solutely bent to destroy, yet none can say that such an interposition would contradict any of the express engagements of God's word; whereas, to admit an unregenerate sinner into the regions of glory, would be violating not this or that single declaration, but the whole series and tenor of it; and we shall farther show, in the next discourse, that it would also be in effect altering the very nature of the heavenly kingdom itself, as well as its constitution. Now, what hope can be more desperate, than that which can have no support, but in the subversion of the Redeemer's kingdom, and even of the eternal throne of God, the foundations of which are righteousness and truth!

SERMON V.

OF THE INCAPACITY OF AN UNREGENERATE PERSON FOR RELISHING THE ENJOYMENTS OF THE HEAVENLY WORLD.

JOHN iii. 3.

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God."

In order to demonstrate the necessity of regeneration, of which I would fain convince, not only your understandings, but your consciences, I am now proving to you, that without it, it is impossible to enter into the kingdom of God; and how weighty a consideration that is, I am afterwards to represent.

That it is thus impossible, the words in the text do indeed sufficiently prove; but for the further illustration of the subject, I have proposed to consider it under two distinct views.

I have already shown it is impossible, because 6 the constitution of the kingdom of heaven is such, that God has solemnly declared, and this under different dispensations, and more or less plainly in all ages of his church, that no unregenerate person, that is, no impenitent sinner, shall have any part in it.' And I am now further to show,

(2.) That the nature of the future happiness,' which is here chiefly signified by the "kingdom of

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God," is such, that an unregenerate person would be incapable of relishing it, even upon a supposition of his being admitted into it.'

This is a thought of so great importance, and so seldom represented in its full strength, that I shall at present confine my discourse entirely to it.

I know, sinners, it will be one of the most difficult things in the world, to bring you to a serious persuasion of this truth. You think heaven is so lovely and so glorious a place, that if you could possibly get an admittance thither, you should certainly be happy. But I would now set myself, if possible, to convince you, that this is a rash and ill-grounded persuasion; and that, on the contrary, if you were now in the regions of glory, and in the society of those blessed inhabitants, that unrenewed nature, and unsanctified heart of yours, would give you a disrelish for all the sublimest entertainments of that blissful place, and turn heaven itself into a kind of hell to you.

Now, for the demonstration of this, it is only necessary for you seriously to consider, what a kind of happiness that of heaven is, as it is represented to us in the word of God;' for from thence, undoubtedly, we are to take our notions of it.

You might, to be sure, sit down and imagine a happiness to yourselves, which would perfectly suit your degenerate taste; a happiness which, the more entirely you were enslaved to flesh and sense, the more exquisitely you would be able to enter into it. If God would assign you a region in that beautiful world, where you should dwell in fine houses, magnificently furnished and gaily adorned, where the

most harmonious music should sooth your ear, and delicious food and generous wines, in a rich variety, should regale your taste; if he should give you a splendid retinue of people, to caress and attend you, offering you their humblest services, and acknowledging the most servile dependence upon your favour especially if with all this he should furnish you with a set of companions just of your own temper and disposition, with whom you might spend what proportion of time you pleased, in gaming and jollity, in riot and debauchery, without any interruption from the reproof, or even the example of the children of God, or from indispositions of body, or remorse of conscience. This you would be ready to call life and happiness indeed; and if the great disposer of all things were but to add perpetuity to such a situation, you would not envy persons of a more refined taste;-the heaven you lost for such a paradise as this.

Such indeed was the happiness which Mahomet promised to his followers: flowery shades and gay dresses, luxurious fare and beautiful women, are described, with all the pomp of language, in almost every page of his Koran, as the glorious and charming rewards which were to be bestowed on the faithful after the resurrection. And if this were the felicity which the gospel promised, extortioners and idolaters, whoremongers and drunkards, would be much fitter to inherit the kingdom of God, than the most pious and mortified saint that ever appeared on earth. But here, as almost every where else, the Bible and the Koran speak a very different language; and far from leading us into such gross

and sensual expectations, our Lord Jesus Christ has told us, that "the children of the resurrection neither marry nor are given in marriage; but are like the angels of God in heaven," and enjoy such pure and spiritual delights as are suited to such holy and excellent creatures.

It is true, that, in the book of Revelation, stately palaces and shining habits, delicious fruit and harmonious music, are all mentioned, as contributing to the happiness of those who have the honour to inhabit the New Jerusalem. But then, the style of that obscure and prophetical book naturally leads us to consider these merely as figurative phrases, which are made use of to express the happiness that divine wisdom and love has prepared for the righteous, in a manner accommodated to the weakness of our conceptions; or at least, if in any of these respects provision be made for the entertainment of a glorified body, whatever its methods of sensation and perception may be, all will be temperate and regular; and, after all, this is even there represented but as the least considerable part of our happiness, the height of which is made to consist in the most elevated strains of devotion, and in an entire and everlasting devotedness to the service of God and of the Lamb.

Let us therefore immediately proceed to settle the point in question, by a more particular survey of the several branches of the celestial felicity, as represented to us in the word of God; and from thence it will undeniably appear, that were an unregenerate soul in the same place with the blessed, and surrounded with the same external circumstances,