to our own, though perhaps in all other refpects of the greatest worth and excellency. How then can we imagine that an ill-disposed foul, whofe converfation never reached to heaven, but whofe appetites and defires, to the laft hour, have groveled upon this unclean fpot of earth;-how can we imagine it should hereafter take pleasure in God, or be able to taste joy or fatisfaction from his presence, who is fo infinitely pure, that he even putteth no trust in his faints, nor are the heavens themfelves (as Job fays) clean in his fight.-The confideration of this has led fome writers fo far, as to fay, with fome degree of irreverence in the expreffion, that it was not in the power of God to make a wicked man happy, if the foul was separated from the body, with all its vicious habits and inclinations unreformed;which thought, a very able divine in our church has pursued fo far, as to declare his belief, that could the happiest mansion in heaven be fuppofed to be allotted to a grofs and polluted fpirit, it would be fo far from being happy in it, that it would do penance there to all eternity:-by which he meant, it

would carry fuch appetites along with it, for which there could be found no fuitable objects. -A fufficient caufe for conftant torment;for those that it found there, would be fo difproportioned, that they would rather vex and upbraid it, than fatisfy its wants.-This, it is true, is mere fpeculation,—and what concerns us not to know;-it being enough for our purpose, that fuch an experiment is never likely to be tried, that we stand upon different terms with God,-that a virtuous life is the foundation of all our happiness,-—that as God has no pleasure in wickedness, neither fhall any evil dwell with him;—and that, if we expect our happiness to be in heaven,—we must have our conversation in heaven, whilst upon earth,-make it the frequent fubject of our thoughts and meditations,-let every step we take tend that way,—every action of our lives be conducted by that great mark of the prize of our high-calling, forgetting those things which are behind;-forgetting this world,difengaging our thoughts and affections from it, and thereby transforming them to the likenefs of what we hope to be hereafter.-How can we expect the inheritance of the faints of light,

upon other terms than what they themselves obtained it?

Can that body expect to rife and shine in glory, that is a flave to luft, or dies in the fiery pursuit of an impure defire? Can that heart ever become the lightsome feat of peace and joy, that burns hot as an oven with anger, rage, envy, luft, and strife? full of wicked imaginations, fet only to devise and entertain evil?

Can that flesh appear in the laft day, and inherit the kingdom of heaven in the glorified ftrength of perpetual youth, that is now clearly confumed in intemperance,-finks in the furfeit of continual drunkenness and gluttony, and then tumbles into the grave, and almost pollutes the ground that is under it ?--Can we reasonably fuppofe, that head fhall ever wear or become the crown of righteousness and peace, in which dwells nothing but craft and avarice, deceit and fraud and treachery,which is always plodding upon worldly defigns, racked with ambition,-rent asunder with difcord,-ever delightful in mifchief to others, and unjuft advantages to itself?-Shall that tongue, which is the glory of a man when rightly directed,-be ever fet to God's heaven

ly praises, and warble forth the harmonies of the bleffed, that is now full of curfing and bitterness, backbiting and flander, under which is ungodliness and vanity and the poison of afps?

Can it enter into our hearts even to hope, that thofe hands can ever receive the reward of righteoufnefs, that are full of blood, laden with the wages of iniquity, of theft, rapin, violence, extortion, or other unlawful gain? or that those feet fhall ever be beautiful upon the mountains of light and joy, that were never fhod for the preparation of the gospel,that have run out of the way of God's word, -and made hafte only to do evil?-no furely. -In this fenfe,-he that is unjust, let him be unjuft ftill,—and he which is filthy, let him be filthy ftill.

How inconfiftent the whole body of fin is, with the glories of the celestial body that shall be revealed hereafter,-and that in proportion as we fix the representation of these glories upon our minds, and in the more numerous particulars we do it,-the ftronger the neceffity as well as perfuafion to deny ourselves all ungodlinefs and worldly lufts, to live foberly, righteoufly and godly in this present world,

as the only way to entitle us to that blessednefs fpoken of in the Revelations of those who do his commandments, and have a right to the tree of life, and fhall enter into the gates of the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerufalem, and to an innumerable company of angels;--to the general assembly and church of the first-born, that are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,—who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

May God give us grace to live under the perpetual influence of this expectation,—that by the habitual impreffion of these glories upon our imaginations, and the frequent fending forth our thoughts and employing them on the other world, we may difentangle them from this, and by fo having our converfation in heaven whilst we are here, we may be thought fit inhabitants for it hereafter;-that when God at the last day shall come with thousands and ten thousands of his faints to judge the world, we may enter with them into happinefs, and with angels and arch-angels, and all the company of heaven, we may praise and magnify his glorious name, and enjoy his prefence for ever. Amen.