IV. We learn from the subject that God rewards eminent goodness with eminent blessings. What a man sows, that will he reap. No axiom in science is more true. He receives his own measure, pressed

down and running over. With the merciful, God shows himself merciful. He abases the proud; he exalts the humble. Elijah boldly proclaims approaching judgments to wicked kings; God rewards his fidelity by abundant supply in the desert, by the mansion of hospitality, by the voice of kindness. He prays devoutly, sincerely, perseveringly; the clouds dissolve in rain; the votaries of Baal are confounded; the gates of death are unbarred. He is eminent in the graces of the saint, his reward is undescribable; in this mortal state, he is prepared for celestial glory, without passing through the dark, dismal, dreadful regions of the dead; without the terrour, the distress, the anguish, and horrour, of severing soul and body. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, his mortal puts on immortality, is incorruptible and glorious, like the Son of God. Without waiting like others, till the day of judgment, to be openly acknowledged, and acquitted, and rewarded, he is, soul and body, immediately admitted to heaven, to the vision of God and the lamb. He enjoys now, what other saints will, after the day of judgment. He is honoured as no other man, except Enoch, ever was. Instead of the pains, and fears, and distress, and agonies, of sickness and death, as the last hour approaches, he travels in his strength from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, from Jericho to Jordan, whose waters, awed

by his presence, stop in their course, and he passes the channel on dry ground. While he and Elisha are in religious converse, they are parted, not by the sudden effects of a fatal disorder, not by the pangs of dissolving nature, not by the last struggle of mortal strength, not by the silence, the pallid visage, and the dreadful attendants of death; but by a burst of heavenly splendour; a chariot of light and flame, a band of angels, separate these friends of God; and Elijah is borne to the New Jerusalem, to Mount Zion, the city of the living God. He sits down with Abram, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, with all the spirits of just men made perfect, with all the angels of light, in the kingdom of glory. There he now rejoices with the elect, blessing and adoring God, that he was enabled to deny himself, to stand fast in the faith, to be valiant for God, to be faithful in his calling. No harp is louder, no song is more joyful among the children of Adam. They yet suffer from the effects of sin; their bliss is not complete, their state is unnatural; their bodies are in their graves, food for worms, or the sport of all the winds of heaven. They are waiting, and waiting for the resurrection of their bodies, clothed in immortal splendour, when they will receive the full reward of their labours, and like the angels, be free from every mark of human apostacy. Such the prophet Elijah already is. Accordingly Dr. Watts says, "When Enoch and Elijah carried their bodies with them to heaven, it was certainly a sublime honour, and a peculiar privilege, which they enjoyed, to have so early a happiness both in flesh and spirit conferred on them, so many ages before the rest of mankind.

For though the soul can act without the body; yet as the body is a part of the compounded nature of man, our happiness is not designed to be complete, till the soul and body are united in a state of perfection and glory. This happiness was conferred early on those two favourites of heaven."*

God gives to eminent zeal and fidelity, a reward as eminent. God rendered the blessings of Elijah as remarkable as his virtues. Blest prophet, I see him rise from the plain of Jordan, escaping the king of terrours, and the dark valley. I hear him exclaim, "Oh death where is thy sting, where are thy terrours ; Oh grave I shall never enter thy dark mansion."

Blest man, I follow thy course, as far as the eye can see, or the fancy soar. Thou hast entered the heavenly gate; thy reward is immediate glory. We, also, shall put on immortality, when the Judge shall appear, when the trump shall sound, and the dead rise. Amen.

SERMON XVIII.

ECCLESIASTES vi, 12.

For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow?

A RASH boldness of opinion is frequently the ruin of man. Unreasonable confidence that we do know what is good for man in this life,' destroys its thousands, its multitudes, which no man can number. A presumption that we know what things would make us happy, and a violent pursuit of those things, often destroy the peace, the innocence, the hope of man. So conclusive are the evidences of these facts, that most men of observation acknowledge they have but little foresight, but feeble assurance, of what is best for them. They lament the errours of human judgment, and the scantiness of human knowledge; they confess that they grope in darkness, and wander in paths of delusion; yet if we notice their conduct, we may suspect their sincerity, or believe that their hearts protest against the assent of their understandings.

Those, who may think the confidence of others delusive and improper, generally show, by the ardour of their desires, and the activity of their pursuits, that they have very little concern for their own sagacity. Their unwavering hope, and their inconsolable grief of disappointment, show their sanguine confidence in their own schemes. The testimony of the wise, and the precepts of revelation, teach caution in practice, and moderation of desire; yet they presume an exception may be made in their case; therefore, as deaf men, they hear not; as blind men, they see not. They as rashly seize the rose of delight, as if no thorn gave life to the flower; they as boldly riot on the honey of voluptuousness, as if no poisonous things clustered round; they as wantonly regale themselves under the tree of forbidden pleasure, as if death were not in the indulgence. Ambition will suppose that happiness is to be found in the honours of society, the applause of the world. Avarice will suppose that riches can produce contentment. Sensuality seeks only the pleasures of sense. The text teaches us that all these are the calculations of folly; in a strong manner, it asserts that no one can tell what is good for him in this world.

DOCTRINE. No one knows what circumstances are best for him in this life.

I. No man knows what is best for him in this life, because he does not know the moral influence of any event on his heart or life.

This world is a vapour, a shadow; immortality is the invaluable property of man. As is the moral influence of any event, such is its benefit or injury.