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farily leads to felf-abafement. O how contrary to religion is pride! But, above all others, how abfurd, criminal, intolerable, is spiritual pride? What a proof of self-ignorance, as well as forgetfulness of God! The first views of a penitent are fixed on the enormities of his life; but when these are, in some meafure, fubdued, additional discoveries of the glory of God bring forth the latent corruptions of his heart. What affecting complaints does that eminent, zealous, faithful minister of Christ, the apostle Paul, make in the following well known passage, Rom. vii. 18. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) ⚫ dwelleth no good thing: for to will is prefent with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find ⚫ not. And ver. 23, 24. 'But I fee another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of fin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I ⚫ am! who fhall deliver me from the body of this • death?' Nay, the clearest views which a believer can take of the riches of divine mercy through a Redeemer, though they afford unspeakable confolation in God, tend alfo deeply to humble him, under a fenfe of his own unworthinefs. The doctrine of the crofs is not more refreshing to the broken in heart, than it is abafing to the proud; for it was chofen of God for this very purpose that no flesh should glory ⚫ in his prefence.'

On the whole, my brethren, as you cannot live under the direction of a better habitual principle, fo you cannot prepare for any act of folemn worship more properly, than by deep humility. To improve

this difpofition, let me intreat you to make a ferious and impartial fearch into the fins you have been guilty of, in heart and converfation, by omiffion or commiffion; by neglecting your duty to God, or the ill performance of his worship, in publick, in family, or in fecret; by neglecting your duty to your neigh bour, to yourselves, to your relations; or doing that which is wrong, by indulging, in any measure, the luft of the flesh, the luft of the eye, or the pride of life.' To conclude all, you will never have a more fatisfying evidence, that your acts of worship, ordinary or more folemn, have been acceptable to God, than if they serve to clothe you with humility, and make you adopt and relish the words of Job in the text: I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye feeth thee. Wherefore I abhor my Jelf, and repent in duft and ashes.

SERMON VIII.

The happiness of the faints in heaven.

REV. vii. 15.

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and ferve him day and night in his temple.

Y brethren, however great a degree of corrup

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tion prevails at present in the vifible church, the very profeffion of every Christian, implies a renunciation of the world, and a fixed hope of a better ftate. His attendance upon the ordinances of God on earth, is in order to fecure the possession, and prepare himself for the enjoyment of the heavenly inheritance. He confeffeth that he is a ftranger and pilgrim in, the earth; that he lives by faith, and not by fight. And, therefore, nothing can be more fuitable to his character; nothing more conducive to his comfort, than frequent views of the employment and happiness of the spirits of juft men made perfect.

And, furely, this is a fubject highly proper for our meditation on the evening of a communion Sabbath. In this ordinance, you have had the price paid for

Ser. 8. this glorious inheritance fet before you, by fymbolical reprefentation, that your faith in, and hope of the poffeffion of it, might be the more confirmed. In the inftitution itself, as recorded by the apoftle Paul, you find he connects the commemoration of the fufferings, and death of Chrift, with his fecond appearance in glory, 1 Cor. xi. 26. For, as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do fhew the Nay, our Lord him

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• Lord's death till he come.' felf feems to have had his heart and his thoughts in heaven, when he left this memorial of his prefence on earth, as appears from Matth. xxvi. 29. But I fay unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.' And, indeed, we have his own example in this first communion, wherein he himself was the administrator, for following or concluding it with a meditation on the heavenly happiness; for, before he rofe from it, he begins his excellent confolatory difcourfe in this manner, John xiv. 1, 2. 'Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe alfo in me. In my Fa⚫ther's house are many manfions; if it were not fo, • I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for ⚫ you.'

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It is true, indeed, my brethren, our knowledge of the future glory of the faints, is, at prefent, extremely imperfect, and muft be fo, for wife reafons, while we continue in the body. There are, however, feveral different views of it given in the word of God, highly worthy of our attention. Amongst others, this in our text, that they are before the throne of God,

and ferve him day and night in his temple. That thefe words are to be underftood of the faints in heaven, and not of any glorious period of the church on earth, or, if of this laft, manifeftly in allufion to the former, I think is plain, both from what goes before, and what follows them; which I fhall read in connection, as all the explication of the text that is necessary, from ver. 13. And one of the elders ⚫ answered, faying unto me, what are thefe which ' are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? ' and I faid unto him, Sir, thou knoweft. And he 'faid to me, thefe are they which came out of great ' tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' Therefore are they before the throne of God, and ferve him day and night in his temple; and he that fitteth on the ' throne fhall dwell among them; they fhall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither fhall the 'fun light on them, nor any heat: for the Lamb, which

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is in the midst of the throne, fhall feed them, and 'fhall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and • God fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes.'

What I propofe from this paffage, at prefent, is, through divine affiftance, to illustrate a little to you the happiness of the faints in perpetual communion with God in his temple above; and then to make fome improvement of the fubject, for your inftruction and direction while you continue here below.

I. In the first place, then, I am to illuftrate a little to you the happiness of the faints in perpetual com. munion with God in his temple above. And, here,

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