not sufficiently appear that mere adoration and praise is their only business at the throne. In the very place which I have cited, it seems more natural to suppose that these angelic spirits came thither rather to render an account of their several employments, and the success of their messages to other worlds. And why may we not suppose such a blessed variety of employment among the spirits of men too?

"This supposition has some countenance in the holy scripture. The angel or messenger who appeared to St. John, and shewed him various visions, by the order of Christ, forbids the apostle to worship him, for I am thy fellow-servant, said he, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book.* These words naturally lead one to think, that though he appeared as a messenger from Christ, and in the form of an angel, yet he was really a departed saint, a brother, a fellow-prophet, perhaps the soul of David, or Isaiah, or Moses, who would count it an honour even in their state of glory to be thus employed by their exalted Lord; and they also keep or observe and wait for the accomplishment of the sayings of that book of the Revelations, as well as the churches of their brethren, the saints on earth.

"I freely allow immediate divine worship to

*Rev. xxii. 8, 9.

take up a good part of their everlasting day, their sabbath; and therefore I suppose them to be often engaged, millions at once, in social worship; and sometimes acting apart, aud raised in sublime meditation of God, or in a fixed vision of his blissful face, with an act of secret adoration, while their intellectual powers are almost lost in sweet amazement: sometimes they are entertaining themselves and their fellow-spirits with the graces and glories of the man Christ Jesus, the Lamb that was slain in the midst of the throne : but at other times they may be making a report to him of their faithful execution of some divine commission they received from him, to be fulfilled either in heaven or on earth, or in unknown and distant worlds.

"There may be other seasons also when they are not immediately addressing the throne, but are most delightfully engaged in recounting to each other the wondrous steps of providence, wisdom and mercy, that seized them from the very borders of hell and despair, and brought them through a thousand dangers and difficulties to the possession of that fair inheritance. When the great God shall unravel the scheme of his own counsels, shall unfold every part of his mysterious conduct, and set before them the reason of every temptation they grappled with, and of every sorrow they felt here on earth, and with what divine and successful influence they all

wrought together to train them up to heaven. What matter of surprising delight and charming conversation shall this furnish the saints with in that blessed world? And now and then in the midst of their sacred dialogues, by a sympathy of soul they shall shout together in sweet harmony, and join their exalted songs to him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy power, to thy wisdom, and to thine abounding mercy, be renown and honour to everlasting ages."

"Nor is it improper or unpleasant to suppose that amongst the rest of their celestial conferences, they shall shew each other the fair and easy solution of those difficulties and deep problems in divinity, which had exercised and perplexed them here on earth, and divided them into little angry parties. They shall look back with holy shame on some of their learned and senseless distinctions, and be ready to wonder sometimes what trifles and impertinencies had engaged them in dark and furious disputés. Darkness and entanglement shall vanish at once from many of those knotty points of controversy, when they behold them in the light of heaven: and the rest of them shall be matter of delightful instruction for superior spirits to bestow upon those of lower rank, or on souls lately arrived at the regions of light. In short, there is nothing written in the books of nature, the records of providence, or

the sacred volumes of grace, but nray minister materials at special seasons for the holy conference of the saints on high. No history nor prophecy, no doctrine nor duty, no command nor promise, nor threatening in the Bible, but may recal the thoughts of the heavenly inhabitants, and engage them in sweet conversation. All things that relate to the affairs of past ages and past worlds, as well as the present regions of light and happiness where they dwell, may give them new themes of dialogue and mutual intercourse.

"And though we are very little acquainted whilst we are on earth, with any of the planetary worlds besides that which we inhabit, yet who knows how our acquaintance may be extended hereafter, amongst the inhabitants of the various and distant globes! And what frequent and swift journeys we may take thither, when we are disencumbered of this load of flesh and blood, or when our bodies are raised again, active and swift as sun-beams? Sometimes we may entertain our holy curiosity there, and find millions of new discoveries of divine power and divine contrivance in those unknown regions; and bring back from thence new lectures of divine wisdom, or tidings of the affairs of those provinces, to entertain our fellow-spirits, and to give new honours to God the Creator and the Sovereign. So a pious traveller in our lower world, visits Africa

or both the Indies: at his return he sits in a circle of attentive admirers, and recounts to them the wondrous products of those climates, and the customs and manners of those distant countries. He gratifies their curiosity with some foreign varieties, and feasts their eyes and their ears at once: Then at the end of every story, he breaks out into holy language, and adores the various riches and wisdom of God the Creator."

But though the happiness of the redeemed be perfect, during the intermediate state, yet there is reason to believe, it will be greatly augmented, when the bodies are raised from the dead, and reunited to their former spirits. It is to this blessed hour, that the apostles, in their writings, are always directing the hope of the saints. They are ever pointing to this glorious morning, as the season when they shall receive their reward, and their prize their promised joy, and their crown; as though all that they had received before in their state of separation, were hardly to be named, in comparison of that "more exceeding and eternal weight of additional glory."

Our Lord, when addressing the multitude said, "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me 1 should lose nothing, but should raise him up again at the last day;" and on another occasion, when assuaging the grief of the disconsolate Martha, who had

* John vi. 39.