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the world to be the deliverer from the wrath to come; he yet lives to make intercession for the transgressors. Apply to him. You are yet in the land of prayer and hope: you are yet within the possibility of salvation; it may be, you may yet reach the good land afar off, and gain everlasting light, and life, and glory; it shall be, if you do in earnest go to Jesus, with all your sins, and trust in him.

Are you trusting in Jesus, and converted to God? blessed is your state! "There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." Christians can say of him, "He hath delivered us from the wrath to come." They can stand on the rock of Divine truth, amidst all the raging storm of wrath rushing on the ungodly, and be in perfect security, under "the hiding-place from the wind, and the covert from the tempest. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" He who has the keys of death and hell, is their friend, and none can hurt or annoy. O Christians, may gratitude to your Redeemer, and tender compassion for perishing sinners, and persevering endeavors to lead them to your Protector and Deliverer, bear testimony that you are the redeemed of the Lord, whom he hath delivered out of the hand of the enemy, and formed for himself a people to show forth his praise!

SERMON VII.

HEAVEN.

By the Rev. EDWARD BICKERSTETH,
Rector of Watton.

REVELATION xxii. 3-5.

And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever.

IMMORTAL beings, here is the prize of your high calling! Here is the glorious recompense held out for your attainment. To assist you to gain this, is the noble object of the Christian ministry. For this we are embassadors of Christ to you; and if you ask, May such sinful creatures as we have such a hope? our commission reaches every one of you; Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. O that you and I may together attain this holy and eternal happiness!

We have now to consider this-the inheritence of the saints, the state of heavenly happiness and glory. May the Divine Spirit elevate our thoughts, and reveal to us "the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

Do you ask, Is such a state attainable by fallen sinful creatures? May I reach those happy regions? I will ask you one question: Do you really so desire it as to follow the Divine directions for its attainment? Are you made willing by the Divine Spirit to sacrifice every thing that would interfere with your progress towards, and preparation for it? If indeed this be so, then I reply, It is not only attainable by you, but you already have the blessing. Not one shall honestly, heartily, and enduringly seek this glory in God's appointed method, and fail of success. O that God the Holy Ghost may so teach us that the consideration of the subject

may excite in all the holy ambition of being for ever blessed in the presence of Him in whose presence is fullness of joy.

This blessedness comprises,

1. The entire removal of evil-2. The full possession of good-3. Delightful occupation-4. The beatific vision—5. Perpetual glory. I. THE ENTIRE REMOVAL of Evil.

Without this no happiness can be complete; whatever good there may be, as long as any admixture of evil remains, there is a root of bitterness, which would disturb and trouble the pure streams of enjoyment.

This part of our future happiness we can the better comprehend. It is brought before us under two terms, "no curse," and "no night there."

I. "There will be no curse there." No remains of God's displeasure nor anger-not one frown on his brow. There will be nothing to occasion a curse; not one sin remaining, no temptation will be presented before us, nor ever ruffle our peaceful minds; no conflict with indwelling corruption; no warfare with any spiritual enemy. Not one spiritual enemy will be there. From that happy kingdom of light and love, Satan and all his emissaries and followers are forever excluded. Nor is there any ensnaring world to seduce, nor deceitful heart to betray, nor an evil thought engendered within nor suggested from without. There is therefore nothing to call down the curse.

Nor is there any of God's anger on account of our past sins. Then in its fullest sense will it be true, "Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.” As there is no condemnation on God's part, so there are no accusations of conscience on the sinner's part. That promise will be fulfilled, "Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." The soul adorned with the Redeemer's beauties, and enriched with the lovely graces of his Spirit, takes up the inspiring strain ̧ "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."

All those temporal sufferings, which follow the curse, will also for ever have terminated. "There is no pain there. The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick." And as no disease invades the

human frame, so there is no death there. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." Thus there is no sickness, and the body is freed from all those weaknesses and infirmities which weigh it down, and depress and burden it here. "It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body."

All those beings who are under the curse, will be for ever removed. Now the Christian is day by day "vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked;" he sees the God whom he serves, dishonored, his laws trampled upon, his day profaned, and the ungodly triumphing: but no sinner shall stand "in the congregation of the righteous" there-all are of one heart and one mind.

In hell, all curses meet, concentrate, and there are confined: And why is it otherwise in heaven? how can sinners ever reach those celestial heights? why do they, once defiled with sin, but now free from all sin, dwell in those holy places where enters nothing that defileth? The reason is this, they were among those "looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life;" he kept them "from falling," and presented them "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy."

Would you be free from all curse! O, look to him, who alone has redeemed you; who alone can redeem you from the curse.

II. "There will be no night there." No absence from God, the true light, nor any of the evils consequent on that. If here we find the night as well as the day, a blessing, it is because we need its quiet and repose-it is on account of our infirmities. If perfectly happy and unwearied, night would only he an interruption, depriving us of a portion of our bliss.

Truly "the light is sweet:" it spreads beauty and glory in its track over regions, which without it are all gloom and obscurity. But the brightest day on earth, with all its lovely scenes, its waving corn, its verdant fields, its peaceful rivers, glittering in the sun, and all the richness of the expanded prospect, beaming with light and beauty, are but as the dark night compared with the surpassing glory of the heavenly day. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand."

And truly there will be no occasion for night there. Our bodies will be too powerful, and active, and strong, either to admit of VOL. II.-9

fatigue, or to require rest. We shall be too happy to desire for a moment, cessation or change. Those who have "washed" their robes and "made them white in the blood of the Lamb," are "before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple;" they rest not from their blissful employment.

The expression, "no night," seems more immediately to convey the idea of the absence of all evils incident to a state of darkness, whether spiritual or temporal. There will be no sinful ignorance, no error in our conceptions of things. There will be no guilt desiring darkness to veil its criminal conduct; no concealment requisite to hide any thing from observation; no danger of deviating from the right path, nor reason to dread the approach of enemies to invade our tranquility.

In the Divine dispensation on earth, there have been darker and brighter days. The Jewish Dispensation, compared with the Gospel, was a time of shade and darkness. The middle ages were dark ages-but in all dispensations as contrasted with the state of heavenly glory, "now we see through a glass darkly." In that glorious rest there is the brightness of one everlasting day-a cloudless and eternal lustre, with full capability of body and mind for all its glory.

As in hell there is "the blackness of darkness," and all is night for ever; so in heaven there is the noon-day blaze, and that for ever. Every thing that is dark and ignorant, with all the sorrows of an earthly state, is gone; "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."

Thus is every evil entirely removed; and even in this negative view, does not heaven, my brethren, present something unspeakably attractive and enjoying? But it comprises,

II. THE FULL POSSESSION of God.

Two expressions point out this," the throne of God and of the Lamb is there, and the Lord God giveth them light."

I would consider this in two views: the manifestation of God's glory, and the light which he imparts.

THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD'S GLORY. In the first verse of the chapter, we read of "a pure river of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb:" which seems to be more

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