is lawful and right, we shall reap the reward of our doings also: and this can be confirmed by another scripture testimony. "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Wo unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him; for the reward of his works shall be given him." And now, my friends and fellow-professors of this holy name, the name of Christ, the way is so plain, until it becomes darkened by the sophistry of man, that the wayfaring man, though a fool, can not err therein.

Some may conclude that our consciences may become seared as with a hot iron, so that we cannot discern the monitions of this preceptor. But I have never known a burn-and it is a powerful allusion-indeed I know not of any animal body, in which it does not produce pain. And although we may strive to turn away from that reproof and instruction, which leads to the way of life; and from the monitions of this living principle, still we can never remove ourselves beyond the feeling of its effects. Whenever the conscience is seared, the feeling it occasions is painful. Our punishment is as certain as wickedness is the immediate cause thereof: for as certainly as murder, theft, drunkenness, lying, swearing, backbiting, and every other evil pro

duce in the mind disquietude, distress, trouble, sorrow, and affliction, so certainly will love, meekness, charity, and the cultivation of every heavenly virtue produce the opposite effects of joy, peace, and consolation, in every holy spirit.

Well now, my friends, how are we to attain to these ends? How are we to attain to the feeling of these joys? It is not by remaining in the first or second heavens. "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago," said the Apostle, "(whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell; God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven, where he heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter."

Now, I apprehend there may be many of us grovelling in the first or lowest heaven, under the government of our natural and animal propensities, which is a government but little better than that of the beasts which perish. These operate in inferior beings, and are called instinct, and are bestowed on them for their guidance. And if we pervert our rational powers, instead of being the most noble of God's creatures, we become the most ignoble; and thus stamp upon our own selves, most indelibly, the seeds of sorrow, pain, and distress; and crucify the Son of God anew, in his spiritual ap

pearing, and put him to an open shame. And while we are taking delight in those things which are of a carnal and a sensual nature, we are in the first or lowest heaven. For what is beaven? It is a state in which we delight to dwell, and in which our hopes of happiness are fixed.

I have no doubt many are ready to conclude, that they are no longer grovelling in this first or lowest heaven, but that they have ascended above it. But if they are stopping in the second heaven, they are in a still more dangerous situation. Many have taken up a profession of religion, and have adopted systems and creeds, and have subscribed to the various formularies adopted by men of corrupt minds, and reprobates concerning the true faith, to bind the conscience with. In the performance of these formularies they are endeavouring to find peace from a troubled conscience, and to get from under the feelings of that hot iron which becomes painful unto them. And here is the second heaven. These can bear an excellent character among men, of good husbands, good citizens, good neighbours, good friends; and thousands there are who have covered themselves under this plausible appearance, to their present and everlasting loss. And what do they learn by all these external performances? They learn to perform a round of

ceremonies; they learn to hide this fault or that weakness, and to appear righteous in the opinion of others; but they do not learn to attend to the spirit, which Christ said would lead into all truth. These have come to the conclusion, "We will not have this man to rule over us." We will continue in the systems which we have adopted-declamation shall be our gospel, and we will have our dependence on these external things. All such are in the second heaven, because they are acting under the influence of feelings, opinions, and systems which they have chosen, and are pleasing themselves with the idol pictures which they have drawn.

But, my friends, the mysteries of the kingdom. of heaven are not here opened unto us. Nor can any rise to a higher state thereby, than that to which the Jews attained, which is only a legal dispensation, and genders to bondage. But when we come under the governing influence of that principle which opens the blind eyes, unstops the deaf ears, heals all the maladies of the soul, and raises from a death of sin and corruption, into the light and life of Christ; then we come to experience something which is not lawful to be uttered. We come to know the operation of the spirit of God upon our spirits, and to know what it is to be reproved for every evil thought,

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word, and action; and so we shall know what it is to become partakers of the joys of his consolation. In this consolation, and under the influence of these feelings, we are kept from evil, and come to know what it is to labour for the bread of life, which cometh down from God out of heaven. We shall be careful, I apprehend, not to waste it in boasting. We shall be careful not to adopt any system which would have a tendency to obstruct or dissipate those feelings which are the ground of our life, and which are given "for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people." But wherever the works of man, and the imaginations of man, are mixed with the creative power of God, they always produce a monstrous birth, or something which can never be the inhabitant of heaven. The faculties by which we come to the knowledge of God, are not rational, but spiritual.

instinctive; they are not These spiritual faculties

are placed in us as governors, to operate upon the rational understanding; and when the mind. and body are brought under the same governing influence, all will become pure, and all our enjoyments will be centred in the third heaven. We shall not be anxious to have a great name and high honours among men. We shall not be anxious to become rich, or great, or wise, or