Meat out of the eater. Or, Funeral-discourses occasioned by the death of several relatives.…

HEAVEN! what a grateful Subject for our Meditations are we now fallen upon? Heaven! Tis the Seat and Sum of our perfect ⟨p. 70⟩Blessedness; and the only Home of every Godly man on Earth. Heaven! Tis the Strong Tower, whereto our Devout Friends do retire, for the Eternal Harvest and Reward of all their Devotions, when Mortality takes them off. Heaven! Tis the Rendezvous of the Bright Angels, Attending on the Throne of God, and Beholding of His Face, continually. Yea, A Better and a Brighter Thing than all of this; Heaven! Tis the place where our most Glorious Lord JESUS CHRIST, is to be seen in all His Glory. That we may Hear and Know any thing about Heaven, tis the Wonderful Mercy of our God unto us. But then, What a Wonder of Mercy is it, that an Offer of this Heaven may be made unto us, who are as miserable Sinners as any that are out of Hell, and as Unworthy ones as any that are in it!

In the Paragraph of Sacred Scripture now before us, we may see Heaven opened, with some remarkable Intimation and Invitation unto us, to hope, that we may be admitted into it. Our Lord JESUS CHRIST, the Great King of the World, was no sooner Born, but presently that King must be Proclaimed; and those Nobles ⟨p. 71⟩of Heaven, the Angels of God, must be the Heralds of the Proclamation. Such a Favour of Heaven, as a visible Descent of Angels from thence, was granted unto the Children of men, on this matchless occasion; and indeed, if the Almighty God would send His own Son to be manifest in Flesh among the Children of men, it was but a Lesser, though a wondrous Condescension, to send His Angels; of none among whom, He had ever said, Thou art my Son! I make no doubt, That the Glory of the Lord now Shining with its Angelical Attendants over Bethlehem, was that which the Magicians then in the East, observed as a New Star over Judea, and repaired thither accordingly, with their Enquiries. But thus was the Birth of our Great and Good Shepherd, revealed unto the Shepherds of that Country. First, One Angel declares unto them, who and where, the Saviour was, that was this Night born into the World. And then a Multitude of the Heavenly Host accompanied that One Angel, in singing the Praises due to the most High God, for such a Saviour, The Angels had once with Grief driven man out of Paradise. But they now come with Songs, to tell him Tidings of a way