a vanity that is common upon earth; that there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again there be wicked men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous." In the distribution of mercies and judgments in the present world there is so little discrimination of the moral character, that one might be tempted to contend it were matter of indifference to the Sovereign Ruler of events. "All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked-to him that serveth God, and to him that serveth him not: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before him."

It is true that the friends of God enjoy a sweet composure of mind, an inward serenity of peace, a hope of pardon and acceptance which the wicked do not enjoy but with regard to outward mercies, his enemies are often blessed above his friends. The Church has often complained that the wicked were happy— that they that work wickedness are set up-that they that tempt God are ever delivered. The most choice comforts are often reserved for the proudest heart, the highest honours for the most flagitious life, the most remarkable deliverances for the most presumptuous. The Psalmist once thought to understand this, but it was too painful for him; his feet had almost gone, his steps had well nigh slipped; because he was envious at the foolish, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. The men of the world are represented in the Scriptures as having their portion in this life: whether it be to shew the comparative meanness and insignificance of all earthly good, or that the Father of mercies is kind even to the evil and the unthankful; or to illustrate their own impenitence and obduracy; or to give them an opportunity of more rapidly filling up the measure of their iniquity; or to accomplish all these purposes-the fact is unquestionable that, in the history of our world, by far the greater portion of those who, like the rich man in the parable, have fared sumptuously every day, have been of the wicked rather than of the righteous. It is true that there are impressive indications of the divine declaration against iniquity; the hurricane, the volcano, the pestilence, the flood, the tempest, with all their terrific ravages, together with the numberless sorrows and many agonies that agitate the world in which we dwell, are tokens of human apostacy only as they are tokens of God's displeasure for its iniquities. Nor have there been wanting instances which could not fail to attract attention, in which the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against the unrighteousness and the ungodliness of men. The whole world was swept away by the waters of the deluge: Sodom was overthrown as in a moment: Babylon sunk like a millstone into the depths of the sea. And yet an attentive observer will be drawn to the conclusion, that this is not the world in which the holy God designs to make the distinction between righteous and wicked men. The real disposition must be exhibited in the distributions of good and evil in accordance with their present character. The present world, therefore, is but the scene of trial with a view to a righteous retribution: we must look beyond if we would see the line of demarcation between the friends and the foes of God drawn with visible hand.

We follow the suggestions of our text, and observe, therefore, in the second place, that AT THE CLOSE OF THEIR PRESENT STATE OF TRIAL THERE WILL BE

A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED.

The time of trial on earth, dear hearers, was not designed to be long. It is appointed to men once to die: death closes the scene in which the holy and the profane appear in an undistinguishable garb, and discovers not only their true character, but their real state. Every man then enters upon allotments which, so far from being influenced by his earthly standing, are under the dispensation of grace by Jesus Christ, determined by his moral character. As there is an essential and immutable difference between holiness and sin; so is there a propriety in assigning different allotments to the righteous and the wicked. God cannot be just to himself, nor to the universe, without making it appear in another world that the difference of character between the righteous and the wicked lays a foundation for some difference in his manner of treating them. When Abraham drew near to entreat for the few righteous who were in Sodom, he rested his entreaties on this foundation, "Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked?" "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" This is a sentiment common to the hearts of all men. However favourably their natural sentiments may induce them to judge of their own deserts, and whatever may be their designs, of course they have no idea that God will so far disregard his own character as to pay no respect to the characters of men here by fixing their condition hereafter. To say nothing of the nature and the extent of the difference, every man feels that between those who have done good and those who have done evil-between those who accept and those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ and his great salvation-there are many important differences in the future world: and every person, so far as he is acquainted with truth, feels this; and it would be a violation of the very sentiments of natural conscience to suppose the contrary.

The representation in the parable assures us that the conditions of the rich and the poor man in the future world were widely different. The poor man died, and was "carried by angels to Abraham's bosom :" the rich man died also, and "in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment." What more impressive exhibition of the difference between the righteous and the wicked in a future world? The state of these two men is designed to be a just representation of all that have died, and all that ever shall die. Every individual of the human family will be found at last with Lazarus in heaven, or with Dives in hell. There are but two classes of moral character in the world, and there will be but two differences of condition, adapted to their difference of character in the next world. The righteous and the wicked will therefore be separated, and the difference between them will be seen and felt.

And in accordance with this representation is the testimony of the Scriptures throughout we are told that the time is coming when God shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, and that that time is the end of the world. This truth is acknowledged and enforced in almost all the parables of the New Testament. The parable of the Vineyard contains it; the parable of the Sower contains it; the parable of the Marriage Supper contains it; the parable of the Ten Virgins contains it; the parables of the Talents, and the Wheat and the Tares contain it. To illustrate and enforce this truth our Lord gave it in charge to his apostles, wherever they went, to publish its sanctions and threatenings, as well as its offerings of mercy: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature: he that believes and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned." It is

also interwoven with the very genius and spirit of the whole Gospel: it is implied in its doctrines, it is implied in its precepts, it is implied in its phrases and terms of salvation; it is implied in its very promises.

If these do not draw a dividing line between the righteous and the wicked after death, then have they no significance and no import. But there is no part of the Bible in which this truth is more clearly taught, than in that unaffected but most affecting account which our Lord has given of the day of judgment. Permit me to read a few verses out of the affecting representation "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." O! we think that no man could read this narrative without being convinced that it is the design of Jesus Christ to inform the world by it, that he would at the last judgment make a wide difference between the righteous and the wicked. I say a wide difference: the righteous will be holy as God is holy, lovely and beloved; and their bosom shall become the reflection of all that is serene and joyful in the heavenly world; while the wicked shall be matured in wickedness; hateful and hating, their minds shall be the sink of every inordinate and ungratified lust and affection. The righteous shall dwell in the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, the pure palace of the skies; while the wicked shall inhabit the darkest dungeon, the deepest cavern, the most mournful prison in the universe. The righteous will be associated with just men, the angels of God, and the adorable Redeemer; while the wicked are associated with the evil spirits of incorrigible men, and the viler companions of the prince of darkness. There will be a difference of character, of place, of employment, of prospect, of condition universal. They will be unlike in every conceivable particular; a great gulf will lie between them, a chasm that is indefinitely wide and without a bottom; a vast continent, an immense world, will lie on either side, entirely dissimilar in every view, except that of bare existence and accountability. There are no common sympathies between them there is no communion, no reciprocity either of enjoyment or suffering; there is no common lot; what is known and felt on the one side, is unknown and unfelt on the other. If there be pain, and woe, and despair on the one side, there is none on the other; and if there be happiness, and joy, and exultation on the one side, there is none on the other. So that their several allotments will be a state of unmingled happiness or unmingled misery.

Dear hearers, look up to Abraham's bosom; and, if you can, look down to that tormenting flame. Hear the sweet song of Lazarus; and listen to the moans of Dives. See how widely the righteous and wicked differ in a future world. What a picture is here presented to our view! On one side this gulf we see nothing but unalloyed, pure, perfect happiness-on the other, nothing but unmixed, pure, perfect misery. On the one side, the sons and daughters of Adam are separated from all evil, and advanced to all good-on the other, they are separated from all mercy, and doomed to all ruin. The wicked are

here clothed in rags, and the righteous shine in all the beauties of holiness and the fine linen of the saints. The wicked are here denied a drop of water to cool their tongues; and the righteous drink of the river of the water of life from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The wicked have no rest day nor night in the tormenting fire of God's indignation; and the righteous rest from their labours, and their works follow them. The wicked, while they behold the blessedness of the righteous, are represented as blaspheming God, and gnawing their tongues for their pain; and the righteous go forth and sing, 'Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" while the smoke of the torment of the damned ascends up for ever and ever. O, fellow immortal! where art thou going? Is every living man in this assembly to be assigned to one or other of these allotments? How long? O how long? How long, did I say? Look at the text. The decisions of eternal justice never will be reviewed or altered: it is an impassable gulf. And this leads me,

In the third place, to show that THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE RIGHTEOUS

AND THE WICKED IN THE FUTURE WORLD WILL REMAIN UNALTERED.

When the rich man craved a drop of water to cool his tongue, he was not only reminded that in the present world he had had his good things, and Lazarus his evil things; but besides all this, that there was a great gulf fixed between him and the righteous; that between him and the righteous there was an impassable distance; so that they who would pass from heaven to hell could not, neither could they cross from hell to heaven. How could they? There was an impassable gulf between them, and which is between them still: much as the method and ingenuity of men have been apt to devise means to remove or to cross it, it is just as vain as the expectation of Dives to procure a drop of water from Lazarus. Who does not see, that the only construction of this representation is, that there will be no change in the allotments of men after they leave this world? After once being removed into heaven, the righteous shall not be thrust down into hell; after having been once shut up in hell, the wicked shall never enter heaven. This position requires a little illustration. In the first place, the righteous after having been once admitted into heaven, shall never sink to hell.

And who will call in question this precious truth, my hearers? Listen to the declaration of the Saviour: "These shall go away into life eternal." "He that believeth shall be saved." The Father's command is "life everlasting." Listen also to the decisions of the Scripture: "At God's right hand there are pleasures for evermore." "There shall be no more pain, neither death; for the former things are passed away." And from that eternal temple it is expressly said, "he shall go no more out." Who does not see that this representation accords with all the principles of God's moral government, with all the dictates of sound reason, and all the better feelings of our hearts? Besides, we do not see how the perfect benevolence of God could be otherwise gratified, than by confirming the righteous in their integrity and blessedness. For what did God create the world-for what is all this vast machinery in his Providence, and the still more wonderful method of his gracefor what the incarnation and the death of his only Son-for what the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the renovation and purity of his people-for what the day and means of grace and salvation-for what the final judgment, and the final

sentence-if after all this exhibition of wisdom, and love, and power, the inhabitants of the heavenly world, may, at some remote period in eternity, leave their abodes of glory, and sink to the realms of woe?

There are but three ways in which we can conceive the character and condition of the righteous in the heavenly world will be ever altered. Either there must be something there to change the character and diminish the joys of the inhabitants; or they themselves must change their character and destiny; or God himself must change his purposes, and their dispositions, and by his own Almighty and irresistible energy, make them sinful. But is there any thing in the heavenly world that will tend to change the character or diminish the joys of its holy inhabitants? God is there: but he is without variableness or shadow of a turning. If the pure spirits around his throne ever have reason to love and adore him, they will always have reason to do so. And since God does not alter, their affections and joys will not alter. Throughout ceaseless ages, still he unfolds the lustre of his character; and those who have once beheld his beauty, can never be offended with his excellency, or weary with his glory. Nor will there be any thing in the character of the angels, in the employments and enjoyments of the heavenly world, that will have the least tendency to satiate or disgust the redeemed, but every thing to cherish and enkindle within them the flame of hallowed joy.

And as there is nothing in heaven to alter the disposition of its inhabitants, so the inhabitants will never voluntarily turn their backs upon it. They have no motive to do so, either from their judgment, their conscience, their prevailing disposition, or their best interests. And if the saints would be satisfied with their inheritance, and never choose the portion of the reprobate; so have we the assurance of the God of truth and love, that he will never influence them so to do. Nay, his faithfulness, and mercy, and inviolability, are pledged to keep them; his eternal covenant is pledged to keep them: nothing shall pluck them out of his hand; nothing shall separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus their Lord.

O, dear hearers, whose heart does not fasten itself on this inestimable truth? What child of grace does not look down upon the mighty chasm between him and the lost, and rejoice that they who would pass from thence cannot? On this interesting point, therefore, every fear may be hushed. We have the assurance of the God of truth, that the heavenly inheritance "fadeth not away," "by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie; that they might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them; which hope they have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, that which is within the veil." Nor could there possibly be more certainty; nor could there be any doubt, or one moment's hesitation here. Tell me, when you open the everlasting doors to welcome my departing spirit, that the time may come when this inheritance may fail, and you take away the anchor of my hope. Publish the tidings in heaven, that their blessedness is not eternal, and the songs of seraphs are converted to notes of woe. Thanks be to God no such mournful tidings shall ever fall upon their ears. "There is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you, cannot; neither can they pass to us that would come from thence."

But the inquiry is not the less interesting, and it is not the less instructing, Will the wicked after having been once shut up in hell, ever be admitted to