gment, shall not be hurt of the second death. at an unspeakable mercy is this! When the cked and all those whose names were not. and written in the book of life, at the day of Igment, were cast into the lake of fire, which the second death!

I might here go on to describe the misery of e wicked, in order to make the blessedness of e righteous shine more perspicuously bright; at the subject would be so painful, that I shall are myself the trouble, as I think it would not - pertinent, on this mournful occasion. I all therefore proceed to speak of those further ys of the dead which die in the Lord, which trust and hope our deceased friend has gone o share a part.

6. They shall have the pleasure of seeing a ew heaven and a new earth, when the first heaen and the first earth shall have passed away; nd they shall see the holy city, New-Jerusalem, ome down from God, out of heaven, adorned s a bride for her husband, which is described n the xxi. chapter of the Revelation of St. John he Divine. And they shall walk in the midst of it, in the sight of God and the Lamb.

7. And lastly they shall see death the last enemy destroyed and swallowed up in victory, and an end made to sin and transgression; when there shall be no more curse, neither sorrow nor crying; when all tears shall be wiped away from from all faces, and there shall be no more pain; when the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God; when the

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former things shall be done away, and all things shall be made new; when Jesus Christ shall have put down all rule and authority, and reconciled all things unto himself by the blood of his cross; and finally, they shall see God make unto all people a feast of fat things full of marrow, when he shall take away the veil of the covering cast over all people; and Jesus Christ, the God-man Mediator, shall give up the kingdom to God, even the Father, and present his bride, even human nature, whom he died for and rose again, that he might wash her in his own blood, and present her spotless before God; and he himself, becoming subject to HIM who put all things under him, shall take home his bride, where he shall be united with her in one, even as the Father and Son are one, that God may be all, and in ALL.

Here begins that eternal day of glory, when the mystery of godliness shall be completed in one body; Christ the head being united with all its members, which shall end in perpetual nev. er ceasing glory.

III. And they shall rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.

I shall now speak of those labors that the dead which die in the Lord do rest from.

1. They rest from all the pains and labor which attend this body. They have no longer to eat their bread by the sweat of the face, but they are freed from all the cares and per plexities which attend this mortal life; their bodies do rest in their graves, and turn back to

their primordial dust, while their spirits do return to God who gave them.

They have no longer to provide for food and raiment; and the cares of a family, which often give pain and anxiety, are now at an end.

2. They have no more to attend to the bitter works of repentance and self denial, having once had that repentance given them which is unto life, never to be repented of; and their minds being wholly swallowed up in the love and will of God, they will not be obliged to deny themselves of a full enjoyment of the same.

There will no longer be a warfare between them and the world, the flesh and the devil ;— for having gotten the victory over sin, they can ery, "O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin -but thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ."— 1 Cor. xv. 55-57.

3. They rest from all the labor which they have undergone and suffered for Christ's sake. Think for a few moments, how much toil and fatigue the apostles and primitive christians underwent when laboring in Christ's vineyard; which attended them even unto death itself ;yet they accounted them not worthy to be named when compared with the glory that should be revealed in them.

The Apostle Paul has given a brief specimen of his labor in his epistle to the Romans, Chap. xi. 24-28. "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered

shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea,in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and in thirst, in fasting often,in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches."

All this labor he rested from at the hour of death; and having fought a good fight, and kept the faith; there was henceforth a crown of glory laid up for him, which the righteous Judge shall give.

The saints in all ages of the world down to the present day have waded through many sorrows and afflictions; and the apostle tells us it is through much tribulation we shall enter into the kingdom. But all these tribulations, sorrows and afflictions, are at an end with those who die in the Lord, at the same hour of death. Nothing shall ever enter the cabinet of futurity, to disturb those happy souls who have slept in Jesus Christ, until they awake in his likeness, when they shall be fully satisfied.

But I must pass on.

IV. "Yea, saith the spirit, thay may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." I shall now attend to those works that will follow all those who die in the Lord.

I. In the negative. None of those works vill ever follow them, as a blessing, which they

have done with any sinister views, or selfish. motives, to aggrandize themselves in this world, or secure to themselves by their own labor, an interest in Christ, or the world to come.

All these works will prove to be nothing bet ter than hay, wood and stubble, which shall be burnt up, when the day shall declare it, and ev-ery man's work shall be tried of what sort it is.. And the proprietors of those works will suffer a great loss, notwithstanding, they themselves shall be saved, yet so as by fire. No work that. any finite being can do in point of meriting salvation, or purchasing eternal life, will prove to be any better than a spider's web, at the giving up of the ghost.

If God had not out of pure love and mercy, given us his Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us by his own blood, and give us eternal life in him, we might have all labored in vain to obtain it; therefore no work of this kind can be acceptable to God.

God never requires his creatures to do impossibilities; therefore he does not require of us to ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, nor descend into the lower parts of the earth, that is, to bring Christ up again from the dead; but the word is nigh us,. even in our mouths,so that he that runs may read.

2 Again, positively. Since God hath saved us, according to his abundant mercy, not for any works of righteousness that we have done; it is our duty to obey, love, and fear him, and this he enjoins on us, and it is well pleasing in. his sight, when we comply.