most deadly poison in your breasts, which has already proved destructive to countless thousands of your fellow-creatures? What is this, but wantonly to sport with the destroyer, whose arm is lifted strike the fatal blow?

up to

Go, and ask those hapless beings, who inhabit the regions of despair, the cause of their inexpressible sorrow. With one accord, they proclaim, that the indulgence of sinful desires has placed them at such an awful distance from God, and excited his fury against them.

Hear, then, ye "careless ones," who are at ease in your sins, how condemned spirits call to you with a loud voice from the depths of hell, and solemnly warn you to forsake your evil courses immediately, lest "iniquity should prove your ruin!" And will you disregard their salutary admonitions? Will not their torments dissuade you from vice? Can you deliberately wish to partake of their sorrrws? Surely not! for the very thought of it is sufficient to startle you.

12. Be wise then, and shun the paths of folly. Detest sin, in whatever shape it may present itself to your imagination; for there is a curse, and not a blessing in it. Be ready, at the invitation of your Saviour, to sacrifice, without delay, those darling lusts and pleasures, which, though they may now be as dear to you as the most valuable members of your bodies, will, if retained, occasion your inevitable destruction. "If thy band offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two

eyes to be cast into hell-fire, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched”.”

Indeed, there is no possibility of escaping this doom, but by unfeigned contrition for past iniquities, a lively faith in Christ, and a real amendment of life. This is the method prescribed by God himself, for the recovery of his lost favour." Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart, and a new spirit: for why will ye die "z?"

A habit of righteousness, produced by faith in Christ, will admit you to that perfect state of felicity, which excludes suffering and torments, and secures joy and immortality, as your unfailing portion.

* Mat. xviii. 8, 9. Mark ix. 43-48.

zz Ezek. xviii. 31.

LECTURE XXXV.

ON GLORIFICATION, OR THE HAPPINESS OF SAINTS IN
HEAVEN.

Psalm xvi. 11. In Thy presence is fulness of joy: at thy righthand there are pleasures for evermore.

PIOUS men, being called to the service of God by his Spirit, sanctified by his grace, improved by a course of religious discipline; and being, by such means, fitted for the enjoyments of a superior state; will, agreeably to the Divine promise, be transported, after death, to heaven, to enjoy its bliss for ever. At the consummation of all things, Christ will say to the whole body of the Faithful, collectively, and to each one of them separately, "Coine ye blessed (children) of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!"

a Mat. xxv. 34.

But how immensely great, and how exquisitely glorious, that happiness is which awaits them, no tongue can fully express, or imagination depict! Christians! all we can do, is, to present you with a rough unfinished draught of celestial glory, which you will be able to fill up and complete in heaven: for, in order to form just conceptions on such a subject, we ought to possess an exact knowledge of it, which they only can acquire whose happy lot it will be to inherit heaven for ever and ever.

Let us, however, admire the condescending goodness of the Lord, who has revealed enough, concerning the bliss of that state, to stimulate every reasonable being to use the most unremitting efforts to obtain it. And it is certain, that in proportion as we are rightly influenced by the representations given of it in the Scriptures, we shall be diligent in seeking an acquaintance with it, accounting the gain and enjoyment of heaven the highest felicity to which a finite being can arrive, and the deprivation of it the greatest and most intolerable punishment and loss we can suffer: "For, what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

In discussing this subject, I shall abstain from speculation, and offer only those remarks upon it which Revelation warrants.

1. We are authorised to affirm, that the happiness of the heavenly world is altogether spiritual. The bliss of heaven does not consist in the gross sensual enjoyments promised by Mahomet to his deluded votaries; nor of the ideal pleasures of the fabled Elysium of the Poets; which are more suited to the taste of a vicious carnal mind, than to give satisfacMark viii. 36, 37.

tion to souls panting after a glorious immortality. In the realms of light and peace and holiness above, there will be nothing to feast a lascivious eye, to gratify corrupt passions, or to minister any delight to a wicked heart. "The kingdom of God," St. Paul assures us," is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." There will be, however, in those blessed abodes, constant sources of gratification for the righteous; even pure, holy, intellectual pleasures, flowing from the favour and knowledge of God, whose presence diffuses complete happiness and the fulness of joy amongst all the countless multitudes of heaven. "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.'

d

2. The bliss of the eternal world is perfect, both in its nature and degree. The perfection of heavenly glory arises from the absence of evil, and the presence of the most exalted and satisfying good: "There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest. None of those ills and sorrows which disorder this chequered scene, and embitter our existence in this vale of tears, can follow us to the regions of blessedness. Sin, which has been the fruitful cause of all the sufferings to which man is heir, can have no entrance there; otherwise it would mar the felicity of heaven, and convert its joys into mourning and woe. But God has determined that neither the cause nor the effects of moral evil shall have any existence in the glorified state; and, consequently, that there his favoured people shall be placed beyond the reach of grief, pain, disease, vexation, or any of those troubles which molest or disturb d Isa. xxxv. 10. • Job fii. 17.

• Rom. xiv. 17.

them whilst they sojourn here. "God hath prepared for them a city," in which he has decreed, "there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him; and they shall see his face."

The joys of heaven, then, will require nothing to render them more complete; so that they will be capable of imparting the most exquisite delight, and of gratifying the most enlarged wishes of a regenerate soul; which, being there in its proper element, and absorbed in the boundless enjoyment of God, will be filled with wonder, love, and gratitude, whilst it beholds the effulgence of his glory, and receives that beatific smile with which he will favour his obedient Children, who will then enjoy a display of affection infinitely surpassing, both in kind and degree, the warmest tokens of regard shewn by an earthly parent to his beloved offspring.

The completeness of that glory and honour and immortality and eternal life, which is provided for the saints, is thus described in the language of inspiration, language in which there is a grandeur of thought, and extent of meaning, which no human conception can reach. "Oh, how great is Thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!" ચૂંટ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." "In Thy presence is fulness of joy; and at Thy right-hand there are pleasures for evermore." From hence we learn, that good unmixed with evil, and felicity unalloyed, and unembittered with the miseries incident to the present imperfect state, will be the final portion of the righteous.

'Rev. xii. 3, 4. Ps. xxx. 19.

1 Cor. ii. 9. Ps. xvi. 11.