almost there, where faith is changed for sight? O let not a soul, that is driven from this world, and weary of vanity, and can think of little else but immortality, that seeks and cries both night and day for the heavenly light, and fain would have some foretaste of glory, and some more of the first-fruits of the promised joys,let not such a soul either long, or cry, or strive in vain! Punish not my former grieving of thy Spirit, by deserting a soul that cries for thy grace, so near its great and inconceivable change! Let me not languish in vain desires at the door of hope; nor pass with doubts and fears from this vale of misery! Which should be the season of triumphant faith, and hope, and joy, if not when I am entering on the world of joy? O Thou, that hast left us so many words of promise, that our joy may be full;' send, O send the Comforter, for without his heavenly beams, after a thousand thoughts. and cares, it will still be night and winter with my soul !"

XXI. But I fear a distrust of God and my Redeemer has had too great a hand in my desires after a more distinct knowledge than God ordinarily gives to souls in flesh. I know that I should implicitly, absolutely, and quietly commit my soul into my Redeemer's hands; for a distrustful care of the soul, as well as the body, is our great sin and misery. Yet we must desire that our knowledge and belief may be as distinct as Divine revelations are. We can love no farther than we know; and the

more we know of God and glory, the more we shall love, desire, and trust. If I may not be ambitious of too sensible and distinct foretastes of things unseen, yet I must desire and beg the most fervent love of them that I am capable of, that my soul may not pass with distrust and terror, but with suitable triumphant hopes, to everlasting pleasures." O Father of lights, who givest wisdom to them that ask, shut not up this sinful soul in darkness! Leave me not to grope in unsatisfied doubts, at the door of celestial light! Deny me not now the lively exercise of faith, hope, and love, which are the stirrings of the new creature, the dawnings of eternal day, and the earnest of the promised inheritance !"-Though, like Cicero, after reading Plato's book on immortality, our doubts return, and our fear interrupts and weakens our desires and joys; yet I find that it is chiefly an irrational fear, occasioned by the darkness of the mind, the greatness of the change, the dreadful majesty of God, and man's natural aversion to death, even when reason is fully satisfied that such fear is consistent with certain safety. Were I on the top of a castle or steeple, fastened by the strongest chains, or guarded by the surest battlements, I could not possibly look down without fear; and so it is with our prospect into the life to come. If, therefore, my soul sees undeniable evidence of immortality, and is able by irrefragable arguments to prove a future blessedness; if I am convinced that Divine promises are true, and

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trust my soul, and all my hope, upon them; then neither my averseness to die, nor my irrational fear of entering upon eternity, can invalidate the reasons of my hope, or prove the unsoundness of my faith, but only the weakness of it. Why are ye fearful, Ö ye of little faith?" was Christ's just reproof to his disciples. A timorous heart needs to be chided, by saying, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God," &c.

CHAPTER III.

WHAT IT IS TO DEPART, AND TO BE WITH CHRIST.

I. II. 1. To be with Christ includes, III. 1. his presence; IV. 2. union to him; and, V. 3. communion with him, and, VI. with his glorified saints. VII. II. In order to be with Christ, we must depart, VIII. 1. from the body; IX. 2. from former bodily enjoyments; and, X. 3. from the more rational pleasures of learning, XI. Friendship; XII. Means of grace; and, XIII. Acquaintance with worldly affairs. XIV. The author has no fear that the church will want him. XV. Desires chiefly to submit to a separation from the body; and, XVI. XVII. laments his soul's attachment to flesh and sense.

I. HAVING proved that faith and hope have a certain future happiness to expect, the text directs me next to consider-What it is to be with Christ; and, What it is to depart in order to be with him.

II. I. To be with Christ includes presence with him-Union to him, and-Participation of his happiness.

III. 1. The presence of Christ, which pious separate spirits shall enjoy, must refer to his Godhead, as well as to his human soul and body. We shall be present with the divine nature of Christ, as manifested in and by his glory. He teaches us to pray, "Our Father,

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which art in heaven," because in heaven the Father gloriously shines forth to holy souls. The soul of man is eminently said to be in the head, because there it understands and reasons; and not in the foot or hand, though it be also there. As we look a man in the face when we talk to him, so we look up to heaven when we pray to God. Though "in God we live, and move, and have our being," both as the God of nature and grace, yet by the works and splendour of his glory he is eminently in heaven, manifesting himself there by some created glory; for his essence is the same every where. We shall be present with the human nature of Christ, both soul and body. But here our present narrow thoughts must not too boldly presume to determine the difference between Christ's glorified body, and his flesh upon earth; nor where his glorified body is, nor how far it extends; nor wherein his soul and his glorified body differ, seeing it is called a spiritual body. We can conceive no more of such a body, than that it is pure, incorruptible, invisible to mortal eyes, and fitted to the most perfect state of the soul. Nor need we wonder how a whole world of glorified bodies can all of them be present with the one body of Christ; for as the solar beams are so present with the air, that none can discern the difference of the places which they possess, and a world of bodies are present with them both; so may all our bodies, without any confusion, be present with Christ's body.