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Mount Tabor, he forgot his family, and all the dearest enjoyments in the world; therefore in that excess of joy he cried out, "Lord, it is good for us to be here." In the same language must you speak, christian souls. I dare be bold to affirm, if your mind is raised up by faith in heaven, to behold Jesus Christ shining in light and glory, and surrounded by all the holy angels, and immortal spirits; as soon as you shall have but the least relish of paradise, you will be so ravished with that extraordinary happiness, that you will easily forget the most lovely enjoyments of the earth, unto which you have devoted your affections. So that in that transport of joy you will be ready to burst out in this language, My Lord, and my God, I am sick with love for thee; I wish for nothing but for thy glorious presence; my chief happiness is to be with thee, and to behold thy face, where I see already so much light and love! I confess, we shall not say as St. Peter," Let us build tabernacles;" for we shall ever be concerned, as soldiers and travellers, in fights and journies. We shall not say, Let us build an house, that we may dwell with thee and thy blessed company. For I see, O God, with the eye of faith, the palace which thou hast built from the foundation of the world, where thou hast prepared a place for me. Lord, open to me the gates of this glorious palace, that I may enter in, and sing forth thy divine praises.

My dear friend, shall the miserable Pagans, who never fasted of the heavenly gift, who were never made partakers of the spirit of grace, nor of the powers of the life to come; the Heathens, who were without hope, and without God in the world; shall they march courageously to meet death: and wilt thou, that hast some foretastes of the happiness of hea ven, and hast seen some beams of its glory, canst thou not resolve to depart out of the world? Shall a Seneca, who hath no other means to strengthen himself but the persuasion of his vain philosophy; who hath no expectation of advantage

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of the life to come; shall such an one look with stedfast countenance upon his blood and life gushing apace out of his veins? And thou, my brother, hast thou been brought up under the tuition of an eternal wisdom; dost thou embrace, by faith the glory and felicities prepared for thee by God; and art not able to look upon death with resolution and coul rage? and canst not leave the world with expressions of joy ? Shall Socrates, whose infirm body was animated by a sinful soul, and who had no manner of antidotes against death, drink up that poison that was mixed for him, as a pleasant potion? And thou, Christian, who art animated by the Spirit of the living God, that seals to thee his great and most precious promises; thou, Christian, who enjoyest the earnest of that inheritance prepared for thee in heaven; shalt not thou be able to swallow down, with content, the cup that death holds out to thee! Thou hast a powerful and an infallible antidote against this poison; for, after this bitter cup, thou art going where thou shalt drink at leisure out of the rivers of eternal pleasures. Shall it be said, that in the Jews' houses, at the time of death, the sound of instruments of music was heard, together with cryings and lamentations; and at thy dwelling, who hast an interest in Christ crucified, and seest him reigning and triumphing in heaven, there shall be nothing heard but weeping and sighing, and no praising God, nor giving of thanks? yeusi stig (36,uline to

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Finally, in regard so many persons of all ages, sexes, and conditions, have desired death, to be free from all earthly evils and calamities; hast not thou greater reason to wish for it heartily, when it shall please God, that thou mayest enter into the fruition of the advantages and happiness of the heavenly life? How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men, or rather thy children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, thy well-beloved Son, put their trust under the shadow of thy wings; they shall be fully

fully satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt cause them to drink out of the rivers of thy pleasures.

If thou be passionately desirous to taste of the angelical defights, and relish the divine pleasures that flow from the throne of God, and of the Lamb; if you be really athirst for God, will not you speak in David's language, Psa. xliii. “As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God; my soul thirsteth fer God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" And elsewhere, Psa. xliii. "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is, to see thy power and glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." 'Tis not possible to taste of the heavenly joys, but we are constrained to cry out as the man after God's own heart, “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God," Psa. lxxxiv. 5769તું . .4:

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ey Consider well, believing soul, what vast difference there was between the earthly Jerusalem for which David was so passionate, and the heavenly Jerusalem where God intends to receive thee. What great disproportion was there between the little stream of Shilo, and the large river of paradise; between the material tabernacle, the mercy-seat covered over with fine gold, upon which the cherubims stretched out their wings, and the immaterial sanctuary of heaven, of Jesus Christ the true ark of the covenant, in whom are hid the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in whose glorious presence, the seraphims cover their faces with their wings! Col... How contemptible were the sacrifices, oblations, and burnt-offerings, of the children of Israel, in comparison of the spiritual sacrifices that are presented to God in heaven, in

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comparison of the offerings burning there entire in the flames of an holy zeal, and a perfect charity! And what was all the frankincense of Arabia, and the sweet smells of the Holy Land, which were consumed in God's presence, if compared with the sacred perfumes that mount up out of the golden phials that are in the hands of all the members of the glorified church! Since David esteems a door-keeper of the house of the Lord an happy man on earth, how great shall thy glory be, aud extraordinary thy happiness, O believing Christian! for thou art going to be advanced to the most honourable room of that célestial dwelling, which God hath built with his own hands. To this purpose, our Lord Jesus hath made thee this gracious promise, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name, Rev. iii. 12 If this great King was so desirous to hear the Levites singing the praises of God with their tongues and instruments of music; how much more passionate should we be to hear the harmonies of heaven, and celestial hymns of the holy angels, archangels, cherubims, seraphims, and of the glorified saints, who have in their mouths every one as new song, the song of Moses and of the Lamb!

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When the shepherds heard some few expressions of the angels' songs, who praised God at the nativity of the Son of God, they began to rejoice with an exceeding great joy, that they left their flocks, and ran in haste to look upon the child Jesus in the manger of Bethlehem. And thou, devout soul, thou hearest already the sweet anthems of paradise, and the ravishing concerts of thousands of angels; thou knowest that thy Saviour sits there upon a throne clothed with glory, and divine majesty. And wilt thou not forsake all the base employments

ployments of this sensual and animal life, to go and see this wonderful Saviour, who expects thee, and intends that thou shalt sit also with him upon his throne?

Zaccheus climbed up upon a sycamore-tree, with an earnést desire to behold the Lord Jesus as he passed by, when he was in a state of humiliation and abasement. Shouldst not thou be as earnest, O christian soul, to fly up above the heavens, to see this merciful Saviour in the state of his glory and elevation, and to have him always in thine eye for ever and ever? When our Lord was come into the house of this poor publican, he told him, "that salvation was that day come to his house." And shalt not thou, O blessed soul, have more reason to say, when thou shalt enter into the palace of this glorified Redeemer, I am this day entering into my salvation, and my glory!”, I ", f1

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We highly esteem Jacob's happiness, when he was in Bethel, because God appeared to him in that admirable vision mentioned in the xxviiith of Genesis; but if thou art an Israelite without guile, I esteem thee to be in a more happy and a more blessed state Thou hast more reason to break out in Jacob's language, “This is God's house, and the gate of heaven." Jacob saw the heavens open, but he was not admitted into them at that time; but now God opens these heavens to receive and lodge thee for ever. The holy angels of God went up and down the ladder, that reached up from the earth to heaven, but they left Jacob at the bottom of this ladder; whereastheangels that are about thee, are comedown folcause thee to ascend up with them, or rather to carry thee Jupain their hands, and bring thee to Christ, typified with this mysterious ladder. Jacob saw God at the top of this ladder, but he was to go afterwards to Padan-aram; he was to travel up and down, to suffer many inconveniences, the heat of the day, the frost of the night, the displeasure of his father-in

law,

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