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prepared for the devil and his angels." Yeseven He whose mercy is over all his works; He who now calls upon us, once, yea twice, and without intermission, in the accents of infinite mercy and compassion, to repent and turn to the Saviour and live; whose constant language is, "Why will ye die, O house of Israel!" will then, as a just and inflexible Judge, pronounce and carry into execution that irrevocable sentence. Let us then "seek the Lord while he may be found;" let us "call upon him while he is near! let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, for he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

217

SERMON XVIII.

THE HEAVENLY INHABITANTS.

REV. vii. 14-17.

And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them: they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more: neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

OUR church, among her festivals, has devoted one to the contemplation of the holy angels, and another to the commemoration of the spirits of the just made perfect. Nor are these festivals, when improved as the church intended, vain or useless. The contemplation of the blessed society of angels may lead us to adore

the wisdom, the power, and the love of their, and our, Creator; to bless him for rendering them "ministering spirits," sent forth by him, "to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation;" and also to imitate their example, endeavouring to love him, to worship him, and to do his will upon earth, as by those holy and happy beings it is done in heaven. The commemoration likewise of the saints in glory, may profitably lead us, in the language of the collect for All-saints'-day, to call to mind that "one communion and fellowship in which God has knit together his elect in the mystical body of his Son Jesus Christ;" to follow the example of those now pure and glorified spirits, as they, when on earth, followed Christ, in order that, with them, "we may come to those unspeakable joys which God hath prepared for them that love him, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

And who are these blessed spirits? Whence came they? And what is their occupation? Could the veil be removed between us and the unseen world, that veil which though thin and ready every moment to burst, death only can draw aside, we should behold, in the heavenly temple, as described in the sublime language of the chapter before us, "a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed

with white robes, and with palms in their hands;" and should hear them, in blissful anthems, crying with a loud voice, and saying, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." There should we discover that God is no parsimonious bestower of his bounties; that numbers without number for ever circle his throne, drinking deeply of the immeasurable fulness of enjoyment which he pours forth from himself, the eternal source of all felicity. There, besides those blessed spirits which kept their first estate, we should behold Jew and Gentile, young and old, rich and poor, bond and free; many a once despised outcast, or burdened slave; in short, all who, in every age, and whatever their distinctions among men, were enrolled in the blessed family of God's children; all who, in the emphatic words of the text, "had washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

Let us view this glorious company in the two-fold aspect in which they are presented in the passage before us; First, as to what they were upon earth; Secondly, as to what they are in heaven.

First, And what, in the first place, were they upon earth?-On this part of the subject the

text is very brief. Their varieties of age, colour, and climate, with their whole temporal history, and worldly circumstances, were of no consequence to be known; for these affect not their éternal condition. But the little that is narrated, or implied, is highly important. We may gather from the text, that, differ as they might in other respects, in these they were alike, that they were all once defiled by sin, which needed to be atoned for and cleansed; and that they had all sought and obtained this pardon and purification in the blood of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. They were all likewise, when upon earth, partakers of affliction; but they had now come out of it, and were introduced to a state of happiness beyond the reach of trial or change. Let us reflect a moment on these two facts.

1. We learn that the saints in light were once frail and sinful persons, like ourselves.— They had no natural exemption from the passions of our corrupt nature; no plea of worthiness to offer in the presence of their Creator. Yet, through the death and merits of their Saviour, they obtained pardon; they were washed, they were sanctified, they were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. And thus their example becomes encouraging to each of us, if, like them, we are striving to walk in newness of life. For,

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