Here, then, the point is clear. The services of God and Mammon are incompatible with each other f. Whichever we most affect in our minds, his servants we areg: and friendship with either precludes a possibility of union with the other.]
Nor is a resemblance to God less necessary for an enjoyment of him, II. In the world to come —
There cannot, even in heaven, be any union be- tween God and an ungodly man —
[" There is no repentance in the grave." What a man, in his decided character, is at the time of his death, that he will remain to all eternity: "As the tree falls, so it will lieh:" "He that is unjust, will be unjust still; and he that is filthy, will be filthy still1." Suppose a man to have had no love for holiness here, but rather to have felt an alienation of mind from holy men and holy exercises ; how can he, all at once, feel delight in a holy God, and in the employment of the heavenly hosts ? How can he, who has never for one single hour been filled with love and gratitude in this world for all the wonders of redeeming love, how can he, I say, join in the songs of the redeemed to all eternity ? If there were nothing more than a consciousness of his own state to affect him, he would be glad to recede from a place where there was not a being like-minded with himself, or an occupation suited to his taste. He had a dislike to the exercises of devotion here ; and he would dislike them there: he fled from God's presence here; and he would flee from it there. Like our first parents after their fall, they would endeavour to hide themselves from him, instead of going forth to meet him; and Paradise itself would be to them a place of torment.]
The manner in which the prophet declares this
truth greatly augments its weight —
[He does not utter it in a way of simple affirmation; but he makes it the subject-matter of an appeal : " How can two walk together, except they be agreed?" He constitutes every man a judge in his own cause. We need not any of us be told, that to the existence of real friendship there must be a similarity of taste ; those who are perfectly opposed to each other in the things that are most agreeable to themselves, can no more become united with each other, in the bonds of endeared friendship, than light and darkness can coalesce. Observation and experience prove this beyond a doubt; nor can any one be so ignorant as not to know it.]
f Matt. vi. 24. e Rom. vi. 16.
h Eccl. xi. 3. ' Rev. xxii. 11.