vation, and it is all my desire." This covenant is the ark in which the pious are secure when the floods swell, and in which they are kept in perfect peace, while the hearts of worldly men are failing them for fear in seasons of private calamity, or public disaster.

The grace formed in Christians is superior to that possessed by Adam. He was created in the image of God; and though this image, as restored in regeneration, is not completed till the hour of death, it is distinguished by excellencies not to be found in the character of the first man; and when it reaches its destined perfection, the new creature shall be filled with all the fulness of God. The Spirit of Christ dwelt not in Adam. In a paradise where every tree flourished good for food, or pleasant to the eye, that faith could not operate which rejoices in God in the gloomiest scene of want and desolation. In the state of perfect innocence there could be no place for the repentance which is to God a pleasing sacrifice; and, amidst perfect felicity, the fortitude and patience could not be displayed which glory in tribulation. Had Adam retained his integrity, the absence of all misery would have precluded those exertions of sympathy and beneficence which are so good and so acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour. In the scene of unmingled kindness, there could be no call for that forbearance and forgiveness which must be so often exercised in a world where uences so frequently come, and in which the generous power of the Christian temper is so strikingly manifested in repressing the fiercest impulse of nature.

We read of a river that went out of Eden to water the garden, but there that living water did not flow which sanctifies the polluted, and quickens the dead. There was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but man was prohibited to touch it, and the tree of life,,

which was guarded from his approach. But you are invited to draw near to Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and who is the bestower of grace and glory.

Like the prodigal son, who had returned to his father's house, ye feel a gratitude and a joy beyond that of the elder brother who had never left it; and while your gracious parent clothes you with the best robe, and satisfies you as with marrow and fatness, angels will not complain of your reception, or envy your feli city, but will magnify the Lord with you.

After the Service.

The enjoyments of the redeemed are also superior to those of Adam in innocence. Were we to suppose that good men were only raised by Christ to the enjoyments with which Adam was blessed, the remem. brance of the guilt and misery which preceded them must give them a sweetness which could not be felt by one to whom sin and sorrow were unknown. In walking with God, he could not feel that degree of delight of which you are conscious at a communion table, when you remember that you were once afar off, and were brought nigh by the blood of Jesus. In partaking of the pleasures of paradise, he could not be conscious of that exquisite gratitude which you feel while you are in the garden of your beloved, and eating his pleasant fruit, when you remember your wanderings in the land of drought, and of the shadow of death. No flower of paradise could charm the eye, or the smell, like the Rose of Sharon; and no dominion over the works of God, and no homage paid by man to the Deity, as

"the priest of nature," can be compared to that royal priesthood to which redemption advances you.

There will be many things in the heaven of the redeemed which could not have been found in that of innocent Adam. The heaven of Adam would have wanted the memorials of the Lamb's sufferings, the song of his worth, and the participation of his glory. The Lamb in the midst of the throne, as it had been slain, is the most interesting object in heaven to a redeemed sinner; the song of the Lamb is the sweetest of its anthems; and the marriage supper of the Lamb is the most delightful of its enjoyments. To these objects let your hearts now rise, and let them give a hea venly tendency to all your future conduct.

Christians, you are here presented with an answer to this question which has long perplexed the reflecting mind, "why such an event as the fall of man was permitted to take place under the government of a holy and benevolent Being?" God suffered man to fall, because he had determined by the mediation of his Son to raise the objects of his mercy to a nobler excellence, and to a sublimer felicity. We are told that, at the erection of the second temple, many of the fathers who had seen the first wept sore, because it was so inferior to it in magnificence and glory; but when we contem plate the building of mercy, we may rejoice in its being in all respects superior to that which was reared when man was made upright. How lofty are its towers, and how beautiful its palaces! This is my rest for ever;

I will walk round it now in holy admiration, mark it with rapture advancing to its destined consummation, and hope to join in the shout with which its head-stone will be brought forth, "Grace, grace unto it."

Your Lord gloried in avowing that it was the object of his coming to give this life. The conqueror who

comes to pillage and to subjugate a country, hath no reason to boast of this, for no glory can arise from the tears of the oppressed, the desolation of the flourishing, and the slaughter of the helpless; but Jesus came to loose the bands of wickedness, to bless the miserable, and to save the lost. He felt the greatest complacency in this object. He knew that, in order to our accep tance, purity, and salvation, he must be forsaken of God, and crucified as a malefactor, and that, ere the blessings of the new covenant could be imparted to us, he must encounter the united rage of earth and hell; but he saw the bright glories which would arise from his cross to God, and the high felicity which would result from it to man, and, in the prospect of it, was eager to advance, and willing to die. This coming of your Lord deserves your most cordial welcome. When he rode into Jerusalem, the multitude spread their garments, and strewed branches of trees in the way, and shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David; and this is a pattern for you to copy. Let us spread in his way all our talents and all our attainments, and let our blessings rest on his head.

Let your labours in Christ's service be abundant. Satisfy not yourselves with a partial victory over corruption, with a scanty donation to the cause of piety and charity, when it is in the power of your hand to give more, with a hasty visit to the house of mourning, and with a few feeble efforts to promote the interests of your Redeemer's kingdom, or a formal observance of the exercises of devotion. Crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, do good to all as you have opportunity, bear one another's burdens, be zealous supporters of every plan for enlightening and for improving society, and fervent in spirit serving the Lord.

Envy not the men of the world, when their corn, and

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their wine, and their oil, abound. In the fulness of their sufficiency they are in straits. When surrounded with. what others deem all the materials of happiness, they feel that something is wanting, the attainment of which they consider as essential to their fame or their pleasure, and they can carry nothing hence. The hand that counted its thousands of gold and silver shall in death be as empty as that of the beggar, and the pampered glutton shall only be the fuller repast for the worm. But in your portion ye feel a joy suited to its extent, value, and security. "All things are yours, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

Rejoice that Christ will still come in the influences of his grace to quicken and to save. There are many objects of his mercy who are to rise into being in the different ages of the world, with regard to whom Jesus feels," them also must I bring in,” sanctify, and save; and ye may exult in the blessed hope of his second coming, when he will swallow up death in victory. In changing your vile bodies, and fashioning them like to his own glorious body, he will give them a beauty and a splendour, a vigour and activity, capacities for service and enjoyment which they never possessed here. Then will Jesus feel the joy which was set before him consummated, when he is glorified in the perfect excellence and felicity of his saints, and is admired in all them that believe.