Are you happy in your friends and relations, and every domeftic bleffing? Rejoice not fo much in this as that you have the moft honourable relations and friends in heaven. God is your father; Chrift is your Saviour, your elder Brother, your Friend; the Holy Ghost is your Sanctifier; the angels and all the faints are your fellow-fervants, your brethren of the fame houfhold of God.

Do you rejoice in the falvation of your country, and that you are delivered from the hands of your favage and perfidious enemies on earth? Rather rejoice that you are delivered from the tyranny of fin and Satan, and from the condemnation of the divine law.

Do you rejoice that our forces have been victorious over our enemies? Rather rejoice in the victory which the Captain of your falvation has gained for you over your fpiritual enemies. Rather rejoice in the victory you are enabled to gain over fin, Satan, and the world, through the blood of the Lamb. Rather rejoice to fee your lufts flain, or at least mortally wounded, and dying in your hearts.

Do you rejoice that you have the profpect of living in fafety and peace in your country? Rather rejoice that you have peace of conscience, and peace with God, through Jefus Chrift; and that you shall enter into everlasting peace whenever you leave this reftlefs world.

Do you rejoice that your earthly poffeffions, your property and liberty are fafe? Rather rejoice that your heavenly inheritance is fafe; and that whatever becomes of the kingdoms of the earth, you have a kingdom that cannot be fhaken, eternal in the heavens.

Do you rejoice that you live under the government of a good king? and that you enjoy the bleffings of our happy conftitution? This is a peculiar happiness indeed; but rejoice not fo much in this, as that you are the subjects of the King of kings, and

under

under a difpenfation of grace, and the government of a Mediator. The Lord reigneth: let the earth rejoice. Pfalm xcvii. 1. Rejoice, above all, in this, that you and all your affairs are under the direction of a divine hand, that will manage all for your good. Rejoice that ere long you shall be admitted to the court of the heavenly King, and fee him in all his glory.

you?

Do you rejoice that your life is prolonged, while fo many are dropping into the grave around Rather rejoice that you are not to live always in this moft wretched world. Rejoice that death itself, your laft enemy, will not be able to do you any lafting injury, but only convey you home to your Father's houfe, and the full poffeffion of your heavenly inhe

ritance.

Do you rejoice that you enjoy the gofpel and the means of falvation, and that these invaluable bleffings are not likely to be torn from you by the hands of Indian favages and Popish idolaters? This indeed is caufe of rejoicing; but how much more ought you to rejoice that the gofpel and the means of falvation are made effectual by divine grace for your conversion and fanctification! Many enjoy them as well as you, to whom they are of no fervice, but an occafion of more aggravated guilt and ruin.

Let me therefore perfuade you to rejoice, not only as a privilege, but as a duty. duty. God enjoins it upon you by the fame authority by which he requires you to pray, or to love himself or your neighbour. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous; and fhout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. Pfalm. xxxii. 11. Rejoice evermore: rejoice in the Lord always; and again, I fay, rejoice. 1 Theff. v. 16. It is decent and congruous that you should now rejoice in that, in which you fhall rejoice for ever. And, on the other hand, it is highly unbecoming that you should walk towards heaven melancholy and dejected, as if you were going to the place of execution. Let finners be afflicted, and mourn, and weep, who ftand every

moment

moment on the flippery brink of eternal mifery. Sorrow and lamentation become their circumstances. But will you always mourn and droop, who ftand every moment on the threshold of heaven, and know not but you may be there before another fun fhall rife? how indecent is this! Therefore rejoice with all your hearts, that your worthlefs names are written in heaven. This is greater cause of joy than if they were registered in the annals of fame, or among princes of the blood royal.

And do not excufe yourselves from this agreeable duty, by faying, "I would rejoice, if I were fure my name is written in heaven: but, alas! I am not." For is not this uncertainty your own fault? the effect of your own negligence? Besides have you not fome cheerful hopes and probabilities, and even fome tranfient affurance? and is not this caufe of joy to creatures that deferve to be left under the pangs of everlasting despair?

Let me advance a step farther, and tell you, that you fhould rejoice that your names are written in heaven, not only more than in all other caufes of joy, but also in oppofition to all causes of forrow.

What though you are poor in this world, when the heavenly inheritance is yours? That you are defpised among men, when you have the honour of being the fons of God? That you are weak, or fick and pained in body, when your fouls are recovering from the deadly disease of fin? That your are the flaves of men, when you are free of the heavenly city, members of the fame corporation with the armies of heaven, and fharers in the liberty of the fons of God? That your enemies fhould prove victorious over you upon earth, when you fhall certainly overcome at laft? That your mortal relations and friends die, when your heavenly Father and all your spiritual kindred live, and you cannot be bereaved of them? In fhort, what though you endure all the afflictions that can crowd upon one man in the prefent life, VOL. II. X x when

when they are all fhort and tranfitory, and work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and when you will foon arrive in the land of reft, beyond the reach of every mifery? In spite of all thefe calamities, rejoice; rejoice and be exceeding glad, fince your names are written in heaven.

But I muft proceed to address another class of hearers; and to them I muft fay,

II. If your names are not written in heaven, you can have no caufe of folid, rational, and lafting joy in any thing. This alfo I fhall illuftrate by an induction of particulars.

Rejoice not that you are rich, or at least enjoy the comforts of life, while you are destitute of spiritual and everlasting riches. Will it be any pleasure to you to pass from a fplendid well-furnished house into the regions of horror and darkness? From faring fumptuously every day, to fuffer the extremities of eternal want? From gay and merry company, to the fociety of the loft fpirits in hell? From all the luxuries of life, to weep, and wail, and gnash the teeth for ever? From wearing filks, and laces, and every form of finery, to be wrapt in fheets of infernal flame? Alas! what joy can you take in all the advantages that riches can give you, while you must be ftript of them all fo foon, and feel a terrible reverfe? Many who are ftiled worshipful, honourable, ́and hear nothing but titles of dignity among men, are vile, despicable creatures in the fight of God, and muft ere long fink into fhame and everlasting contempt. Many a body adorned with whatever riches can procure, is animated by a poor worthlefs foul, full of fin, and void of the beauties of holiness. And can you rejoice in fuch trifles as these? A man that has a gangrened foot may as well rejoice that it is. covered with a filken plaifter; or a criminal, that he is carried to the gallows in a coach of state.

Besides, remember, how hardly fhall rich men enter into the kingdom of God! It is an human im

poffibility;

poffibility; but it is not impoffible to Omnipotence. As riches increase, temptations increase; temptations to love the world more, and to think less of heaven; temptations from pride, flattery, hurry, company, &c. And can you rejoice that your falvation is made more difficult? that you, who are apt to ftumble at ftraws, have mountains thrown up in your way? Alas! if this were rightly confidered, would the wealthy and affluent be fo refolute and eager in the pursuit of riches?

What though you are in good business, and profpering in the world, while you are not doing the work of your falvation, nor carrying on a trade for heaven, and your hurry of bufinefs is a great occafion of this pernicious neglect?

What though you enjoy health of body, while your fouls are dead in trefpaffes and fins, and your health is no fecurity against death or hell? What though you enjoy friends and relatives, while the great God is your enemy? Or mirth and pleasure, when they will end in eternal howlings, and you will be upbraided with them another day, like Dives, Son, remember, that thou in thy life-time didst enjoy thy good things?

What though the French and Indians are routed? alas! the devil and your fins are ftill lords over you ! What though your country is fafe, when you fhall ftay in it but a very little time, and you have no place prepared for you in heaven? What though you are the free-born defcendants of Britons, and never were in bondage to any man? alas! you are the flaves of fin. What though you live under the government of the beft of kings, while you are the captives of the prince of darknefs, and the King of heaven is your enemy? What though your bodies are not expofed to the fword of your fellow-mortals, when you are liable every moment to the fword of divine juftice? What though you are fafe as to your outward eftate, when your immortal fouls are in danger?