From the observations already made, the happiness of the saints in the celestial regions is unquestionable; but for a more full illustration of it, we may consider that it will arise from the absence of all the causes of pain and sorrow, to the operation of which they are at present exposed; from the presence of the highest possible good, and from the certainty of the perpetual possession of it.

"There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.' Sin and suffering are connected as cause and effect. But all the inhabitants of heaven will be sinless, and consequently will no longer be subjected to those sufferings which are now the just punishment or chastisements of their offences, and are necessary to check their wayward dispositions, and to awaken them to repentance. There will be no disease, or pain of body, no anxiety of mind, no fear, no regret, no disappointment, no unsatisfied wishes, no restlessness and discontent, no seasons of melancholy and depression, no broken friendships, no envy and jealousy, no distressing sympathies, no separation. from those whom we love. Affliction, when it now passes over the mind, sometimes makes deep furrows, which time does not erase. But there will be no trace of past sorrows in the heart of the saints; no wounds still bleeding, or so slightly healed that a touch opens them again. Remembering all the evils which befell them in this sublunary state, all the sad scenes which they witnessed, all the losses which they sustained, all the agonies which they endured, their minds will be smooth and placid as the bosom of a lake when not an air breathes upon it. Reflection upon the past will serve only to heighten the contrast, and to give them a more lively feeling of their present enjoyments. Who can conceive the calm of the heavenly regions, where no tempest blows, and the sound of lamentation is never heard; where no qualms of conscience are felt, and not a transient thought disturbs the serenity of the soul; where every emotion and every reflection is delightful, and all within and without is bliss! They to whom death made this world a blank, and who went down into the grave mourning because they were bereaved, mourn no more, having found those whom they bewailed, or far better friends. They have no will but the will of God; and those whom he does not love, have ceased to be the objects of their regard. "God himself shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."t

But this is not the sole cause of their felicity. They are not only exempt from all evil, but are put in possession of the greatest possible good; and the good is not the perfection of their own nature, or the resources of their enlightened and holy minds, but God himself, who is their everlasting reward. The soul having wandered from him, finds no rest upon earth; nor would it find it in heaven, if he were not there. The happiness of man in paradise, was the favour of his maker; and this alone will be his happiness when he is recovered from the effects of the fall. How could he be happy in a state of separation from God? Can a tree live and flourish, when cut off from all communication with the elements which are appointed to nourish it? The rational creation, abandoned by him, would wither and die; like the vegetable creation, when the rain and dew of heaven are withheld. The wicked will be miserable, not so much on account of the place to which they are consigned, for the Divine favour could change a prison into a palace,—as because they will see God afar off, being banished from his gracious presence, and separated from him by an impassable gulf. It is the presence of God which makes heaven, the asylum of the saints, the seat of perfect joy. There they see him as he is, and hold communion with him, intimate, uninterrupted, and everlasting. Surely he who made the soul of man has access to it, and is able to • Rev. xxi. 4. † Rev. xxi. 4.

impress such a sense of his love as will fill it with ineffable satisfaction. The pleasure which we at present experience from pious meditation, or from the contemplation of nature, and the participation of the blessings which it supplies, is referrible to him as its Author; and shows us that he can make the faculties of our souls, and the organs of our bodies, vehicles of bliss. When he shall no longer withhold his hand, but pour out upon the objects of his favour blessings in profusion, their most ample desires will be gratified, and their highest expectations surpassed. If the saints upon earth triumph, because they can say, "The Lord is the portion of our inheritance;"* how much greater will be their exultation, when they know the full value of their portion, the boundless extent of their inheritance! God himself will be their God. He who is all fair and all good, to whom all perfection belongs, and of whose transcendent excellence this glorious universe is only a shadow, he will be theirs, and will bless them for ever; he will be all in all, around them and within them, the light of their understandings, the joy of their hearts, the object of their perpetual praise.

Let it be observed once more, that this felicity will be heightened by the knowledge that it is everlasting. In heaven there is no apprehension of evil, which disturbs our best hours upon earth, and is excited partly by the suggestions of conscience, and partly by our experience of the vicissitudes of human affairs. Here we ought to rejoice with trembling; and often in our most cheerful moments we are visited with the unwelcome forebodings of a change. Who can say without presumption, "To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant?" The joys of religion are equally subject to mutation as those of a temporal nature; either because the saints are not at all times disposed to receive them, and by the unhappy influence of unbelief they are excluded from their souls; or, because God is pleased to suspend them for the trial of their faith and the chastisement of their sins. The state of heaven is totally dif ferent. The duration of all created beings is progressive, and is made up of moments following each other in perpetual succession; but that of the saints will bring no change of circumstances, and may be compared to the duration of the sun and the stars, which, from age to age, are fixed in the same point of space, and shine with undiminished splendour. Eternity will then have commenced, which, as it flows on, carries all things along in a uniform uninterrupted stream of bliss or wo. The very possibility of an end would mar the felicity of the righteous. It would be suspended while the question was asked, Will our joy last for ever? and the doubt implied in that question would make fear pass over the mind as the shadow of a cloud, and dim the lustre of the surrounding scenery. Still more fatal would be the effect, if there were positive ground to suspect that their joy would come to an end. The idea of annihilation, from which nature recoils, would be doubly terrible. Who could bear the thought of losing life in its highest perfection; of closing his eyes on this transcendent glory to behold it no more; of sinking into eternal insensibility after ages of rapturous bliss! But it is an eternal redemption of which Jesus Christ is the Author. The last change which his followers experience is death; or, if you will, the resurrection, when the separate spirits will be again embodied. They then enter upon a career which will never be finished. Ages will run on more rapidly than hours among mortals: but thousands of ages will take nothing from their felicity. God has made them by his gift, what he himself is in his own nature; and of them, as well as of him, it may be said, that their years shall have no end. "There is no night there." "The sun shall no more light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. They sun shall no more go down;

* Psalm xvi. 5.

neither shall the moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.'

Whether there will be different degrees of glory in heaven, is a question more curious than useful. Those who adopt the negative allege a variety of reasons,―as, that all the saints are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and being equal in this respect, have a title to an equal reward; that they all stand in the same relation to God, as his children are all the first-born, and will therefore receive the same inheritance; that it would seem an imperfection, if one of them had less glory than another, and the former might conceive something better than he actually possessed, and be disturbed by an anxious desire for it; that our Saviour has promised to all a kingdom, and has said that they shall all shine forth as the sun; and that, while we speak of a difference among them, we use words to which no distinct meaning can be annexed, as it is granted that all will be perfect. Those who adopt the positive side of the question, appeal to the different degrees of grace in this world, from which they infer that there will be different degrees of glory in the next. They grant that all saints will be perfectly happy, but compare them to vessels of different sizes, which are all full, although some contain a greater quantity than others; and they support themselves by several passages of Scripture, as the parable of the talents, in which the servants are recompensed according to their diligence; the declaration of Paul, that "he who soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he who soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully;" and of Daniel, that "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." With respect to the last passage, the supposed difference in the degree of splendour must be considered as imaginary, till it is shown what is meant by the "brightness of the firmament," and that it is inferior to the brightness of the stars; and till it be proved that something more is intended, than simply to convey, by a variety of phrase, the general idea of glory. The passage in the Epistle to the Corinthians, which says that one star differs "from another in glory,"§ has been also quoted in favour of this opinion, by those who attended to the sound, without thinking of the sense. Any intelligent person who reads the passage, will perceive that the Apostle is speaking of a totally different subject, the difference between the present and the future bodies of the saints; and is illustrating it by the different appearances which matter assumes in the plastic hands of the Almighty.

It is of no consequence what view you take of the question; and to discuss it either here or elsewhere, would serve no valuable purpose. The prize proposed to all is of incalculable value, and is worthy of the highest efforts which are made to obtain it. Whether the final allotment of the saints shall be equal or unequal, they will all be content, and will all rejoice with joy unspeakable.

* Is. lx. 19, 20.
Dan. xii. 3.

Matth. xxv. 15.

§ 1 Cor. xv. 41.

+2 Cor. ix. 6.

LECTURE LXXXIV.

ON THE EXTERNAL MEANS OF GRACE.-THE WORD OF GOD.

External Means of Grace Necessary to all but Infants.-The Word of God the Earliest and Principal Means.-Division of the Word into the Law and the Gospel.-Different Senses of the term Gospel.-Its Proper Meaning as Distinguished from the Law.-The Gospel not a New Law of Grace.--Its Efficacy as a Means.

In the preceding lectures, we have surveyed the scheme of redemption in its contrivance, its execution, and its application. Originating in the love of God before the world began, it was carried into effect by the mission and death of his Son; and its blessings are communicated to us by the agency of his Spirit. In this wonderful economy all the persons of the Godhead are concerned, and each performs his appropriate part. It is the work of God alone; and, in one view, resembles the creation of the universe, in which he had no assistant, and accomplished all things by the immediate exertion of his power. But in another view, it may be compared to the work of providence, in which he is the great Agent, but his designs are carried on by the instrumentality of means; by second causes, physical and moral; by the laws of gravitation, and motion, and light; by the activity of men, and the ministry of angels.

In considering the external means which he employs for the salvation of those whom his Son died to redeem, we must direct our attention in the first place to his Word, in which his will is revealed, and by which the intellectual and moral powers of man are influenced in subservience to his purpose; for God deals with him in religion as a rational being. The effect must be ascribed to his power, acting upon the soul in a manner unknown to us: but in ordinary cases it does not operate immediately. I say in ordinary cases, because we must except from this rule infants, who being born in sin, need to be regenerated as well as adults, but are not the proper subjects of that process by which the latter are renewed. Of the change which they undergo we can form no idea, as it is not accompanied with any external effects by which it might be distinguished, not even by a new train of thoughts, and volitions, and affections, of which they are incapable; but whatever it is, it is produced without means, by the direct agency of the Spirit. In this case means are excluded, because they cannot be used; for infants, not being yet moral agents, are not the proper subjects of conviction, illumination, and conversion, in the established sense of the terms. In the economy of grace, as well as in that of nature, divine wisdom connects variety with regularity, and changes its modes of procedure according to circumstances; being equally wonderful in deviating from its general laws as in adhering to them.

The exclusion of means, as far as we know, is confined to infants. We have no reason to think that men are sometimes illuminated by inspiration, and that good impressions are made upon their minds independently of any external cause. It has been supposed, indeed, that God may make known his will, and communicate the benefits of redemption to pious heathens, without his word and ordinances. Who those heathens are that may be called pious, without an abuse of the term, I do not understand; nor could any man, whose notions of piety were formed upon Scripture and sound reason, ever find them out; and till it is proved that there are such persons, we may save ourselves the trouble of inquiring how they will be disposed of; but every thing that is said concerning the possibility of a revelation to them, without the word, written or preached, is a gratuitous assumption, and besides, appears to be at variance with revelation itself: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the

Lord, shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things? So, then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."* These words comprehend all that we are authorized to believe on this subject; that salvation is connected in the Divine constitution with the means of grace; anc that, without these, the end is not to be expected. If God ever sets aside this constitution in particular cases, he has not told us of it; and to affirm that he does so, is downright presumption.

From the beginning, the application of redemption has been conducted by external means, or by the revelation of the will of God, and ordinances founded upon that revelation. Immediately after the fall, God was pleased to make known his purpose of grace to our first parents not by a direct address, but by conveying a notice of it in the threatening pronounced upon the serpent who had deceived them. As the threatening, while it foreboded evil to him, betokened good to them, it had in this respect the nature of a promise, and has therefore been so called. It is not to be supposed, however, that this is all the information which was given them concerning the Redeemer. Something more explicit and ample was necessary to relieve their minds from the fears of guilt, and to direct them in the new system of worship adapted to their circumstances; of which sacrifices were an important part. Of the additional intimations which might be made to the patriarchs, the Scriptures have given only a partial account; but partly by tradition, and partly by occasional communications, the knowledge of Divine mercy, and the future Saviour, was maintained till the days of Moses, who flourished fifteen hundred years before the Christian era. But although, between him and Adam, there was a long interval of two thousand and five hundred years, the intermediate steps were few, in consequence of the longevity of the early inhabitants of the world. From the creation to the present moment, there have not been a hundred and fifty individuals in a line; from the creation to Moses, there were not twenty. Hence it appears, that, without new revelations to revive and enlarge the original revelation, the communication made to our first parents, which, concise as it was, could be easily remembered, might have been transmitted pure and entire to the lawgiver of the Jews, by whom it was committed to writing.

Revelation was greatly enlarged by the ministry of Moses, and additions were made to it till the days of Malachi, when the canon of the Old Testament was completed. After a long interval, the Baptist appeared, to prepare the way for our Saviour; who, being in the bosom of the Father, and acquainted with his counsels, declared him to the world, and empowered his disciples to perfect revelation by their writings, which were composed under the direction and assistance of his Spirit. The whole Scriptures are delivered to us as the rule of our faith and obedience, and are the instrument which God employs for the conversion of sinners, and the advancement of the divine life in their souls. They are the light which conducts them to the Saviour, and guides them in the way of Salvation. This important office we assign to the whole, and not exclusively to a part, on the authority of the Apostle Paul; who, having said concerning Timothy, that "from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus," adds, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto

• Rom. x. 13-17.