ply it with the utmost diligence, till ye all die, and there be not a man of you left to number any more. Now let your innumerable figures (if possible) be all joined together, and cast up by the succeeding age: nay, it cannot be done, there is no casting up this immense sum. But if it could be done, and all their figures were put together, and the total sum cast up, yet they have been all this while labouring in vain, and have not advanced one step to eternity; eternity will not be one moment nearer to an end after all these years were past and gone. Ye angles of God, your capacities are large, and your apprehensions wide and capacious; besides, you are in the actual possession of this blessed eternity; tell

me, therefore, what it is; let your happy experience prompt you to a ready answer to this abstruse question, what is eternity? and how long shall it last? Alas! they all stand silent; the question is beyond their reach; they cannot perform impossibilities, therefore they can never assign any end to eternity, because it has none. Oeternity! mysterious eternity! How great and beyond all apprehension art thou! How dearly welcome to the blessed saints in glory! How desirable art thou, and yet how little thought of! Well mayest thou, O my soul, despise the dying pleasures here, and breathe after the joys above, joys so desirable as to know no end, never to be at a conclusion, but be always beginning, always con

tinuing, even for ever and ever! So happy indeed is this life of glory, that a whole age of torments here would be well employed in the purchasing the enjoyment of one day, one hour, in those blessed regions. How well,

then, is a life of the strictest purity laid out in the pursuit of this happiness, not for a day, nor an hour, but for an endless eternity? I might endeavour, O my soul! to shadow forth the excellency of this life eternal, by considering what it is to live thus happy for ten thousand millions of ages, or some such trifle. But think what I can; add never so many millions to the heap, it all signifies nothing; for there is no comparison, no proportion, none at all. In a word, it has no end; I can think

no farther; and if I could attempt a farther description of its infinite eternity, I should but wander in the dark till I lost myself.

Thus blessed, and thus long, shall the happy reign in glory!

Why art thou, then, O my soul! constrained to "dwell here in Mesech, and to have thy habitations amongst the tents of Kedar ?" Why must this sinful clog, this earthly tabernacle, keep back my aspiring soul, when it would fain be gone, and fly to the eternal mansions designed for its abode? Well, since I must be confined to this hated world, I will be revenged on it, by despising it, and looking on all its wealth and pleasures with the greatest aversion and contempt. And although it may keep me from these joys of

heaven for a time, yet it shall never have so great a portion of my heart, as to shut me out for ever. I will wait till my change comes; and although my journey may seem long, as well as difficult, yet the glories of the continuing city at the end of it shall support me by the way, and inspire me with an unwearied resolution in my race, till I win the prize, the glorious prize above, the immortal crown which I there behold laid up ready for me against I have finished my course.

Go on then, O my soul! and courageously perform all the duties of thy severe and holy calling, how difficult soever to flesh and blood: and whensoever thou art discouraged from a strict obedience to God's com