into a community by themselves, and | benevolence were perfect and univer that Christianity, which now acts as a purifying and preserving salt upon the earth, be wholly removed from it, and then it would be seen that the picture has not been over-charged, but that the wretchedness is intense and universal, just because the wickedness reigns uncontrolled without mixture and without mitigation. But we now exchange this appalling for a more delightful contemplation. The next clause of our text suggests to us the moral character of heaven. We learn from it, on the universal principle, that, as the tree falleth so it lies; that, "the righteous now" will "be righteous still." We no more dispute the material accompaniments of heaven, than we dispute the material accompaniments of the place of condemnation; but still we must affirm of the happiness that reigns, and holds unceasing jubilee there, that mainly and pre-eminently it is the happiness of virtue—that the joy of the eternal city is not so much a tasteful, or a sensible, or even an intellectual, as it is a moral and spiritual joy that it is a thing of mental, infinitely more than it is a thing of corporeal gratification. And to convince us how much the former has the power and the predominancy over the latter, we bid you reflect that even in this world, with all the defects and disorders of its materialism-the curse upon its ground inflicting the necessity of sore labour and the angry tempest from its sky often destroying or sweeping off the fruits of it-the infirmities of these feeble and distempered frames, often of pining sickness, and at times, of sore agony, yet, in spite of these, we ask whether it would not hold nearly, if not universally true, that if all men were righteous then all men would be happy. Just imagine for a moment that honour and integrity and sal in the world-that each held the property, and the reputation, and the rights of his neighbour to be dear to him as his own-that the suspicions, and the heart-burnings, and the jealousies, whether of hostile violence or envious competition were altogether banished from human society-that the emotion, at all times delightful, of good will on the one side, were, ever and anon, calling the emotion no less delightful of gratitude back again—that truth and tenderness had their secure abode in every family-and, that standing forth amidst the wider companionships of life, we each could confidently rejoice in every one which he met with as a brother and a friend-we ask, if by this simple change-a change you will observe in nothing else than the morale of humanity— though winter should repeat its storms as heretofore, and every element were | to abide unaltered, yet in virtue of a process and revolution altogether moral, would not our millenium be begun and a heaven on earth be realized? Now let this contemplation be borne aloft, as it were, in the upper sanctuary, where, we are told, there are the spirits of just men made perfect;" or where those who were once 66 "the righteous on earth, are righteous still "-let it be remembered that nothing is admitted there, which worketh wickedness or maketh a lie, and that, therefore, with every virulence of evil, detached and dissevered from the mass, there is nought in heaven but the pure and transparent element of goodness. Think of its unbounded love, its tried and unaltered friendship, its confiding sinceritythink of the expressive designation given to it in the Bible," the land of uprightness "-above all, think of the revealed and invisible glory of the righteous GOD," who "loveth righ " evil is offensive: a virtue which has its residence within, which takes guardianship of the heart, as a citadel of unviolated sanctity, in which no worthless or wrong imagination is permitted to dwell. It is not purity of action which is all that we contend for; it is exalted purity of sentiment, the ethereal purity of the third hea teousness there, sitting upon His throne in the midst of the rejoicing family, Himself rejoicing over them because formed in His own likeness, they love what He loves, they rejoice at what He rejoices in. There may be palms of triumph, I do not know there may be crowns of unfading lustre-there may be pavements of emerald-and rivers of pleasure-and ven, which, if once settled in the groves of rich surpassing loveliness-heart, brings the peace, and the and palaces of delight-and high triumph, and the untroubled serenity arches in heaven, which ring with of heaven along with it. In the sweetest melody; but, mainly and maintenance of this, there is a conessentially, it is a moral glory scious elevation, there is a complawhich is lighted up there; and it is cency, I had almost said, a pride of virtue which blossoms and is the a great moral victory over the infirmyrtle there--it is a joy by which the mities of an earthly and accursed spirits of the holy are regaled there-nature-there is a health and a it is thus it forms the beatitude of harmony in the soul, a beauty of eternity. The "righteous when holiness, which, though it effloresces they die now, when they rise again in the countenance, and the manner, shall be "righteous still;" have hea- and the outward path, is itself so ven already in their bosoms; and when thoroughly internal as to make puthey enter its portals they carry the rity of heart the most distinctive and very being and the substance of its bles- decisive evidence of a character that sedness along with them-a charac- is ripening and expanding for the ter, which is itself the whole of heaven glories of eternity. -and worth of character, which is the the pure in heart, for they shall see very essence of heavenly enjoyment. GOD." "Without holiness no man The last clause is, "Let him that is shall see GOD." "Into the holy city holy, be holy still." The two clauses nothing which defileth or maketh descriptive of the character, and the abomination shall enter." These are place of celestial blessedness are distinct and decisive passages, and counterparts of the two clauses de- point to that consecrated way through scriptive of the character and place which alone heaven can be opened of eternal woe; he that is "righteous" to us. On this subject there is a in the one stands contrasted with him remarkable harmony between the that is “unjust” in the other-he that didactic sayings of every book of the is "holy" in the one stands contrasted New Testament, and the descriptive with him that is "licentious" in the scenes which are laid before us in other. But I would have you attend the Book of Revelations. However to the full extent and signification of partial or imperfect the glimpses the term "holy." It is not absti- there afforded of heaven may be, nence from the outward deeds of one thing is palpable as the day, profligacy alone-it is not a mere that holiness is its very atmosphere, recoil from impurity in action. It is is the only element which its inmates a recoil from impurity in thought-breathe, and which it is their supreme it is that quick and sensitive delicacy, and ineffable delight to breathe in. to which even the very conception of They luxuriate therein as in their "Blessed are best loved and most congenial element. Holiness is the very elixir, or oil of gladness,-if I may use the expression, the moral elixir of glorified spirits; and in their joyful hosannas, whether of "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," or "Just and true are all thy ways, thou King of Saints," we may read that as virtue in the godhead is the theme of their adoration, so virtue in themselves is the treasure which they have laid up in heaven; the wealth as well as the ornament of their own celestial nature. the first approaches of evil, from the incipient contamination of thought, and fancy, and feeling, as from the foul and final contamination of the outward history. Both are diligent to be found of GOD without spot, and blameless in the great day of account; glorifying the Lord with the soul and spirit, as well as with the body; aspiring after those graces which are unseen by every earthly eye, and which belong to the hidden man of the heart, and are, in the sight of heaven of great price; and so proceeding onward from strength to strength in this lofty path of obedience, till they appear perfect before GOD in Sion. I feel that I have not nearly exhausted the subject of my text, by these very brief and almost miscellaneous observations. The truth is, that it is too unwieldy for a single address; and I shall, therefore, conclude with a notice of one specimen that might be alleged for the importance of the view we have thus given of purging theology from error. If the moral character, then, of these future states of existence were distinctly understood, and constantly applied, it would serve directly and decidedly to extinguish Antinomianism. It would, in fact, reduce that heresy to a contradiction in terms. There is no sound and scriptural Christian who ever thinks of virtue as the price of heaven; and I am wholly misunderstood, if you con I would once more advert to a prevalent delusion that obtains in society. We are aware of nothing| more ruinous than the acquiescence of whole multitudes in a low standard of qualification for heaven. The distinct way is to be " righteous now, to be righteous then." "To be holy now, that you may be holy still." We hold it not enough that you are free from the dishonesty which would forfeit the mere respect and confidence of the world, or from the profligacies which even the world itself would hold to be disgraceful. There is a certain amount of morality which is in demand on earth, but which is miserably short of the requisite portion for heaven. The holiness so indispensable there, is universal and unspotted, and withal a moral and spiritual holiness. It is this which distinguishes the morality of the regenerated and aspiring saint, from the morality of the respectable citi-ceive that I mean to infringe one iota zen, who is still but a citizen of the world, whose "conversation is not in heaven," with "neither his heart nor his treasure there." The "righteous" of my text would recoil from the least act of unfaithfulness from being unfaithful in the least, as of being unfaithful in much. The "holy" of my text would shrink in sensitive aversion and alarm from on that article which Luther denominates "the article of a standing or falling church;" I mean, the doctrine of justification by faith: But this doctrine only goes thus far, that our claim to heaven, that our approach to heaven is not effected by our own righteousness; that the legal right is, as it were, wrought out for us by the righteousness of Christ. But with all safety to this doctrine, there is another doctrine with which it is perfectly consistent; and the two not only harmonize, but they strengthen and influence each other in the mind of the believer-and that is, though our personal righteousness is not a legal or judicial plea, as it were, to the rewards of eternity, our personal righteousness is indispensable to an appropriation of these rewards; or rather, is identical with these rewards. The main beatitudes of heaven lie in these pleasures and felicities which essentially attach to the exercise of good, and holy, and virtuous affections. It is something a great deal higher. I say, then, there is no sound and scriptural Christian who ever thinks of his virtue being the price of heaven; it is something a great deal higher than this-it is heaven itself, the very essence, as we have already said, of heavenly blessedness. It occupies, therefore, a much higher place than the secondary and subordinate one ascribed to it even by many of the writers termed evangelical. We view it merely as the token or evidence that heaven will be ours, instead of which it is the very substance of heaven-the sample on hand of the identical good, which in larger measure and purer quality is afterwards awaiting us an entrance on the path which leads to heaven, or rather, the actual lodgment of ourselves within that line of demarcation which separates the heaven of the New Testa- | ment from the hell of the New Testament. For heaven is not so much a locality as a character. Let me repeat this heaven, I say, is not so much a locality as a character; and we, by a moral transition from the old to the new character, have, in fact, crossed the threshold; and are now rejoicing within the confines of GOD's spiritual family. By the doc trine of justification by faith we understand that Christ purchased our right of admittance into heaven, or opened its door for us. Is there aught Antinomian in this? The legal obstacle between us and a life of prosperous and never-ending virtue is now broken down-and is it on that event that we are to relinquish the path which has been just opened to welcome and invite our passing footsteps? The doctrine of justification by faith is not the obstacle to virtue, is but the introduction to it. It is, in truth, the removal of the obstacle, the unfastening of that drag, which before held us in apathy and despair, and restrained us from breaking forth in that career of obedience, in which, with the hope of glory set before us, we purify ourselves, even as Christ is pure. The purpose of his death was not to supersede, but to stimulate our obedience. "He gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." The object of his promise is not to lull our indolence, but to rouse us to activity. "Having received this promise, therefore, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." I can expatiate no farther; but shall be happy, as the fruit of these imperfect observations, if you can be made to recognise how distinctly practical the business and the work of Christianity is. It is simply to destroy one character, and to build up another in its room. To resist the temptations which vitiate and debase, and make all the graces and moralities which enter into the composition of perfect virtue the objects of the most strenuous cultivation. In the expediting of this mighty transformation, in the completion of which then is it, that in the courts of justice, when compared with the calendars of our sister kingdom, there should be so vastly less to do with their evil works? It is certainly a most important experience, that in that country where there is the most of Calvinism, there should be the least of crime-that what may be called the most doctrinal nation of Europe, should at the same time be the least depraved-and that the land wherein the people are most deeply imbued with the principles of salvation by grace, should be the least depraved either by their week-day profligacies, or their sabbath profanations. When Knox came over from the school of Geneva, he brought its strict, and, at the same time, uncorrupted orthodoxy along with him; and with this he pervaded all the formularies of that church which was founded by him, and not only did it flame abroad from all our pulpits, but through our schools and our catechisms it was brought down to the boyhood of our land; and from one generation to another have our Scottish youth been familarized to the sound of it from their very infancy. And unpromising as such a system of tuition may be in the eye of the academic moralist, having the object of building up a virtuous and a well doing peasantry, certain it is, that as the wholesale result, there has palpably come forth of it the most moral pea Let me now conclude with intimating that in selecting the topic of our present imperfect lucubrations, we have been actuated by a desire,-(as we are proposing to throw ourselves on your liberality for the upholding of a church in connexion with the church of Scotland, I consider it not at all unseasonable that I should have made the topic of these lucubrations, the topic of my present discourse to you), we have been actuated by a desire to vindicate the much misunderstood theology of our church from the charge of being hostile to the cause of practical righteousness. Now to those who have this suspicion, and who would represent the doctrine of justification by faith," that article of a standing or filling church," as adverse to the interests of virtue, I would put one question, and ask them to resolve it. How comes it that Scotland, which of all the countries in Europe is the most signalized by the rigid Calvinism of her pulpits, should also be most signalized by the moral glorysantry in Europe. Notwithstanding which sits on the aspect of her general population? How, in the name of a mystery, should it happen, that such a theology as ours, is conjoined with perhaps the most invitiated peasantry in the nations of Christendom? The allegation against our church, is that in the argumentation of our abstract and speculative controversies, the people are too little skilled to the performance good works-and how we know of great and grievous declensions, partly owing to the extension of our crowded cities being most inadequately followed up by such a multiplication of parishes and churches as might give fair scope to the energies of our ecclesiastical system; and principally we fear from a declension of that very theology which has been denounced as the enemy of all practical righteous |