the other perfections of his nature. Whenever we place in in a view incongruous with the other perfections of the Supreme Being, we make it inconsistent with itself. Now this is done, when it is applied to one class of sinners. I repeat it again, it is this, that fills up the bad man's measure of despair.

Miserable wretch! how canst thou be saved, if the fountain opened to the house of David be shut against thee? if that love, which created the world, if that love, which inclined the Son of God, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person,) to clothe himself with mortal flesh, and to expire on a cross; if this love be not sufficient to save thee, if this love be slighted by thee, by what means must thou be wrought on, or in what way must thou be saved? And if the Redeemer of the world condemn thee, to what judge canst thou flee for absolution?

Let us, my dear brethren, incessantly revolve in our minds these ideas of death and judgment. Let us use them to calm those excessive fears, which the necessity of dying, and being judged, sometimes excites in our souls.

But excessive fear is not the usual sin of this congregation. Our usual sins are indolence, carnal security, sleeping life away on the brink of an abyss, flames above our heads, and hell beneath our feet.

Let us quit this miserable station. Happy is the man that feareth alway! Prov. xxviii. 14. Happy the man, who in every temptation, by which he is annoyed, in a world where all things seem to conspire to involve us in endless destruction: happy the man, who in all his trials knows how to derive consolation from this seemingly terrible truth, It is appointed unto men once to die; but after this the judgment! To God be honour and glory for ever, Amen,

VOL. III.

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SERMON

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SERMON XII.

HEAVEN.

I JOHN iii. 2.

We know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

ONE of the most beautiful ideas, that can be formed of

the gospel, is that, which represents it as imparting to a christian the attributes of God. St. Peter, and St. Paul, both express themselves in a manner truly sublime and emphatical on this subject. The first of these holy men says, the end of the promises of God is to make us partakers of the divine nature, 2 Epist. i. 4. The second assures us, that all christians, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, 2 Cor. iii. 18. If we believe some critics, the original terms may be rendered, we all become as mirrors. A mirror, placed over against a luminous object, reflects its rays, and returns its image. This is agreeable to christian experience under the gospel. Good men, attentive to the divine attributes, bowing, like the seraphims, toward the mystical ark, placed opposite to the Supreme Being, meet with nothing to intercept his rays; and, reflecting in their turn this light by imitating the moral attributes of God, they become as so many mirrors, exhibiting in themselves the objects of their own contemplation. Thus God, by an effect of his adorable condescension, after having clothed himself with our flesh and blood, after having been made in the likeness of men, Phil. ii. 7. in the establishment of the gospel, transforms this flesh and blood into a likeness of himself. Such is the sublimity and glory of the christian religion! We are partakers of the divine nature; we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the

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Lord.

Lord. My brethren, we have often repeated a famous maxim of the schools, and we adopt it now, Grace is glory begun. One of the most beautiful ideas, that we can form of that ineffable glory, which God reserves for us in heaven, is that, which the sacred authors give us of christianity, that is, that we shall participate the divine attributes. Heaven and the church, the christian in a state of grace, and the christian in a state of glory, differ only in degree. All the difference between the two changes is, that the first, I mean a christian in a state of grace, retains the imperfection, which is essential to this life, whereas the other, I mean the christian in a state of glory, is perfect in his kind, so that both are changed into the image of the Deity as far as creatures in their conditions are capable of being so.

This is the difficult, but interesting subject, which we are now going to discuss. We are going to inquire into the question so famous, I dare not say so developed, in the schools, concerning the beatific vision of God. We will endeavour to explain how we see God in heaven, and how this happy vision will render us like him, who will be the object of it. St. John supplies us with these images. He displays the happiness of christians thus. Behold, says he, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. But, while he passes encomiums on the mercy of God, he observes, that we have only yet enjoyed foretastes of it; we know, adds he, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Our text has two senses; the first regards the human nature of Jesus Christ, and the second the Deity. The first of these senses is very easy and natural; when the Son of God shall appear, we shall see him as he is; that is to say, when Jesus Christ shall come to judge mankind, we shall see his glorified body. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that is, our bodies, having acquired at the resurrection the properties of glorified bodies, like that of Jesus Christ, shall have the faculty of contemplating his body. This sense deserves examination.

We have no distinct idea of what scripture calls a glorious body, Phil. iii. 21. The most abstruse metaphysics, the most profound erudition, and the most sublime theology cannot enable us fully to explain this famous passage of St. Paul; There are celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial

is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is soren in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body, 1 Cor. xv. 40--44.

But how difficult soever this passage may be, we know by experience, there are bodies, to which our senses bear no proportion; and, if I may be allowed to speak in this manner, there are bodies inapprehensible by our faculty of secing. There is no proportion between my eyes and bodies extremely small. My faculty of seeing does not extend to a mite; a mite is a non-entity to my eye. There is no proportion between my eyes and bodies which have not a certain degree of consistence. My seeing faculty does not extend to an arial body; an ærial body is a mere non-entity in regard to my sight. There is very little proportion between my eyes and bodies extraordinarily rapid. My faculty of seeing does not extend to objects moving at a certain rate; a body must move so slow as to make a kind of rest before

my

eye in order to be perceived by it; and, as soon as a greater force communicates a quicker motion to it, it recedes, diminishes, disappears. But were the faculties of my body proportioned to these objects; had my body qualities similar to theirs; I should then be able to see them; I should see them as they are, for I should be like them.

Let us apply these general reflections to our subject. There may be perhaps no proportion between our bodies in their present earthly state and what the scripture calls glorious bodies. Our faculty of seeing perhaps may not extend to glorious bodies. Were the gross terrestrial bodies, to which our souls are united, all on a sudden translated to that mansion of glory, in which the bodies of Enoch and Elias wait for the consummation of all things, probably we might not be able to see them clearly, and perhaps we might be quite blinded with the glory of them. The reasons just now mentioned may account for what we suppose; as any, who have habituated themselves to reflection, may easily comprehend. But, when our bodies shall be changed, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, 1 Cor. xv. 51-54. in a word, when our bodies shall have the same faculties as the glorious body of Jesus Christ, we shall see him as he is, for,

we