conjectures. What is comprehended under these awful emblems--The worm that never dies---The fire that is not quenched--Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power, we do not know. May the Almighty forbid that any of us should ever know! But of this, the Scriptures assure that from these mansions there is no return; that the gates of the eternal world shut to open no more, and that when the soul is once lost, it is lost for ever and for ever!

us,

SERMON XV.

ON THE CELEBRATION OF the Lord's SUPPER.

PSALM xliii. 4.

I will go unto the altar of God, unto God exceeding joy.

my

CHRISTIANS, as we are next Lord's day to go to the altar, and approach unto God, it may be proper for me now to explain the nature, and set before you the advantages of such an approach.

The pleasures of devotion have been the theme of good men in all ages; and they are pleasures of such a kind as good men only can feel. In what I am now to say, therefore, I must appeal to the heart, to the hearts of those who, in times past, have felt the joy of spiritual communion, and who will again feel

that it is good still for them to draw nigh unto God.

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This is the time when Jesus prepares a banquet for his friends; when the Spirit saith, Come; when the church saith, Come; when he that is athirst is invited to come; and happy will it be when the friends of Jesus prepare to meet with their Lord, if those who have hitherto been strangers to the holy hill, shall be attracted with the beauty which is in true holiness, also to come, and to take the waters of life freely. For thus runs the gracious promise of Heaven: "The strangers "who join themselves to the Lord, to love "him and to serve him, even them will I

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bring to my holy mountain, and make them

joyful in my house of prayer." In further treating on this subject, what I intend at present is, in the first place, to explain the nature of that approach which the devout make to God; and in the second place, set before you the advantages which accompany such an approach.

I am, in the first place, then, to explain the nature of that approach which the devout make to God.

This earth is not the native region of that

spirit which is in man. It finds not objects here congenial with its nature, nor a sphere adequate to its faculties. It wants room to expand to its full dimensions; to spread so wide, and stretch so far, and soar so high, as its immortal nature and unbounded capacity will admit. Descended from heaven, it aspires to heaven again. Created immortal, nothing that is mortal can satisfy its desires. Made after the image of God, it tends to that God whose lineaments it still bears. When we approach to God, therefore, we find objects suited to our nature, and engaged in the employment for which the soul was made. Here we are at home in our Father's house. Here our spirits aspire to hold communion with the everlasting Spirit; and we tend to heaven with exceeding joy, as to our native country.

The sense of Deity is akin to the perception of beauty, and the sensibility of taste. We are formed by the author of our nature to feel certain movements of mind at the sight of certain objects. Even inanimate things

are not without their attractions. The flowers of the field have their beauty. Animal life rises in our regard. Rational excellence, and moral perfection, rank still higher in our esteem, and when expressed in action, and ap

pearing in life, awake emotions of the noblest kind, and beget a pleasure which is supreme. Let any person of a right constituted mind, place before his view a character of high eminence for generosity, fidelity, fortitude; let him see these virtues tried to the utmost, exerted in painful struggles, overcoming difficulties, and conquering in a glorious cause, and he will feel their effects in his admiring mind: he will be actuated with re spect and love to such illustrious virtues. We account that faculty of the mind, which gives us a relish for these pleasures, a perfection in our nature, and a high one; we look upon an insensibility to such enjoyments as a radical defect. Let us apply this principle to religion. Who can behold the vastness and magnificence of the works of God without emotion; and infinite perfection without wonder and awe? Can our thoughts be fixed upon infinite goodness and everlasting love, without affection, and without gratitude? Can we behold Divinity in a form of flesh; the Son of God extended on the cross for the salvation of the world, and our hearts not burn within us with love to him who loved us unto the death? Can we behold the veil drawn aside from the invisible world, the heavens opened over our