Ser. 8. obferve, that though I have faid perpetual communion with God, and did mean it of his immediate worship and fervice, I did not intend to affert, that they are at no time employed in a different manner, or in work which may be called by a different name. What variety of exercise may be provided for their noble and vigorous faculties, in the nature or works of God, we cannot pretend to know. As the angels are called 'miniftring fpirits, fent forth to minister to ' them who are heirs of falvation;' so we know not how far he may blefs and dignify his faints, by employing them in the administration of some part of his extenfive dominion. But it is furely juft, to call their communion with God in his worship perpetual, both because of their frequent actual application to it, and becaufe of that constant adoration of foul which we must fuppofe will accompany either an investigation of the nature and works, or an execution of the will of God. It is alfo well warranted by the expreffion in the text, and ferve him day and night in his temple. Now, in order to illustrate the worship of the faints in heaven, we may confider it in two differents lights: First, As it is internal and Spiritual. Secondly, As it is external and fenfible...

First, Let us confider the happiness of the faints, in that part of their celestial worship, which is internal and fpiritual; and, in general, we must frequent-. ly recal to our minds the imperfection of our prefent discoveries, and remember, that eye hath not feen, nor car heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of ⚫ man to conceive what the Lord hath laid up for 'them that love him.' There may, for any thing.

we know, be discoveries, and, by confequence, acts of worship, and difpofitions of mind corresponding to them, totally different in kind from any thing we are now capable of, as well as higher in degree. Of thefe we must be abfolutely filent: therefore, all that shall follow upon this fubject, is founded upon the following remark, that whatever acts of worship we have now any experience of, and by which we are initiated, fo to speak, into, and trained up for the employment of heaven, fhall then be performed to far greater perfection, and with infinitely greater joy.

In order to the more diftinct confideration of this fubject, you may obferve, that all the acts of worship, of which we are now capable, may be reduced to the four following kinds: First, Acts of adoration. Secondly, Of gratitude. Thirdly, Of defire. And, Fourthly, Of truft and fubjection.

In the first place, Acts of adoration. By thefe, as diftinguished from the others mentioned, I underftand the immediate contemplation of the glorious excellence of the divine nature, and the exercise of these affections of foul which correspond to it. The nature of God is discovered, and his glory exhibited to view, in all his works, and in all his ways. And he is the proper object of the highest esteem, the deepest admiration, and moft ardent love of every reasonable creature, for what he is in himself, independent of any intereft they may have, or hope to have in his favour. Therefore it is the first duty and chief end of man to give unto the Lord the glo. ry that is due unto his name. I know this is what

worldly men, who live in fin, cannot understand, and therefore are apt to deride; which is indeed the cafe with respect to all the truths of God, confidered in their full extent, and as refting upon their proper foundation; the natural man cannot receive them. But as it is the first commandment of the law, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only fhalt thou ferve;' fo it is the leading and the capital truth, taught and repeated in the facred oracles, that all things were made for, that all things fhall finally tend to; and therefore all intelligent creatures ought, fupremely, to aim at the glory of God. This may be easily supported by unprejudiced reafon; for what can be more just than to have the highest esteem of the highest excellence, the deepest admiration of boundless and spotless perfection, and a fupreme love for what is infinitely amiable. It is wholly owing to the corruption of our nature, that we are fo little fenfible of the fin of neglecting this. And, indeed, a short and just defcription of our corruption may be given thus; it confifts in dethroning God, and fetting up felf to be honour ed, loved, and ferved in his room.

But, my brethren, every real Chriftian has been recovered to a view of this his first obligation as a creature; knows, experimentally, what it is, fupremely, to honour the living and true God, and hath a peculiar pleasure in the furvey and celebration of all his perfections. All fuch rejoice in his dominion, and feel a fatisfaction in it, as infinitely right and fit, that the will of the Lord fhould be done. They join, in their manner, on earth, with the heavenly

hofts, as thus reprefented, Rev. xi. 16, 17. And the four and twenty elders, which fat before God on their feats, fell upon their faces, and worship

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ped God, faying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because thou haft taken to thee thy great power, and haft reigned. Rev. xix. 6. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the ⚫ voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty ⚫ thundrings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.' But how incomparably more perfect, and more joyful, their adoration of God, when they are come into his prefence! then the veil fhall be drawn afide; they fhall fee him face to face; they fhall know, even as they are known.' Instead of these comparatively obscure hints and intimations, which they now have of his glory, then, the whole extenfive plan of providence, of which they now fee only a small detached part, fhall be opened to their view: then shall they fee the overthrow and fubjection of the pride, and arrogance, and boafted wisdom of man, which is foolishness 'with God;' and the blessed, happy issue, of these various trials of the people of God, which formerly gave them fo many anxious and distrustful thoughts. But why do I mention particulars, when all the effects of creating skill, all the fruits of supporting and preferving goodness, fhall be laid before them?

And is there not fome lover of Chrift faying, here, within himself, why do you not mention the mystery of redemption, 'God manifested in the flesh:' in this the glory of God eminently fhines, his une

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qualled, his unrivalled glory. That this, as the work of God, (though we can hardly keep our own concerns out of view) shall be the particular theme of celeftial praife, is not to be doubted, and is evident from hence, that Chrift, as the object of worfhip, is represented, as appearing there like a Lamb that had been slain.

Once more, as the church of God, at prefent, is the mean of illuftrating his wifdom to principalities and powers, or to the angelick hofts, which we learn from Eph. iii. 10. To the intent that, now, unto

the principalities and powers, in heavenly places, 'might be known by the church the manifold wif

dom of God;' fo the order and government of thefe fuperior intelligences fhall be opened to the view of the faints in glory. In the profpect of all this, they fhall fay, Rev. xv. 3. -Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; 'juft and true are thy ways, thou King of faints.' With what exultation of foul, then, with what fervour of adoring wonder, and admiring love, fhall they celebrate the divine glory! As they shall be wholly freed from every degree of finful and felfish bias, they fhall feel the cleareft conviction of the obligation of their duty, and discharge it by a free, unconstrained impulfe of foul: for the fame reafon, the pleasure arifing from it will be fo much the more pure and unmixed, that it is not aimed at on its own account, nor purchafed by any compliance that might but feem to have a mercenary view.

In the fecond place, Let us confider the celestial worship, as confifting in acts of gratitude and praise.