2 COR. v. 1.-For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Let us contemplate the feeble structure of this earthly tabernacle, which gives us so many tokens of its nearly-approaching dissolution; this tabernacle, in which we groan under such a variety of burdens; and let us comfort ourselves with the prospect of speedy deliverance; that so, while the outward man perisheth, the inner man may be renewed day by day. What! though we have death before us in certain prospect, and know we must soon be absent from the body! If we are true Christians, we have the most express assurance, not only that the time will come, when we shall inhabit a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; but that we shall immediately be present with the Lord, with that blessed Redeemer, whom having not seen we love. How much more shall we love him, how much more shall we rejoice in him, when we are

blessed with his presence, and behold his glory. DR. Doddridge.

Dr. Andrew RIVET, who died at Breda, in the year 1651, in his last affliction, alluded to this portion of Scripture, and said, “I know, O Lord, that this tabernacle cannot be dissolved without pain. The heart is yet strong, and I have yet many pangs to suffer. Lord, help my infirmities! Depart not from me in the day of my distress! Say to my soul, I am He that can deliver thee. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance."

2 COR. v. 4.-For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

When the apostle is carried up on those eagle wings of assurance to see a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, then he groans earnestly under the burden of his earthly tabernacle, and desires to die; yet, looking upon death, he saw no form or comeliness in that, why he should desire it; and,

therefore, he seems to correct himself, at least to draw his mind plainer with the next drop of his pen, "not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." He speaks somewhat like a man, who in a time of heat hastily strips himself to go into the water, but putting a foot in, and finding it cold, calls for his clothes again. The apostle, in a true, holy heat of spirit, had, in his desires, almost stripped himself of his body, but putting a foot into the grave, he found that so cold, that he had no great mind to it, and therefore had rather keep on the clothing of his body, and have a suit of glory over it, than lay it down. The saints desire to live with. Christ; but, in itself, they desire not to die: they had rather their mortality should be swallowed up of eternal life, than their temporal life should be swallowed up of mortality. They that have grace like not the disunions of nature.-CARYL.

There is a land of pure delight,

Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.

There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers;
Death, like a narrow sea divides,
This heavenly land from ours.

But timorous mortals start and shrink
To cross this narrow sea;
And linger, shivering on the brink,
And fear to launch away.

Could we but climb where Moses stood,

And view the landscape o'er,

Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood,
Should fright us from the shore.—Dr. Watts,

2 COR. vii. 6.-Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.

Titus was a good man, and brought good tidings, yet Paul doth not say that the coming of Titus did comfort them; but, saith Paul, "God comforted us by the coming of Titus." It is not your friend who comforts you, but God who comforts you by the coming of such a friend, when you are in sorrow; by sending in such relief when you are poor; by sending such medicines when you are sick;

such salves when you are sore; such counsel when you are in doubt, and know not what to do.-CARYL.

"To comfort the heart, is more than to make a world," said the holy and tempted LUTHER. And the pious young M'EWEN, the estimable writer on "The Types," has remarked, that "consolation is a commodity of heaven, not to be imported but from the distant country of Immanuel. It is God alone, the God of peace, to whom almighty power belongeth, that can comfort the soul."

PHIL. i. 21.-For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

And well may a Christian count death among his gains, since it is the hand of death that draws the curtain of the great tabernacle, and lets in to see God face to face! in that palace of inestimable majesty, where we shall have the strong rays of his glory beat full upon us, and be ourselves made strong enough to bear them.-BP. HOPKINS.