poorest not excepted, be owned before an assembled world, be dignified with the blessings of heaven when Christ, who is their life, shall appear, they also shall appear with him in glory; crowns of honor shall be placed on their heads; palms of victory shall be held in their hands; robes of glory shall adorn them; and hymns of praise shall be heard from them, to the sovereign grace of Jesus; then they shall be ever with the Lord of hosts.

"And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." They are his sons, begotten by his grace, adopted into his family, and distinguished with all the privileges of the children of God; whilst on earth they were active for him: they love him with the affection, the zeal, and the constancy of a son: and "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” I will spare them (as the passage may mean) till that day; I will preserve them from every evil, to the enjoyment of myself; they shall be kept by the mighty "power of God, through faith unto salvation." And then, when the last trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, I will spare them according to the multitude of my mercy; since I did not spare my Son for them, I will spare them for him. “When he shall appear, they shall be like him, for they shall see him as he is :" grace shall be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ: they shall find mercy of the Lord in that day they shall have no part in the fury of God's wrath, in the fire of hell, which is the second death; they shall be delivered from going down to the pit, for he has found a ransom. Oh, then, Christian, lift up your head, for your redemption draweth nigh.

Sinner-this subject proclaims your misery: instead of fearing God, you hate and disobey him; instead of medi

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tating on him, your mind is occupied on what you shall eat, what you shall drink, and wherewithal you shall be clothed. You never stretch a thought half-way to God; instead of going with others in the road to heaven, the conversation in which you mingle is sensual and devilish: Your friends are the enemies of God, and you delight to confirm one another in your opposition to Jehovah; he sees you, but it is with indignation; he marks it down, but it is that it may appear against you another day; you shall be consigned over to the devil; instead of being spared, you shall be damned.

Oh, believer, live up to your character as delineated in the Bible; rejoice in the prospect of eternal life; when called to it, pass the river Jordan with a hope full of immortality, and so shall you be ever with the Lord. "Wherefore, comfort one another with these words." Amen.

SERMON VIII.

THE BELIEVER'S JOY IN CHRIST.

"Whom having not seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”—1 Peter, i. 8.

THE second appearance of the Son of God is an event for which every Christian, when in a proper frame of mind, ardently longs, and earnestly prays; it is his employment and delight, to be "looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" it behooves him always to be hasting unto the coming of the day of God, and to hope to the end for the grace that shall be brought to him at the revelation of Jesus Christ. On that day a display will be given of the grandeur and glory of the God we worship: those dispensations. which appear to us at present irreconcilable with his perfections, will then strike our admiring minds as being altogether right, yea, absolutely necessary, to accomplish hist own designs, and illustrate the depths of his infinite love. This mortal shall then put on immortality, and this corruptible be clothed with incorruption; a final termination. will then be out to all those fiery trials, which are now sent to try us; the Christian shall, both in the glory of his

body and in the purity of his soul, resemble his Redeemer; and, in fine, the kingdom of heaven will be opened to all believers, and a loud voice shall proclaim, "Blessed are they that have done his commandments, for they have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in, through the gates, into the city." Since these shall be some of the grand transactions of that illustrious period, the saints cannot forbear exclaiming, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly."

But whilst the high expectations of the redeemed are directed towards the Saviour's second advent, it is worthy of remark, that he is not an uninteresting character to them now. Although they glory in the thought (which is so beautifully expressed in the verse preceding our text,) of "the trial of their faith being found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ," still there are present enjoyments in religion, and the believer has all good things in possession, as well as all glorious things in reversion. They have earnests given them of the happiness of that day; and do not Christians feel an anticipation of that rapture which will then begin, when they are enabled to say, in the words of our text, which immediately follow an allusion to the day of judgment, "whom having not seen we love in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice, with joy unspeakable and full of glory ?"

From the passage then, thus introduced, we shall endeavor to show you two things: That Jesus Christ is yet invisible;—that notwithstanding this, he excites the Christian's best sensations.

I. Jesus Christ is yet invisible.

"Whom," says the apostle, "having not seen," and "in whom, though now ye see him not.”

No doubt Peter here refers to a sight of Christ in the flesh; since the greater part of those to whom he wrote, had not "beheld his glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth :" it was his design to comfort their minds, and to inform them that, although Christ lived no longer on earth, there is a possibility of enjoying the blessings of his undertaking in our own souls, and that this shall be the case till time shall end.

But the idea of Jesus being unseen, must not only be viewed in reference to those to whom the apostle wrote, but in its bearings upon us; for the words of our text are as applicable to us, upon whom the ends of the world are come, as they were to those who lived a short time after the ascension of the Saviour. And we may contemplate our Lord Jesus Christ as invisible in two respects, namely: in the glories of his person-and in the mysteries of his providence. We would consider our Lord Jesus Christ as an invisible Saviour, as it respects

1. The glories of his person.

He, my brethren, is "that blessed and only Potentate, who alone hath immortality. Dwelling in light, to which no man can approach; whom no man hath seen nor can see."

Formerly, indeed, he was beheld, arrayed in human nature; and we might have addressed those who were familiar with him: "Blessed are your eyes, for they see what many prophets and righteous men desired to see, but saw not:" but you remember that, before his resurrection, he said, "A little while and ye shall see me, and again a little while, and ye shall not see me, and because I go to my