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you from them! When your Lord has condescended to make you a short visit in his ordinances on earth, how have you blessed the time and the place, and pronounced it, amidst many other disadvantages of situation, to be "the very gate of heaven?" (Gen. xxviii. 17.) And is it so delightful to behold this gate, and will it not be much more so to enter into it? Is it so delightful to receive the visits of Jesus for an hour, and will it not be infinitely more so to dwell with him for ever? Lord," may you well say, "when I dwell with thee, I shall dwell in holiness, for thou thyself art holiness; I shall dwell in love, for thou thyself art love; I shall dwell in joy, for thou art the fountain of joy, as "thou art in the Father, and the Father in thee." (John xvii. 21.) Bid welcome to his approach therefore, to take you at your word, and to fulfil to you that saying of his, on which your soul has so often rested with heavenly peace and pleasure; "Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me." (John xvii. 24.)

Surely you may say in this view, "The sooner Christ comes, the better." What though the residue of your days be cut off in the midst? What though you leave many expected pleasures in life untasted, and many schemes unaccomplished? Is it not enough, that what is taken from a mortal life, shall be added to a glorious eternity; and that you shall spend those days and years in the presence and service of Christ in heaven, which you might otherwise have spent with him, and for him, in the imperfect enjoyments and labours of earth?

But your prospects reach, not only beyond death, but beyond the separate state. For with regard to his final appearance to judgment, our Lord says, Surely I come quickly, in the sense illustrated before: and so it will appear to us, if we compare this interval of time with the blissful eternity which is to succeed it; and probably, if we compare it with those ages which have already passed, since the sun began to measure out to earth its days and its years. And will you not here also sing your part in the joyful anthem, Amen; Even so come, Lord Jesus!

It is true, Christian, it is an awful day; a day in which

nature shall be thrown into a confusion as yet unknown. No earthquake, no eruption of burning mountains, no desolation of cities by devouring flames, or of countries by overflowing rivers or seas, can give any just emblem of that dreadful day; when the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, as well as the earth, and all that is therein shall be burnt up; (2 Pet. iii. 10, 12.) when all nature shall flee away in amazement before the face of the universal Judge, (Rev. xx. 11.) and there shall be a great cry, far beyond what was known in the land of Egypt, when there was not a house in which there was not one dead. (Ex. xii. 30.) Your flesh may be ready to tremble at the view; yet your spirit must surely rejoice in God your Saviour. (Luke i. 47.) You may justly say, "Let this illustrious day come, even with all its horrors!" Yea, like the Christians described by the apostle, (2 Pet. iii. 12.) you may be looking for, and hastening to that day of terrible brightness and universal doom. For your Lord will then come, to vindicate the justice of those proceedings which have been in many instances so much obscured, and because they have been obscured have been also blasphemed. He will come to display his magnificence, descending from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God; (1 Thess. iv. 16.) taking his seat upon a throne infinitely exceeding that of earthly, or even of celestial princes, clothed with "his Father's glory and his own;" (Luke ix. 26.) surrounded with a numberless host of shining attendants, when coming to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe. (2 Thess. i. 10.) His enemies shall also be produced, to grace his triumph: the serpent shall be seen there rolling in the dust, and trodden under foot by him and by all his servants: those, who once condemned him, shall tremble at his presence: and those who bowed the knee before him in profane mockery, shall in wild despair "call to the mountains to fall upon them, and to the rocks to hide them from the face of that Lamb of GOD," (Rev. vi. 16.) whom they once led away to the most inhuman slaughter.

O Christian, does not your loyal heart bound at the thought? And are you not ready, even while you read

these lines, to begin the victorious shout in which you are then to join? He justly expects, that your thoughts should be greatly elevated and impressed with the views of his triumph; but at the same time he permits you to remember your own personal share in the joy and glory of that blessed day: and even now he has the view before him, of what his power and love shall then accomplish for your salvation. And what shall it not accomplish? He shall come to break the bars of the grave, and to re-animate your sleeping clay. Your bodies must indeed be laid in dust, and be lodged there as a testimony of God's displeasure against sin; against the first sin that man ever committed, from the sad consequences of which the dearest of God's children cannot be exempted. But you shall ther have an ear to hear the voice of the Son of God, and an eye to behold the lustre of his appearance; and shall shine forth like the sun (Matt. xiii. 43.) arising in the clear heaven, “which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber." (Psa. xix. 5.) Your soul shall be new dressed, to grace this high solemnity; and be clothed, not with the rags of mortality, but with the robes of glory; for he "shall change this vile body, to fashion it like his own glorious body." (Phil. iii. 21.) And when you are thus royally arrayed, he shall confer public honours on you, and on all his people, before the assembled world. You may now perhaps be loaded with infamy, called by reproachful names, and charged with crimes or with views which your very soul abhors: but he will then "bring forth your righteousness as the light," (Psalm xxxvii. 6.) "and your salvation as a lamp that burneth." (Isa. lxii. 1.) Though you have been dishonoured by men, you shall be acknowledged by God; and though treated as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things, (1 Cor. iv. 13.) he will shew you that he regards you, 66 as his treasure in the day that he makes up his jewels." (Mal. iii. 17.) When he shall "put away all the wicked of the earth like dross," (Psa. cxix. 119.) you shall be pronounced righteous m that full assembly; and though indeed you have broken the divine law, and might in strict justice have been condemned, yet being clothed with the righteousness of the great Redeemer, even "that rightecusness which is of

GOD by faith," (Phil. iii. 9.) justice itself shall acquit you, and join with mercy in "bestowing upon you a crown of life." (2 Tim. iv. 8.) Christ will "confess you before men and angels," (Luke xii. 8.) will pronounce you good and faithful servants, and call you to enter the joy of your Lord: (Matt. xxv. 21.) he will speak of you with endearment as his brethren, and will acknowledge the kindnesses which have been shewn to you, as if he had received them in his own person. (Matt. xxv. 40.) Yea, then shall you, O Christian, who may perhaps have sat in some of the lowest places, in our assemblies, though (it may be) none of the rich and great of the earth would condescend to look upon or to speak to you, be called to be assessors with Christ on his judgment-seat, and to join with him in the sentence he shall pass on wicked men, and rebellious angels.

Nor is it merely one day of glory and triumph. But when the Judge arises, and ascends to his Father's court, all the blessed shall ascend with him, and you among the rest you shall ascend together with your Saviour, to his Father and your Father, to his GoD and your God. (John xx. 17.) You shall go to make your appearance in the New Jerusalem, in those new shining forms that you have received, which will no doubt be attended with a correspondent improvement of mind; and take up your perpetual abode in that fulness of joy, with which you shall be filled and satisfied in the presence of God, (Psalm xvi. 11.) upon the consummation of that happiness, which the saints in the intermediate state have been wishing and waiting for. You shall go, from the ruins of a dissolving world, to the new heavens and new earth, wherein righteousness for ever dwells. (2 Peter iii. 13.) There all the number of God's elect shall be accomplished, and the happiness of each shall be completed. The whole society shall be presented before God, as the bride, the Lamb's wife, (Rev. xxi. 9.) whom the eye of its celestial bridegroom shall survey with unutterable delight, and confess to be without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; (Eph. v. 27.) its character and state being just what he originally designed it to be, when he first engaged to give himself for it, to redeem it to God by his blood. (Rev. v. 9.) So shall you ever be with each other, and with the Lord;

and

(1 Thess. iv. 17.) and immortal ages shall roll away, find you still unchanged: your happiness always the same, and your relish for it the same; or rather ever growing, as your souls are approaching nearer and nearer to him, who is the source of happiness, and the centre of infinite perfection. And now, look round about upon earth, and single out, if you can, the enjoyment or the hopes, for the sake of which you would say, Lord, delay thy coming; or for the sake of which you any more should hesitate to express your longing for it, and to cry, Even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!

The MEDITATION and PRAYER of a CHRISTIAN whose Heart is warmed with these Prospects.

"O BLESSED LORD! My soul is enkindled in these views, and rises to thee in the flame. (Judg. xiii. 20.) Thou hast testified, thou comest quickly: and I repeat my joyful assent, "Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus. (Rev. xxii. 20.) Come, for I long to have done with this low life; to have done with its burdens, its sorrows, and its snares! Come, for I long to ascend into thy presence, and to see the court thou art holding above!

"Blessed Jesus! death is transformed, when I view it in this light. The king of terrors is seen no more as such, so near the King of glory, and of grace. I hear with pleasure the sound of thy feet, approaching still nearer and nearer: draw aside the veil, whenever thou pleasest: open the bars of my prison, that my eager soul may spring forth to thee, and cast itself at thy feet; at the feet of that Jesus, "whom having not seen I love; and in whom, though now I see thee not, yet believing, I rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory!" (1 Peter i. 8.) Thou, Lord, shalt shew me the path of life: thine hand shall guide me to thy blissful abode, where there is fulness of joy, and rivers of everlasting pleasure. (Psalm xvi. 11.) Thou shalt assign me a habitation with thy faithful servants, whose separate spirits are now living with thee, while their bodies sleep in the dust. Many of them have been my companions in thy laborious work, and in the patience and tribulation of thy kingdom; (Rev. i. 9.) my dear companions, and my brethren. O shew me, blessed Saviour, how glorious and how happy thou hast made