tribute of immortality belongs, corresponding to the nature of that God who is their author, and of the creatures to whom he has been pleased to open them. While, therefore, the certainty of a momentary duration, curses the delights of the sensualist and the worldling, with an anguish, bitter in proportion to the keenness with which they taste them; the christian can, again and again, indulge in the joys of his vocation, without one uneasy thought, that the stroke of death, or of accident, shall destroy or interrupt them. Nay, in his soul, the prospect of futurity adds to them a ten-fold sweetness. In themselves they are sweet, divinely sweet but sweeter far, when he feels them to be but earnests of what he shall enjoy throughout eternity, and of what shall be found, in eternity, infinitely more perfect than in time. The contrast of his pleasures in this respect, however, with those of others, we shall have occasion more fully to illustrate, under the subsequent topic of discourse.

Meanwhile, attend, for a moment, to that contrast, in another point of view. All worldly and sensual enjoyments, it has already been remarked, fall short of our capacity; and this, both experience and the nature of things concur to prove. Things, terrestrial and corporeal, cannot be adequate to the desires of a Being, intellectual and immortal. In the midst of the joys, which such things afford, we find that something more is still necessary to complete our gratification. The faculties immediately exercised do not meet with adequate objects; or some others, equally craving, are mortified and disappointed. But, while the worldling's objects of delight fall beneath, the christian's exceed his ca

pacity to enjoy. The more perfect his acquaintance, and the more intimate his familiarity with them, the higher, it is evident, will his rejoicing in them rise. But that knowledge can never be so perfect, that familiarity never so close, as not to admit of an increase. On every new approach to them, therefore, he finds a new delight; and while his capacity enlarges, he finds the sources of his joy more than proportionally augmented. In the perfection of the divine law, and the glories of divine providence, in the treasures of evangelical truth, in God, and in the hopes of immortality, there is more than his understanding can comprehend, his heart enjoy, or his tongue express. In these objects there is a vastness and variety, sufficient to afford everlasting exercise to the intellectual faculties of an archangel's mind; and an excellence, to fill, with divine and permanent delight, all his moral powers. Here then, christian, is an inexhaustible fountain of bliss; drink, and be satisfied: and, while thy thirst is augmented, as thy powers enlarge, thou shalt find the sweetness of its waters grow; their refreshing and invigorating effects eternally increase!

To all this, add the vast importance of internal approbation, in making up the sum of genuine satisfaction, With every species of terrestrial delight, remorse is connected: the remorse, which must necessarily arise from the indulgence of affections directly immoral, or from the consciousness of having misapplied, in the excessive gratification of those which are not immediately evil, the time and the attention, which should have been devoted to nobler and more important pursuits. The more

ardently, too, that such delights are sought, and the larger the portion of them which we attain, the larger are the stores of remorse which we lay up, and the more intolerable its pangs must ultimately become. On the contrary, every emotion of christian joy is accompanied by the testimony of an approving conscience; for every such emotion flows from the exercise of the best affections on the worthiest objects and the higher, the more habitual these joys are, the higher is our share of the noblest satisfaction, the satisfaction which an approving conscience yields: for then, the purer must be our principles and desires; the clearer the evidences of a renovated state, which our feelings and character afford.

3. The christian's joy is constant and durable.

From what has been stated in the foregoing illus-trations, it is evident that the characters of rational and satisfactory, could not belong to it, were it destitute of those which have now been specified. The happiness which is inconstant, must be chequered with frequent intervals of pain and disappointment and with the birth of those joys, which are shortlived, anxiety commences; increases, as their course runs on; and is succeeded, on their termination, by sadness and regret. On such pleasures, it cannot be rational for an immortal being to fix his heart; and he must find them unsatisfying, if he do. But worldly happiness all know to be neither constant nor lasting. Its pursuit is accompanied with teasing desire; its preservation with restless care; and its loss is dreaded with painful apprehension. All the objects, from which it can be derived, are transitory and uncertain: and

equally so is the continuance of our capacity to enjoy them. If its duration be brief, it signifies nothing; if long, we pall and sicken upon it: in a word, the characters of inconstancy and instability are marked on all earthly bliss. For, besides the incessant changes which daily affect our enjoyments, if the want of worldly goods render their votary peevish and discontented, their possession exposes him alternately to the weariness of indifference, and to the terrors of losing what he cannot bear to part with, even while he feels its insufficiency to afford him happiness.

If, then, there be steady and lasting bliss permitted to man on earth, the christian, and the christian only, must possess it for all the other suitors of enjoyment have it not: and that he does possess it, is evident from the nature of the sources already described, from which his delights are drawn. If the fountain never fail, the stream can never dry up; and if the former always abound, the latter must ever run full. But the christian's fountain of joy is the law of God, which is unchangeable; it is the providence of God, which is from the beginning of ages, to everlasting; it is faith in his gospel, which shall stand, till changed into heavenly vision; it is hope towards him, which shall not be moved, till it give place to endless enjoyment. The happiness of the christian, therefore, is lasting and constant, as the fountain whence it springs: and the fountain is as enduring as the being of him who supplies

it,

66

"the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."*

* James L. 17.

T

I mean not, indeed, to assert, that a believer is equally happy at all times; or that his joy has no intermission or interruption. Such an assertion were contrary to scripture; which, while it represents even the sorrows of God's people as ultimately causes of joy, describes these sorrows, both as real, and as frequently severe; and contrary to experience, which shews, that his people is often an afflicted people. To affirm that the feelings of joy were never interrupted in the believer's bosom, would also be dangerous, as it might lead many to measure their piety by their sense of comfort; a standard, by which the presumptuous and enthusiastic would be as apt to overrate their state and character, as the humble and genuine disciple would be to form desponding conclusions respecting his. The temptations to which we have yielded, the neglect of religious concerns exhibited by our relatives or others, nay, even a bad habit of body, or peculiarities of constitution, may interrupt our joys, and fill our minds with many painful sensations, and uneasy apprehensions. Besides, God may permit the great adversary to cloud our minds with fears and sorrows, in order the more effectually to teach us humility, to impress more deeply a sense of dependence, to quicken our gratitude and zeal when the light of his countenance is restored, or for other wise purposes of instruction or reproof. But still, though our souls seem to sink in deep waters, the everlasting arms are underneath: Though" troubl"ed on every side, we are not distressed; though perplexed, we are not in despair; though persecuted, we are not forsaken; though cast down,

66