privileges, which His blood has purchased, so much the more are we called upon to defend the goodly heritage, which we have received through Him; and to carry into effect, by His help, that work, which He hath begun in us. If we hope to dwell hereafter with the angels of God, let us keep our thoughts and hearts as pure, as those of blessed spirits. If we hope, that our bodies shall, one day, be summoned from the dust, let us sanctify them now to the service of God, as temples of the Holy Ghost: and, above all, where our treasure is, there let our heart be also. Let us really fix our desires on those Heavens, whither our Saviour Christ is gone before; let us think on them;-let us pray for them; and do our best to become dead to sin, that we may rise again to happiness! If such be our endeavour; - if such be our meditation, and our hope; we have an inheritance in the Heavens, which faileth not; of which no violence of devil or man can hinder us: we have a friend, and protector, from whom, if we do not ourselves depart from Him, no power, or spirit, can separate us. In His strength, let us proceed on our journey, through the storms and troubles and dangers of the world. However they may rage and swell, though the mountains shake at the tempests, our rock will not be moved:-we have one friend, who will never forsake us; one refuge, where we may rest in peace, and stand in our lot at the end of the days. That same is He, who liveth, and was dead; who is alive for evermore; and hath the keys of hell, and of death. SERMON XXII. FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. ST. JOHN, xx. 19. WITH this merciful salutation, did our Lord, on the first Sunday after His resurrection, address the first congregation assembled in His name.— A little flock it was, and surrounded by many hungry wolves, in a world where all men were its enemies; yet He, who knew all things, and in whose hand all things were, foretold to them, peace and dominion and security; the gates of Hell, He had formerly said, should not prevail against His Church; and now, in their greatest danger, He is at hand, to make good His promise. "At evening," saith the Scripture, "being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." I have already, on former occasions, explained and enforced the indubitable nature of that proof, which these frequent appearances of Christ, after His death, afford of the reality of His resurrection; and of the firmness of that faith, which is built on so sure a foundation; and against which the gates of Hell, we have God's word for it, shall never finally prevail. But there are three further purposes, which the gracious visit, and gracious words, of our Saviour may, on the present occasion, appear intended to serve; and which, at least, may afford very useful lessons to every Christian who considers them attentively. I mean, first, the sanction thus afforded to the universal custom of keeping Sunday, on the first day of the week, as a Christian Sabbath, and a day of devout thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus; who, as on this day, rose from that grave, whither He had descended for our sins. "On the first day of the week, when the disciples were assembled together, came Jesus, and stood in the midst of them." We have here the first observance of the Lord's day, by the Apostles, on the Sunday immediately following that of His resurrection; and that this their meeting on that day was neither by chance, nor without the gracious approbation of their departed Lord, is plain from two considerations. First, that Christians, from that time forward, never ceased, or neglected, to then have their solemn assemblies on the first day of the week; which thenceforth bore the appropriate name of the Lord's day. Secondly, that Christ not only honoured this their first meeting with His visible presence; but that He returned also on the next following Sunday; "after eight days again His disciples were within ;came Jesus; and stood in the midst; and said, Peace be unto you:" and again, afterwards, and in the only further revelation of His will, which He has made to mankind, it was on the Lord's day, that He thought fit to display His glory to His beloved apostle, in his banishment of Patmos. We have, then sufficient grounds for concluding, not only that the keeping holy the Lord's day is, next to the Sacraments, the most ancient, universal, and sacred ordinance, which the Christian Church enjoins; not only that it is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving—of all others the most appropriate to the mercies which we have received; but that we have the implied sanction of the Son of God Himself, for the reverend observance of a day, on which, almost exclusively, He has, since His resurrection, thought fit to reveal His glories to mankind. And those, who are cold, or careless, in their celebration of this weekly festival; those, whom a little cloud, a little dust, a trifling degree of weariness will keep, on this day, from the service of their Lord and their God, may blush, when |