will he be upheld by faith, but the HOLY GHOST Himself, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, will be his Comforter, ever ready to sanctify, control, elevate, sustain his sinking spirit; when weak to support him, when doubtful to guide him; he will be afraid neither for any "terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth at noontide"1; "sufficient for the day" will be "the evil thereof,” and he will have no "care for the morrow," while his heart can respond to the hallelujahs of the Church Triumphant, in the happy conviction that "THE LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT REIGNETH"2.

SERMON III.

PREDESTINATION.

1 PETER, II. 9.

"Ye are a chosen Generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy Nation, a peculiar People."

OUR Blessed LORD and SAVIOUR, who is our King', as well as our Prophet and our Priest3, hath sat down at the Right Hand of the FATHER', GOD and Man in HIS ONE Divine Person5, "expecting till His enemies be made His foot

1 Psalm, ii. 6; xxiv. 10. Rev. i. 5; xvii. 14. • Luke, xiii. 33; xxiv. 19. Deut. xviii. 15.

• Heb. x. 12.

• Heb. vii. 17.

Acts, ii. 36. John, xi. 27. 1 Cor. viii. 6. Col. ii. 9.

stool' but though sitting there, He is still working the work which His FATHER hath give Him to do2. It is a function of His Priesthood now to intercede for His people continually on the Merits of His One Sacrifice3, just as heretofore He fulfilled the Priestly office by offering that sacrifice, once for all, the sacrifice of His own Divine Body upon the cross*: it is still a part of His prophetical offices to superintend the accomplishment of His prophecies, and to make His word (when uttered by His Ministers",) "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword"; and while, as the KING of Kings, He sends from the FATHER HIS HOLY SPIRIT to prepare His people for heaven, He is Himself employed in preparing heaven for His people. "I go," He expressly said, "to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto MYSELF, that where I am, there ye may be also"1o.

Although there is, of course, much of perplexity to our minds in those unfulfilled prophecies of Scripture that relate to the kingdom which, now

1 Heb. x. 13.

2 John, iv. 34; v. 17. 1 Cor. xv. 24. * Heb. vii. 25; ix. 14, 25, 26, 28.

militant', is hereafter to be established in glory under MESSIAH the KING2: although of that mighty empire all that we behold, all that, with the nicest apparatus of the optical art, we can bring within the field of vision,-all that cannot be so brought, but the existence of which we can only (and that but dimly) picture to ourselves, the worlds upon worlds that revolve around us, and all the intelligences by which they are inhabited, although of that almighty empire these shall form a part, and be subject unto HIM who is the Son of Man and the Son of GOD, JESUS the MESSIAH, by whom are all things and for whom are all things; yet from the passage in St. John which I have just quoted, and from other passages, and from the general teaching of Scripture, we gather that there is to be some place, some determinate globe, where the glory of the BLESSED TRINITY will be pre-eminently displayed; which will be, as it were, for evermore the court, the centre of unity to this Empire, of which no mind of man can conceive the glory. I leave it to others to conjecture where this place shall be; I only say, from the sure

1

Eph. vi. 12. Rev. vi. 9.

3 Rev. iv, 2. John i. 3.

2 Rev. xxi.

* 2 Kings ii. 1—11. Luke ii. 5. 1 Thes. iv. 16. Eph. iii. 15.

Col. i. 5. 1 Pet. i. 4. Rev. xxi. 1.

word of Prophecy, that Heaven is not a mere condition; we expect a new Earth and new Heavens, wherein dwelleth righteousness: this. was revealed among the things that are to be, in holy vision, to St. John, who says, "I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea and I, John, saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from GOD, prepared, as a Bride adorned for her Husband. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven, saying, Behold the Tabernacle of GOD is with Men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His People, and GOD HIMSELF shall be with them, and be their GOD". Observe, there is to be a new Earth, and new Heavens, and a new Jerusalem, a City of GOD; peopled by whom? By human beings, by us, my brethren, I hope; undoubtedly by beings such as we are; if with spiritual Bodies, (mysterious as that expression is,) still with Bodies; Creatures existing in Bodies as well as having Souls resident in those bodies; actual men, though their vile bodies shall be changed like unto CHRIST'S glorious Body2; as it was seen in its glory on the mount of Transfiguration3 and after the

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1 Rev. xxi. 1, 2, 3.

2 Phil. iii. 21.

3 Matt. xvii. 2. Mark ix. 2.