State IV. the Spirit of the Lord unto the foul I rejoice at thy word, fays the Pfalmift, as one that finaeth great poil, Pfal. cxix 162. Yet it is but an imperfect difcovery we have of it while here. How ravishing then will it be, to fee the opening of the whole treasure, hid in that field! they shall alfo be let into the understanding of the works of God. The beauty in the works of creation and providence will then be fet in a due light. Natural knowledge will be brought to perfection by the light of glory. The web of providence concerning the church, and all men whatfoever, will then be cut out, and laid before the eyes of the faints, and it will appear a mott beautiful mixture; fo as they fhall fay together, on the view of it, he hath done all things well. But, in a special manner, the work of redemption thall be the eternal wonder of the faints, and they will admire and praife the glorious contrivance for ever. Then fhall they get a full view of its fuitablenefs to the divine perfections, and to the cafe of finners: and clearly read the covenant, that paft betwixt the Father and the Son, from all eternity, touching their falvation. They fhall for ever wonder and praife, and praise and wonder at the myfteries of wisdom and love, goodness and holiness, mercy and juftice, appearing in the glorious device. Their fouls fhall be eternally fatisfied with the fight of God himself, and of their election by the Father, their redemption by the Son, and application thereof to them by the Holy Spirit.

2. The faints in heaven fhall enjoy God in Chrift by experimental knowledge, which is, when the object itflf is given and poffeffed. This is the participation of the divine goodness in full measure; which is the perfection of the will, and utmolt term thereof. The Lamb fhall lead them unto living fountains of waters, Rev. vii. 17. These are no other but God hunielf, the fountain of living waters, who will fully and freely communicate himself unto them. He will pour out of his goodnefs eternally into their fouls: and then shall they have a moft lively fenfation, in the innermoft part of their fouls, of all that goodnefs they heard of, and believed to be in him; and of what they fee in him by the light of glory. This will be an everlasting practical expofition of that word, which men and angels cannot fufficiently unfold, to wit, God himfelf thall be their God, Rev xi. 3. God will communicate himself unto them fully: they will no more be fet to taste of the ftreams of divine goodness in ordinances, as they were wont, but fhall drink at the fountain-head. They will be no more entertained with fips and drops, but filled with all the fulness of God. And this will be the entertainment of every faint for though in created things, what is given to one, is withheld from another; yet an infinite good can fully communicate itfelf to all, and fill all. Thefe who are heirs of God, the great heritage, fhall then enter into a full poffeffion of their inheritances: and the Lord will open his treafures of goodness unto them, that their enjoyment may be full. They fhall not be flinted to any

mea

measure: but the enjoyment fhall go as far as their enlarged capa cities can reach. As a narrow veffel cannot contain the ocean, fo neither can the infinite creature comprehend an infinite good: but no measure shall be set to the enjoyment, but what arifeth from the capacity of the creature. So that, although there be degrees of glory, yer all fhall be filled, and have what they can bold; tho' fome would be capable to hold more than others, there will be no want to any of them, all fhall be fully fatisfied, and perfectly bleffed in the full enjoyment of divine goodness, according to their enlarged capacities. As when bottles of different fizes are filled, fome contain more, others lefs; yet all of them have what they can contain. The glorified fhall have all, in God, for the fatisfaction of all their defires. No created thing can afford fatisfaction to all our defires: clothes may warm us, but they cannot feed us; the light is comfortable, but cannot nourish us. But in God we shall have all our defires, and we fhall defire nothing without him. They fhall. be the happy ones, that defire nothing but what is truly defirable; and withal have all they defire. God will be all in all to the faints: he will be their life, health, riches, honour, peace, and all good things. He will communicate himself freely to them: the door of access to him fhall never be shut again, for one moment. They may, when they will, take of the fruits of the tree of life, for they will find it on each fide the river, Rev. xxii. 2. There will be no vail betwixt God and them, to be drawn afide; but his fulnefs shall ever stand open to them. No door to knock at, in heaven; no asking to go before receiving; the Lord will allow his people an unrestrained familiarity with himself there.

Now they are in part made partakers of the divine nature; but then they fhall perfectly partake of it; that is to fay, God will communicate to them his own image, make all his goodness not only pass before them, but pass into them, and ftamp the image of all his own perfections upon them, fo far as the creature is capable to receive the fame; from whence fhall refult a perfect likeness to him, in all things in or about them, which completes the happiness of the creature. And this is what the Pfalmift seems to have had in view, Pfal. xvii. 15. I fhall be fatisfied when I awake, with thy likeness; the perfection of God's image, following upon the beati fick vifion. And fo fays John, John i 2. We shall be like him; for we shall fee him as he is. Hence there fhall be a moft close and intimate union betwixt God and the faints: God fhall be in them, and they in God, in the way of a most glorious and perfect union; for then fhall they dwell in love made perfect. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him, 1 John iv. 16. How will the faints knit with God, and he with them; when he fhall fee nothing in them but his own image; when their love shall arrive at its perfection, no nature, but the divine nature, being left in them, and all imperfection fwallowed up in that glorious transfor

fong of the heavenly høft, when Chrift was born: but thrice happy they, who fhall join their voices with theirs, in the choir of faints and angels in heaven, when he fhall be glorified in all, who fhall be about him there. Then fhall we be brought acquainted with the bleffed fpirits, who never finned. How bright will these morning-tars fhine in the holy place! they were miniftring fpirits to the heirs of falvation, loved them for their Lord and Mafter's fake; encamped round about them, to preserve them from danger; how joyfully will they welcome them to their everlasting habitations; and rejoice to fee them come at length to their kingdom, as the tutor doth in the profperity of his pupils! The faints fhall be no more afraid of them, as fometime they were wont to be: they fhall then have put ' off mortality, and infirmides of the flesh, and be themfelves, as the angels of God, fit to entertain communion and fellowship with thefe fhining ones. And both being brought under one head, the Lord Jefus Chrift; they fhall join in the praifes of God, and of the Lamb, faying, with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was flain, &c. Rev. v. 11, 12. Whether the angels fhall (as fome think) affume airy bodies, that they may be seen by the badily eyes of the faints, and be in nearer capacity to converfe with them, I know not: but as they want not ways of converfe amongst themselves, we have reason to think, that converfation, betwixt them and the faints, fhall not be for ever blocked up:

Laftly, They fhall have fociety with the Lord himself in heaven, glorious communion with God and Chrift, which is the perfection of happiness. I chufe to fpeak of communion with God, and the man Chrift together; becaufe as we derive our grace from the Lamb, fo we will derive our glory from him too; the man Chrift being (if I may be allowed the expreflion) the centre of the divine glory in heaven, from whence it is diffufed unto all the faints. This feems to be taught us by thefe fcriptures, which exprefs heaven's happiness by being with Chrift, Luke xxiii. 43. This day fhalt thou be with me in paradife, John xxvii. 24. Father I will that thefe alfo, whom thou haft given me, be with me. (And remarkable to this purpofe is what follows, that they may behold my glary.) 1'Theff.iv. 17. So shall we ever be with the Lord, to wit, the Lord Chrift, whom we fall meet in the air. This alfo feems to be the import of thefe fcriptures, wherein God and the Lamb, the flain Saviour, are jointly fpoken of, in the point of the happiness of the faints in heaven, Rev. vii. 17. "For the Lamb which is in the midst "of the throne, fhall feed them, and fhall lead them unto living foun"tains of waters: and God fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes," Chap.xxi. ..3. "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will "dwell with them," to wit, as in a tabernacle, (fo the word fignifies) that is, in the flesh of Chrift, (compare John i. 14 and ver. 22.) "The Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple of it." Here lies the chief happiness of the faints in heaven, that without which they could never be happy, though lodged in that glorious

place,

place, and blessed with the fociety of angels there. What I will venture to fay of it, fhall be comprised in three things.

ift, The faints in heaven fhall have the glorious prefence of God, and of the Lamb: God himself shall be with them, Rev. xxi. 3. And they fhall ever be with the Lord. God is every where prefent, in refpect of his effence; the faints inilitant have his fpecial gracious prefence: but in heaven they have his glorious prefence. There they are brought near to the throne of the great King, and stand before him, where he fhews his inconceivable glory. There they have the tabernacle of God, on which the cloud of glory refts, the all glorious human nature of Chrift, wherein the fulness of the Godhead dwells, not vailed as in the days of his humiliation, but fhining through that blessed flesh, (that all the faints may behold his glory) and making that body more glorious than a thousand funs: fo that the city has no need of the fun, nor of the moon, but th: glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof, (properly, the candle thereof) Rev. xxi. 23. i. e. The Lamb is the luminary, or luminous body, which gives light to the city; as the fun and moon now give light to the world, or as a candle lightens a dark room: and the light proceeding from that glorious luminary, for the city is the glory of God. Sometime that candle burnt very dim, it was hid under a bushel, in the time of his humiliation; but that, now and then, it darted out fome rays of this light, which dazzled the eyes of the fpectators: but now it is fet on high, in the city of God, where it fhines, and fhall fhine for ever, in perfection of glory. It was fometimes laid afide, as a ftone difallowed of the builders: but now it is, and for ever will be, the light or luminary of that city; and that, like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone clear as cryftal, ver. 11.

Who can conceive the happiness of the faints, in the prefencechamber of the great King, where he fits in his chair of ftate, making his glory eminently to appear in the man Chrift? His gracious prefence makes a mighty change upon the faints in this world: his glorious prefence in heaven then must needs fcrew up their graces to their perfection, and elevate their capacities. The faints do experience, that the presence of God now with them in his grace, can make a little heaven of a fort of hell: how great then muft the glory of heaven be, by his prefence there in his glory! If a candle, in fonie fort, beautifies a cottage or prifon, how will the fhining fun beautify a palace or paradife! The gracious prefence of God made a wilderness lightfom to Mofes, the valley of the fhadow of death to David, a fiery furnace to the three children: what a ravishing beauty fhall then arife from the fun of righteoufnefs, fhining in his meridian brightness on the street of the city laid with pure gold? This glorious prefence of God in heaven will-put a glory on the faints themfelves. The pleafant garden hath no beauty, when the darkness of the night fits down on it; but the fhining fun puts a glory on the blackest mountains: fo thefe

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State IV. who are now as bottles in the fmeak, when fet in the glorious prefence of God, will be glorious both in foul and body.

2dly, The faints in heaven fhall have the full enjoyment of God and of the Lamb. This is it that perfectly Satisfies the rational creature; and here is the faints everlafting reft. This will make up all their wants, and fill the defires of their fouls, which after all here obtained, ftill cry, Give give, not without fome anxiety; because though they do enjoy God, yet they do not enjoy him fully. As to the way and manner of this enjoyment, our Lord tells us, John xvii. 3. "This is "life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and "Jefus Chrift whom thou haft fent." Now there are two ways, how a defirable object is known most perfectly and fatisfyingly; the one'is by fight, the other by experience: fight fatisfies the understanding, and experience fatisfies the will. Accordingly one may fay, that the faints enjoy God and the Lamb in heaven, (1.) By an intuitive knowledge. (2.) By an experimental knowledge, both of them perfect, I mean, in refpect of the capacity of the creature; for otherwife a creature's perfect knowledge of an infinite Being is impoffible. The faints below enjoy God, in that knowledge they have of him by report, from his his holy word which they believe; they fee him likewife darkly in the glafs of ordinances, which do, as it were, reprefent the bridegroom's picture, or fhadow, while he is abfent: they have alfofome experimental knowledge of him, they tafte that God is good, and that the Lord is gracious. But the faints above fhall not need a good report of the King, they fhall fee himself; therefore faith ceaseth: they will behold his own face; therefore ordinances are no more; there is no need of a glåfs: they shall drink, and drink abundantly of that whereof they have tafted; and fo hope ceafeth, for they are at the utmost bounds of their defires.

1. The faints in heaven fhall enjoy God and the Lamb, by fight, and that in a moft perfect manner, 1 Cor. xiii, 12. For now we fee through a glafs darkly; but then face to face. Here our fight is but mediate, as by a glass, in which we fee not things themselves, but the images of things: but there we fhall have an immediate view of God and the Lamb. Here our knowledge is but obfcure; there it fhall be clear without the least mixture of darknefs. The Lord doth now converfe with his faints, through the latteffes of ordinances: but then fhall they be in the prefence-chamber with him. There is a vail now on the glorious face, as to us: but when we come to the upper house, that vail, through which fome rays of beauty are now darted, will be found entirely taken off; and then fhall glorious excellencies and perfections, not feen in him by mortals, be clearly difcovered, for we shall fee his face, Rev. xxii. 4. The phrafe feems to be borrowed from the honour put on fome in the courts of monarchs, to be attendants on the king's perfon. We read, Jer. liii. 25. of seven men of them that were (Heb. Seers of the king's face, i. e. as we read it) near the king's perfon. O unspeakable glory! the great King keeps his court in hea