Hi'o-h God become him, and so little would their intrusion prove a source of happiness to them.
But neither would they find any comfort in the employments of heaven. Never having obtained favour with God, or an interest in the Saviour's merits, they could never join in the songs of praise which are offered there continually by the whole assembly of the redeemed. Nay, as in a concert here on earth, a man unskilled in music, with an inharmonious voice, and an instrument untuned, would, by his efforts to join the choir, only disturb the harmony of the whole, so it would be with them in heaven, where their every note would produce the most hateful discord, and their odious deformity create one universal feeling of disgust.]
3. They are excluded from heaven by an absolute and irreversible decree —
[Persons are not the subjects of God's reprobation : cha- racters are. When St. Peter says, that " some stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto they were appointed'1" the meaning is, not, that they were appointed to stumble or to disobey, but that God had appointed, that they who would not obey the word, should find it a stumbling-block to them ; and that they who would not make it " a savour of life, should find it to be a savour unto death k." Now God has ordained that " the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God1 :" and that into heaven " nothing shall enter that defileth111 ." In particular he has declared, that even the friendship of the world is incompatible with love to him n, and that he who be- lieveth not in Christ, shall perish everlastingly0. Now I ask, Will God reverse these decrees for us ? Will he act contrary to his word for us ? " Is he a man, that he should lie, or the Son of man, that he should repent? Hath he said, and shall he not do it ? Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it goodp ?" Know then, that " if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die q ;" and to hope for heaven in a carnal and unconverted state is only to deceive your own souls.]
Let me then request of you two things :
1. Inquire what measure of preparation you have
for the enjoyment of heaven ?
[There is " a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light r." There is a preparation of heart for it, without which heaven would be no heaven to you. An ignorant clown would
5 1 Pet. ii. 8. See Doddridge on the place. k 2 Cor. ii. 16.
1 1 Cor. vi. 9. m Rev. xxi. 27. " Jam. iv. 4.
° ver. 24. with John iii. 36. P Numb, xxiii. 19. <5 Rom. viii. 13. r Col. i. 12.