conftituted of these perfections. And fo far as we imitate God in thefe, we are partakers of a divine nature; we dwell in God, and God in us. So our Apoftle tells us in the 4th chapter, verse 16. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. Thefe divine qualities make us fit company for our hea venly Father, and capable of the joys of heaven, and the delights of that glorious place.

And the contrary temper and difpofition is the nature of the devil, and the very thing which makes it impoffible for him to be happy. Malice, and envy, and revenge, are unquiet paffions; and in what nature foever they are, they are as vexatious and tormentful to itself, as they are troublesome and mischievous to others. These are a hell within us, and are as natural causes of misery, as bodily diseases are of pain and restlessness ; and while thefe furies are in us, nothing without us can make us happy.

The capacity and foundation of all felicity must be laid in the inward frame of our minds, in a god-like temper and difpofition. Till the image of his holiness and goodnefs, which hath been defaced by fin, be renewed upon our minds, we are utterly incapable of the enjoyment of the firft and chief good, in which all our felicity does confift.

And thus you fee what a neceffary connexion there is between our likeness and conformity God, and the bleffed vifion and enjoyment of him. All that now remains, is to draw fome inferences from what hath been difcourfed upon this argument, and so I fhall conclude.

I. This fhews us, how impoffible it is to reconcile a wicked life with the hopes of heaven. The terms of our happiness are firmly and immutably fixed, like the foundation of the earth: which cannot be moved; nay, fooner may heaven and earth pass away, than a wicked man enter into the kingdom of heaven. If we continue in a finful and impenitent ftate, we muft neceffarily come fhort of the glory of God. And therefore all thofe devices which men have found out, to excufe themselves from a holy life, and yet to maintain hopes of getting to heaven at last, are but foolish arts of fecurity, and tricks to undo our

felves quietly, and without any great disturbance. Some think to be faved by an external profeffion of religion, though it have no force and efficacy upon their lives: fome by being of the only true church wherein falvation is to be had: and yet, if it were true, that there were any one party or community of Chriftians, out of which there were no falvation, I am fure this likewife is true, that there is no church wherein a wicked man can be faved.

Others rely upon abfolutions and indulgences, and hope, notwithstanding all the unrighteoufnefs and ungod linefs of their lives, to do their bufinefs at last that way. But can any man be fo foolish, as to think that any church or priest can forgive a man upon other terms, than thofe upon which only God hath declared he will forgive finners?

Others hope to be faved by the righteousness of Christ, without any of their own. But what a prefumption is this, to think that any thing that Chrift hath done for us, will avail us, while we cherish our lufts, and live in the contempt of his laws? Let no man deceive you; he that doth righteoufnefs, is righteous, even as he is righteous. The righteoufnefs of Chrift fhall never be imputed to any for their juftification, but those who are fanctified by the renewing of the Holy Ghoft.

So that nothing can be vainer than a wicked man's hopes of heaven. The whole defign of the gofpel is, to convince men, that blessedness belongs only to the righteous, and that no man that allows himself in any wickednefs and impiety of life, fhall have any inheritance in the kingdom of God and Chrift.

II. The confideration of the indifpenfible neceffity of our likeness and conformity to God in holiness and purity, to make us capable of the happiness of the next life, calls loudly upon us, to endeavour after it in this life. So it follows in the words immediately after the text, we shall be like him, for we shall fee him as he is and every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himfelf even as he is pure. It is true, indeed, nothing but perfect holiness makes us capable of the enjoyment of God, and we cannot be perfectly holy in this life. But then we are to confider, that if we do not purify our

felves in fome measure in this world, if we do not begin this work here, it will never be perfected hereafter; fuch difpofitions as we carry with us out of this world, ftick by us for ever. Indeed if they be good, the degree of them fhall be perfected; but if they be bad, they fhall never be altered. If the image of God be renewed upon us in this life, we shall be changed from glory to glory, in the other, by the fpirit of the Lord. But if we be utterly unlike God when we die, death will make no change in us for the better; we shall go to our place, and inherit the portion of finners. We did not endeavour to be like God, and therefore we can never be admitted to the bleffed fight and enjoyment of him; for there is a direct and eternal oppofition between the holy nature of God, and an impure creature; and till this oppofition be removed, we can have no communion with him. And it is too late to take away this oppofition between God ́and an impure foul in the other world; because our condition is then concluded, and we shall remain for ever fuch as we have made ourselves, while we were in this world.

Now is the time, this is the day of falvation. Now we may repent and leave our fins, and purify ourselves; and by purity make ourselves like to God, and by our likeness to him render our fouls capable of being admitted to the bleffed fight of him, in whofe prefence is fulnefs of joy, and at whofe right-hand are pleafures for ever

more.

So that we ought to refolve upon one of these two things; either to give over all thoughts of happiness in another world; or to qualify ourselves for it, by purifying ourselves, as God is pure: for till we are like God, we are not capable of enjoying him. While we live in ungodlinefs, and worldly lufts, we are as unlike God as is poffible; and there are but two ways imaginable, whereby to bring a conformity and likeness between God and us, either by changing God or ourfelves. Now the nature of God is fixed and immutable, he cannot recede from his holy nature; therefore we muft leave our fins. It is certain we cannot change God; therefore we muft endeavour to change ourselves. Rather think of purifyVOL. VIII.

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ing thy corrupt nature, which may be done; than of making any alteration in God, with whom is no variablenefs, nor fhadow of turning.

Once God hath condefcended fo far, as to take our nature upon him, to bring us to a participation of his own divine nature, and make us capable of happiness: but if this will not do, we must not expect that God will his own nature to make us happy.

SERMON CLXXXVII.

Preached at WHITEHALL, 1686.

put off

The wisdom of religion juftified in the different ends of good and bad men.

PROV. xiv. 32.

The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the rightecus hath hope in his death.

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Olomon, all along this book of the Proverbs, doth recommend to us religion, and the fear of God,

by the name, and under the notion of wifdom, Chap. i. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Chap. ix. 10. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is underftanding.

Hereby fignifying to us, that religion is the fundamen- ̈ tal principle of wifdom, by which our whole life, and all the actions of it, ought to be conducted and governed; and that all wisdom which doth not begin here, and lay religion for a foundation, and which doth not act upon fuppofition of the truth of the principles of religion, viz. the belief of a God, and his providence, of the immortality of our fouls, and the rewards and punishments. of another life, is but wisdom falfly fo called; because

is prepofterous, and begins at the wrong end, and proceeds upon a falfe fuppofition, and wrong fcheme of

things;

things; and confequently our whole life, and all the actions and defigns of it, do run upon a perpetual mistake, and falfe ftatings of our own cafe; and whatever we do purfuant to this mistake, is foolish in itself, and will be fatal in the iffue and confequence of it.

For he that takes it for granted that there is no God, and that the world is not governed by the providence of any fuperior being, but by chance; that his foul dies with his body, and that there is no life after this: He that proceeds upou thefe principles, is free from all fetters and obligations of confcience, and hath no reafon to regard any rule of right and justice, of virtue and goodness, further than they conduce to his own eafe and pleasure, his convenience and fafety in this world ; he hath nothing to do, but to contrive his own prefent hap pinefs, and to live as long as he can; and because he knows he must die, to compofe himself to undergo it as contentedly, and to bear the pain of it as chearfully, and patiently, and to act this laft part as decently as he can, being fecured by his own principles againft all future mifery and danger, because death makes an utter end of him.

This is a very confiftent theory, and hath but one fault, that it is not true at the bottom, and will fail us when we come to lay our whole weight upon it. It is juft as the prophet defcribes the staff of the broken reed of Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. Such are the principles of infidelity, to all that truft in them; when they fhould ftand us in moft ftead, and when we come to lean hard upon them, they will not only fail us, but go into our very heart, and pierce it with fharp pain and anguish. In the days of our health and profperity, the fpirit of a man may bear up itself by its own natural force and ftrength; and falfe principles are like anticks in a building, which feem to crouch under the weight of an arch, as if they bore it up, when in truth they are borne up by it. But when thefe men fall into any great calamity, or death makes towards them in good earneft, then is the trial of these principles, of what ftrength they are, and what weight they will bear; and we commonly fee, that they do not

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