Even the monarch upon his throne is not half so august by the crown that adorns his brow, as he is, by the religion which makes him the father of his people, and the obedient subject of the King of kings. _The prospects_ of religion. Were the religion of Jesus Christ to be limited in the duration of its influence to this life alone, it would well demand the care and anxiety of mankind to understand its nature. But “godliness hath not only the promise of this life,” of a secure passage through all its snares, and of a proportion of grace to surmount every difficulty, and come off victorious, but it hath also a promise of that life “which is to come.” The title to it is secured by the everlasting righteousness of Christ, the gift of the Father, the covenant faithfulness of the three persons in the Godhead, and the representation of all God’s elect in the highest heavens, in the person of their illustrious Head. “I will,” says he in John, xvii. “that they whom thou hast given me be _with me where I am_, that they may behold my glory.” “Whom he justified, them he _also_ GLORIFIED.” Rom. viii. “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He that believeth hath eternal life,” in the earnest and commencement of it, and shall infallibly have it in its consummation. “He will give grace and he will give glory.” Psal. lxxxiv. The first-fruits here ensure the inheritance hereafter. What Jehovah hath transferred in the bond of the covenant, he will never annul or revoke; because “two immutable things,” the promise and oath, “in which it was impossible for God to lie,” shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, and make their admission to glory a certainty in prospect, and, at last, in possession. Thus speaks in the language of sovereign authority the divine person who undertook to purchase, and claims the honour of conferring, eternal life upon his people, “I GIVE UNTO THEM ETERNAL LIFE, AND THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH.”