SERMON.

EPHESIANS III. 15.

Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

HEAVEN and earth we are accustomed to consider as worlds both remote from each other, and extremely dissimilar; and such an opinion respecting them is sanctioned by the inspired volume, if not derived immediately from it. They are often placed in contrast by the sacred writers, and the elements and properties of the one are represented as being not only uncongenial with but utterly repugnant to those of the other. Yet, in the passage now before us, they are exhibited as different habitations of the same family. They are both, therefore, to be regarded as parts of that great edifice of which our Lord speaks, when he says, "In my Father's house are many mansions." All the inhabitants of one, and a portion of the population of the other, are incorporated into one community, constitute one household, and notwithstanding, consequently, the distant localities that divide them, sustain a common relation to each other and to God. He is the father of the family: its separated portions equally belong to him, and both are dear to him as his children. Their occupancy of different habitations, and other distinctions of a similar nature, are only a

temporary arrangement, and will hereafter give place to plans of another and more permanent kind. In the mean time, the Christian is consoled by the fact that, though far from his celestial home, he is not an isolated being, cut off and dissevered from the rest of the family, but is linked in close and indissoluble bonds to "an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect."

Such an event as that which I am this evening to improve, seems, if not to annihilate, yet greatly to diminish the distance between earth and heaven. It certainly helps us to realize the connexion which my text shows to exist between them. For when fellowchristians die, and especially such as have been distinguished in the service of God, we cannot think of them otherwise than as having exchanged scenes of conflict and toil for that world where they "rest from their labours," and enjoy their honourable and everlasting reward. Thither, beyond a question, their disembodied spirits go, to mingle with kindred society, and to engage in the celestial adorations of that Eternal Being who is "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," and "of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named."

In discoursing of this family, it will be proper to inquire, of whom it consists: On what principle it is constituted, and by what bond it is held together: What points of sympathy there are between its earthly and celestial members; and, What circumstances of difference and superiority distinguish the latter.

I. This family is a "family in heaven and earth."

It consists of two great divisions, distinguished by the circumstance of their dwelling either in this visible and degenerate world, or in the invisible regions of purity and joy. Part are on earth, toiling through the vale of mortality, part are in heaven, resting alike from toil and from sin.

The members of this family on earth are not distinguished by their rank, their fortune, their titles, their numbers, or, in a word, by any of those distinctions to which men generally attach importance. On the contrary, they are, for the most part, a poor people, treated with little courtesy, and often with dreadful severity by the world. Their worth of character, and the dignity of their destination are at present, to a great extent, concealed. Hence, though they are the children of God, the brethren of Christ, the future companions of angels, and heirs of a kingdom, they struggle now with innumerable difficulties, and because of their poverty and mean circumstances are often despised. But that which constitutes their characteristic peculiarity, and serves at once to distinguish them from the world, and to identify them as members of this family, is the spiritual change which has been wrought in them by God. In virtue of this change, they are denominated "saints," and "the faithful in Christ Jesus." It clothes them with a new and divine nature. It makes them godlike; for they are his workmanship, and are wrought by him into his own image. It entitles them to be esteemed no more as "strangers and foreigners," but as "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;" and they are henceforth "builded together for an habitation of God, through the Spirit." The relationship

they sustain to their heavenly Father is thus altogether of a spiritual nature. They are his children by the new birth. Grace, and not nature, faith, and not blood, institutes the connexion. "To as many as received him that is, received Christ-to them gave he power to become the sons of God; even to them which believed in his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Such persons, then, and all such, all who by faith have received Christ, and been quickened to a new and holy life by the Spirit of God, are God's children, and compose that portion of his family which is on earth.

The heavenly portion of it consists, first, of "the spirits of just men made perfect." Death is both the disembodying of the human spirit, and its departure to another world-in the case of God's children to the celestial world. There, after some mode of existence at present unintelligible to us, those members of the family dwell who, having finished their course, are now" inheriting the promises." Earth is but the temporary residence of good men, and during all the time they dwell in it they are hastening out of it. Converse with them, and you will find that they look upon themselves as being now in a strange country, and speak of death as the event which takes them home. And what is that home to which it takes them? Assuredly not the grave, although there they rest in their beds, each one who hath walked in his uprightness." That home on which their hearts are fixed, and to which their steps are tending, is in the skies. Thither, are gone the faithful of former generations; the people of God of ancient times, of