O how should we live! how should we act! how should we speak! how should we worship! if this were always upon our hearts? O that we could but realize these awful things to our minds, and make them more familiar to our thoughts daily! Could sinners then be one day contented without converting grace, and without a justifying righteousness? Could they any longer refuse the mercy of the gospel, and Jesus the Saviour? Could they be satisfied to appear all guilty before God, and no friend there to speak for them? no intercessor to plead for them? none to undertake their cause? Could they go on to sin with a negligent mind, if they thought the judgment-door just opening upon them, and Jesus Christ at hand? Could it be possible we should have such cold and lazy desires after a Saviour and his salvation, if we thought our everlasting happiness or misery depended upon the next day, the next hour, or the next moment? For we know not how soon the summons may come, and state us before his tribunal. II. The _second_ part of my discourse leads me to consider the blessed difference that there shall be between a christian’s appearing before God in heaven, and his appearance here in divine ordinances before God on earth? and by a comparison of these two, may the Spirit of God awaken our faith, our hope, our love, and our joy, and all join to promote our sanctification! The differences then between our standing before God in worship now, and our worshipping before God in heaven, are such as these: 1. Now the true christian appears in a mixed assembly of saints and sinners: there the assembly is all holy, and not one sinner amongst them. Here sincere souls and hypocrites meet together in worship; there the hypocrite is for ever banished. In the houses of God on earth, the wicked Canaanites will mingle with the children of Israel; but in his temple in heaven, every one is an Israelite indeed; _There shall no more be found a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts_; Zech. xiv. 21. The children of God here, are under a veil of infirm and sinful flesh, and in the likeness of sinners; there they are unveiled and acknowledged to be _the sons and daughters of the Almighty_; 1 John iii. 1, 2. _Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God! But the world knows us not_; nay, we are not at many times known to ourselves; but when he comes whom we have trusted, then we shall be known and distinguished from the world, as God’s only begotten Son; and we shall be known and distinguished as the children of God, all related and a-kin to him:—_When he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is_; 1 John iii. 2. and shall sufficiently be distinguished from all who belong not to Christ.