3. But we turn gladly to a more cheering theme,—the everlasting life allotted to the righteous. These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.' There are no objections here to answer, either as regards the fact of their felicity, or its infinite duration; and therefore we shall proceed at once to consider the quality of celestial happiness, according to the same division of society, occupation, mental pleasures, and bodily delights.

1. And first, the society of the redeemed will be the pure, the holy, and the happy. On earth, the best of God's people have experienced much grief, and frequent interruption and opposition, from the pride, the oppression, the scorn, the falsehood, or the malice of the wicked; and the temptations arising from these cources, as well as the remaining corruption of their own hearts, constantly troubled and distressed them. But in the future world no wickedness, no root of bitterness, no unholiness, is suffered to intrude; every face they behold beams with the love of heaven-every voice they hear is musical with the true. melody of celestial kindness-every hand they touch returns the pressure of real and undoubted affection. They associate with the friends they loved on earth, and recount with them the various trials they endured, and the various mercies by which the Lord delivered them. They associate with the reformers of the Church, and listen with delighted interest to the history of their persecutions, and their success. They associate with the holy martyrs who died for the sake of Jesus, and join their tribute of admiring praise to the general voice of honorable distinction which crowns these blessed witnesses to the truth of God. They associate with the Apostles and evangelists, and drink in with eager pleasure the minute details of personal

narrative which belong to the life and actions of the Son of God, and trace with lively interest the various steps of advancement by which the Gospel of salvation was planted in the midst of heathen ignorance and superstition. They behold John and Andrew, Peter and James, with the rest of our Lord's Apostles, exercising the sway of mild dominion over the twelve tribes of Israel, while Paul, with his supremacy of gifts, holds an equal rank among his Gentile brethren, the only government being the paternal dignity of love, upheld by the sentiment of affectionate veneration. They associate with Elijah and Elisha, and all the Prophets, they sit under the lofty eloquence of Isaiah, and the tender sympathy of Jeremiah-they converse with the holy Daniel, Samuel, and Job-they hear the seraphic strains of David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, they join the company of Moses the great law-giver, of' Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, the father of the faithful. They talk about the wonders of the deluge with the holy Noah, and sympathize with the excellent Abel, the first victim of the fall. They see the cherubim who were set to guard the tree of life, and listen with rapt attention to the history of the creation, the garden of Paradise, and all the circumstances which accompanied the great temptation. They communicate freely with the holy angels, especially with the favored Gabriel, so often employed as the messenger of God to man, and learn the full account of the first workings of that pride by which Satan fell from his original brightness. And above all, they behold their Prince and their Saviour, who endured such agony for their sakes. They see his radiant countenance, full of Divine affection for his children-they fall at his feetthey hear his voice in the ecstacy of joy unutterable they are surrounded by the glory of the Eternal Father,

and the Holy Spirit; and their hearts swell with the mingled transport of love, gratitude, and bliss, while the chorus of the angelic throng bursts forth in the joyous acclaim-' Glory and honor, thanksgiving and praise, dominion and power, to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever.'

2. From the society of the redeemed, let us turn to the subject of their occupations. And here we read of thrones, dominions, and principalities, and powers. We read of the ruler over five cities and the ruler over ten, and we perceive that the angels themselves are ministering spirits, sent forth to carry on the great administration of the government of heaven, and to minister to those who are the heirs of salvation. Again we see an illimitable field in the vast planetary universe, in which the suns of other systems are already enumerated as surpassing eighty millions, to which, if we allow a proportionate number of revolving orbs, the whole must be a mighty aggregate, exceeding calculation. Again, reflect on the astonishing variety of organized existence exhibited in the inferior orders of our own world, and it is easy to draw the inference, that a far greater and wonderfully glorious exuberance of Almighty power is displayed throughout the different worlds of the boundless creation. What, then, if the occupations of the righteous should concern the regulation, the oversight, and the instruction of a portion of these worlds? What if they should make the circuit of the universe, under the guidance of some exalted seraph, and learn to know the beauties and the wonders of the whole? What if they should travel in delighted succession through the sun, the moon, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and all the other planets and constellations of the etherial firmament, affording to all who had never known the miseries of sin, the spectacle af

redeeming grace, through the mercy of a Saviour, explaining in their turn to their eager auditory the history of our ruined world, pointing for their illustration to the burning habitation of the damned, as it whirled by in furious velocity, and warning them, lest by any forgetfulnesss of God, or by any idolatry of self, they should depart from him and fall into the same fearful condemnation? What if there are innumerable offices under the great Ruler, which, as they rose upon the scale of knowledge and capacity, they should be called upon to fill-duties of instruction, duties of guardianship, duties of kindness and of love, all performed with a spirit of rejoicing gratitude, which should derive from each successive occupation, a succession of delight.

True, indeed, all this is in a great degree conjectural, yet I confess that it appears highly probable, first, because the pure intelligences of God's creation, who never knew sin, cannot have the same extensive experience nor well grounded humility as man, who has fallen and risen again by the special mercy of God. For by his fall, he knows the evil consequences of transgression much better than they, and by the new obligation which the redeeming love of Christ lays upon him, his grateful sensibility and fervent devotion to the great Creator are vastly increased: wherefore, by these very circumstances he is much more eminently qualified to rule and to admonish others, than he could have been if he had never fallen. And secondly, because this idea seems not unfairly to be collected out of Scripture, where it is said that the 'redeemed shall be priests and kings unto God and the Father,'-priests to teach, to warn, and to lead the worship of the pure creation-and kings to watch over and to govern them. Such honour have all the saints, and such and so glorious may be their occupations in the world to come.

3. As to the mental pleasures of the blessed in a future state, they will possess all of which we have any idea here, exalted to a degree of which we can form no possible conception, and, possibly, many in addition, entirely unknown. The pleasures of knowledge will be supplied by a boundless range over the whole creation, improved by the copious wisdom of the spiritual intelligences, and perfected by the illumination of heaven. Here we see through a glass darkly, there we shall see face to face and know even as we are known. Mysteries will be cleared up, difficulties will vanish, and a flood of science, rich, copious and divine, will be poured upon the mind. The pleasures of taste will be supplied from the fountain of all sublimity and beauty, fed by the eloquence of angels, and the poetry of the skies. The pleasures of imagination will soar to heights which dull mortality could never attain, and expatiate in all the freedom of unlimited enjoyment; and the pleasures of hope will feed upon the certainty of an existence, the delights of which shall be always growing and always new. But, above all, the pleasures of love, not the impure, the unholy, and the selfish debasement of feeling and of passion which on earth too often usurps the name, but love as it flows uncontaminated from the Spirit of God, full of bliss in itself and constantly diffusing the same bliss to all around it-the love which none but the Almighty can bestow, which none but the Christian can estimate, and none but the glorified saints can perfectly enjoy.

4. Lastly, we are to consider the bodily pleasures of the blest in the kingdom of Heaven. And here we read of the splendor of the city of God, whose walls are precious stones, her gates pearls, and her pavements gold. read of the river of life, and the tree of life which bears twelve manner of fruits, and whose leaves are for the heal

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