and that, if we obey God's laws faithfully and sincerely, we may be assured, that, through the tender mercies of our heavenly Father, and the merits of our Redeemer, we shall be received into a place of everlasting rest and peace; where we shall adore and praise the author of our salvation, and contemplate the glorious perfections of his majesty, with a joy and satisfaction infinitely exceeding all that we can now possibly conceive?

O blessed time!' (to use the words of Archbishop Tillotson) when mortality shall be swallowed up of life. and death and sorrow shall be no 'more! when we shall be eased of all our pains, and resolved of all our doubts, and be purged from all our " sins, and be freed from all our fears, and be happy beyond our hopes! and have all this happiness secured to us beyond the power of time and change!'

As these considerations cannot but at present fill our hearts with joy unspeakable, and excite us continually to give thanks unto the Father, which

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hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son; Col. i. 12, 13. so, when we come to have a nearer and more immediate view of the glories of that kingdom which God hath prepared for us; how will our souls break forth into extasies of love and joy! how will it transport us to see him, whom we have loved and faithfully served to see him, not arraigned for a malefactor; not hanging in a shameful manner upon the cross! but to see him, in all his majesty and glory, sitting in a triumphant manner upon his throne, adored by angels and archangels, thousand thousands ministering unto him, and ten and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him! Dan. vii. 10. to see him, I say, not as an angry and incensed judge, but as a merciful Saviour and Redeemer, looking upon his faithful and beloved servants with the tenderest affection, and receiving them into the arms of his everlasting mercy, with those ravishing

words, come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! Matt. xxv. 34.

But then, on the other hand, with what anguish and despair will the wicked and ungodly appear before the dreadful solemnities of that awful day! how will they tremble and be confounded, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. when they shall see the heavens passing away with a great noise, and the elements melting with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, burnt up! 2 Pet. iii, 10. when they shall behold hell open to receive them, and the great Judge of the world, with terrour in his looks, ready to pronounce that dreadful sentence, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels! Matt. xxv. 41.

Oh in what confusion and agonies will those souls be, to whom those

dreadful words shall then be spoken! how will they call upon the mountains and rocks to fall on them, and to hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb! Rev. vi. 16.-But alas! what will that avail them, when the great day of his wrath is come! whither shall they betake themselves, when both the earth and the heavens shall flee from the presence of the Judge! Rev. xx. 11. If the Saviour of the world condemns them, who shall intercede in their behalf? if He, that once died to purchase their salvation, will not save them (as it is certain he will not save the wicked and impenitent), to whom shall they fly for succour! it will then be too late to cry for mercy, when the time of judgment is come; too late to lament their folly and madness, when the time of working is over: all prayers and entreaties, all tears and repentance, will then be in vain. He that is unjust must be unjust still; and he that is filthy must be filthy still. Rev. xxii. 11. As the tree is fallen, so it must lie for ever. The time of trial,

the day of grace, is ended, and there remains no more sacrifice for sin; but a fiery indignation must devour them Heb. x. 26. 27. The dreadful hour is come, when they must be banished for ever from the enjoyment of him, in whose presence alone is fullness of joy ; and be doomed to those lakes of fire and brimstone, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched; where they must be bound in everlasting chains, and be day and night for ever and ever tormented (Rev. xx. 10. by the Devil and his accursed spirits (those cruel and unrelenting beings) in the flames of a most outrageous and never-to-be extinguished fire.

Could I represent to you' (says Archbishop Tillotson, in one of his excellent sermons) the horror of that dismal prison, into which wicked and impure souls are to be thrust, and the misery they must there endure, without the least spark of comfort, or glimmering of hope; how they wail and groan under the intolerable wrath of God, the insolent scorn and cruelty of devils, the severe