what will you do, when he that rent the vail, that you might have access to God, will rend thefe heavens, and come down to judgment? "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye fhall fee him!" With what countenance will you look him in the face in judgment, when you did not care for a fight of his face in mercy, through the rent vail? O what a dreadful voice will that be to you, when he will fay, Rife ye dead, and come to judgment! Rife ye undervaluers of the gospel, and give an account of yourfelves! Do you know, that while you are neglecting the gofpel, and flighting the Son of God, you are faying with the Jews, "His blood be upon us, and upon our children?" The guilt of the blood of Chrift is upon you, and upon the generation after you, that follow your example; and, O! how terrible will it be, when he comes to make inquifition for blood, for the blood of God which you trampled under foot! O! how will you then wish to be rent and grinded in pieces, when you fhall find all the curfes of the Bible lighting upon you! O what will you do, when he that rent the vail, fhall openly rend you from the company of God, faints, and angels, and fet you with the goats on his left hand! When you fhall fee fome of your acquaintances that are here, ftanding on his right hand, how will you then think with yourfelf, O what hindered me, that I did not confent to the gospel, as well as they? You now join with them in the fame congregation, but your hearts are disjoined from them; you feparate from them in your choice, your affections, your difpofition, and converfation; but ere long, there fhall be another kind of feparation; you that will not come in among them through the rent vail now, there fhall be a vail hung up betwixt you and them, that shall never be rent; yea, a vail betwixt you and the glory of God; for you Thall be punished with everlasting deftruction, from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power: he that rent the vail to pieces, will eternally tear you to pieces, when there fhall be none to deliver. Now, the vail is rent betwixt God and you, fo as you may come to God's prefence with boldness, thro' the new and living way that is confecrated thro' the vail; and you shall have

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God, and Chrift, and faints, and angels, all welcoming you; "For, the Spirit and the bride fay, Come; and whofoever will, let him come;" for the vail is rent; but if once you go down by the fides of the bottomlefs Tophet, the vail that then fhall be placed betwixt God and you, will never, never be rent, fo long as eternity lafts. You will never hear again fuch a fweet word; and, what would you then give for fuch a word as that, Behold, the vail is rent, that you may come to God's favour and fellowship? But no fuch news fhall be heard in hell: "Now, only now, is the accepted time, now is the day of falvation; to-day, if ye will hear his voics, harden not your hearts;" but think of coming into the holy of holies, while you hear that the vail is rent, and nothing to hinder you.

Ule Fourth, for Confolation to believers, to whom the vail is fo effectually rent in twain, that from the marks given, they may conclude, they have made some entrance within the vail, by coming to a God in Chrift, and cafting their anchor within the vail. I have a word of comfort to fay to you, though perhaps you are ftill complaining of many vails that feparate betwixt God and you; yet a little while, and you fhall have a triumphant entrance miniftered unto you, into the holy of holies above, whither the Forerunner hath for you entered; for, "Behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom!" Therefore you fhall come into Zion with fongs, and everlafting joy upon your heads; you fhall obtain joy and gladnefs, and forrow and fighing fhall flee away; and then all vails fhall be rent and removed for ever. I will tell you, for your comfort, of a few vails that then fhall be rent; for the rending of the vail of the temple, promifes the rending of all vails in a fhort while,

1. Then, the vail of fin and corruption fhall be rent in twain; all the rents, all the ftroakes that fin gets by the word, the rod, the Spirit, never rends a body of death from you; but ftill you are groning under a fenfe of indwelling-fin, that feparates betwixt God and you : but then, O then, believer, this vail fhall be rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and from the bot

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tom to the top; both root and branch fhall be rent and removed; for," When he fhail appear, you fhall be like him:" your conformity to him thall be complete; you muft go. to heaven dragging a body, of death after you; but whenever you come to the port of glory, there will be a joyful parting; for you fhall take an everlasting farewel of all your lufts and corruptions; then you will fay, Farewel with all our hearts; and glory to God that we fhall never meet again. Bleffed be God, we shall never fee your face again.

2. Then fhall the vail of Darkness and Distance be rent in twain; for then darknefs will give way to light, glorious light; and diftance will give way to prefence, glorious and everlafling prefence. Now you fay, I can. not fee him, he is far away; but, fays Chrift, "Father, I will that thefe whom thou haft given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory:" to be with me where I am, there is diftance removed; to behold my glory, there is darknefs removed. Darkness and distance now, create doubts and fears; but doubts and fears will then take wings and flee away, never to return again; for, "The face of the covering fhall be entirely removed," Ifa. xxv. 7, 8.

3. Then fhall the vail of Ordinances be rent in twain: any view we have of God's glory now, is mediate, thro the intervention of means and ordinances; any glimpse we get of his beauty is through the dim glafs of duties and ordinances; for, "Now we fee through a glass) darkly," fays the apoftle; but the time comes when the glafs fhall be broken, and we fhall fee him as he is, in an immediate manner; Rev. xxi. 22. "I faw no temple there; for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple of it." And then fhall the faints be able to fay, the half of his glory hath not been told, when they fhall fee him face to face, and not his back parts, or the fkirts of his garments only.

4. The vail of fcanty enjoyments will be rent in twain; the vail of paffing blinks and interrupted views. The life of the faint here, is moflly a life of defire; he can never get his defire fully fatisfied; and when you get any defirable meeting with the Lord, why, it is but a

blink and away; your defires are but increased thereby, and your melancholy wants remain unfupplied: but within the vail all defires fhall be fatisfied, all wants fhall be fupplied; for, "In his prefence there is fulnefs of joy, and at his right-hand rivers of pleafure for evermore." No clouds, no night, no defertion there; no fuch complaint as this, "O why hideft thou thy face?" The beft communion and enjoyment here admits of interruption; but that which is above, is uninterrupted ;. no tempting devil, no deceitful heart, no difmal cloud to darken their day, or interrupt their vifion and fruition. of God. Chrift is here only paffing by us, and as a way, faring man, that tarries only for a night; yea, hardly for a night: no fooner does he enter, but he is away; no fooner does the heart begin to open to him fome-time, than, alas! he is gone, Song v. 6. "I opened to my Beloved, but he had withdrawn himself, and was gone:" but then their enjoyment fhall be full, and everlafting, and uninterrupted; for, "So fhall they ever be with the Lord." Partial enjoyments will give way to eternally full enjoyments; "For when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part fhall be done away."

5. The vail of church-diforders and confufion fhall be rent in twain. Many times you have reafon to figh and complain, that matters are all out of order in the church; the vail of confufion and diforder is upon it, and the glory departed; nothing but clouds in our fky. Indeed we would gladly expect the rending of thefe vails that are upon the church, even in time, and even with refpect to the church of Scotland. It is with the church, as it is with particular believers, the Lord ufually brings them to an extremity, before he give them a deliverance: the darkest night may ufher in the cleareft day; to them that fear his name, the Sun of righteoufnefs fhall arife. Whatever dark eclipfes the fun may be under at prefent, do not fay the fun is gone out of the firmament, because it is a cloudy day; the clouds may grow thicker and thicker yet; yea, there may not only be dark clouds, but rain, and perhaps a terrible fhower of wrath is coming; many things look like it but though there fhould be both clouds and rain, fay not the fun is gone,

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143 and will never return and shine again; he that rent the vail, will rend the clouds in his own time. Yea, the rending of the vail of the temple did foretel good to the church. It fays that he will rear up a more glorious temple, fuch as is promifed, Ifa. liv. 11, 12. “O thou afflicted, toffed with tempefts, and not comforted! behold I will lay thy ftones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with fapphires; and I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleafant flones." Why, what is the meaning of all this? See it in ver. 13. "All thy children fhall be taught of the Lord, and great fhall be the peace of thy children." You fee it is a time of great darknefs in the church, fo it is indeed; but here is a promise of light that shall arise, "All thy children fhall be taught of the Lord.” Is it a time of great divifion and contention? fo it is; but here is a promise of great peace, "Great fhall be the peace of thy children." We hope there will be a more full accomplishment of this in the church, even in time; but when will all this come to pafs? why, we may come to be tried with another kind of tempeft before it come to pafs; for, fee how the promife is uflered in, "O thou afflicted, toffed with tempefts, and not comforted;" then follows the promise of a pleasant iffue. But withal never expect a perfect church upon earth; we hope it will be more pure, but it never will be perfect, till that which is in part fhall be done away. The time is coming, when the bride, the Lamb's wife, fhall be prefented to him without fpot or wrinkle; when the union of the faints fhall be entire, and the communion of faints fhall be perfect. There will be no contention, no divifion, no diforder in the general affembly and church of the firft-born that are written in heaven.

6. The vail of militant graces, will be rent in twain: and nothing but triumphant graces will have the throne, "Now remains faith, hope and love; but the greatest of thefe is love." Why, love is a triumphant grace; and faith and hope will refign to love the chair of ftate. There will be no need of militant graces in the church triumphant; no need of faith, where vifion is; no need of hope, where fruition is; no need of patience, where