true and faithful witnefs declared, was not attested only, but exhibited in his history. He came forth from GOD. He went to his heavenly Father. He returned again to his Father's house. This then is demonftrated. Eternal life is in the Son of GOD. He redeems us by his blood to be kings and priests unto GOD, to perform religious services, and to reign with him for ever. IS JESUS, the King promised to the world? His kingdom is not of this world: his fubjects are not of this world: they live by faith: they look, not at the things that are seen and are temporal, but, at thofe that are not feen and are eternal: they have their converfation in or are citizens of, heaven: their lives are hid with CHRIST in GOD: they fit with him in heavenly places: they are taught to deny ungodliness and worldly lufts, to live foberly, righteously and godly in this prefent world, looking for that bleffed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour JESUS CHRIST.

To this bleffed ftate, as the maturity of human perfection and blifs, let me turn your attention, for practical purposes; and fhew

in fome inftances that it is fuperior to the highest acquirements and blifs on earth as mature age is to childhood.

IN these four things efpecially, mature age differs from childhood; in higher degrees of knowledge; in more rational attachments; in more perfect and fuccefsful exertions; in more exalted enjoyments.

In these, then, let us compare the prefent and future ftate of the faints.

FIRST, in their higher attainments in knowledge.

To this difference and diftinction, the paffage before us naturally turns our attention: higher knowledge is mentioned in the text, and in the words with which it is introduced, and by which it is followed. "We "know in part and we prophecy in part, "but when that which is perfect is come "then that which is in part shall be done

away: when I was a child I fpake as a "child, I understood as a child, I thought as "a child, but when I became a man I put 66 away

away childish things:-For now we fee through a glafs darkly, but then face to "face: now I know in part, but then shall I "know even as I am known."

THE oldest of us eafily recollect, and not infrequently think and talk of, our very limited ideas, our erroneous and faulty opinions and judgments, our foolish and abfurd reasonings and obfervations, in early life: as we advance in life, we increase in knowledge and wisdom our faculties expand, our reafon improves, we receive and retain information: credulity is checked: we perceive more clearly, we reafon more justly. To the workings and unfoldings of the mind, fucceed the instructions of affection and authority, the reports of experience and of wider obfervation. Long after the animal part of our nature is perfect, the mind's growth, fo to fpeak, advances: knowledge is extended: ideas are multiplied, corrected and arranged: wifer measures are taken, greater plans are laid, worthier purfuits are engaged in, and worthier objects fecured. Our measures, purposes and pursuits, and attainments, multiply and vary, with a forefight, judgment, and

fuccefs,

fuccefs, of which childhood is incapable, which are mysterious to those who are coming forward in life. It is well known alfo, for there are many instances of this difference in every department of life, that the fuperior difcernment, science and strength of mind of fome, improved by culture, mode of life, company and favourable circumstances, as far excels those of others, of the fame period of life, as manhood rifes above youth or infancy itself.

THAT knowledge, then, which the inhabitants of the celestial regions enjoy, must be of a very fuperior nature, indeed, which rises above our present attainments, as a man's exceeds a child's. Review and recollect, my friends! the days of early life, your eagerness in acquiring information, the delights and charms of unfolding fcience, the manifold advantages of an enlarged mind and maturer judgments; and you are made to fay, How exceedingly precious must be the knowledge of the inhabitants of heaven!

THAT knowledge is precious and fuperior, whether its objects, or the manner of acquir

ing it, or the fatisfaction it communicates and fecures, are confidered.

Of all the objects that employ the inquiry of the human mind, and of which information and discovery give it the highest pleafure, the best and the most sublime, are The nature, The works, and The government of God.

To ufe the ftrong language of Scripture, the LORD, the firft and the laft, "JEHOVAH, "is exalted above all bleffing and praise: "touching the Almighty we cannot find him

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out: Canft thou by fearching find out "GOD? Canft thou find out the Almighty "unto perfection? It is as high as heaven "what canft thou do? deeper than hell what "canft thou know? the measure thereof is

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longer than the earth and broader than "the sea." To angels, to cherubim and seraphim, JEHOVAH is the great unknown. What the nature of the angelic hofts are capable of, they know as their capacities exceed ours, fo does their knowledge of GOD: their conceptions are just, are certain, are blifsful. And when the faints are admitted