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I. Let us attend to the view which the apostle gives of THE HAPPINESS OF DEPARTED SAINTS.

1. The apostle intimates his persuasion that they were existing m a state of happiness. The statement of the text is directly opposite to the notion that the soul sleeps with the body from death till the resurrection.

2. This representation intimates that the happiness of heaven has been revealed in various promises, and that these promises have been fulfilled to departed saints. Who can conceive the extent of their knowledge, the sweetness of their pleasures, the brightness of their glory, the ardour of their love, and the sublimity of their praise? Not a wish shall be left ungratified, and not a hope deferred.

3. The language, of the text intimates that this felicity belongs to them as the children of God. Among men, the inheritance is not possessed by the child till the death of the father, but the life of our heavenly Father is the source and the security of this happiness; and in the world of immortality God shall be all in all.

4. The expression intimates that this felicity is entirely of grace.

5. They possess this felicity for ever. Their happiness is sure in itself and in their persuasion. They feel that they are safe for eternity.

II. Let us now consider THE MEANS BY WHICH DEPARTED SAINTS ATTAINED THIS HAPPINESS.

1. The saintsmay be said to have attained this felicity by faith, because by it they believed the various assurances of the gospel respecting the reality and the blessedness of this state. It is by faith, also, that the righteousness of Christ is received, which entitles us to the possession of heaven. Faith also animates good men to the cultivation of those graces and to the performance of those actions which prepare for glory. I only add on this topic, that it is through faith that the saints are kept by Divine power" to salvation.

2. But these saints attained this felicity through patience. It was by this principle that they endured the afflictions through which they had to pass in their way to the kingdom. Patience also kept them waiting for this felicity till the period which God had fixed for their admission to heaven.

III. I shall now recommend, by a few arguments, THE IMITATION OF DEPARTED SAINTS.

1. Consider that it is the command of God that you should follow them (James 5:10; Hebrews 12:1, 2).

2. Consider, also, that their excellences were exhibited before you to awaken in your hearts admiration of holiness and to excite you to labour to resemble them. If you act differently from these examples, your guilt will be aggravated by their being set before you.

3. Consider, too, that this is the only way by which you can be joined with them in their happiness.Exhortations:

1. Let us lament that this admirable precept has been so much abused. Under pretence of obedience to this precept, invocation of departed saints has been practised — the house of silence has been ransacked, and the bones of martyrs and confessors brought out and placed on shrines as objects of worship, or used for the performance of miraculous cures.

2. Let us leave such an example of faith and patience, that it may be the duty of the Church to make us the objects of remembrance and imitation.

3. Let this felicity which you have been contemplaning cherish heavenly-mindedness in you. Say not of this world, "This is my home."

4. I would exhort the unconverted to seek a title to this happiness, and preparation for it.

(H. Belfrage.)

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KJV: And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

WEB: We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,