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been detailed as an arquittal given upon our being found commensurate with the demands of law and conscience,then there would have been ground for that most fatal of all errors, that we are to win heaven by right. Or had our account been stated with its deficiencies, and balanced out of Christ's merits-then the next ruinous error, that we go joint with the Saviour in the matter of heaven, would have been generated. But being made to turn upon six evidences of affection and attachment, as if that alone were necessary to be ascertained-it is made for ever manifest, that hope of acquittal must be held exactly in proportion to our union with Christ, with which degree of union we showed that our degree of obedience or law keeping was exactly commensurate. So that obedience, largest, strictest obedience is insured, while the way to it, the only way to it, is pointed out, and the two false ways to it for ever barred to all who will see truth and understand knowledge.

With this remark, which we conceive not only most necessary to complete the argument, but in itself the most important that hath been made from the very commencement of the discourse, we pass on forthwith to that awful subject which stands as the title of this part, the Issues of the Judgment. From which we would shrink back utterly dismayed, were we not convinced that something must be said and done to present these subjects before the Court of human reason, else the blasphemers of this day, who make reason their stalking-horse, to come over the credulity of men, will utterly dislodge both the faith and the reverence of future things from the common breast, so that a new plantation of religion among the common people will in a few years be necessary. For, with all the exertions making in this day for religion's sake, at home and abroad, accompanied with the demonstration of much success, I am satisfied that religion is retrograding in many quarters. The enemy is strengthening also, if Christ be strengthening. There is a mustering, as it were, of both hosts, a gathering to the conflict. The enemy hath written Reason on his recruiting standard; and we would also write Reason upon the Christian staudard, not only for the purpose of defeating his malicious aspersions, but for the justification of the truth, which we conceive to be this-That our religion doth not denounce the rational or intellectual man, but addeth thereto the spiritual man, and that the latter flourishes the more nobly under the fostering hand of the former.

I enter, therefore, into the unseen worlds which shall be

built up for the habitations of the righteous and the wicked, in a cool reasonable spirit, invoking the help of God to guide my steps; and whosoever will accompany me, I pray to do the same, and not to resign himself to the guidance of my judgment, which is hardly able to guide myself. Upon the nature of these two several estates it is not easy to speak correctly; and a great deal of mischief has arisen from inconsiderate interpretations of the language of Scripture. Of how many light-witted men, unto this day, is the constant psalm-singing of heaven a theme of scorn; the fire and brimstone of hell, a theme of derision. And on the other hand, by how many zealous but injudicious ministers of the Gospel are they the themes of rhapsodies, which end in nothing but the tedium and disgust of those who hear. Now these two, amongst many others, are but emblems or signs, to represent the nature of our feelings in these several states of being, implying no more the existence of instrumental music or of material fire, than the name New Jerusalem implies that the righteous are to dwell in a city, or the name pit and lake of fire imply that the wicked are to swim for ever in a dark, deep abyss of spiry flames. Glorious bodies are not restored to the righteous only to strike a harp, nor imperishable bodies to the wicked only to suffer and not die. To the righteous they are given to renew the connexion between spirit and matter, which is productive even in this fallen world of such exquisite delight; and in order to meet the nicer capacities of these new-formed organs, a new world is created, fair as the sun, beautiful as the moon, fresh and verdant as the garden of Eden. And around this new habitation of the righteous is thrown a wall like the chrystal wall of heaven itself, within which nothing shall enter to hurt or to defile. There shall be no sickness nor sorrow of countenance, and there shall be no more death. There shall be no more stormy passion, with its troublous calm of overspent rage, and its long wreck of ruin and havoc, which no time can repair. No wars, nor rumours of wars, and bloodshed shall never again spot the bosom of the ground; and rivalry shall no longer trouble friendship, nor jealousy love; nor shall ambition divide states, which, be they commonwealths or royal sovereignties, will dwell in untroubled peace. The cares of life shall no longer agitate the bosom, and the reverses of life be for ever unknown. Hunger and thirst shall no longer be felt, and the heat of the sun shall not smite by day, nor the moon by night.

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Yet shall the happy creatures have enough to do, and to enjoy, though there be no misery to comfort, nor evil to stem, nor grief over whose departure to rejoice. Of how many cheap, exquisite joys are these five senses the inlets! and who is he that can look upon the beautiful scenes of the morning, lying in the freshness of the dew, and the joyful light of the risen sun, and not be happy? Cannot God create another world many times more fair? and cast over it a mantle of light many times more lovely? and wash it with purer dew than ever dropped from the eyelids of the morning? Can he not shut up winter in his hoary caverns, or send him howling over another domain? Can he not form the chrystal eye more full of sweet sensations, and fill the soul with a richer faculty of conversing with nature, than the most gifted poet did ever possess? Think you the creative function of God is exhausted upon this dark and troublous ball of earth? or that this body and soul of human nature are the master-piece of his architecture? Who knows what new enchantment of melody, what new witchery of speech, what poetry of conception, what variety of design, and what brilliancy of execution, he may endow the human faculties withal-in what new graces he may clothe nature, with such various enchantment of hill and dale, woodland, rushing streams, and living fountains; with bowers of bliss and sabbath-scenes of peace, and a thousand forms of disporting creatures, so as to make all the world hath beheld, to seem like the gross picture with which you catch infants; and to make the eastern tale of romances, and the most rapt imagination of eastern poets like the ignorant prattle and rude structures which first delight the nursery and afterwards ashame our riper years.

Again, from our present establishment of affections, what exquisite enjoyment springs, of love, of friendship, and of domestic life. For each one of which God, amidst this world's faded glories, hath preserved many a temple of most exquisite delight. Home, that word of nameless charms; love, that inexhaustible theme of sentiment and poetry; all relationships, parental, conjugal, and filial, shall arise to a new strength, graced with innocency, undisturbed by apprehension of decay, unruffled by jealousy, and unweakened by time. Heart shall meet heart-

"Each other's pillow to repose divine."

The tongue shall be eloquent to disclose all its burning emotions, no longer labouring and panting for utterance.

And a new organization of body for joining and mixing af fections may be invented, more quiet homes for partaking it undisturbed, and more sequestered retreats for barring out the invasion of other affairs. Oh! what scenes of social life I fancy to myself in the settlements of the blessed, one day of which I would not barter against the greatness and glory of an Alexander or a Cæsar. What new friendships -what new connubial ties-what urgency of well-doingwhat promotion of good-what elevation of the whole. sphere in which we dwell! till every thing smile in " Eden's first bloom," and the angels of light, as they come and go, tarry with innocent rapture over the enjoyment of every happy fair. Ah! they will come, but with no weak sinfulness like those three lately sung of by no holy tongue; they will come to creatures sinless as themselves, and help forward the mirth and rejoicing of all the people. And the Lord God himself shall walk amongst us, as he did of old in the midst of the garden. His spirit shall be in us, and all heaven shall be revealed upon us.

God only knows what great powers he hath of creating happiness and joy. For, this world your sceptic poets make such idolatry of, 'tis a waste-howling wilderness compared with what the Lord our God shall furnish out. That city of our God and the Lamb, whose stream was crystal, whose wall was jasper, and her buildings molten gold, whose twelve gates were each a silvery pearl-doth not so far outshine those dingy, smoky, clayey dwellings of men, as shall that new earth outshine the fairest region which the sun hath ever beheld in his circuit since the birth of time.

But there is a depraved taste in man, which delights in strife and struggle; a fellness of spirit, which joys in fire and sword; and a serpent mockery, which cannot look upon innocent peace without a smile of scorn, or a ravenous lust to marr it. And out of this fund of bitterness come forth those epithets of derision which they pour upon the innocent images of heaven. They laugh at the celebration of the Almighty's praise as a heartless service-not understanding that which they make themselves merry withal. The harp which the righteous tune in heaven, is their heart full of glad and harmonious emotions. The song which they sing, is the knowledge of things which the soul coveteth after now, but faintly perceiveth. The troubled fountain of human understanding hath become clear as crystal, they know even as they are known. Wherever they look abroad, they perceive wisdom and glory-within, they feel order and

happiness-in every countenance they read benignity and love. God is glorified in all his outward works, and inthron ed in the inward parts of every living thing; and man, being ravished with the constant picture of beauty and contentment, possessed with a constant sense of felicity, utters forth his Maker's praise, or if he utters not, museth it with expressive silence.

These light and ignorant wits laugh likewise at the pastoral innocency of heaven, at its peacefulness and quiet, and would transport amongst its bowers the bad activity and molestation of evil pursuits which make so large a share of their enjoyments here below. They want ambition to stir up the sluggish soul, and pride to reward it. They want emulation, and envy, and contention, to set the spirit on edge, and triumphs and conquests to compose it again, with all the play of earthly bustle and activity. Vain sons of Belial! they understand not the nature even of present happiness, their wicked hearts misleading them from the truth. These turbulent affections constitute not the enjoyment of the present life, but its misery. Ambition is a curse to him who indulges it, racking his bosom and wrecking his peace, causing him to trample upon the necks of many, to forget sacred promises, to deceive, to flatter, to fawn, the successful leading to self-willedness and cruelty, the unsuccessful sinking into the lowest sink of shame. Contention, strife, and war, are incarnate demons, setting chiefest friends asunder, entering innocent homes, marring rural festivity, and drawing over the beauty of the earth the waste and havoc and sulphurous canopy of hell. There is a yearning in the bosom of man after quietness and peace; safety and security are the two guardians of his welfare; gratitude and affection the two nurses of his happiness. Truth and innocency are the light of his soul; falsehood and deception its dubious twilight. It is a base satire on human nature to say, that without strife, contention, and dividing pride, she cannot be happy or great; and that bustle and restlessness are the elements in which she thrives. When are kingdoms happy and prosperous! when they have peaceful times, and worthy governors. Who are the great discoverers and sages of their species? those who have consorted with meditation alone, and lived remote from contentious scenes. What do your men of business labour for? To rest in old age and be at peace. What girds you with resolution to go through your daily toils? The peaceful happy home and family to whose bosom you retire at eventide. What is this, then,

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