himself towards his elect, with a most sweet and amiable countenance, shall invite them into the happy mansions of everlasting bliss: Come ye blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world: Mat. xxv. O happy invitation! Happy, thrice happy they, that shall be found worthy to hear that comfortable sentence! What unspeakable satisfaction, what torrents of joy and pleasure will the hearing of it give to those blessed creatures! I am filled with joy, says the royal prophet, at the happy tidings which I have heard; we are to enter into the house of the Lord: Ps. cxxi. But, Oh! what envy, what rage and malice will the reprobate feel at the hearing of this invitation, when they shall see several of their acquaintance called to take possession of that eternal kingdom, which they might also have so easily purchased; but by their own folly and stupidity, have blindly exchanged it for the flames of hell.
2. Consider, and ponder at leisure upon this happy sentence: Come, says the Judge, ye blessed of my Father, &c. Come from the vale of tears where, for a little while, you have been tried and afflicted by the appointment of my providence, to the kingdom of never-ending joys; where grief and sorrow will be no more. Come from the place of banishment, where for a time you have sighed and groaned at a distance from your heavenly country, to your everlasting home, where you shall meet with all that your heart can desire to complete your happiness; where you shall be for ever inebriated by the plenty of my house, and drink for ever at the fountain of life: arise, my beloved, the winter is now past, the floods and storms are over, arise and come. O universal and eternal blessings! How my
