before our view, in the degree with which we are affected by it. This difference is experienced in no one thing more than in religion, not only between different persons, but by the same person at different times, the same person in different stages of the christian progress, the same person under different measures of divine

grace.

Finally, would we know whether we have made, or are making any advances in christianity or not? These are the marks which will tell us. Do we think more frequently about religion than we used to do? Do we cherish and entertain these thoughts for a longer continuance than we did? Do they interest us more than formerly? Do they impress us more, do they strike us more forcibly, do they sink deeper? If we perceive this, then, we perceive a change, upon which we may ground our hopes and expectations; if we perceive it not, we have cause for very afflicting appre

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hensions, that the power of religion hath not yet visited us; cause for deep and fervent intercession with God for the much wanted succour of his holy spirit.

SERMON IV.

OF THE STATE AFTER DEATH.

I. JOHN.. III. 2,

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

ONE

NE of the most natural solicitudes of the human mind is to know what will become of us after death, what is already become of those friends, who are gone. I do not so much mean the great question, whether we and they shall be happy or miserable; as I mean the question, what is the nature and condition of that state, which we are so soon to try. This solicitude, which is both natural and strong, is sometimes however carried too far: and this is the case, when

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when it renders us uneasy, or dissatisfied, or impatient under the obscurity, in which the subject is placed: and placed, not only in regard to us, or in regard to common men, but in regard even to the Apostles themselves of our Lord, who were taught from his mouth, as well as immediately instructed by his spirit. St. John, the author of the text which I have read to you, was one of these; not only an apostle, but of all the apostles, perhaps, the most closely connected with his master, and admitted to the most intimate familiarity with him. What it was allowed therefore for man to know, St. John knew. Yet this very St. John acknowledges " that it doth not yet appear what we shall be;" the exact nature and condition and circumstances of our future state are yet hidden from us.

I think it credible, that this may in a very great degree arise from the nature of the human understanding itself. Our Saviour said to Nicodemus, " if I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" It is evident from

the

the strain of this extraordinary conversation, that the disbelief, on the part of Nicodemus, to which our Saviour refers, was that which arose from the difficulty of comprehending the subject. Therefore our Saviour's words to him may be constructed thus. If what I have just now said concerning the new birth, concerning being born again, concerning being born of the spirit, concerning the agency of the spirit, which are all "earthly things," that is, are all things that pass in the hearts of christians in this their present life, and upon this earth: if this information prove so difficult, that you cannot bring yourself to believe it, by reason of the difficulty of apprehending it; "how shall ye believe?" how would you be able to conquer the much greater difficulties, which would attend my discourse, "if I told you "heavenly things;" that is to say, if I speak .to you of those things, which are passing, or which will pass in heaven, in a totally different state and stage of existence, amongst natures and beings unlike yours? The truth seems to be, that the human understanding, constituted

constituted as it is, though fitted for the purposes for which we want it, that is, though capable of receiving the instruction and knowledge, which are necessary for our conduct and the discharge of our duty, has a native original incapacity for the reception of any distinct knowledge of our future condition. The reason is, that all our conceptions and ideas are drawn from experience, (not perhaps all immediately from experience, but experience lies at the bottom of them all,) and no language, no information, no instruction can do more for us, than teach us the relation of the ideas which we have. Therefore, so far as we can judge, no words whatever that could have been used, no account or description that could have been written down, would have been able to convey to us a conception of our future state, constituted as our understandings now are. I am far from saying, that it was not in the power of God, by immediate inspiration, to have struck light and ideas into our minds, of which naturally we have no conception. I am far from saying, that he could not, by an act of his pow

er,