ings of this principle; it is the life blood that flows through all the veins of true religion. Hence the prayer of the Apostle: The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God.

It is by building up ourselves on our most holy faith, and praying in the Holy Spirit, that we are supposed to keep alive this heavenly flame. These are the means adapted to that important end: they are to the love of God that which oil is to the fire, tending to feed and to enliven it. It is by a growing acquaintance with the word of God, accompanied with habitual prayer, that the love of God increases and abounds, more and more. There are things which are inconsistent with the love of God, such as the love of the world, and the indulgence of its lusts: If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. But a life of faith and prayer will subdue these weeds, no less than they, when indulged, are known to choke the word of God, and to render it unfruitful. Let the field be but well occupied with good seed, and there will be no room for the weeds: Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.

4. We are taught, that, when we have done all, in looking for eternal life, we must keep our eye singly and solely on the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was this part of the subject that our dear brother particularly repeated, as expressive, I doubt not, of both the ground and object of his hope. Every one who knew him can bear testimony that he was a just and holy man, and that it was his great concern, in every station he filled, to maintain good works; but his dependence for acceptance with God was not on them. He looked for eternal life through the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. The best characters have always been the most sensible of their own unworthiness, and the farthest from self-righteous boasting. After all their labours in the cause of God, they feel to have been unprofitable servants, as having done only what was their duty to do, and that with so much imperfection, as to furnish matter of humiliation and self-abasement. It is true, that a servant of God may enjoy a portion of solid satisfaction in reviewing those things, which, , by the grace of God, he has been enabled to accomplish; and this, without any mixture of self-righteous boasting. This was the case with the Apostle of the Gentiles. He could say, on the approach

of death, I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. But if Paul himself had been speaking of the consideration on which he hoped to be accepted and saved, he would, like Jude, have resolved it into the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, brethren, that this is the doctrine which your pastor has preached among you for nearly forty years. It is true, he did not so represent the grace of God as to cherish a spirit of slothfulness or wantonness; but, in all his labours, it was his uniform design to direct his hearers, whether they would hear or whether they would forbear, to the only way of salvation marked out in the Holy Scriptures: By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. He preached the doctrine of sovereign grace in such a manner as to warn every man against trusting to his own righteousness, and to teach every man in what way he must be saved, if he be saved at all, as well as to lead those who had believed in Jesus to ascribe it to the grace of God that they were what they were. And now, having, as I said, for nearly forty years pointed you to the good and the right way, he has himself walked in it; leaving you and all the world with this sentiment upon his lips-Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Let us now proceed to the latter part of the subject; namely,

II. THE PROSPECTS WHICH THESE PRINCIPLES FURNISH AS TO A BLESSED HEREAFTER: Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

By the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, I understand, that which is communicated through his death, and with the dispensation of which he is invested, both now and at the day of judgment: Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.-The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.

We have already received much of the mercy of Christ. It was mercy that induced him to assume our nature, and undertake our salvation ; to give himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for us;

431 to send his Holy Spirit to renew us, when we were dead in sin; to intercede for us at the right hand of God; and to be with us in all our labours and sufferings for his name's sake: but, in respect of actual enjoyment, there is much more yet to be expected. The mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ is communicated in greater and greater degrees, till, like rivers terminating in the ocean, it issues in eternal life.

The first exercise of mercy which the scriptures direct us to look for, on our leaving the body, is, An immediate reception into the presence of Christ, and the society of the spirits of just men made perfect. The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.-Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesús said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.-Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.—I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.—And I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. What this overwhelming tide of mercy will prove we have yet to learn. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Judah they were like those that dream: the deliverance seemed too great to be real. And thus it may be with believers on their departing from the body, and entering into the joy of their Lord. But of this our dear brother knows more, since his taking leave of us, than we should be able to discover in a series of years on earth, even though we should make it our constant study. If an inspired Apostle could say, We know not what we shall be, it is vain for us to think of forming an adequate conception of it.

I do not know whether I ought not to reckon under this particular, The glorious progress of Christ's kingdom in this world. Why should we suspect whether our brethren who rest from their labours be from hence interested in this object? If there be joy in heaven among the angels over one sinner that repenteth, why not among the glorified saints? And if over one sinner, much more over the multitudes that shall be grathered in the latter days from

every kindred and tongue and people and nation. There is a sense in which the dead know not any thing: their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished, neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun. All this is true, as to the things of this world; but it does not follow, that those who die in the Lord have no more a portion in his spiritual kingdom. As well might we infer that their love of him and hatred of evil shall perish. But I ask leave, on this subject, to refer to A Meditation on the nature and progressiveness of the heavenly glory, contained in a small volume of Dialogues, Letters, and Essays, published in 1806.

Another stream of mercy for which we are directed to look, will attend the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consist in the dead being raised, and the living changed. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven, -with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first : then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. It has been usual for nations to reserve the most notable acts of grace to the appearance or coronation of their kings, as tending to honour their entrance on the government. And thus both the first and second appearing of Christ are periods which God has distinguished by the most glorious displays of mercy. The first was a jubilee to the Gentile world; and the last will be the same to the whole creation. As, on the sounding of the jubilee trumpet, the captives were liberated; so, when the trump of God shall sound, the righteous dead shall be raised, and their resurrection will be to the creatures of God the signal of emancipation from under the effects of sin.

View the grave as a long, dark, and comfortless abode, and it is sufficient to appal the stoutest spirit: but take into consideration that here the Lord lay; that he was raised from the dead, that he might be the first fruits of them that slept; and that of all that the

* Such, we know, were the ideas of our dear departed brother; which, as some may remember, he enlarged upon at the Thursday-morning meeting of the Association, held at Kettering, in 1813.

Father gave him he will lose nothing, but will raise it up at the last day; and it will wear a different aspect. Job, when contemplating the grave as a long and dreary habitation, describes it in the most plaintive language: Man lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more! But, when his views are fixed on the deliverance which he should obtain at that great and glorious day, his complaints are exchanged for triumphs. It is delightful to observe the erection of soul which a believing prospect of the resurrection gave him, after all his depressions: Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. In a strain very similar to this, the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, describes the victory over death and the grave, representing believers as actually raised from the dead, and as standing upon their graves, looking the conquered enemy in the face, and exclaiming, O death, where is thy sting?0 grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. By looking for this part of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be reconciled to death, even before we meet it.

But there is another stream of mercy beyond this, to which we are directed to look, and which pertains to the last judgment. We have an impressive idea given us of this in Paul's prayer for Onesiphorus: The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus ; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: but when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me The Lord grant unto him that he may find MERCY OF THE LORD, IN

THAT DAY.

We have needed mercy on many days, and have found it; but that is a day in which we shall need it more than ever. It is a fond notion, entertained by some, that the sins of believers will not be brought into judgment. We are assured, however, that we must VOL. VII.

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