bled and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." And when the time was come, that he should finish the work that his Father had given him to do, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, to make his soul an offering for sin; where he was derided, insulted, and with wicked hands crucified and slain. The painful and faithful labours of Christ were unspeakably greater, and more important, than all the labours of angels and men put together. Indeed, their labours would have been of little account, if not entirely lost, had it not been for the labours of Christ. He has done, and will do more than any other other person in the universe, to bring home many sons unto glory, and to augment the holiness and happiness of heaven for ever. When he shall have finished his mediatorial work, he will exhibit the fruits of his labours before the eyes of the whole intelligent creation, and fill every holy heart with inexpressible joy. Thus at the end of the world, God will reap the fruit of his own labours, the fruit of Christ's labours, and the fruit of the labours of all his holy and unholy creatures; and these fruits will yield him a most glorious and plentiful harvest, and lay a broad and permanent foundation for the everlasting rest and enjoyment of all holy beings.

IMPROVEMENT.

1. If at the end of the world, God will reap the fruits of his own labours, and of the labours of all his intelligent creatures; then he will have a very rich and plentiful harvest of every thing the most valuable and desirable.

For, in the first place, he will have a rich and plentiful harvest of knowledge. None of his intelligent creatures will come to their proper maturity in knowledge until the end of the world, when God's ultimate end in the creation of it, shall be completely answered, and

universally known. Though angels have been growing in knowledge from the day of their creation to this day, and will continue growing in knowledge from this day to the great and last day; yet they will not come to their full growth, until they have seen all intelligent creatures collected together, and all their views, and feelings, and exertions completely unfolded, together with all God's dispensations of providence and grace towards them. Though they have been looking into God's works and ways for nearly six thousand years, with great attention, and though they have made great and rapid improvements in knowledge during this long period, yet they may learn ten fold more in one thousand years to come, than they ever learnt before; and yet not arrive at their full growth, or proper perfection in knowledge, until the end of the world, and the final consummation of all things. This is also equally true of the whole human race. Though they come into the world extremely ignorant, yet they naturally grow in knowledge as they grow in years; but though some of them have lived hundreds of years in this world, and thousands of years in another, yet none of them ever have, or ever will, come to the full measure of perfect men in knowledge, till the end of the world. Then the intellectual powers and faculties of all minds, whether human or angelick, will come to maturity, though not to cquality. Angels will continue a superiour, and men an inferiour, order of beings; and one angel will be superiour to another angel, as well as one man superiour to another man, in knowledge. But this variety in knowledge will be consistent with absolute perfection in each individual. Now, if at the end of the world, the many myriads of angels, and the many millions of the human race, will all be collected together in one vast assembly, and exhibit all the improvements in knowledge they have ever made under all the means of divine cultivation, which they have ever enjoyed; God will certainly reap a rich and plentiful harvest of knowledge, which will afford him unspeakably more joy, than any harvest ever afforded the richest man in

this world. Every child of Adam will know more than Adam, or Enoch, or Moses, or Solomon, knew, when they left the world; and all the angels will know vastly more, than they ever knew before God's ultimate design in creation was accomplished and revealed. God will reap a rich harvest of holiness, as well as of knowledge. All the angels of heaven, and all that shall have been redeemed from among men, will shine forth in the kingdom of their Father, in all the beauties of holiness. The patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, all that had been sanctified and justified, will appear but a little lower than the angels of heaven, in their gracious and divine attainments. And these attainments will appear far more valuable and excellent in the sight of God, than all their intellectual improvements. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. God views holiness in himself and in his rational creatures, as infinitely more amiable and valuable, than any other excellence or perfection. And the immense fruits of holiness, which the immense number of his labourers in his vineyard shall have brought forth, in the course of many thousand years, will vastly increase the value and joy of his rich harvest at the end of the world. Furthermore, his harvest will then comprize not only all the knowledge, and all the holiness, but all the happiness of all his holy creatures. All his faithful servants will then cease from their labours, and enter into everlasting rest and enjoyment. They will enjoy that blessed kingdom, which had been prepared for them, by all the labours of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and of the whole intelligent creation. And God will then see all his holy creatures brought to the perfection of their natures, placed in their proper mansions, and in the full enjoyment of all good. A more rich and plentiful harvest than this, we cannot conceive it possible for God to enjoy at the end of the world and final consummation of all things.

2. If God will reap such a rich and plentiful harvest of knowledge, holiness, and happiness, at the end of the world; then he deserves our everlasting gratitude

and praise for his goodness in creating it. Nothing but mere goodness could have possibly moved him to form the great and benevolent design of creation. He was under no natural necessity to create the heavens, or the earth, nor any intelligent creatures in them. He was self-sufficient for his own blessedness. He might have enjoyed everlasting rest in the contemplation of his own glorious perfections. And he must have known before hand, that if he should create the heavens and the earth, and fill them with rational creatures, how much care and labour it must cost him and them, to accomplish the great, and complicated, and arduous design. But in the full view of all this, his benevolent. heart moved him to create the world, and to exert all his perfections in upholding and governing it, until he had brought millions and millions of rational and immortal beings to the highest perfection in knowledge, holiness and happiness. As this state of perfection will be the result of the work of creation, so we may safely conclude, that this was his ultimate end in bringing all things into existence. And we cannot conceive that he should have formed a greater, wiser, or better end in the creation of the world. He will always have occasion to rejoice in all his works, and so will all his holy creatures. He will not be indebted to them for any of their labours, but they will always be indebted to him for all the good that his labours and theirs will finally produce. For they will fully and for ever enjoy his rich and happy harvest at the end of the world. They cannot look backward to the beginning of the world, nor forward to the end of it, without seeing their indispensable obligations, to thank and praise him for creating goodness. And if we felt as the heavenly inhabitants feel, we should joyfully join with them in saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

3. If God will have a vastly rich and plentiful harvest at the end of the world; then we have no reason to expect, that he ever will have more than one har

vest. At the end of the world, God will have created the heavens and the earth just as he originally intended to create them; he will have preserved and governed them, just as he intended to preserve and govern them; he will have brought as many intelligent creatures into existence, as he intended to bring into existence; he will have brought them to that state of perfection in knowledge, holiness, and happiness, to which he intended to bring them; and he will have completely answered his original and ultimate end in the work of creation. And this will be the largest and richest harvest, that he could possibly propose, desire, or produce. We cannot conceive, therefore, that after he has actually reaped this great and valuable harvest, that he should desire to produce and reap another. The very supposition would argue imperfection. It would imply, that he was not able to form the greatest, wisest, and best end in the creation of the world, at first. It is as absurd to suppose, that God will have more than one harvest, as to suppose, that he will have a thousand, or two thousand, or a million harvests. When God formed his original and eternal design of creation, he formed as great, as wise, and as good a design, as his boundless wisdom and goodness could devise, and his almighty power could accomplish. And unless, after the end of the world, he should increase in power, wisdom, and goodness, it will be both naturally and morally impossible, that he should devise or accomplish any new design in the work of creation. I know that some have supposed, that God will not gather in all his harvest at the end of the world. They suppose that after he has separated the wheat from the tares, or after he has separated the righteous from the wicked, and cast the wicked into a lake of fire, he will there ripen, and purify, and prepare them for the kingdom of heaven, and be reaping a rich harvest from the regions of sin and sorrow, for ages and ages, after the end of this world. And indeed some have supposed, that he will continue to destroy old worlds and create new ones, through the endless