therefore we are not truly members of the Church, we cannot be saved: if our piety is cold; our devotion lukewarm ; Our hearts attached to pleasures rather than to GOD; our affections set on things on the earth; our lives careless, worldly, and luxurious; the dreadful power of God's kingdom will appear to us in His anger? "Our Lord shall come, and shall not keep silence." "He shall come in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not GOD, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Both descriptions of sinners shall equally suffer, the infidel who knows not GOD," and the disobedient who "holds the truth in unrighteousness;" the evil servant shall have his portion with the unbeliever; "the wicked shall be turned into hell; and all the people that forget GOD."

“Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father." The mists of error, the storms of passion, the clouds of sin and sorrow,

shall be dissipated for ever, before the rising Sun of Righteousness. The full and final establishment of God's Church and Kingdom shall be revealed; the tares shall be gathered in bundles and burnt; but the wheat carefully saved; the bad produce of the net cast away; but the good reserved for the master's use; the angels shall "sever the wicked. from the just!" the Saviour shall present His redeemed to the Father of Spirits; He shall welcome them to their eternal inheritance; Come, ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you, from the beginning of the world."

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SERMON XIX.

CONSIDERATIONS UNDER AFFLICTION.

PHILIP. iii. 20, 21.

Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

THE word "conversation

It

conversation" has, since this translation was made, considerably changed its ordinary signification. now generally conveys the idea of colloquial intercourse; but the sense in which our forefathers used it was rather the employment of our time and attention; the concerns in which we are conversant.

The Apostle's meaning therefore would, in modern language, be more accurately rendered, "Our concern is in heaven," that interest which forms the main business and duty of our lives. The word 1, indeed, which he employs may be understood, our commonwealth,” that joint concern of the Christian body politic which engages our feelings of public spirit as well as of private care and individual ambition.

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It appears worth while to explain this expression, because, although it is natural, and certainly, in this case, becoming, that the subject which principally engrosses our thoughts and desires, should be the frequent topic of our discourse, yet such a sentiment does not connect itself so forcibly with the argument which the Apostle in this place addresses to the

1 Toλírevμa, administratio reipublicæ.-SCAPULA. Polycarp uses the word in this sense: ἐὰν πολιτευσώμεθα ἀξίως αὐτοῦ, καὶ συμβασιλεύσωμεν αὐτῷ. Ep. ad Philipp. c. 5.

Church. There are, he sorrowfully observes in the preceding sentence, many whose lives are utterly inconsistent with the religion which they profess; sensual, vain-glorious, worldly men wholly taken up in the affairs of this present life. But, (he adds,) our concern is in heaven. There is the place where we have laid up our treasure; there the home where we desire to set up our rest; there the scene where we long to enjoy real and lasting pleasures; there the abode of the friends whom we love, and from whom we trust never to be parted; there the society of which we are members, and in which our patriotism and our zeal is centered; there the Father, the Saviour, the Benefactor, the King, who has, even now, our love, our gratitude, our loyalty, our adoration.

Our concern is in heaven though our present abode is on earth, where we have also subordinate interests, and duties, and enjoyments, which demand our at