'glory.' verf. 20. And he faid, Thou canft not fee my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. Compared with Rev. xxii. 4. And they fhall fee his face.' And I Cor. xiii. 12. 'Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then 'face to face: now I know in part; but then 'fhall I know even as alfo I am known.' The Experience they will have of the divine Goodness, is an unrestrained Partaking of the All-fulness thereof: Pfal. xxxvi. 8. 9. They fhall be abundantly fatisfied with the fatnefs of thy house: and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life in thy light fhall we fee light.' Rev. xxi. 3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, faying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be 'his people, and God himself shall be with them, ' and be their God.' The Creature's Understanding and Experience can never, in any Cafe, reach all the Glory and Goodness that is in God; because it is infinite : Job xi. 7. Canft thou by fearching find out God? canft thou find out the Almighty unto perfec'tion?" But the glorified Saints will enjoy him fully, enjoying him to the utmost of their enlarged Capacities, Pfal. xvi. ult. and xxxvi. 8. forecited. And they will enjoy him immediately: 1 John iii. 2. Beloved, now are we the fons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we fhall 'be: but we know, that when he fhall appear, we fhall be like him; for we fhall fee him as he is. Not that they will ever enjoy him, otherwife than through the Mediator Chrift their Head: - John xvii. 2. 3. As thou haft given him power over over all flesh, that he fhould give eternal life to as many as thou haft given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only. true God, and Jefus Chrift whom thou haft fent. Rev. vii. ult. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne, fhall feed them, and 'fhall lead them unto living fountains of waters. Chap. xxi. 23. And the city had no need of the fun, neither of the moon to fhine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.' But they will enjoy him without the Intervention of outward Means, I Cor. xiii. 12. forecited. And that their full and immediate Enjoyment of God will laft to all Eternity: 1 Theff. iv. 17. And fo fhall we ever be with the Lord.' Pfal. xvi. ult. forecited. The End for which the Saints fhall be made compleatly happy, in full enjoying of God, is God's Glory: Prov. xvi. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself.' Rom. xi. ult. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.' And they being made perfectly bleffed, or compleatly happy, in full enjoying of God to all Eternity, will anfwer that End, in glorifying God, by loving, prailing, and ferving him, perfectly, to all Eternity Pfal. Ixxxvi. 12. 13. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart and I will glorify thy name for evermore. For great is thy mercy toward me and thou haft delivered 6 my foul from the lowest hell.' Rev. vii. 9. 10. After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, ftood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed 6 : : : with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, faying, Salvation to our God which fitteth upon the ❝ throne, and unto the Lamb. verf. 15. There'fore are they before the throne of God, and ferve him day and night in his temple: and he that fitteth on the throne fhall dwell among them.' Chap. xxii. 3. And there fhall be no more curfe: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his fervants fhall ferve him.' The End of the Explication of the Shorter Catechilm. The The peculiar Advantage and Bufinefs of Several SERMONS, preached at Ettrick, in the Year 1727. ISAIAH XXXviii. 19. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. I T is much to be defired, that men would confider the great bufinefs of their life: but few do it, till it is just going or gone out of their hands. Hezekiah had been at the brink of the grave, and learned those just thoughts of life, which he gives us with much concern in the text. Wherein we have, 1. The mercy of life: The living, the living, he fhall praife thee, &c. Verf. 18. he had been fpeaking of the dead, the inhabitants of the gloomy manfions of the grave; and in opposition to thefe he here fpeaks of the living, and in a triumphant manner proposeth to fpeak of them, as feeing the mercy of life. A ferious view of death is the way to get just thoughts of the mercy of life. 2. Wherein the mercy of life, the peculiar mercy of it, confifts. And the decifion of this is in a vein of thought peculiar to the spiritual man, in a spiritual frame. 1f, Afk the carnal man, where lies the mercy of life? And, (1.) If he is in profperity, with health and wealth, he reckons the mercy of life lies, in that the living man may enjoy the pleasures of sense, mirth, and jollity, and may lay up wealth for him and his; all which ftern death robs a man of. But there is not one word of this here. (2.) If he is in adversity, poverty, and fore sickness, he either cannot fee the mercy of life at all, but thinks they are well that are away, that are out of poverty and pain, and lie at eafe in the duft. So croffes make him wish to be away. At beft, he reckons it the mercy of life, that he is not there where it may be he would be worse, viz. in hell. But there is not a word of all this neither in the text. 2dly, Afk the renewed man in an ill frame of fpirit, where lies the mercy of life? If he is in outward profperity, he will be ready to reckon it Jies in the comforts of this life. If he is in adverfity, the troubles of life are fo great, that the mercy of it is fmall in his view; only heaven bulks in his eyes, and that as a place of reft from trouble. But there is nothing of this neither in the text. The decifion is, The mercy of life lies in the business of life, to wit, being ferviceable for God in the world: The living, the living, he shall praise thee, &c. Hezekiah counts that the great mercy of life, to have access to be useful for God in the world. Which speaks (1.) A high esteem of God and his fervice, as men count it a favour to be allowed to ferve their prince. (2.) An ardent love to |