grace and benignity which they so feebly represented and anticipated upon earth. "When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away."

Again: Heaven is described as emancipation from this earthly tabernacle of the body.- How are we imprisoned and shackled by the animal part of our frame, in this present weak and degraded state! In how many plans of usefulness and value are we impeded, by what the Apostle calls "our vile bodies!" But, much more, what occasions are they of sin to us! It is the flesh which brings the spirit into subjection. "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own Justs, and enticed." Satan employs the evil propensities of the body, in order to assault and hurt the soul;" and thus but too successfully divides the house against itself. Then, the glorified body will second and obey the motions of the spirit, instead of opposing and resisting them. Nay, it is spiritual itself: though sown "a natural body," "it is raised a spiritual body;" and therefore will rather prompt the soul to holy desires, than degrade it by the solicitations of temptation.

Heaven is also described as deliverance from Satan, the great destroyer of souls.-Christ hath both "destroyed death and him that had the power of it, that is, the devil." He hath "delivered us from the power of darkness;" and "he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet."

Heaven is described as the worship of God without cessation or weariness.- 1 They shall serve him day and night in his temple." The deadness of mind, the langour and coldness and formality, which deteriorate and enfeeble our best services, and bring iniquity upon our holy things, are the cause of much shame and sorrow to the Christian. Even when "the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak';' but often also, is the spirit unwill

ing and weak itself. We find incessant interruptions in duty; and our acts of worship, both public and private, lie scattered about in innumerable wrecks and fragments. But in heaven, “ they rest not day nor night saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

Heaven is, farther, described as affording a termination to all our doubts and apprehensions. It is a state of certainty and undisturbed security.-What would many a sincere penitent give for such an assurance upon earth! He doubts, perhaps, his own sincerity and faith. I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul," is often his secret complaint. He has fears both of a temporal and spiritual kind: he dreads pain, sickness, poverty, and death, with a thousand other real or supposed evils. But there, he "shall enter into peace "-" they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness."

Heaven is a place of realities, a world of substance.-Here, we walk in a vain shadow, we disquiet ourselves in vain; "seeing through a glass," or "looking as into a glass;" darkly contemplating the representations of things, rather than the realities. We are ignorant of the future; and with respect to the past, experience, as it has been well observed, is often but as the stern-lights of a vessel, only illuminating the path we have passed over, and not the track which lies before us. We live in a land of dreams: there is no arriving at certainty in any thing. "Omnia exeunt in mysteriam." "We know in part and prophesy in part;" are subject to delusion and deceit in a thousand varieties, and find truth eluding us at every grasp. Dissatisfaction and emptiness are written upon the highest enjoyments; and these are often gone almost as soon as possessed. With regard to happiness, the world must acknowledge "it is not in me." Well, therefore, might David exclaim

"I shall be satisfied when I awake after thy likeness." It is clear from his whole history, that he was never really satisfied before.

Heaven, again, is described as a state of rest---not as opposed to action, for in this sense they rest not day or night;" but as exempt from the fatigue and pain which, as was before mentioned, are inseparable from our holiest and highest services here, and from the wearisome sense of labour and anxiety which are felt both by the body and the mind in our progress through life. "There, the weary are at rest." "There, remaineth a rest for the people of God." There, is reserved "to them that are troubled rest, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven." "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours."

Heaven is, further, described as a state requiring no aids from created nature.---"The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." And, again, "there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light." God is there "all in all." The highest advantages formerly derived from the creature, in its fairest form, are superseded by this brighter dispensation, in which God reveals himself by direct and immediate communications, and not mediately and instrumentally through the intervention of other agents. What an idea does this give us of the heavenly state! treading under our feet what was once far above us, and establishing the empire of eternal glory on the ruins of the material universe!

Heaven, moreover, is described as a state of exemption from the necessities of animal life.---" They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more: for the Lamb which is

in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." How much of our time is necessarily consumed in gross and ordinary occupations! "What is life," says Burnet, in his Theory of the Earth, "but a circulation of little, mean actions? We lie down, and rise again; dress, and undress; feed, and wax hungry; work or play, and are weary; and then we lie down again, and the circle returns. We spend the day in trifles; and when the night comes we throw ourselves into our beds, among dreams, and broken thoughts, and wild imaginations. Our reason lies asleep by us; and we are, for the time, as arrant brutes as those that sleep in the stalls or in the field." Now, to be delivered from such a state is surely no small part of the heavenly felicity.

Heaven is described as a state of blissful adoration.---The heavenly inhabitants "cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power." "And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." And, again, "saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever."

Heaven is described as a state unchangeable in its nature and eternal in its duration. This is a most essential point. The saints in glory, as they are above the fear, are also above the possibility of falling. The great Apostle himself feared lest, after preaching to others, he should himself "be

son of consolation amidst sickness and change. “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." "Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." "Ye now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man taketh from you.".

We learn a lesson of sanctification. It is ennobling and transforming thus to fix the eye upon eternal purity and bliss. Our natural inference will be, Do I belong to heaven, and shall I act inconsistently with my high calling and privileges? Can these evil passions and lusts be carried to that all-pure and perfect world? Indeed, will they not effectually prevent my entering there? And if I hope to do so, should I not remember, that "every one that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself?" We are incited to love and gratitude. Who is it that hath purchased all this blessedness for us? Who was it that opened that door of heaven, which no man can shut, after man had once shut it by his own guilt and folly? The answer is not distant: Jesus Christ "hath redeemed us by his blood, and made us kings and priests unto God." Therefore, "we love him, because he first loved us."

I would only add, that the subject furnishes a most awful and affecting contrast.-Is heaven so inviting? Then what must hell be, "where the worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched!" It must be no light affliction barely to miss of enjoyments like these; yet if there be no middle state, and if to come short of heaven be to enter into hell, how unspeakably anxious should we be, "lest, a promise being made us of entering into His rest, any of us should seem to come short of it!"

J. P.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. As your correspondent N-E and myself are unhappily at issue re

specting the Dean of Chester's Sermon (preached at St. Paul's, June 1816), I shall beg the favour of you to insert the following explanatory remarks, by way of conclusion.

The first point of difference between us, is the quotation which the Dean has made from the Ecclesiastical Polity (book iii. chap. 8). N-Σ is of opinion that the Dean "has rightly understood, while I have entirely mistaken, Hooker's meaning." The first question, then, to be determined is, (for I readily concede, and indeed have not denied, that reason is properly employed in determining whether we are led by the Spirit, provided that reason be first subordinated to faith,) Does Hooker allude, in the chapter to which the Dean of Chester has referred, to those "unconnected ravings of a disordered intellect," and to "certain undefined sensations" of the fanatic, to which the Dean applies the observations of that great divine? I humbly conceive, that Hooker had no such "ravings" or sations" immediately in view. And I noticed (in your number for February last) this mistake, as to me it appeared, of the Dean of Chester, because it was so nearly destitute of any qualifying clause in favour of rational religious feelings, as to be highly calculated, I thought, to mislead an irreligious reader. But if, after all, I am mistaken in my view of Hooker's meaning, I request your correspon. dent to convince me of my mistake, by pointing out that part of the chapter in which Hooker directly, or at least confessedly, speaks of the "ravings" and "sensations" of the fanatic.

" sen

That Hooker's main object (for I do not forget his incidental notice of other "credenda et agenda" of religion) was to expose the extravagance of those who deny that any ecclesiastical regimen can be lawfully adopted which is not im mediately and evidently dictated

by the Holy Spirit, will appear, I think, on a comprehensive view of the argument which runs throughout the chapter; and more particularly on weighing with care and impartiality its conclusion, which is as follows: "In all which hitherto has been spoken, touching the force and use of man's reason in things Divine, I must crave that I be not so understood, or construed, as if any such thing by virtue thereof could be done without the aid and assistance of God's most blessed Spirit. The thing we have handled according to the question moved about it; which question is, whether the light of reason be so pernicious, that, in devising laws for the church, men ought not by it to search what may be fit and convenient. For this cause, therefore, we have endeavoured to make it appear, how in the nature of reason itself there is no impediment; but that the selfsame Spirit, which revealeth the things that God hath set down in his law, may also be thought to aid and direct men in finding out by the light of reason what laws are expedient to be made for the guiding of his church, over and besides them that are in Scripture. Herein, therefore, we agree with those men by whom human laws are defined to be ordinances which such, as have lawful authority given them for that purpose, do probably draw from the laws of nature and God, by discourse of reason, aided with the influence of Divine grace. And, for that cause, it is not said amiss, touching ecclesiastical canons, that by instinct of the Holy Ghost they have been made, and consecrated by the reverend acceptation of the world."

The second question, between your correspondent and myself, respects "the perceptibility of the Holy Spirit's operations on the human soul." And here he would hardly, I think, have charged me with " an extraordinary incorrect ness of language, and misapplica

tion of authorities," if he had bestowed a little more attention on the terms in which my meaning was conveyed. To his candour I readily, submit it, whether I maintained that the operations of the Holy Spirit are perceptible beyond the limits of that effect which they produce? On turning to my remarks, he will discover, that I first admitted, in a note, "that the mode of his operations is secret; "---that I afterwards observed, that “Hooker considered the influences of the Spirit upon the mind of man to be perceptible to him who is the subject of them; "---and that, when quoting from a discourse of Bishop Sherlock, I spoke of "what is to be regarded as the test of spiritual influences upon the heart." When I thus qualified my words, I conceive I was abundantly justified by the very language of the natural philosopher; who would speak, without hesitation, of the percep tibility of the operation of climate upon the human body, and yet would signify no more than that the operation of air is attested by the health, the strength, the ap petite, the vigour, it produces. I therefore would argue, in like manner, that the operation of the Spirit is perceptible, not in its mode, but in its effects. And in the latter point I am happy to find myself agreed with your correspondent.

Yet I am compelled to differ from him, when he affirms, that "the latter opinion" (namely, "that we are to collect the sincerity of our religion exclusively from our religious conduct") "belongs neither to Hooker nor to the Dean of Chester." For, though it is true the Dean has admitted (p. 7) that "faith, and penitence, and good works, are the only sure test of true religion;" he nevertheless appears, unconsciously, to revoke this scriptural statement (in the 9th page), when he asserts, respecting the Holy Spirit, that "there is no other way by which its pre.