"take joyfully" the sufferings, with which it may please God to visit us, "knowing in ourselves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring substance," 1 " a treasure that faileth not, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." THE MOURNER COMFORTED. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall find Drink, as he bids, the bitter cup, and bear May with the weight of heavenly joys compare! SECTION VI. THE CONTEMPLATION OF HEAVEN A CORRECTIVE OF EARTHLY PASSIONS. THE CONTEMPLATION of these things should moreover animate us to subdue in ourselves those earthly 1 Heb. x. 34. passions, and to liberate ourselves from those earthly practices, which are at variance with the character of the blessedness of heaven; which must preclude us from attaining it, and disqualify us for enjoying it if we could attain it. So saith the Apostle to the Colossians, following up his doctrine concerning the future glorified state of the faithful with the inferential admonition, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry; for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience; in the which ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them." " He alludes to their condition of sinfulness in heathen darkness, from which they had been delivered by the light of the Gospel. And he adds, "But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth." 2 Let us place before our eyes a man who has been devoted to the pursuits and enjoyments of the world, of sense, and of sin, till the period of his transition from this to another life; and let us consider him with reference to the condition therein promised to the blessed. That condition will be one of heavenly, of refined, of spiritual delight. Their bodies will be fashioned anew, and purified 'Col. iii. 5-7. fbid ver. 8. from their corruptible elements, and adapted to the enjoyments of superior natures. Their souls will be sublimed, and exempted from the alloy of a corruptible body, and made capable of seeing God. Their society will be the spirits of other just men made perfect, and the holy angels of God. They will dwell with their Redeemer reinvested with his Father's glory; him, who in his earthly state was purer than the stars; the guiltless, the spotless; who "knew no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." They will abide in the presence of God, the God of holiness, who is " of purer eyes than to behold evil, and who cannot look on iniquity," 2 the "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY." And it will be their employment and their happiness, to contemplate his excellence, to imitate his perfections, to celebrate his praises, to perform his will. And now let me ask, is there any thing in the previous state of the worldly man and the sinner, to fit him for the enjoyment of this condition, and this society, and this presence, and these employments, supposing for a moment that he could be admitted into it? Rather, is there not every thing to unfit and disqualify him for it? For, by what has his earthly state of trial and preparation been distinguished? A body, which has ever grovelled upon and clung to the earth; a soul, weighed down by the body, and in love with 1 1 Pet. ii. 22. 2 Hab. i. 13. sin, associates of the same character as himself, THE SINNER DISQUALIFIED FOR HEAVEN. Its plaints unheard; and bow at Mammon's shrine, 1 James iii. 15. • Gal. vi. 8. 2 Ezek. xxxiii. 31. Gal. v. 19, 21. Neglect God's What part hast thou therein; and ponder well, HELL. To close the eyes on earth; to wake in hell, Of glory and bliss; with them, where darkness reigns, The veil which screens his dreadfulness, that so Man might be warn'd and fear. What pangs are hid Beneath that lot, those sights and sounds of woe, Thou know'st not yet, nor canst thou. God forbid SECTION VII. THE CONTEMPLATION OF HEAVEN PROMOTES HEAVENLY AFFECTIONS. BUT, further; whilst we should be animated by the CONTEMPLATION of heavenly things, to the |