but at the utmost at night, when he should be for most rest, when that sad night comes after this day of fairest prosperity, the unbelieving, unrepenting sinner lies down in sorrow, in a woeful bed. Then must he, whether he will or no, enter on the possession of this inheritance of everlasting burnings. He hath an inheritance indeed, but he had better want it, and himself too be turned to nothing. Do you believe there are treasures which neither thief breaks into, nor is there any inward moth to corrupt them,—an inheritance which, though the whole world be turned upside down, is in no hazard of a touch of damage-a kingdom that not only cannot fall, but cannot be shaken? (Heb. xii. 28.) Oh! be wise, and consider your latter end, and, whatsoever you do, look after this blessed inheritance. Seek to have the right to it in Jesus Christ, and the evidences and seals of it from His Spirit; and if it be so with you, your hearts will be upon it, and your lives will be conformed to it. The rich bounty of God diffuses itself throughout the world upon all; yet there is a select number who have peculiar blessings of His right hand, which the rest of the world share not in; and even as to common blessings, they are differenced by a peculiar title

to them, and sweetness in them: their blessings are blessings indeed, and entirely so, outside and inside, and more so within than they appear without the Lord himself is their portion, and they are His. This is their blessedness, which in a low estate they can challenge, and so outvie all the painted prosperity of the world. Some kind of blessings do abundantly run over upon others; but the cup of blessings belongs unto the godly by a new right from heaven, graciously conferred upon them. Others are sent away with gifts (as some apply that passage, Gen. xxv. 5, 6), but the inheritance is Isaac's. They are called to be the sons of God, and are like Him, as His children, in goodness and blessings. The inheritance of blessing is theirs alone: called, says the Apostle, to inherit a blessing. And all the promises in the great charter of both Testaments run in that appropriating style, entailed to them as the only heirs. Leighton.

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

Dan. xii. 3.

THE VALUE OF THE GIFT.

MF it be good, it is greater than all the good of this world, and every man's

state therein, in every instant of his blessed eternity, is greater than all the pleasures of mankind in one heap.

A man can never wish for anything greater than this immortality, said Pasidippus. To which I add this one consideration, that the portion of the good at the day of sentence shall be so great that, after all the labours of our life, and suffering persecutions, and enduring affronts, and the labour of love, and the continual fears and cares of the whole duration and abode, it rewards it all, and gives infinitely more; all the torments and evils of this world are not to be estimated with the joys of the blessed : It is the gift of God; a donative beyond the military stipend; it is beyond our work, and beyond our wages, and beyond the promise, and beyond our thoughts, and above our understandings, and above the highest heavens; it is a participation of the joys of God and of the inheritance of the Judge himself.

It is a day of recompenses, in which all our sorrows shall be turned into joys, our persecu

tions into a crown, the cross into a throne, poverty to the riches of God, loss and affronts, and inconveniences, and death, into sceptres, and hymns, and rejoicings, and hallelujahs, and such great things which are fit for us to hope, but too great for us to discourse of, while we see as in a glass darkly and imperfectly.

Jeremy Taylor.

THE GLORY OF THE KINGDOM.

HE glory of this kingdom is conspicuous in the principles by which it is ad

ministered. Of this Prince it is truly said, "Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.” The sceptre of His dominion is grace: grace displayed in the Gospel, grace communicated by the Spirit, is the grand instrument of maintaining His empire. He reveals His glory and imparts His benefits, and thereby attaches His

subjects by ties at once the most forcible and the most engaging.

A lovely assemblage of qualities characterises the spirit and genius of His divine administration; an incomparable majesty, united to a most endearing condescension—a spirit of benignity, joined to impartial justice-distinguishes His conduct. Though the subjects of this kingdom are admitted to it on no other condition than a cordial approbation of the character of the Prince, they are not left lawless or uncontrolled; the revelation of the divine will is imparted; the most perfect measure of holiness and rules of conduct are enjoined on the conscience and impressed on the heart. This administration exhibits throughout a beautiful model of the moral government of God, attempered to the state of creatures who have fallen from their original rectitude, but are under a dispensation of mercy. A system of paternal justice is carried into execution throughout this empire; in consequence of which the disobedient are punished, that they may not be condemned with the world. The gradations of favours are regulated by the Sovereign with the most impartial justice; and future rewards distributed with exquisite propriety and rectitude.