3ERM. XIV.] HERE AND HEREAFTER. 253 corruptions. In this valley of tears we must have a con- flict before we get to the promised land ; there every worshipper has in his hand a palm of complete victory ; Rev. vii. 9. and he is for ever discharged from fighting: Him that overcometh will Imake a pillar in the temple ofmy God : and he shall go no more out, Rev. iii: 12. So necessary is the presence of the saints in heaven, that our Lord Jesus Christ has represented them as pillars of that building. Ged dwelling in the midst of his saints, counts himself dwelling in one of his glorious heavens; and every saint there is, as it were, a pillar, and a sup- port of it. We are lively stones in that building inwhich God will for ever inhabit. Nowwe come to the house of God as visitants; but there as inhabitants, as the children of God, who abide for ever in the house : There every saint obtains what holy Davidwished for, and that in the literal perfection of it, that he might dwell in the house of the Lord for. ever, Ps. xxvii. 4. and xxiii. 6. Use. The reflection I shall make on the second part of my discourse, is this, that we should raise our hope, our consolation, and our joy, by a meditation of such future worship in heaven, as this is, when we lie under many weaknesses, restraints, and defilements, in our best worship on earth. O ! howwould this hope rejoice our hearts, if we could but live upon it ! What sacred comfort would it be.to a poor humble soul, who is hindered from drawing near to God in worship now, because his affections are perpetually ready to wander, to think that he shall come and appear before God here- after, and see him without ceasing, and his thoughts shall never wander from his God. When he ooínplains under the temptations of Satan, and absence of God from his ordinances, what a pleasure to think he is go- ing above to worship at the general assembly, where Sa- tan never enters, and where God never conceals himself; but appears universally gracious, and without a frown; where the God of glory and mercy appears unchahge a y, and for ever the same. Those of us who have been long restrained from all t °e pleasure and profit of public ordinances, what a blessed release will it be to our souls, when we shall be dismissed from t»e bonds of flesh, into that great and
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