voice of Christ to every saint in sorrow, What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter; John xiii. 7. I saw not then, saith the christian, that my Lord was curing my pride by such a threatening and abasing providence, that he was weaning my heart from sensual delights, by such a sharp and painful wound; but now I behold things in another light, and give thanks and praises to my divine physician.

We shall look back upon the hours of our impatience, and be ashamed, we shall chide the flesh for its old repinings, when we shall shall stand upon the eternal hills of paradise, and cast our eyes backward upon yonder transactions of time, those past ages of complaint and infirmity. We shall then, with pleasure and thankfulnesss confess, that the Captain of our salvation was much in the right to lead us through so many sufferings and sorrows, and we were much in the wrong to complain of his conduct.

Bear up your spirits then, ye poor, afflicted, distressed souls, who are wrestling through difficult providences all in the dark, bear up but a little longer, he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry; Heb. x. 37. he will set all his conduct in a fair light, and you shall say, "Blessed be the Lord and all his government."

Sixthly, That heaven should be so well filled, out of such a hell of sin and misery, as this world is, shall be another delightful reflection, full of wonder and glory. Take a short survey of mankind, how all flesh has corrupted its ways before God, und every imagination of the thought of man's heart is only evil, and that continually; Gen. vi. 5. 12. There is none righteous, no not one; Rom. iii. 10. Look round about you, and see how iniquity abounds, violence, oppression, pride, lust, sensualities of all kinds, how they reign among the children of meu: Religion is lost, and God forgotten in the world; and yet out of this wretched world, Christ has provided inhabitants for heaven, where nothing can enter that defileth; Rev. xxi. 27. Look into your own hearts, ye sinners, see what a hell lies there, and ye converts of the grace of Christ, look into your hearts too, aud see how many of the seeds of wickedness still lie hid there; how much corruption, and how little holiness; look inward, and wonder, that Christ should ever fit you for heaven by his conyerting and his sanctifying grace.

Look round the world again, and survey the miseries of this earth; as many calamities as there are creatures, and perhaps ten times more: Who is there on earth without his sorrows? And sometimes a multitude of them weet in one single sufferer: See how toil, and weariness, and disappointment, poverty and sickness, pain and anguish, and vexation are distributed through this world, that lies on the borders of hell; see ali

this, and wonder at the grace of Christ, that has taken a eolony out of this miserable world, and made a heaven of it.

We shall, many of us, be a wonder to each other, as well as to ourselves, and we shall all review and admire the grace of Christ in and towards us all. Among the rest there are two sorts of christians, whose salvation shall be a special matter of wonder, and these are the melancholy and the uncharitable. The melancholy christian shall wonder, that ever such a sinner, as himself was brought to heaven; and the uncharitable shall wonder, how such a sinner as his neighbour came there. The poor doubting melancholy soul, who was full of fears, lest he should be condemned, shall then have full assurance that he is elected and redeemed, pardoned and saved, when he sees, hears, and feels the salvation and the glory upon him, within him and all around him, and he shall admire and adore the grace of God his Saviour. The narrow-souled christian, who said his neighbour would be damned for want of some party-notions, or for some lesser failings, shall confess his uncharitable mistake, and shall wonder at the abounding mercy of Christ, which has pardoned those errors in his neighbour, for which he had excommunicated and condemned him. Both these christians in that day, I mean, the timorous and censorious, shall stand at his righthand, as monuments of his surprising grace, who forgave one the defects of his faith, and the other his want of love; and their souls and their tongues shall join together to rejoice in the Lord, and their spirits shall magnify their God and Redeemer: Christ shall have his due revenue of glory from both in the hour of their public salvation.

O what honour shall it add to the overflowing mercy of Christ, what joy and wonder to all the saints, to see Paul, the persecutor and blasphemer, there, and Peter, who denied the Lord that bought him, and Mary Magdalen, that impure sinner! See what a foul and shameful catalogue, what children of ini quity, are at last made heirs and possessors of heaven; 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. The fornicators and idolaters, the thieves and the covetous, the drunkards, the revilers, and the extortioners. Such they were in the days of ignorance and heathenism, fit fuel for the fire of hell; and in those circumstances they are utterly excluded from the kingdom of God, but now they find a place in that blessed assembly; and the converting grace of Christ is admired and glorified, that could turn such sinners into saints. O surprising scene of rich salvation, when these Corinthian converts, washed in the blood of Christ, and renewed by his Spirit, shall appear in their white garments of holiness and glory! There is not one sinful creature to be found in all the vast retinue of the holy Jesus, but there are thousands, who have been once great criminals, notorious sinners, and have been snatched,

by the arms of divine love, as brands out of the burning. What an affecting sight will it be, when we shall behold all the members of Christ united to their head, and complete in glory, and see, at the same time, a world of vile sinners doomed to destruction! With what adoration and wonder shall we cry out, And such were some of these happy ones, but they are sanctified, but they are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God; 1 Cor. v. 11. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to God, our Saviour, be eternal honour: Ps. cxv. 1.

In the seventh place, there is another glory and wonder added to this illustrious scene, and gives honour to our blessed Saviour, and that is, "That so many vigorous, beautiful, and immortal bodies should be raised at once out of the dust, with all their old infirmities left behind them :" Not one ache or pain, not one weakness or disease among all the glorified millions: As the Israelites came out of their bondage in Egypt, so shall the army of saints from the prison of the grave, and not one feeble among them; Ps. cv. 37. This is the work of Christ the Creator and the healer.

Here I might run many sorrowful divisions, and travel over the large and thorny fields of sickness and pains that attend human nature, those inborn mischiefs that vex poor christians in this state of trial and suffering. But these were all buried when the body went to the grave, and they are buried for ever; he that has the keys of death, shall let the bodies of his saints out of prison; but no gout nor stone, no infirmity nor distemper, no head-ache nor heart-aclie shall ever attend them. The body was sown in weakness, but it is raised in power; it was sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory, through the power of the second Adam, and his quickening Spirit; 1 Cor. xv. 43, 45, Rom,

viii. 11.

Then shall Christ appear to be sovereign and Lord of death, when such an endless multitude of old and new captives are released at his word, and the grave has restored its prey; when those bodies which have been turned into dust some thousands of years, and their atoms scattered abroad by the winds of heaven, shall be raised again, in glory and dignity, to meet their descending Lord in the air. Surely Jesus, in that day, shall be acknowledged as a sovereign of nature, when at the word of his com mand, a new creation shall arise, all perfect and immortal.

It will add yet further glory to Christ, when we remember what fruitful seeds of iniquity were lodged in that flesh and blood which we wore on earth, and which we laid down in the tomb, and when, at the same time, we survey our glorified bodies, how spiritual, how holy, how happily fitted for the service of glorified souls made perfect in holiness. How did all the saints once complain of a law in their members, that warred against the law of

their minds, and brought them into bondage to the law of sin; Rom. vii. 23. But this law of sin is now for ever abolished, this bondage dissolved and broken, and these members are all newcreated for instruments of righteousness to serve God in his temple, for ever and ever. Holy Paul shall no more groan in a sinful tabernacle, he shall no more complain of that flesh, wherein no good thing dwelt, he shall cry out no more, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? Rom. vii. 24.

Many and bitter have been the sorrows of a holy soul in this world, because of the perverse dispositions of animal nature and the flesh But none of the saints in that assembly shall ever feel again the stings of inward envy, the pricking thorns of peevishness, nor the wild ferments of wrath and passion: None of them shall ever find those unruly appetites, which wrought so strongly in their old flesh and blood, and too often over-powered their unwilling souls, those appetites which brought their consciences sometimes under fresh guilt, and filled them with inward reproaches and agonies of spirit. These evil principles are all destroyed by death, they are lost in the grave, and shall have no resurrection. The new-raised bodies of the righteous, in that day, shall be completely obedient to the dictates of their spirits, without any vicious juices to make reluctance, or perverse humours to raise an inward rebellion: And not only so, but perhaps even our bodies shall have some active holy tendencies wrought in them so far as corporeal nature can administer toward the sacred exercises of a glorified saint. A sweet and blessed change indeed! And Jesus, who raised these bodies, in this beauty of holiness, shall receive the glory of his divine work.

The last instance I shall mention, wherein Christ shall be admired in his saints, is this, "they shall all appear, in that day, as so many images of his person, and as so many monuments of the success of his office."

Is this the blessed Jesus a great prophet, and the teacher of his church? These are the persons that have learned his divine doctrine, they have heard the joyful sound of his gospel, and the holy truths of it are copied out in their hearts. These are the disciples of his school; and by his word, and by his Spirit, they have been taught to know God, and their Saviour, and they have been trained up in the way to eternal life.

Is Jesus a great High-priest both of sacrifice and intercession? Behold all these souls, an endless number, purified from their defilements by the blood of his cross, washed, and made white in that blessed laver, and reconciled to God by his atoning sacrifice: Behold the power of his intercession, in securing millions from the wrath of God, and in procuring for them every divine blessing. He has obtained for each of them grace and glory. Is Jesus the Lord of all things, and the King of his

church? Behold his subjects waiting on him, a numerous and a loyal multitude, who have the laws of their king engraven on their souls. These are the sons and daughters of Adam, whom he has rescued, by his power, from the kingdom of darkness, and the hands of the devil: He has guarded them from the rage of their malicious adversaries in earth and hell, and brought them safe through all difficulties to behold the glories of this day, and to celebrate the honours of their king.

Is he the Captain of salvation? See what a blessed army he has listed under his banner of love; and they have followed him, through all the dangers of life and time, under his conduct. These are the chosen, the called, the faithful. They have sustained many a sharp conflict, many a dreadful battle, and they are at last made more than conquerors through him that has loved them; Rom. viii. 37. They attribute all their victories to the wisdom, the goodness, and the power of their divine Leader, and even stand amazed at their own success against such mighty adversaries: But they fought under the banner, conduct and influence of the Prince of life, the King of righteousness, who is always victorious, and has a crown in his hand for every

conqueror.

Is Jesus the great example of his saints? Behold the vir tues and graces of the Son of God copied out in all his followers. As he was, so were they in this world, holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners; Heb. vii. 26. As he now is, so are they glorious in holiness and divinely beautiful, while each of them reflects the image of their blessed Lord, and they appear as wonders to all the beholding world. They were unknown here on earth, even as Christ himself was unknown: This is the day appointed to reveal their works, and their graces. Jesus is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person; Heb. i. 3. and all the sons and daughters of God shall then appear as so many pictures of the blessed Jesus, drawn by the finger of the eternal Spirit.

And not their souls only, but their glorified bodies also, are framed in his likeness. What grace and grandeur dwells in each countenance, "As thou art, O blessed Jesus, so shall they be, in that day, all of them resembling the children of a king!Judges viii. 18. Vigour and health, beauty and immortality shine and reign throughout all that blessed assembly. The adopted sons and daughters of God resemble the original and only-begotten Son: Christ will have all his brethren and sisters conformed unto his glories, that they may be known to be his kindred, the children of his Father, and that he may appear the first-born among many brethren; Rom. viii. 29. When the Son of God breaks open the graves, he forms the dust of his saints by the model of his own glorious aspect and figure, and changes