How then, say some, that there will be no discrimination among characters after death, but all will be alike happy?

Let us not be deceived! God is not mocked! Whatever a man soweth that shall he reap. If he sow to the flesh, he shall of the flesh reap corruption; but if he sow to the spirit, he shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.

Let God be true, and every man be a liar, rather than to evade the face of any positive texts of scripture, to favor any particular tenet whatever. So where the scriptures speak of a separation between the righteous and the wicked, and the just and final retribution that each shall receive, according as their work shall be, whether it be good or whether it be evil; and not only so, but that the stripes shall be proportioned according to the aggravation of the crime, as well as one star (or saint) shall differ from another in glory: I say, do not try to spiritualize these texts away, and accommodate them, or make them mean something which they never intended. So again, on the other hand, where God speaks indiscriminately of general blessings, and gifts in Jesus Christ, universally giv en; such as, "The tabernacle of God shall be with men,and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God," &c. Do not try to accommodate these texts to >a part of the human family, merely for the sake of shutting a part of mankind out of heaven.

But to return to my subject. I was speaking of the blessing, or happiness of the saints whom Christ shall bring to reign with him on the

earth, when he shall come to set up his universal kingdom here; to be worshipped by all nations, even unto the ends of the earth. They shall not only receive the adoption of sons, to wit,the the redemption of their bodies; but they shall have the pleasure of seeing all the kings and na-> tions of the earth, either destroyed for their: wickedness, or brought to bow the knee to Je sus, and willingly confess him to be Lord, to the glory of God the Father. They shall see the King in his beauty. There shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one, from the rising to the setting sun. He shall establish universal peace throughout the universe.

He shall be seated in his temple nigh the beloved city, and his saints shall encamp around: Irim. They shall be clad with white raiment, or the righteousness of Christ, and they shall have the pleasure of seeing all nations come up once a year to worship the Lord of Hosts at Jerusalem, In a word, if this happy reign' with Christ for no less than a thousand years, were all the heaven which we were ever to enjoy, one would think it worth life's purchase; notwithstanding it is so little noticed by many. But this is only a prelude to those eternal joys that are yet to be revealed.

4. But I hasten on to speak of those further blessings that shall attend those who die in the Lord, when they shall come to be with Christ in the judgment. But before I speak particu larly of this, I must mention a circumstance that will take place previous thereunto. After these thousand years of happy reign with Christ,

Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are scattered over the four quarters of the globe, whose number is as the sand of the sea, to gather them together to battle; and they shall come up and compass the beloved city and the camp of the saints, and fire shall come down from heaven and consume them.

Then shall the heavens and the earth pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and all the works thereof shall be burnt up, and there shall be no more place found for them. Then shall the dead small and great stand before God, and their books shall be opened, and another book shall be opened, which is the book of life, and they shall be judged out of those things written in the books, according their works.

Now observe. I do not understand that those who die in the Lord are included with the dead that stand before God at the general judgment; for they are not the dead, now, but the living; and have lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years, have been judged and found worthy to receive the adoption of sons; and not only so, but they shall be with Christ in the judgment, and consequently they cannot be the dead that are to be judged. Know ye not (saith the apostle) that: we shall judge angels." Again. Again." Do "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world."..1 Cor. vi. 2, 3.

5. In addition to all these blessings, they, as well as all those whose names were found written in the Lamb's book of life, at the general

judgment, shall not be hurt of the second death. What an unspeakable mercy is this! When the wicked and all those whose names were not found written in the book of life, at the day of judgment, were cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death!

I might here go on to describe the misery of the wicked, in order to make the blessedness of the righteous shine more perspicuously bright; but the subject would be so painful, that I shall spare myself the trouble, as I think it would not be pertinent, on this mournful occasion. I shall therefore proceed to speak of those further joys of the dead which die in the Lord, which I trust and hope our deceased friend has gone to share a part.

6. They shall have the pleasure of seeing a new heaven and a new earth, when the first heaven and the first earth shall have passed away; and they shall see the holy city, New-Jerusalem, come down from God, out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband, which is described in the xxi. chapter of the Revelation of St. John the Divine. And they shall walk in the midst of it, in the sight of God and the Lamb.

7. And lastly they shall see death the last enemy destroyed and swallowed up in victory,and an end made to sin and transgression; when there shall be no more curse, neither sorrow nor crying; when all tears shall be wiped away from from all faces, and there shall be no more pain; when the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God; when the

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former things shall be done away, and all things shall be made new; when Jesus Christ shall have put down all rule and authority, and reconciled all things unto himself by the blood of his cross; and finally, they shall see God make unto all people a feast of fat things full of marrow, when he shall take away the veil of the covering cast over all people; and Jesus Christ, the God-man Mediator, shall give up the kingdom to God, even the Father, and present his bride, even human nature, whom he died for and rose again, that he might wash her in his own blood, and present her spotless before God; and he himself, becoming subject to HIM who put all things under him, shall take home his bride, where he shall be united with her in one, even as the Father and Son are one, that God may be all, and in ALL.

Here begins that eternal day of glory, when the mystery of godliness shall be completed in one body; Christ the head being united with all its members, which shall end in perpetual nev. er ceasing glory.

III. And they shall rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.

I shall now speak of those labors that the dead which die in the Lord do rest from.

1. They rest from all the pains and labor which attend this body. They have no longer to eat their bread by the sweat of the face, but they are freed from all the cares and perplexities which attend this mortal life; their bodies do rest in their graves, and turn back to