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heart, is dedicated by every Christian who endeavours to fulfil the vow of his baptism. Inquire, then, has it been so dedicated by you It is your privilege, that the Father, who was made known to the Gentiles by the mission of the apostles, has been revealed to you from your youth up. You early learnt to call Christ your Redeemer, and the Holy Ghost your Sanctifier. Have you rightly understood and duly valued these blessings? Have you made it the business of your lives to serve God, to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to purify your hearts and bodies through the influence of the Holy Ghost? ..

Great is the goodness of God in creating man, and placing him in a world where all things minister to his use and comfort. But "all flesh is grass," and "the fashion of this world passeth away." What do the rarest earthly blessings profit those who can only look forward to the terrors of judgment when they are at an

end!

Therefore, let nothing satisfy you, till you have scriptural ground to believe that you are at peace with God, through faith in the sacrifice of his Son and having thus received remission

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of sins, and being "accepted in the Beloved, entreat the Holy Spirit to conduct and preserve you in that path of holiness which is prescribed for the people of God. Thus you will secure your title to call on God as your Father: for "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, through whom they have received the spirit of adoption."

5

* Eph. i. 6.

6 Rom. viii. 14-17.

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TRINITY SUNDAY.

SERMON XX.

THE WORSHIP OF HEAVEN.

REVELATION iv. 10, 11.

"The four-and-twenty elders fell down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

THE Bible, as you must often have observed, does not abound with descriptions of the glories or the happiness of heaven. The little which we are told, serves rather to excite curiosity than to gratify it. Our Lord purposely checked all questions upon this subject. When the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection altogether, attempted to draw him into a discussion respecting it, he gives them nothing more than

this general answer: "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." And everywhere his promises run in a similar strain: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." "Great is your reward in heaven." shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the

"You

just." "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise." But he nowhere explains what the blessings of paradise will be; what recompense the righteous shall enjoy, what is the nature of the heavenly reward. And this for And this for a very evident reason. Our understandings would be unable, in their present limited and imperfect state, to comprehend anything more full and particular.

The apostles are no less reserved upon this point. St. Paul was admitted to a near view of the heavenly glories; but he does not attempt to describe them. He contents himself with saying that he "heard unspeakable words, such as it is not lawful for man to utter:" that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have

1 2 Cor. xii. 4.

entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him."*

So in his argument concerning the resurrection, he does not explain with what body the dead shall rise he only says, that the body "which is sown in corruption, is raised in incorruption; that is sown in dishonour, is raised in glory; that is sown in weakness, is raised in power; that is sown a natural body, is raised a spiritual body."

This is enough, and more than enough, to excite our most fervent prayers and our most constant endeavours, that we may be counted meet to attain that heavenly inheritance. But it does not enable us to declare what that body will be, which shall " put on immortality;" neither does it acquaint us with the manner in which the inhabitants of heaven are occupied, or describe the nature of their enjoyments.

St. John alone, in the Revelation, sometimes lifts up the veil which conceals the eternal world from our view. But we are soon reduced to confess that the sight is too dazzling for our 31 Cor. xv. 42-44.

22 Cor. ii. 9.

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