6

not revealed to us. We may conclude, that they will be suitable to their dignity and dispositions. The scriptures have informed us, that the angels are ministering spirits; that they execute the will and the commands of God; that they are employed in the government of the world, to succour the good, and to correct the bad; and it is said of the righteous, that hereafter they shall be like the angels;' they shall be like to them in glory and abilities; and they shall perhaps be like to them in office, and have the care of other creatures in other worlds committed to them. Employment they can never want; the works of God, in the visible and invisible creation, can, in all probability, neither be summed up by numbers, nor contained within any limits; and the objects with which a wise and good mind may entertain itself, can never be exhausted, and will administer new pleasure and improvement through all

ages.

6. The happiness of the good will, in many respects, surpass any description, which we can make of it. The truth of this assertion appears from the very silence of the Scriptures upon the particulars of their future reward, and from the reason which is given of that silence; namely, that it is so far superior to our apprehensions, that words cannot express it, nor the imagination reach it. If a brute could try to form a judgement concerning the powers and properties of human nature, that judgement would be mixed with much error. When a man endeavours to represent to himself the perfections of God, or even of an angel, the representation is obscure, superficial, and defective; for the lesser cannot contain the greater. He who never had sight or hearing, is utterly incapable of attaining a notion of those senses and their objects. Nor are we able to comprehend the future rewards of the righteous, since they shall receive new excellencies, and since there may be a variety of senses with which we are not acquainted, and through which knowledge and happiness may be conveyed to the soul.

7. I have had occasion already to observe that the recompense which God will bestow upon his servants, shall be everlasting; and I need not endeavour to show how much happiness must arise from a certainty of never losing it. Every one who considers it, will feel it and know it; and will know, at the same time, that no words can express it.

8. Lastly, though the good will be freed from the evils of

1

this life, and placed in a condition agreeable to their desires and inclinations, and in no danger of being deprived of it, yet this excludes not a wide inequality between them. The Scriptures frequently assure us, that every one shall receive proportionable to the improvements which he has made, to the trials which he has undergone, to the proofs which he has given of his virtue; and this is perfectly agreeable to all our notions of justice and equity. It is a truth upon which every humble and contrite heart may reflect with much satisfaction. To the obstinate indeed and the impenitent, neither this nor any other truth revealed in Scripture, or discoverable by Reason, can afford the least comfort. But there are persons who, conscious to themselves of many omissions and transgressions, sincerely and industriously endeavour to reform whatsoever is amiss in their inclinations and behaviour, and so to live for the time to come, that their bad dispositions may die before them. To such it must be a pleasing consideration, that a great variety of rewards will be distributed, some of which they may humbly hope to obtain.

Thus much the Scriptures have made known to us concerning the future state of the good; not to entertain and amuse our imagination, but to affect our heart, and to mend our lives. We should therefore consider, and so consider as to become better by it, that we cannot lose this reward without being extremely miserable, nor obtain it by any other method than by serving God to the utmost of our power. The Scripture tells us, that, without holiness, we shall not see God, and dwell in his presence; and our own understanding will assure us, that this must be true. Sin renders us, in all respects, unlike to him, who is the fountain of happiness; and in a resemblance to whom, all happiness must have its foundation. Whilst we are in subjection to evil habits, we cannot love him, nor can he love us.

Heaven is a place, whence sensual enjoyments, whence wealth and titles, and earthly pomp and splendour, and the power and respect which they procure, are all excluded. The pleasures which it affords, are serious pleasures, arising from wisdom, and knowledge, and purity, and holy love. All this is most unwelcome and insipid to a depraved heart. may learn, that it is our duty and our interest, not only to preserve ourselves free from vicious habits, from grosser acts

Hence we

of iniquity, but to contract no excessive fondness for those lawful and innocent objects, which, though convenient and useful to us in our present circumstances, cease with this world, and cannot follow us into the next. If we make it the business of our lives to employ and gratify our senses, and take no care to exercise and improve our understanding; if we have a dislike for serious thoughts and reflections; if we cannot endure to meditate upon truth and virtue, upon the perfections of the works of God, and our own nature and capacities, and the ends for which we were made; what will become of us, when we shall have no more to do with this earth, and with the objects which are so dear to us, and so necessary to our contentment? But if we can delight in conversing with ourselves, in honouring and obeying God, in growing wiser and better, in enlarging our knowledge, and in contracting our wants and desires, we shall, by acquiring these good habits, secure to ourselves lasting and rational pleasures, when these frail bodies shall put on a pure and a brighter form.

[ARCHDEACON JORTIN.]

SERMON CXXVIII.

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

WALKING WITH THE WISE.

PROV. xiii. 20.- -He that walketh with wise men, shall be wise. [Text taken from the First Morning-Lesson.]

THE text leads us to enquire, I. What is meant by walking with the wise:' and II. How it conduces to the attainment of wisdom.

To walk with the wise' is to choose wise persons for our friends and acquaintainces and to lose no opportunity of receiving their advice and instruction.

But here, some exceptions and limitations are to be made to this general rule. We can only follow it, as far as we are able, as far as times and circumstances permit.

Providence may appoint a good man's station amongst sin

VOL. II.

2 A

ners, either for a trial of his integrity; or to give him an opportunity to use his best endeavours to reclaim them. This was the case of Noah; and this was the case of Lot. It was no fault in these and in some other excellent persons, that they did not walk with wise men, when no wise men were to be found. They did their office and duty, by representing to the wicked, their folly and their approaching destruction; and though they could not save them, they saved themselves, and their own small families, by their wisdom.

Thus our Saviour himself conversed with persons unlike himself, he who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners:' and thus the apostles laboured incessantly in the instruction and conversion of an ignorant and debauched world; and instead of being themselves infected with the folly and vice of those, with whom they had intercourse, they were the happy instruments of making many of them wise, and turning them from sin to righteousness. They who are well,' says our Lord, justifying his own condescending behaviour, they who are well, need not the physician, but they who are sick.'

But besides the noble design to attempt by counsel and example to reclaim sinners, a design which the Scriptures are so far from disallowing, that they earnestly recommend it,besides this, the state of human affairs requires, that, on various occasions, we associate with persons of all characters. Civil communities, so absolutely necessary to mankind, are composed of good and bad, in such a variety of degrees, that there are few good without some bad qualities, and few bad without some good ones. Both are necessary for the purposes of order, government, commerce, and mutual help; though it be certain, that the wise are the most useful members of the state, in proportion to their wisdom and virtue.

Indeed in the nearer and the domestic relations, it is the unhappy lot of many, not to be free from the company of fools. The prudent, the good-natured, and the virtuous, are not seldom connected with the indiscreet, the froward, and the vicious. And, in these cases, it is not our duty to break asunder the bonds of blood or of affinity, and violently to separate ourselves from our own family:-on the contrary, instruction, patience, meekness, and compassion, are our bounden duty towards them. The Apostle, it is true, adviseth Christians to

avoid the company of those, who, calling themselves brethren in the faith, and believers, behaved like Pagans, and worse than Pagans. The meaning of which advice is, that we should contract no intimacies and hold no communication with them, when nothing requires it, and no good purpose can be served by it. But as to the common offices of humanity and charity, and as to civil intercourse in the affairs of life, we must have dealings with persons of all characters; else,' says the same Apostle, we must needs go out of the world.' Therefore the precept, to walk with the wise,' is voluntarily to associate, and of deliberate choice to enter into intimacies and friendship, with them.

Men are disposed to seek society, and to form acquaintances, larger or lesser, for their worldly concerns, and for their mutual satisfaction and entertainment. Persons of all capacities and conditions, show a desire of conversation, though of very different kinds, according to the diversity of tastes, occasioned by natural or acquired abilities, education, prevailing affections, temporal or religious views, situation, and circumstances. There are none of the lowest station and of the lowest understanding, who do not incline to company of some sort or other. There are none of the most solitary, retired, studious, and contemplative disposition, who do not, at certain times, stand in need of conversation both for improvement and relaxation. There are none, howsoever proud, conceited, and self-sufficient, who are not driven by the same propensity to descend from their heights of arrogance and vanity, and to enter into a condescending and easy communication with others, and who find not themselves necessitated to be outwardly courteous even to those, whom they inwardly despise.

This general inclination, operates freely and variously; and, for the most part, it induces men to seek those, who are of a like character and disposition with themselves. The sensual and voluptuous, the gay and polite, the curious and inquisitive, the men of taste for arts and sciences, the men of business, the men of rank and quality, the learned and studious, seek out one another, and take a pleasure in conversing together.

They therefore who love and value wisdom, will seek the company and intimacy of the wise, for their benefit and moral improvement: which should be the end and design of such connexions.