gracious appointment of him as the Judge of the world; for the accefs you now have by him to the throne of grace; for the means of communion with the Father of your fpirits, and the pleasing fellowship of those who are travelling with you in the fame road to the Zion above. Leaving thefe, then, to be revolved in your own minds, I will now only exhort you, in the

5th and last place, To rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. "Fear not, little flock," faid the bleffed Jefus, " for it is your Fa"ther's good pleasure to give you the king"dom." Ere long your trials and sufferings fhall come to an end, and your light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall be followed by an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory. At prefent we come from fcenes of anxiety and vexation to keep our folemn feasts; and our wedding garments are stained with the pollution, or torn with the briars through which we travel. Even amidst our most fublime delights, we are confcious of a certain blank in our feelings, which reminds us that this is not our reft: But in the prefence of God there is fulness of joy, and at

his right hand are pleafures for evermore. The poor afflicted broken fpirit, which now breathes in trouble as in its daily air, and fcarcely knows any other rule for computing the periods of time, than by the revolutions of forrows and disappointments, shall then be tuned to the high praises of God; and its love to him who is the Lord of love, fhall feel no bounds, and fear no end. O how the unveiled glory of God will then brighten many a face which is now darkened with grief, and ftained with tears, and daily wears the hue of melancholy !-There is not a forrowful countenance in all the Courts of Zion's King; their doubts and fears have dropt off with the veil of mortality, and forrow and fighing have fled far away. Lift up your heads, then, ye that travel towards the heavenly Zion, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. It is not more certain that the fun doth shine in the firmament, than that ye fhall live for ever in the heavenly Jerufalem, and join the innumerable company about the throne, in the everlasting praise of your God and your Redeemer. Then shall you understand the happinefs of believers, and

know

know better than I can tell you, what God did for your fouls, when he called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

Rejoice then in the Lord always, and again I fay rejoice. Let it appear, by the ferenity of your countenance, and the alacrity of your fteps, that your falvation is already begun, and that though the fulness of your joys be reserved for another world, yet even in this you can remark, with a fatisfaction unknown to the mere fons of earth, how fweet is the face of nature, how delicious are the fruits of the field. "Go your way, eat your bread "with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth your work." Amen.

SER

318

SERMON XVIII.

HEBREWS, V. 12.

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become fuch as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

HE Apostle having, at the 10th verse,

TH

compared, in general terms, the priesthood of Jefus with that of Melchisedek, finds himself obliged to break off the argument, not from any defect of his own knowledge, but from the dulnefs of those to whom he wrote. Their minds were not as yet prepared for fuch fublime inftruction, and that not owing to any natural infirmity, but merely to their neglect or mifimprovement of the best advantages. "For when for the time ye

ought to be teachers, ye have need that one

"teach

"teach you again which be the first principles "of the oracles of God; and are become "fuch as have need of milk, and not of strong

meat.' Accordingly, he tells them, very plainly, how difgracefully deficient they were in the improvement which might have been expected from the time that they had been in the school of Chrift. Inftead of being in a capacity of teaching others, they were themfelves in the loweft clafs of learners. Inftead of making progrefs in the knowledge of divine truth, they had forgotten what they once poffeffed. Inftead of growing to the ftature of perfect men in Chrift Jefus, they had fhrunk again to the condition of babes, whofe weak and tender organs must be nourished with the fimpleft food. Instead of expanding with a regular and folid growth, opening and enlarging, their faculties, through difufe, had become fo contracted as to refuse admittance to the plaineft truths, much more to doctrines fo deep and involved as those which he had begun to ftate. Such is the fpirit of the Apoftle's reproof, contained in the text: "For when for the time ye ought to be "teachers, ye have need that one teach you