For this purpose the apostle places before us the two characters of the things which he opposes to the things of this world; invisibility and eternity, they are not seen, in opposition to the things which are seen; they are eternal, in opposition to those which are temporal. Does it not appear, my brethren, that this opposition turns to the disadvantage of heavenly things? What must we look at, say you, except what is under our eye, and within the reach of our senses? And to what ought we to attach ourselves except to what is real and solid? But is there any thing more stable than what we see and touch? Is there any thing more vain than what eludes our sight, and is beyond our comprehension? As the seeking of an unknown. happiness, and of which, after the utmost effort of the mind, we can form no idea? Nevertheless, nothing is more just than the reasoning of St. Paul, and nothing better founded than this proposition; we should look at the things which are not seen, because they are not seen. For why are they not seen? because they are spiritual and immaterial in their nature; placed in another world beyond the sphere of this inferior state; revealed unto us by shadows and the obscurity of faith; and so great and eminent as to surpass our ideas and comprehension. Reasons which, far from repulsing us from this pursuit, lead us to follow them with all our zeal and application.

For to begin with their nature: why are they not seen, but because they are spiritual, disengaged from sense and matter? This is the idea we ought to form of them, removing from them whatever is sensual or corporeal. If by an imagination, still earthly, we form to ourselves a sensual paradise, consisting of riches, honours, splendour, and magnificent abodes; and if, to obtain this, we should make a few sacrifices, we only change the place of our desires; instead of attaching them to earth we transplant them to heaven; and when with this view we abstain from the world, we resemble those who, by fasting, prepare themselves for a banquet, and who are temperate merely by an excess of intemperance. All will be pure, spiritual, and incorporeal in eternity; but the blessings will not, therefore, be less real or less capable of constituting the happiness of the soul. You say these views are too refined and abstracted, and that it is impossible to comprehend how we should be happy by things which are invisible. But is it not true, as St. Augustine very justly says, that small as our goodness is, we cannot help loving those in whom we discover great and eminent virtues : but as it is not the body that we love, it is evident that what we are pleased with in them is the beauty of truth and righteousIf truth and righteousness had no beauty, how could we love the just and virtuous who are aged and infirm? For what do they present to please the eye? Bending limbs, a wrinkled

countenance, and universal feebleness; nevertheless, if distinguished by benevolence and wisdom, and if ready to deliver up their body, enfeebled as it is, a sacrifice to the truth of Christianity, we cannot forbear loving them; but as we discover nothing beautiful to eyes of flesh, we must conclude that there is a certain beauty in righteousness, discovered by the eye of the mind, and which was admired in the martyrs even when their limbs were torn by the executioner, or their bowels devoured by wild beasts. Now that truth and righteousness which we cannot help loving, even in the midst of earthly corruptions, will constitute our happiness in heaven; we shall contemplate them, disengaged from all those prejudices and worldly views which obscure our minds; we shall enjoy them without feeling the combat of our passions and vices; all our pleasure shall be to know God, to penetrate the depth of his mercy towards us, to love him, to serve him, to adore him, and to be in union with the blessed. Here are mental enjoyments; but their spirituality, far from lessening their value, in the highest degree shews their greatness and importance; for as far as the soul excels the body, and the mind inanimate matter, so much are the operations and pleasures of the former more delightful than those of the latter.

Wherefore, again, are these things not seen? Because they are placed beyond the bounds of this inferior world, and in another state which we have neither seen nor tried. But should this repulse us, or lead us to disbelieve them? On the contrary, ought we not to reason thus?-1 am to pass into another world, without knowing perfectly what it is; but whatever it is, it cannot be the abode of misery; for if God has furnished the world, which I am about to leave with all the necessaries of life, can I believe that he hath left destitute the world on which I am to enter? It is true that I am ignorant of its precise nature; but I knew not the pleasures of this life until I entered upon it and it would be unreasonable to say that there are no pleasures, because I am not acquainted with what they are. Now if there are pleasures in another world, I must conclude that they are more excellent and desirable than these I now enjoy, because this world is only a prelude and preparation to the next, a sketch and rude outline, For this visible world was only made to typify to us the intellectual. It is farther true that I have neither felt nor experienced the pleasures and joys of that state; but this, far from lessening my desire and esteem for it, ought to redouble my zeal, because a new scene of things shall be opened before me, and I shall see what I have never beheld. Even to the present moment I am disgusted with every thing I have felt, and in spite of myself I wish for what I do not possess. When I confine myself to this world, my disgust

- with it is ever renewed, and enjoyment always falls beneath the hopes I have formed. How happy, therefore, shall I be to see myself transported out of a world of which I am weary, to change my state and condition! Happy remove! when, after what I shall discover, I shall be led to say, as the queen of Sheba, what I see infinitely transcends all I have heard of it, even God himself had not told me all the depth of that felicity to which he has appointed me.

In the third place, Why are they not seen? Because they are revealed unto us only by shadows and the obscurity of faith.God deals with us, not as mean and mercenary men, but as believers who rest on the promises of his word; he desires that our virtues should be the effects of our liberty, and not the result of an evidence which compels our belief. This, however, far from discouraging us, affords a conviction that our virtues, thus elevated, shall be more largely and bountifully rewarded. Hereby we are put in possession of all those magnificent promises, in which the ancient patriarchs rejoiced; they saw them afar off, and believed, and were saved. Particularly we inherit the promise made to Abraham, the father of the faithful, of whom it is said, he left his own country, friends and connexions, without knowing whither he went. "By faith, Abraham, being called, obeyed, to go to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and went out, not knowing whither he went." In this he is the type and example of the faithful, who, joyfully leaving earth, their connexions, and friends, travel to a land unknown; knowing only the God that leads them, following his call, giving themselves up to the guidance of his counsel, and by an entire surrender devoting their bodies and souls unto him, persuaded that the less they doubt, the more secure is their happiness; and the less they live by sight, the greater shall be their consolation and bliss: "Thomas, because thou hast seen thou hast believed; blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed."

Finally why are these things not seen? Because they are incomprehensible, and of a nature so transcendent, that the utmost stretch of our faculties cannot reach them; our eyes can neither discover nor support their glory, and our souls would be separated and rent from our bodies, were God to discover himself unto them in the greatness of his majesty ; " No man shall see me and live." Our affections are not sufficiently purified properly to esteem the holiness which reigns among the blessed; this is a treasure which cannot be reckoned, and a state beyond the comprehension of human intellect. "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, and these things have never entered into the heart of man." The incomprehensible nature of this felicity, far from making us disgusted therewith, should

lead us to form the greater and more noble ideas of it. If with our feeble minds, and narrow capacity, we could comprehend it, it would, of course, be as limited as we are: but how delightful to see ourselves destined to the possession of blessings, which, on account of their vastness and extent, we cannot comprehend! Happy obscurity! Blessed ignorance! Seeing this glory would confound us by its splendour, and overwhelm us by its weight; these pleasures are so great that we are unable to support them; these treasures so accumulated that we cannot reckon them; and finally, this new state is so rare and exquisite, that we must be transformed and made anew to enter upon it: "looking not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ?"

The second character on which the apostle insists, is their eternity. "The things that are not seen are eternal." There are two kinds of eternity by which they claim our regard: an eternity of possession, and an eternity of enjoyment. In the first sense we can never lose them, and in the second we can never be disgusted with them, neither shall our delight in them be interrupted. I shall not enter far into the proof of this first sense; it will suffice to say, we shall possess them for ever, because we are heirs, and not servants or slaves, who are perpetually changing. "The servant or hireling," says Jesus Christ," abideth not always in the house, but the Son abideth always." Because we possess them by virtue of a supernatural donation; that is to say, an irrevocable gift: "the gift of God is eternal life." Because, to acquire them for us, nothing less could avail than the blood and passion of God: "Jesus Christ," saith St. Paul, "hath obtained eternal redemption for us." Finally, we shall possess them for ever, because they are reserved in a high place beyond the reach of our enemies: hence, according to the prophet Isaiah, "Death shall be destroyed for ever; the Lord shall wipe away all tears from all faces, and shall remove from the earth the reproach of his people." "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting, nor destruction within thy borders, but thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise; thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." How can we contemplate these eternal blessings, except in the fixed and unchanging point of view which the apostle here designs: "We look at the things which are not seen, and which are eternal ?? Whatever is fleeting, cannot fix the mind; because, however vast in itself, we look for something beyond it; and as the object is finite and fleeting, the consideration thereof must be limited and transitory also. But who shall find bounds to his reflections in this vast abyss of eterni

ty, these millions of days, years, and ages, which shall prolong our felicity? What infinite depths of thought? What gulph more capable of swallowing up and absorbing our intellectual powers; and what subject more capable of fixing the mind? To feel ourselves at the fountain of all grace, surrounded with pleasures, and at the summit of every kind of felicity, without fear of losing it! When once we are placed in an immutable state, where nothing changes, is fleeting or transitory; where we feel a perfect consistency, without vicissitude or change, the soul will acquiesce therein, be bounded thereby; and to contemplate it, without one wandering thought, must constitute its chief felicity.

But besides this eternity of possession, there is also an eternity of enjoyment and delight, which God prepares for us, and which shall constitute the consummation of our felicity. Though we should possess the things of this world forever, we could not always enjoy them; they cannot fill the vast extent of our wishes and desires, and we should be disgusted and wearied with them. But with regard to the things which are above, we shall see God without weariness, because his essence and perfections shall unceasingly attract us; we shall love him without disgust, because he shall always present us with new causes to admire his mercy, and the way he hath chosen to redeem us. We shall praise him continually, because he shall continually appear praise-worthy; and thus our life shall be one continual act of praise, one eternal hallelujah: "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they shall still be praising thee." This, says St. Augustine, shall be the only business of those whose business is ended; the only labour of those who are delivered from all labour; the only action of those who enjoy a perfect repose, and the only care of those who are freed from care and inquietude. Now what encouragement is it for us to look at what we shall eternally behold, and begin on earth contemplations which shall occupy us for ever. A painter of antiquity excited himself to assiduity, by the consideration of the unfading glory he should secure thereby; "I paint," said he, "for eternity." I would spare neither diligence nor pains, ought the Christian to say, to attach myself to the things which are not seen, because I know they shall always endure; they are objects which shall never disappear; as I look on them, my understanding shall expand, God shall shed on me irradiations more bright and luminous, and, finally, the truths I contemplate shall make in me impressions so deep as to form the beginning of my glory; and this glory shall be perfected, when I see those things as they are. "We all with open face behold the glory of the Lord, and are changed into the same image, from glory into glory."