it, as when its affections go out on the supreme beauty, as when it rests upon the Rock of ages, and is held within the circle of the everlasting arms. Hence, the good men of old, in ap proaching to God, broke forth into the language of rapture, "As the hart panteth soul after the water-brook, so panteth my after thee, O Lord. O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and parched land, wherein no water is; that I may see thy glory as I have seen it in the sanctuary. Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. Surely we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, and thou wilt give us to drink the river of thy pleasures.Whom have we in the heavens but thee, and what is there upon the earth that we can desire beside thee? My flesh and heart shall fail, but thou art the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." Thirdly, There is consolation in approaching to God. Alas! in this world, afflictions so abound, that consolation is often our greatest good. In how few days of this mortal life do we not feel the want of a comforter? Ever since the introduction of sin into the earth, human life hath been a scene of misery. Man is born to trouble, and sore is the travel which is appointed to him under the sun. We come into the world the most forlorn of all beings; the voice of sorrow is heard from the birth; man sighs on through every path of future life; and the grave is the only place of refuge, where the weary are at rest. Sometimes, indeed, a gleam of joy intervenes, an interval of happiness takes place. Fond man indulges the favorable hour. Then we promise to ourselves the scenes of paradise; perpetual sunshine, and days without a cloud. But the brightness only shines to disappear; the cloud comes again, and we awake to our wonted anxiety and sorrow. Not limited to our own personal woes we are doomed to suffer for sorrows not our own. We are not unconcerned spectators of human life. We are interested in every event that befalls our fellow men. Sympathy makes us feel the distresses of others, and the best affections of the heart become the sources of woe. How many deaths do we suffer in mourning over the friends that we have lost! While we lament their unhappy or untimely fate, we |