their conduct is before him; a solemn, judicial testimony; a testimony of action, the surest interpreter of the thoughts. In the present case, it would be the highest and most solemn of all testimonies, because he would bestow on them the greatest of all rewards, the blessings of heaven.

If then he did not feel this approbation, he would, in the case supposed, declare the grossest possible falsehood to the universe; viz. that impenitent sinners merited the highest rewards which it was in his power to bestow. He would declare that such sinners deserved the same proofs of his favour as his obedient children, and were therefore of the same character; that rebels were faithful subjects; that enemies were friends; and that, although he had heretofore denounced them as subjects of his wrath, they were still the objects of his infinite complacency. This would be no other than a final declaration on his part, that right and wrong, holiness and sin, were the same things; that his law, and the government founded on it, were introduced to no purpose, unless to excite wonder and fear in his intelligent creatures, that the redemption of Christ was accomplished to no end; and that all the divine conduct, solemn, awful, and sublime as it has appeared, was wholly destitute of any object, and really of no importance in the view of the infinite mind.

2. This change of heart is absolutely necessary for the sinner himself, in order to make him capable of the happiness of heaven.

Heaven is the seat of supreme and unmingled happiness; of enjoyment, solid, sincere, and eternal. The foundation on which, so far as creatures are concerned, this happiness ultimately rests, is their holy or virtuous character. All their affections, all their pursuits, all their enjoyments, are virtuous without a mixture. Hence heaven is called the high and holy place; and, from the dispensations of God towards these unspotted beings, is termed the habitation of his holiness.' With such companions a sinner could not accord, such affections he could not exercise, in such pursuits he could not unite, in such enjoyments he could not share. This is easily and familiarly demonstrated. Sinners do not love virtuous persons here, exercise no virtuous affections, engage in no virtuous pursuits, and relish no virtuous enjoyments. Sinners in the present world love not God, trust not in the Re

deemer, delight not in Christians, and regard neither the law of God nor the Gospel of his Son with complacency of heart. Sinners in this world find no pleasure in the Sabbath, nor in the sanctuary, and never cordially unite either in the prayers or the praises then and there offered up to their Maker.

How then could sinners find happiness in heaven? That glorious world is one vast sanctuary, and the endless succession of ages which roll over its happy inhabitants are an everlasting Sabbath. Their great and commanding employment is unceasing and eternal worship. They rest not day nor night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who wast, who art, and who art to come!'

6

As the worship of God is uniformly burdensome to sinners here, the same worship must be at least equally burdensome to them there. Nay, it must be far more burdensome. The more holy, the more spiritual any thing is in this world, the more loathsome, the more painful is it to the mind of a sinner. But all the employments of heaven are super-eminently holy and spiritual. These then must be far more disgusting than any thing which religion, or its worship, can present to his view in the present world. In heaven therefore he would be far less happy than he is here. Every thing with which he was conversant would more oppose his taste, contravene his wishes, and disappoint his expectations. Nothing would give him pleasure; every thing would give him pain.

If then a sinner is to be admitted into heaven, it is absolutely necessary that he should have a new heart, a new disposition. Otherwise, it is plain that, amid all the blessings of that delightful world, he would find nothing but disgust, mortification, and sorrow.

3. Such a change is necessary for the sinner also, in order to his becoming a useful inhabitant of Heaven.

All the inhabitants of that happy world are formed to do good as well as to enjoy it. Their enjoyment itself is supremely the result of a disposition to do good, and of conduct in which this disposition is completely carried into efficacious practice. There is realized in the most absolute manner the whole nature of that perfect rule of righteousness delivered by our Saviour, that it is more blessed to give, than to receive;' to do good, than to gain it from others. Virtuous beings are

assembled here for the very purpose of exhibiting in their conduct, the divine nature and transcendent effects of this evangelical rule of righteousness; and from their united efforts flows in streams continually enlarging, universal, unceasing, immortal, and good.

The good here enjoyed is a common or public good; in which one great and general interest is proposed and pursued, and to which all private, personal interests are cheerfully subordinated. No selfish affection operates here; no selfish purpose exists. Every mind is expanded with affections all embracing the common interest. Every design is elevated to a happiness rendered noble and supreme, because it is universal. To this object every pulse beats, every heart thrills, every tongue vibrates. On it, as if magnetically influenced, every eye is fixed, to it every hand is turned.

But every sinner would feel that all these things were against him.' His affections are only selfish; and his designs concentre solely in private, separate ends, and in interests opposed to the general welfare. His only scheme of happiness also is to gain enjoyment from others, and never to find it in doing good to others. This is a subject of which, as a source of enjoyment, he forms not a single conception. All his plans for happiness are matters of mere bargain and sale, in every instance of which he intends to get the advantage of those with whom he deals. Good to him is good only when it is separate and selfish, and he knows not what it is to see his own happiness enlarged by the general participation.

In the great, commanding, and sole pursuit of the heavenly world a sinner would be unable to unite at all. Every wish of his heart must oppose the wishes and designs of all around him, and the great object for which heaven itself was formed by the Creator, which renders it delightful in his eye, and for which he has gathered into it the assembly of the first-born.' Of course, he would be alone, separated from his companions by a character totally opposite to theirs, hostile to them in all his wishes and pursuits, marked by them as an alien, despised as useless and worthless, pitied as miserable, and loathed as sinful!

Sin is the real and only cause of the wretchedness experienced in the present world, and the immediate as well as

the original cause of the woes experienced in the regions of perdition. Were sinners admitted into heaven, the same lust, fraud, and cruelty, the same injustice, oppression, and violence, in a word, the same wickedness and woe which prevail in this world, would revive in that. Of course, the whole system of happiness begun there, and intended to be carried on throughout eternity, would be either prevented or destroyed. That God should permit these evils to exist, is incredible, and in my view impossible.

4. It is absolutely necessary that this change should be accomplished in this present world.

The present state is to man the only state of probation. All beyond the grave is a state of reward. The reward ought plainly to be such as to suit the character of every probationer; a true testimony of God to his real character; a reward such as he has merited, and such as a righteous God may be expected to bestow. Of course, the testimony actually given must be a testimony to the character with which he leaves this world of probation, and with which he goes to the judgment.

Besides, man enters that world with the very same character with which he leaves this. Death makes no moral change in man, but is a mere passage from one state of being to another ; a mere dismission from this world to that, of the probationer from his probation. A simple termination of the animal functions, a mere separation of the soul from the body, plainly cannot alter the moral state of the soul, or change at all its views, affections, or character. Of this truth the Scriptures furnish abundant evidence. Do,' says Solomon,' whatever thy hand findeth to do with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in sheol, (the world of departed spirits,) whither thou goest.' The night cometh,' saith our Saviour, that is, the night of death,' in which no man can work.' Both these are direct declarations, that both the work and the state of probation are terminated by the grave, and will never exist in the future world. Accordingly, no change in the character of man, either in the article of death, or at any succeeding period of existence, is indicated in the Scriptures. Of course, every man will appear at the judgment with the very character which he has

when he leaves the present world; and in this character only will he be rewarded.

Accordingly the Scriptures teach us, that we shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body;' and 'rewarded according to our works,' accomplished on this side of the grave. It is plain then, that if men enter the future world without being regenerated in this, they enter with all their sins upon their heads, and must be rewarded for their sins only. But a reward for sin can never be happiness. If, then, sinners are to be admitted into heaven at all, they must undergo this great change of moral character here; of sinners must become holy; must cease from their rebellion and disobedience; must bow their wills to the will of God, and must yield themselves to him as voluntary instruments of his glory.

II. The reality of this change in man may be satisfactorily evinced in the following manner :

1. It is declared in the Scriptures.

6

Beside the evidence derived to the reality of regeneration from the absolute necessity of it to mankind, the Scriptures declare the existence of it in a great variety of forms. • Of his mercy he saved us,' says St. Paul, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us, of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.' To be sanctified is to be regenerated: and here it is declared, that Christ is become of God sanctification' to all his children. Ye have put off the old man with his deeds,' says St. Paul to the Colossians, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.' Put off,' says the same apostle to the Ephesians, the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness, and true holiness.' In these passages of Scripture we are plainly taught the following things:

(1.) That the natural character is considered by the apostle as differing from the regenerated, according to the full import of these two names, the old man,' and the new man.'

(2.) That the regenerated character is a new character.