come from thence. By which words our Saviour feems not only to intend, that they that are in heaven and hell can have no communication and intercourfe with one another; but likewife that they are lodged in an immutable ftate. Those that are happy are like to continue fo; and thofe that are miferable are immutably fixed in that state.

1. As to thofe that are in happiness there can be no great doubt. For what can tempt men that have fo narrowly escaped the dangers and temptations of a wicked world, and are poffeffed of fo great a happinefs by the free grace and mercy of God, to do any thing whereby they may forfeit their happinefs; or fo much as to entertain a thought of offending that God, to whom they cannot but be fenfible how infinitely they are obliged? In this imperfect state few men have fo little goodnefs as to fin without temptation, but in that ftate where men are perfectly good, and can have no temptation to be otherwife, it is not imaginable that they fhould fall from that ftate.

2. As to the state of the damned, that that likewife is immutable the fcripture does feem plainly enough to affert, when it calls it an everlasting deftruction from the prefence of the Lord, and ufes fuch expreffions to fet forth the continuance of their mifery, as fignify the longest and moft interminable duration, expreffions of as great an extent as those which are ufed to fignify the eternal happinefs of the bleffed; and as large and unlimited, as any are to be had in thofe languages wherein the fcriptures are

written.

Befides that wicked men in the other world are in fcripture reprefented as in the fame condition with the devils, of whom there is no ground to believe that any of them ever did or will repent. Not becaufe repentance is impoffible in its own nature to thofe that are in extreme mifery; but because there is no place left for it. Being under an irreversible doom, there is no encouragement to repentance, no hope of mercy and pardon, without which repentance is impoffible. For if a man did utterly defpair

of

of pardon, and were affured upon good ground, that God would never fhew mercy to him, in this cafe a man would grow defperate, and not care what he did. He that knows that whatever he does, he is miferable and undone, will not matter how he demeans himself. All motives to repentance are gone after a man once knows it will be to no purpofe. And this the fcripture feems to reprefent to us, as the cafe of the devils and damned fpirits. Because their state is finally determined, and they are concluded under an irreversible sentence, therefore repentance is impoffible to them.

Sorry, no doubt, they are, and heartily troubled that by their own fin and folly they have brought this mifery upon themselves, and they cannot but conceive an everlafting difpleafure against themfelves, for having been the cause and authors of their own ruin; and the reflexion of this will be a perpetual fpring of difcontent, and fill their minds with eternal rage and vexation; and fo long as they feel the intolerable punishments of fin, and groan under the infupportable torments of it, and fee no end of this miferable ftate, no hope of getting out of it, they can be no otherwife affected, than with difcontent to themselves, and rage and fury against God.

They are indeed penitent fo far, as to be troubled at themselves for what they have done; but this trouble works no change and alteration in them they ftill hate God who inflicts thefe punishments upon them, and who they believe is determined to continue them in this miferable ftate. The present anguish of their condition, and the defpair of bettering it, makes them mad; and their minds are fo distracted by the wildness of their paffions, and their fpirits fo exafperated and fet on fire by their own giddy motions, that there can be no reft and filence in their fouls, not fo much as the liberty of one calm and fedate thought.

Or if at any time they reflect upon the evil of their fins, and should entertain any thoughts of returning to God and their duty, they are prefently VOL. VI.

S

check

checked with this confideration, that their cafe is determined, that God is implacably offended with them, and is inexorably and peremptorily refolved to make them miferable for ever; and during this perfuafion, no man can return to the love of God and goodness, without which there can be no repentance.

This confideration, of the immutable ftate of men after this life, fhould engage us with all feriousness and diligence to endeavour to fecure our future happiness. God hath fet before us good and evil, life and death, and we may yet choose which we pleafe; but in the other world, we must stand to that choice which we have made here, and inherit the confequences of it.

By fin mankind is brought into a miferable ftate; but our condition is not defperate and paft remedy. God hath fent his Son to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remiffion of fins. So that though our cafe be bad, it need not continue fo, if it be not our own fault. There is a poffibility now of changing our condition for the better, and of laying the foundation of a perpetual happinefs for ourfelves. The grace of God calls upon us, and is ready to affift us; fo that no man's cafe is fo bad, but there is a poffibility of bettering it, if we be not wanting to ourfelves, and will make ufe of the grace which God offers, who is never wanting to the fincere endeavours of men. Under the influence and affiftance of this grace, thofe who are dead in trefpaffes and fins, may pass from death to life, may be turned from darknefs to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. So long as we are in this world there is a poffibility of being tranflated from one ftate to another, from the dominion of Satan, into the kingdom of God's dear Son. But if we neglect the opportunities of this life, and tand out against the offers of God's grace and mercy, there will no overtures be made to us in the other world. After this life is ended, God will try us no more our final mifcarriage in this world will prove fatal to us in the other, and we fhall not be permit

ted

ted to live over again to correct our errors. As the tree falls fo it fhall ly; fuch a state as we are fettled in, when we go out of this world, fhall be fixt in the other, and there will be no poffibility of changing it. We are yet in the hand of our own counfel, and by God's grace we may mould and fashion our own fortune. But if we trifle away this advantage, we fhall fall into the hands of the living God, out of which there is no redemption. God hath yet left heaven and hell to our choice, and we had need to look about us, and choofe well, who can choose but once for all and for ever. There is yet a fpace and opportunity left us of repentance; but fo foon as we step out of this life, and are entered upon the other world, our condition will be fealed, never to be reverfed. And becaufe after this life there will be no further hopes of mercy, there will be no poffibility of repentance. This is the accepted time, this is the day of falvation; therefore to day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; left God fwear in his wrath that we shall not enter into his reft. I proceed to a

Sixth obfervation, that a ftanding revelation of God is evidence fufficient for divine things. They have Mofes and the Prophets; let them hear them that is, they have the books of Mofes and the Prophets, written by men divinely infpired, thefe do fufficiently declare to them the will of God and their duty; and it is unreasonable to demand or expect that God fhould do more for their conviction and fatisfaction.

I know very well the text fpeaks only of the fcriptures of the Old Teftament, thofe of the New being not then extant, when this parable was delivered. But what is here faid concerning the fcriptures of the Old Testament, is equally applicable to the New; and though Abraham does only recommend Mofes and the Prophets, there is no doubt but he would have faid the fame concerning Chrift and his Apostles, if the books of the New Teftament had been then extant. So that what I fhall fay upon this obfervation, does indifferently concern the whole fcripture.

S.2

And

And that I may make out this obfervation more fully, I fhall take these five things into confidera

tion:

ift, What we are to understand by a divine revelation.

2dly, Give a brief account of the several kinds of it.

3 dly, Shew what advantage this standing revelation of the fcriptures hath above any other way of conveying the will of God to the world.

4thly, That there is fufficient evidence for the divinity of the fcriptures.

5thly, That it is unreasonable to expect that God fhould do more for our conviction, than to afford fuch a standing revelation of his mind and will. I fhall go over these as briefly as I can. I begin with the

ift, What we are to understand by a divine revelation. By a divine revelation we are to understand a fupernatural difcovery or manifeftation of any thing to us; I fay fupernatural, because it may either be immediately by God, or by the mediation of Angels, as most, if not all the revelations of the Old Teftament were. A fupernatural difcovery or manifeftation, either immediately to our minds, by our underftandings and inward faculties; (for I do not fo well understand the diftinction between understanding and imagination, as to be careful to take notice of it,) or elfe mediately to our understandings by the mediation of our outward fenfes, as by an external appearance to our bodily eyes, or by a voice and found to the fenfe of hearing: a difcovery or manifeftation of a thing, whether it be fuch as cannot be known at all by the ufe of our natural reafon and undertandings; or fuch as may be difcovered by natural light, but is more clearly revealed or made known, or we are awakened to a more particular and attentive confideration of it. For it is not at all unfuit. able to the wisdom of God to make a supernatural difcovery to us of fuch things as may be known by the light of nature, either to give us a clearer manifeftation of fuch truths as were more obfcurely known,