§ 3. (1.) The glorious personal perfection which the saints enjoy in heaven, is the great loss of the ungodly. They lose that shining lustre of the body, surpassing the brightness of the sun at noon-day. Though the bodies of the wicked will be raised more spiritual than they were upon earth, yet that will only make them capable of the more exquisite torments. They would be glad then, if every member were a dead member, that it might not feel the punishment inflicted on it; and if the whole body were a rotten carcass, or might lie down again in the dust. Much more do they want that moral perfection which the blessed partake of; those holy dispositions of mind; that cheerful readiness to do the will of God; that perfect rectitude of all their actions. Instead of these, they have that perverseness of will, that loathing of good, that love to evil, that violence of passion, which they had on earth. 'Tis true, their understandings will be much cleared by the ceasing of former temptations, and experiencing the falsehood of former delusions. But they have the same dispositions still; and fain would they commit the same sins, if they could; they want but opportunity. There will be a greater difference between these wretches, and the glorified Christian, than there is betwixt a toad, and the sun in the firmament. The _rich man's purple, and fine linen, and sumptuous fare_, did not so exalt him above _Lazarus, while at his gate full of sores_. § 4. (2.) They shall have no comfortable relation to God, nor communion with him. _As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge_; but said unto him, _Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways_; so God will abhor to retain them in his household. He will never admit them to the inheritance of his saints, nor endure them to stand in his presence, but _will profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity_. They are ready now to lay as confident claim to Christ and heaven, as if they were sincere believing saints. The swearer, the drunkard, the whore-master, the worldling, can say, Is not God our Father, as well as yours? But when Christ separates his followers from his foes, and his faithful friends from his deceived flatterers, where then will be their presumptuous claims? Then they shall find, that God is not their Father, because they would not be his people. As they would not consent that God by his Spirit should dwell in them, so the tabernacle of wickedness shall have no fellowship with him, nor the wicked inhabit the city of God. Only they that walked with God here, shall live and be happy with him in heaven. Little does the world know what a loss that soul hath, who loses God! What a dungeon would earth be, if it had lost the sun? What a loathsome carrion the body, if it had lost the soul? Yet all these are nothing to the loss of God. As the enjoyment of God is the heaven of the saints, so the loss of God is the hell of the ungodly.