Death and Heaven II: The Happiness of Separate Spirits
ATTEMPTED IN A FUNERAL DISCOURSE IN MEMORY OF SIR JOHN HARTOPP.
THE INTRODUCTION.
It is a solemn and mournful occasion that has brought me to this place this day.* Divine Providence, and the will of survilnng relatives, call me to pay the last sacred and pious respect to the memory of the deceased, a worthy gentleman, and an excellent Christian, who has lately left our world in a good old age.
It is something more than ten years since I was engaged in the same service to the memory of his honored and pious lady, when, by a double and painful stroke, the mother and the daughter were joined in death; when the two kindred families were smitten in the terderest part, and each of them sustained a loss that could never be repaired.f
This town was the place which they all had honored with their habitation, and spent the largest part of their lives amongst you; but they are now become inhabitants of the heavenly city, they dwell in the world of blessed spirits, and I would lead your devoutest thoughts to follow them thither. Come then, let our meditations take their rise from the words of the gi’eat apostle, in Ileb. xii. 23.
“the spirit of just men made perfect.”
It is a much sweeter employment to trace the souls of our departed friends into those upper and brighter regions, than to be ever dwelling upon the dark prospect, and fixing our eyes upon death, and dust, and the grave; and that not only because it gives us a comfortable view of the persons whom we mourn, and thus it relieves our most weighty and smarting sorrows, but because it leads us to consider our own best interest, and our highest hopes,
* Sir John Hartopp died April 1, 1722, in the 85th year of his age; and the substance of this discourse was delivered briefly at Stoke Newington, April 15, following.
f See a particular account of the foregoing discourse in the margin. p. ’72.
and puts us in mind of the communion that we have with those blessed spirits in heaven, while we belong to the church on earth. We are co)ne, says the apostle, verse 22. We, in the gospel state, are come to mount Zion to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. What sort of communion it is that good men here below maintain with those exalted spirits, is not my present business to describe; therefore I apply myself immediately to the words of my text, and confine myself to them only.
And here I shall consider these four things:
I. Who are particularly designed by the spirits of the just; and here I shall make it evident the apostle intends not merely the spirits of good men, but such good spirits as are dismissed from their mortal bodies.
II. We shall inquire wherein consists the perfection to which they have arrived, and what are the excellencies in which they are luade perfect.
III. What sort of perfection it is they enjoy, and what are the peculiar characters of it.
IV. How they arrive at this perfect state, and what influence the dismission from their bodies has towards their attainment of it.
And then conclude with a few remarks for our instruction and practice, suitable to the present providence.
Section I. — of the spirits of the just.
Our first inquiry is, whom are we to understand by the spirits of the just here spoken of?
The name of just or righteous men, taken in a large and general sense, as it is often used in Scripture, signifies all those who fear and love God, and are accepted of him. In the New Testament they are frequently called saints, believers, or children of God: but in both parts of the Bible they are often described by the name of just or righteous, and they are properly called so upon these three accounts:
I. Their persons are made righteous in the sight of God, having their sins forgiven, and their souls justified through the death and righteousness of Jesus Christ. So the word is used, Rom. v. 19. By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. They have seen themselves all guilty and exposed to the wrath of God, they have fled to lay hold on the hope set before them, they have mourned before God, and been weary of sin, they have received the great atonement, they have committed their case by a living faith to Jesus the righteous, the surety and the Saviour of perishing sinners; and that God liatli received them into bis favor, and has imputed righteousness to them, even that God who is just, and the justijier of them that believe in Jesus. Now this sense cannot reasonably be exchided from the character of a saint, though the word righteous is more frequently taken in the following senses.
II. Their natures are made righteous, and sanctified by the Spirit of grace. They have a principle of grace and holiness wrought in them; so the world signifies, Eph. iv. 24. The new man, which is created after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness. They were once sinners, disobedient and unholy, as they were born into this world; but they are born again, and made new creatures by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Their understandings are enlightened to see the dreadful evil of sin, and a divine beauty of holiness. Their wills are turned from folly and vanity, from the love of earth, and sense, and sin, to a holy contempt of the world, and a hatred of all that is sinful; from a neglect of religion to desires after God, and a delight in him; from a mere formal profession of the gospel, to the faith and love of Christ, and a zealous pursuit of holiness; and they place their highest hopes and their joys in things divine, spiritual, and eternal.
III. Their lives are righteous, and comformable to the will of God revealed in his word. So the term righteous signifies, 1 John iii. 7. He that docth righteousness is righteous. The just man makes it the business of his life to do works of righteousness, taken in the largest sense; to worship God, to seek his glory, to obey his will, which is the rule of righteousness; to do him all the service on earth that his station and circumstances admit of, and to deal faithfully and justly among men, and to do them all the good that lies in his power.
These are the just men whose spirits are spoken of in my text.
Now it is evident the apostle here means their spirits which are in heaven, and departed from these mortal bodies, because the train of blessed companions, which be describes just before, leads our thoughts to the invisible woild.
If we can suppose any part of these two verses to refer to earth and our present state, it must be when he says, ye are come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, that is, to the visible church of Christ under the gospel dispensation. But then he adds, you are come also to the heavenly Jerusalem, which may probably include all the inhabitants of heaven in general; and, descending to particulars, he adds, to a)i innumerable comimny of angels, and to the general assembly and church of the first-born, who are writ ten in heaven: whereby we must understand the whole invisible clmrcli of God ninong- men, if we do not confine it to those who are alrealy of the church triumphant. And next he leads us to God the Judge of all and to spirits of just men made perfect; that is, spirits released from flesh and blood, who have stood before God their Judge, and are determined to a state of perfection in heaven.
Besides, when St. Paul speaks of fellow-Christians here on earth, it is not his manner to call them spirits, but men, or brethren, or saints, &c.; therefore, by the naked and single term sphits, he distinguishes these persons from those who dwell in mortal bodies, and raises our thoughts to the world of blessed souls, released fi’om the wretched ties and bondage of flesh and blood, the spirits of good men departed from this earth, and dwelling in the better regions of heaven.
I would here take notice also, that the apostle perhaps in this place chooses rather to call them just or righteous men, which is a term used frequently both in the Old and New Testament, that he might include the patriarchs and the Jewish saints as well as the souls of departed Christians. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Noah, Daniel, and David, Job, Moses, and Elijah, dwell in that happy world, with a thousand other spirits of renown in the ancient church, as well as the spirits of those that have seen the Messiah, and believed in Jesus of Nazareth. “What a noble and wonderous assembly! What an amazing and blissful society of human souls, gathered from various nations, and from all ages, and joined together in the heavenly Jerusalem, the family of God above!
I shall proceed now to the second thing I proposed.
Section II. — of their perfection in knowledge, holiness,
AND JOY.
The second enquiry is this, wherein consists the perfection at which these spirits are arrived?
The word perfect cannot be taken here in its most extensive, absolute, and sublime sense, for in that sense it can belong only to God; he is and must be the sum and centre of all perfection for ever: All excellency and all blessedness in a supreme degree meet in him; none besides him can pretend to absolute perfection. Nor is the word used here in its most sublime sense, in which it may be applied to a creature; for when the spirits of just men are made never so perfect, the blessed soul of our Lord Jesus Christ will be more perfect than they; for in all thlnge he must have the pre-eminence; Col. i. 18.
Perfection, therefore, is taken in a comparative sense here, as in many other ]^hiees of Scripture. So St. Paul calls those Christians on earth perfect, who are advanced in knowledge and Christianity far above their fellows; as in 1 Cor. ii. 6. / syeak wisdom amonrj them that are perfect. Phil. iii. 15. Let as many as are perfect he thus minded. So that blessed souls above are only perfect in a comparative sense. They are advanced in every excellency of nature, and every divine privilege, far above all their fellow-saints here on earth.
I desire it also to be observed here, that the word perfection doth not generally imply another sort of character than what a man possessed before, but a &r more exalted degree of the same character which he was before possessed of. The perfection, then, of the spirits of the just in heaven, is a glorious and transcendant degree of those spiritual and heavenly qualifications and blessings which they enjoyed here on earth in a lower measure; implying also a freedom from all the defects and disorders to which they were here exposed, and which are inconsistent with their present felicity.
If I were to branch it into particulars, I would name but these three, viz. 1. A great increase of knowledge, without the mixture of eri’or. 2. A glorious degree of holiness, without the mixture of the least sin. 3. Constant peace and joy, without the mLxture of any sorrow or uneasiness.
Let us consider them distinctly.
1. A great increase of knowledge, without the mixture of error; and in this sense it is perfect knowledge.
Part of the happiness of spirits consists in contemplation; and the more excellent the object is which we contemplate, and the more perfect our acquaintance with it, the greater is our happiness. Therefore the knowledge of God, the infinite and eternal Spirit, is the true felicity of all the ranks of created spirits in the upper and lower worlds. What unknown and unrivalled beauties are contained in the attributes of his nature! What a heavenly pleasure is it to lose ourselves amongst the boundless perfections of his self-sufficiency and eternal existence, his wisdom, his power, his justice, his holiness, his goodness, and his truth! And what a divine harmony amongst them all!
How does the philosopher entertain and feast himself with daily discoveries of new wonders amongst the works of God, and beholds the print of the hands of his Creator on them all! What superior glories are seen by the inquiring Christian amongst tlje greaf(^r wonders of his grace! and he receives the discovery of them with superior delight, for his eternal life is in them. John xvii. 3. This is life eternal that they might hiow thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. To know the Father and the Son, accoi’ding to the revelation which they have given of themselves in the gospel, is not only the way to obtain life eternal, and consequently the business of the saints below, but the knowledge of this Son and this Father in their natural glories, in their personal characters, in their sublime and mysterious relations to each other, and in their most amazing contrivances and transactions for the recovery of lost sinners, may be matter of the most pleasingenquiry and delicious contemplation to the angels themselves, 1 Pet. i. 12. These are the things which the angels desire to look into. And the spirits of the just made perfect are employed in the same delightful work, for which they have much more concern, and a dearer interest in it. We know something of God by the light of nature. The reason that is within each of us shines like a slender candle in a private room, and gives us some twinkling and uncertain notions of our Creator. The notices that we obtain by the light of grace, or the gospel here on earth, are far brighter and surer, like the moon at midnight shining upon a dark world, or like the rise of the morning star, and the dawning of the day. But the knowledge which departed spirits obtain of their Creator and their Redeemer in the light of glory, is as far superior to that of nature and grace, as the lustre of the meridian sun exceeds the pale moon-beams, or the glimmering twilight of the morning.
This is what the apostle describes, 1 Cor. xiii, 9, 10, 11, 12. For we Tcnow hut in part and we prophesy in part. But when that lohich is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I pmt away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, hut then face to face: Now I know in ‘part, hut then shall I knmv even as also I am known. The impeifection of our knowledge in this world consists much in this, that we are liable to perpetual mistakes. A thousand errors stand thick around us in our enquiries nfter truth, and we stumble upon error often in our wisest pursuits of knowledge; for we see but through a glass darkly, but then we shall know even as we are known, and sec face to face; that is, we shall have a more immediate and intuitive view of God and Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, without such mediums as are now necessary for our instruction. We shall know them in a manner something alviu to the way whereby God knows lis, thou-h not in the same degree of perfection, for that is impossible. Yet in these respects our knowledge shall bear some resemblance to the knowledge of Crod himself, viz. that it shall be not merely a rational knowledge, by inferences drawn from his works, nor merely a knowdedge by narration, or rep)rt and testimony, such as we now enjoy by his word, but it shall be such a sort of knowledge as we have of a man when we se« his face, and it shall also be a certain and unwaveiing knowledge, without remaining doubts, without error or mistake.
0 happy spirits, that are thus divinely employed, and are entertaining themselves and their fellow-spirits with those noble truths and transporting wonders of nature and grace of God and Christ, and things heavenly, which are all mystery, entanglement, and confusion to our thoughts in the present state!
11. This perfection consists in a glorious degree of holiness, without the mixture of the least sin; and in this sense it is perfect holiness.
All holiness is contained and summed up in the love and delightful service of God and our fellows-creatures.
When we attempt to love God here on earth, and by the alluring discoveries of grace try to raise our affections to things of heaven, what sinful damps and coldness hang heavy upon us? What counter-allurements do we find towards sin and the creature, by the mischievous influences of the flesh and this world? What an estranged ness from God do the best of Christians complain of? And when they get nearest to their Saviour in the exei-cises of holy love, they find perpetual reason to mourn over their distance, and they cry out often with pain at their hearts, “What a cursed enemy abides still in me, and divides me from the dearest object of my desire and joy!” But the spirits of the just made perfect have the nearest views of God their Father and their Saviour; and as they see them face to face, so, may I venture to express it, they love them with a union of heart to heart; for /^^ that is joined to the Lord in the nearest union in heaven, may well be called one spirit with Azm, since the apostle says the same thing of the saints on earth,
1 Cot.yI 17.
As our love of God is itnperfect here, so is all our devotion and worship.
While we are in this world, sin mingles with all our religious duties: We come before God with our prayers and our songs, but our thoughts wander from him in the midst of worship, and we are gone on a sudden to the ends of the earth. We go up to his temple, and we try to serve him there an hour or two; then we return to the world, and we almost forget the delights of tLe sanctuary, and the God we have seen there. But the spirits of the just made perfect are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; Rev. vii. 15. And though they may not be literally engaged in one everlasting act of worship, yet they are ever busy in some glorious services for him. If they should be sent on any message to other worlds, yet they never wander from the sight of their God: For if the guardian angels of children always heJtold the face of our heavenly Father Matt, xviii. 10, even when they are employed in their divine errands to our world, much more may we suppose the spirits of just men made perfect never lose the blissful vision, whatsoever their employments shall or can be.
And as our acts of worship on earth and converse with God are very imperfect, so is our zeal and activity for God extremely defective; but it shall be ever bright and burning in the upper world.
When we would exert our zeal for God on earth, how many corrupt affections mix with that zeal and spoil it! Dead flies, that cause that noble ointment to send forth a, stinhing savor! How much of self, and pride, and vain ambition too often mingle with our desires to serve Christ and his gospel! Some have preached Christ out of vain glory, or envy; and a mixture of those vices may taint our pious ministrations. When we seem to drive furiously, like Jehu to the destruction of the priests and the woiship of Baal, too often the wildfire of our lusts and passions, our envy and wrath, and secret revenge join together to animate our chariot-wheels. When we are ready to say with him, come, and see my zeal for the Lord, perhaps God espies in our hearts too much of the same carnal mixture; for Jehu exalted the true God, that he might establish himself a king; 2 Kings x. 16. But the spirits of the just are perfect in zeal, and pure from all mixtures. Their veiy natures are like the angels; they are so many flames of sacred and unpolluted fire, the ministers of God that do his pleasure, and then hide their fiices behind their wings; when they have done all for God, they fall down and confess they are nothing.
Temptation and sin have no place in those happy regions. These are the evils that belong to earth and hell; but within the gates of heaven nothing must enter that tempteth, nothing that defileth; Rev. xxi. 27. It is the mixture of sinful thoughts and idle words, sinful actions and irregular affections, that makes our state of holiness so imperfect here below. We groan within ourselves, being burdened; we would be rid of these criminal weaknesses, these guilty attendants of our lives: But the spirits above are under a sweet necessity of being for ever holy; their natures have put on perfection; the image of God is so fir completed in them, that nothing contrary to the divine nature remains in all their frame, for they see God in all the fairest beauties of his holiness, and they adore and love. They behold him without a veil, and are changed into the same image from glory to glory; 2 Cor. iii. 10. If these words are applicable to the state of gi-ace, much more to that of glory. They see Christ as he is, and they are made completely like him, 1 John iii. 2, which is tiue concerning the state of separate spirits, as well as the hour of resurrection.
As their love to God is perfect, so is their love to all their fellow-saints.
AVe try to love our fellow-creatures and fellow-Christians here on earth; but we have so many corrupt passions of our own, and so many infirmities and imperfections belong to our neighbors also, that mutual love is very imperfect. Love is the fulfilling of the laio; Rom. xiii. 10. But we shall never fulfil that law perfectly till we are joined to the spirits of the just in glory, where there is no inhabitant without the flame of sacred love, no single spirit unlovely or unbeloved.
In those happy mansions there is no envy raised by the perfections or the honors of our neighbor spirits; no detracting thought is known there, no reproachful word is heard in that country; and perhaps no woid of reproach is to be found in the whole heavenly language. Malice and slander, and the very names of infamy, are unknown in those regions; and wrath and strife are eternal strangers. No divided opinions, no party quarrels, no seeds of discord are sown in heaven. Our little angry jars and contentions have no place there, and the noise of war and controversy ceases for ever. There are no oflfences given, and none are taken in that world of love. Neither injury nor resentment is ever known or practised there, those bitter and fatal springs of revenge and blood. Universal benevolence runs through the whole kingdom; each spirit wishes well to his neighbor as to himself; and till we arrive there, we shall never be made perfect in love, nor shall we see the blessed characters of it described in the Scriptures fully copied out in living examples.
In that holy world dwells God himself, who is original love; there resides our Lord Jesus Christ, who is love incarnate; and from that sacred head flows an eternal stream of love through every member, and blesseth all the inhabitants of that land with its divine refreshments. Holiness is perfect among the spirits of the just, because love is perfect there.
Objection. But are there not several graces and virtues that belong to the saints on earth that are finished at death, and can have no room in heaven? How then can perfection of holiness in heaven consist in an increase of the same graces we practised on earth?
Answer. Yes; there are several such virtues and such graces as faith and repentance, and godly sorrow, patience, and forbearance, love to enemies, and forgiveness of injuries, &g. But all these arise from the very imperfection of our present state, from the sins and follies of ourselves or our fellow-creatures. Faith arises from the want of sight; repentance from the returns of guilt; godly sorrow from the workings of sin in us. Patience owes its very nature and exercise to the afflictions we sustain from the hand of God; and forbearance and forgiveness respects the injuries that we receive from our fellow-creatures. But in heaven faith, so far as it regards the absence of God and Christ, is lost in sight and enjoyment, as the light of a glimmering taper is lost in the blaze of sunbeams. Repentance of old sins, so far as it is attended with any painful or shameful passions, ceases for ever in heaven, and there is no new guilt for us to repent of; there shall be no evil working in us to give pain to the spirit; no affliction from God to demand a patient submission; no injuries from men to be borne or forgiven.
But thei-e is the same pious temper still continues in the spirits of the just made perfect, which was the spring of those graces on earth; and could the objects or occasions of them return, every spirit there would exercise the same grace, and that in a more glorious and perfect manner, for their veiy natures are all over holy.
III. The last thing I shall mention, wherein the perfection of the saints above consists, is, their constant peace and exalted joy without any mixture of sorrow or uneasiness; and this is joy and peace in perfection.
If our knowledge, our love, and our holiness are imperfect on earth, our joys must be so. The mistakes and the follies to which we are liable here below, the guilt that pains the conscience, and the sin that is restless and ever working within us, will bring forth fruits of present sorrow where they do not produce the fruit of eternal death. A saint in this world will groan under these burdens; and it is divinely natural for him to cry out, 0 wretched man! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Rom. vii. 24.
Thus there arc many things that are within us, and that belong to us in this world, that forbid the perfection of our joys. And besides all these, we are attached and tied down to many other uneasinesses while we dwell on earth.
This world is a fair theatre of the wisdom and power of God, but it is hung round and repleuislied wilh temptations to fallen man, proper for a state of trial; soft and flattering temptations, that by the senses are ever drawing away the soul from God and heaven, and breaking in upon its divine repose and joy; and while we are surrounded with a thousand dangers, we can not be said to dwell in perfect peace. The follies and the crimes of others afflict the soul of a good man, and put him to pain, as the righteous soul of Lot was vexed in Sodom from day to day with their unlawful deeds; 2 Pet. ii. 8. The greater vexations, and the little teazing accidents of life that attend us, distui b the sacred rest of the saint, and ruffle or wound his spirit. And the best of men on this account are sometimes ready to cry out with David, Psalm cxx. 5. 6. Wo is me that I sojourn in Meshech, and dwell in the tents of Kedar: My soul hath long dwelt with them that hate peace. 0 that I had wings like a dovefor then would I fly away and he at rest; Psalm Iv. 6.
And sometimes God himself is absent from the soul that longs after him; he hides his face and then who can behold it? We are smitten with a sense of sin, and the conscience is restless. We wander from thing to thing in much confusion of spirit; we go from providences to ordinances, from one word in the Bible to another, from self-examination and inward guilt to the blood of Christ, and the mercy of the Father; and it may be outward sorrows fall on as at the same time, guilt and judgment attend us at once: The deep of affliction calls to the deep of sin at the noise of the floods of divine anger. Psalm xlii. 7. We are kept in the dark for a season, and we see not the light of his countenance, nor know our own interest in his love. We go forward, as Job did, but he is not there; and backward, but we cannot perceive him, &c. All the comfort that a good man hath at such a season is to appeal to God that he knoweth the way that I take; when he hath tried me, I humbly hope I shall come forth as gold; Job. xxiii. 8, 9, 10.
But the sjnrits of the just made jKrfect are in peaceful and joyous circumstances. They know God, for they see his face; they know that they love him, for they feel and enjoy it as the wai-mest and sweetest affection of their hearts; and they are sure God loves them too, for every moment they taste his love, and live upon it in all the rich vaiieties of its nianitestation.
Oh! what unknown and endless satisfactions of mind arise from the full assurance of the love of God! Wiat tongue can express, or what heart can conceive the sacred pleasure that fills every soul in heaven under the immediate impressions of divine love! When the poor, trembling, doubting believer, that knew himself to be infinitely unworthy of the favor of God, or of the meanest place in his house, shall be acknowledged as a son in the midst of his Father’s court on high, and amongst millions of congratulating angels.
No cloud shall ever interpose, no melancholy gloom, no shadow of darkness shall ever arise in these regions; for the countenance of God, like the sun in its highest strength, shall shine and smile upon them for ever. And through the length of all their immortality, there shall not be the least interruption of the sweet intercourse of love on God’s side or on theirs.
In that world there is no sorrow, for there is no sin; the inhabitants of that city, of the heavenly Jerusalem, shall never say I am sick; for the ‘peojple that dioell therein shall he forgiven their iniquity; Isaiah x.xxiii. 24. When the righteous are dismissed from this flesh they enter into peace their bodies rest in their beds of earth, and their spirits walk in heaven, each one in his own uprightness; Isaiah lvii. 2. And as there is no sin within them to render them uneasy, so there is no troublesome guest, no evil attendant without them, that can give them fear or pain; no sinners to vex them, no tempter to deceive them, no spirit of hell to devour or destroy; Isaiah xxxv. 9, 10. Wo lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall fee away.
God himself shall never be absent, and then they cannot be unhappy. They behold his face in righteousness, and they are satisfied when they awake with his likeness; Psalm xvii. 15. When they leave this world of dreams and shadows, and awake into that bright world of spirits, they behold the ftice of God, and are made like him, as well as when their bodies shall awake out of the dust of death in the morning of the resurrection, formed in the image of the blessed Jesus. That glorious scripture, in Rev. xxi. 3, 4, be the sense of it what it will, can never be fulfilled in more glory on earth than belongs to the state of heaven. The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.
The saints above see their blessed Lord and Saviour in all his exalted glories, and they are with him where he is, according to his own prayer, and his own promise, John xvii. 24. and xiv, 3. They are absent from the hody and present with the Lord. They have esteemed him on earth above all things, and longed after the sight of his face, whom having not seen they loved; 1 Pet. i. 8. but now they behold him, the dear Redeemer that gave his life and blood for them, they rejoice luith joy much more unspeakable and full of superior glory.
Thus I have shewn wherein this perfection of spirits in heaven consists. It is a high and glorious degree of all those excellencies and prilnleges they were blessed with on earth, without any mixture of the contrary evil. It is a perfection of knowledge, holiness, and joy.
And canst thou hear of all this glory, O my soul, and meditate of all this joy, and yet cleave to earth and the dust still? Hast thou not often mourned over thy ignorance, and felt a sensible pain in the narrowness, the darkness, and the confusion of thy ideas, after the utmost stretch and labor of thought? IIow little dost thou know of the essence of God, even thy God, and how little of the two united natures of Jesus, thy beloved Saviour? How small and scanty is thy knowledge of thyself, and of all ‘thy fellow-spirits, while thou art here imprisoned in a cottage of clay? And art thou willing to abide in this dark prison still, with all thy follies and mistakes about thee? Does not the land of light above invite thy longing, and awaken thy desires; those bright regions where knowledge is made perfect, and where thy God and thy Redeemer are seen without a veil. And is not the perfect holiness of heaven another allurement to thee, O my soul? Dost thou not stretch thy wings for flight at the very mention of a world without temptation and without sin? IIow often hast thou groaned here under the burden of thy guilt, and the body of death? How hard hast thou wrestled with thy inbred iniquities? An hourly war, and a long, toilsome conflict! How hast thou mourned in secret, and complained to thy God of these restless inward enemies of thy peace? And art thou so backward still to enter into those peaceful regions, where these enemies can never come, and where battle and war are known no more, but perfect and everlasting holiness adorns the inhabitants, and crowns of victory and triumph.
Oh the shattered and imperfect devotion of the best saints on earth! Oh the feeble fluttering efforts of praise! What ])Oor hallelujahs we send up to heaven on notes of discord, and, as it were, on broken strings? Art thou not willing, O ray soul, to honor thy God and thy Saviour with sweeter harmony? And yet what a reluctance dost thou shew to ejiter into that world of joy and praise, because the dark shadow of death hangs over the passage? Come, awake, arise, shake otf thy fears; and let the sense and notice of what the spirits of the just above enjoy, raise thy courage, and excite thee to meet the first summons with sacred delight and rapture.
But I fear I have dwelt too long upon these three last particulars, because they are matters of more obvious notice, and more frequent discoui’se; yet they are so entertaining, that I knew not how to leave them. But I would not spend all my time on common topics, while I am paying honor to the memory of an uncommon Christian.
I proceed therefore to the next general head.
Section III. — of the various kinds and degrees of the
EMPLOYMENTS AND PLEASURES OF HEAVEN.
Having sheM^n that by the spirits of just men in my text we are to understand the souls of all the pious and the good that have left the body; and having described their perfection as a state of complete knowledge, holiness, and joy; the third thing I am to consider is, what sort of perfection this is, or what are some of the special characters of it. And here I beg your attention to some pleasing speculations which are agreeable to the word of God, and to the nature and reason of things, and which have often given my thoughts a sacred entertainment.
I. It is such a perfection as admits of great variety of employments and pleasures, according to the various turn and genius of each particular spirit. For the word perfection does not necessarily imply a state of universal and constant uniformity.
That the mind of every man here on earth has a difierent turn of genius, and peculiar manner of thought, is evident to every wise observer. And why should not every pious mind or spirit carry to heaven with it so much of that turn and manner as is natural and innocent? I grant it is a possible thing, that many ditierent geniuses of men on earth may perhaps be accounted for by the different constitution of the body, the frame of the brain, and the various texture of the nerves, or may be ascribed to the coarser or finer blood, and corporeal spirits, as well as to dilferent forms of education and custom, &c. These may be able to produce a wouderous variety in the tempers and turns of inclination, even though all souls were originally the same: But I dare not assert that there is no difteronco betwixt the souls themselves, at their first creation and union with the body. There arc some considerations would lead one to believe, that there are real diversities of genius among the spirits themselves in their own nature.
God, the great Creator, hath seemed to delight hinjself in a rich variety of productions in all his worlds which we are acquainted with. Let us make a pause here, and stand still and survey the overflowing riches of his wisdom, which are laid out on this little s])ot of his vast dominions, this earthly globe on which we tread; and we may imagine the same variety and riches overspreading all those upper worlds which we call planets or stars.
What an amazing multi[)licity of kinds of creatures dwell on this earth? If we search the animated world and survey it, we shall lind there are some that fly, some that creep or slide, and some walk on feet or run; and every sort of animals clothed with a proler covering, some of them more gay and magnificent in their attire than Solomon in all his glory; and each of them furnished with limbs, powers, and properties fitted for their own support, convenience and safety. IIow various are the kinds of birds and beasts that pass daily before our eyes. The fields and the woods, the Ibrests and the deserts, have their different inhabitants. The savage and the domestic animals how numerous they are! and the fowl both wild and tame! What riches of dress and drapery are provided to clothe them in all their proper habits of nature? What an infinite number of painted insects fill the air, and overspread the ground? What bright spangles adorn their little bodies and their wings when they appear in their summer livery? What interwoven streaks of scarlet beauty mingled with green and gold? AVe behold a strange profusion of divine wisdom yearly in our own climate in these little animated crumbs of clay, as well as in the animals of larger size. And yet there are multitudes of new strange creatures that we read of in the narratives of foreign countiies; and what a vast profusion of entertainments for them all? How are the mountains and meadows adorned with a surprising plenty of grass and herbs, fruits and flowers, almost infinite, for the use of man and meaner animals?
In tlje world of waters a thousand unknown creatures swim and sport themselves, and leap with excess of life even in the freezing ^e-is. Millions of hdiabitante range through that liquid wilderness with swiftest motion, and in the wonders of their frame and nature proclaim the skill of an Almighty Maker. Others of the watery kind are but half alive, and are tossed from place to place by the heaving ocean. Think of the leviathan, the eel, and the oyster, and tell me if God has not shewn a rich variety of contrivance in them:
And as various as their nature is, so various is the means of their life; proper beds of lodging are provided for them, and variety of food suited to u|)liold every nature.
Mankind is a world of itself, made up of the mingled or united natures of flesh and spirit. What an infinite difference of feces and features among the sons and daughters of men? And how much more various are the turns of their appetites, tempers, and inclinations, their humors and passions? And what glorious employment hath divine wisdom ordained for itself in framing these millions of creatures with understandings and wills of so inconceivable a variety, so vast a dilference of genius and inclination, to be the subjects of its providential government? And what a surprising harmony is there in the immense and incomprehensible scheme of divine counsels, arising from the various stations and businesses of meu so infinitely diversified and distinct from one another, and centering in one great end, the divine glory? An amazing contrivance, and a design worthy of God.
Now is the pure intellectual world alone destitute of this delightful variety? Is the nature of spirits utterly incapable of this diversity and beauty, without the aids of flesh and blood? Hath the wisdom of God displayed no riches of contrivance there? And must there be such a dull uniformity no where but in the country where spirits dwell, spirits the noblest parts of God’s creation and dominion? Has he poured out all the various glories of divine art and workmanship in the inanimate and brutal or animal world, and left the higher sort of creatures all of one genius, and one turn and mould, to replenish all the intellectual regions? Surely it is hard to believe it.
In the world of angels we find various kinds and orders. St. Paul tells us of thrones and dominions, and 2)rinclpalitics / Col. i. 16. and St. Peter speaks of angels, and authorities, and powers; 1 Pet. iii. 22; and in other parts of the word of God we read the names of an archangel, a sera]jh, and a cherub. And no doubt, as their degrees and stations in the heavenly world difter from each other, so their talents and genius to sustain those different stations are very various, and exactly suited to their charge and business. And it is no improbable thought, that the souls of men differ from each other as nmch as angels.
But if there were no difference at first betwixt the turn and genius of different spirits in their original formation, yet this we are sure of, that God designed their habitation in flesh and blood, and their passage through this world as the means to form and fit them f(jr various stations in the unknown world of spirits. The souls of men having dwelt many years in particular bodies, have been influenced, and habituated to particular turns of thought, both according to the various constitutions of those bodies, and the more various studies, and businesses, and occurrences of life. Surely then we may with reason suppose the spirits departing from flesh to carry with them some bent and inclination towards various pleasures and employments. So we may reasonably imagine each sinful spirit that leaves the body, to be more abundantly inflamed with these particular vices which it indulged here, whether ambition, or pride, or covetousness, or malice, or envy, or aversion to God, and to all goodness; and their various sorts of punishments may arise from their own variety of lusts, giving each of them a peculiar inward torment. And why may not the spirits of the just made perfect have the same variety of taste and pleasure in that happy world above, according as they are fitted for various kinds of sacred entertainments in their state of preparation, and during their residence in flesh and blood? He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God y 2 Cor. v. 5.
In the world of human spirits made perfect, David and Moses dwell: Both of them were trained up in feeding the flocks of their ffithers in the wilderness, to feed and to rule the nation of Israel, the chosen flock of God. And may we not suppose them also trained up in the arts of holy government on earth, to be the chiefs of some blessed army, some sacred tribe in heaven? They were directors of the forms of worship in the church below under divine inspiration: And might not that fit them to become leaders of some celestial assembly, when a multitude of the sons of God above come at stated seasons to present themselves before the throne? Both of them knew how to celebrate the praise of their Creator in sacred melody; but David was the chief of mortals in this harmonious work: And may we not imagine that he is or shall be a master of heavenly music, before or after the resurrection, and teach some of the choirs above to tune their harps to the Lamb that was slain
But to come down to more modern times, is there not a Boyle,* and a Ray,f in heaven? Pious souls who were trained up in sanctified philosophy; and surely they are fitted beyond their fellow-
* The honorable Robert Boyle, Esq., a most pious enquirer into nature, and an improver of the experimental philosophy.
f Mr. John Ray, one of the ministers ejected for nonconformity, 1662, he employed most of his studies afterwards in the cultivation of natural pbilosophy, in collections and remarks on the variety of plants, birds, beasts, fishes, &c., and wrote several treatises to improve natural philosophy in the Bervice of religion.
WIT ^^fAAJ^
saints, to coiitern)>late the wisdom of God in the works of Ids hands. Is there not a More,* and a IIowe,t that have exercised their minds in an uncommon acquaintance with the world of spirits? And doubtless their thoughts aie refined and improved in the upper world, and yet still engaged in the same pursuit. There is also a Goodwin, and an Owen,§ who have laid out the vigor of their enquiries in the glories and wonders of the person of Christ, his bloody sacrifice, his dying love, and his exalted station at the right hand of God. The first of these, with a penetrating genius, traced out many a new and uncommon thought, and made rich discoveries by digging in the mines of Scripture. The latter of them humbly pursued and confirmed divine truth; and both of them were eminent in promoting faith and piety, spiritual peace and joy, upon the principles of grace and. the gospel. Their labors in some of these subjects, no doubt, have prepared them for some correspondent peculiarities in the state of glory. For though the doctrines of the person, the priesthood, and the grace of Chiist, are themes which all the glorified souls converse with and rejoice in; yet spirits that have been trained up in them with peculiar delight for forty or fifty years, and devoted most of their time to these blessed contemplations, have surely gained some advantage by it, some l)eculiar fitness to receive the heavenly illuminations of these mysteries above their fellow-spirits.
There is also the soul of an ancient Eusebius, and the later spirits of an Usher,^ and a Burnet,** who have entertained themselves and the world with the sacred histories of the church, and the wonders of divine providence in its preservation and recovery. There is a Tillotson, f f that has cultivated the subjects of holiness,
* Dr. Heniy More, a great searcher into the world of spirits, and a pious divine of the church of England.
•)• Mr. John Howe, a name well known and highly honored for his sagacity of thought, his exalted ideas, and converse with the spiritual world, as appears in his writings.
i Dr. Thomas Goodwin. And
§ Dr. John Owen, two fiimous divines of prime reputation among the churches of the last century.
II Eusebius, one of the fathers of the Christian church, who wrote the history of the primitive ages of Christianity.
Dr. John Usher, in the last century archbishop of Armagh, whose chronological writings and his piety have rendered his name honorable in the world.,
Dr. Gilbert Burnet, late bishop of Salisbury, whose serious religionf and zeal to promote it among the clergy, made him almost as famous as his Jlistori, of the English Reformation.
The names of Dr John Tillotson, late archbishop of Canterbury; and of peace, and love, by his pen and his practice: There is a Baxter,* that has wrought hard for an end of controversies, and labored with much zeal for the conversion of souls, though with niucli more success in the last than in the first.
Now though all the spirits in heaven enjoy the general ha])piness of the love of God and Christ, and the pleasurable review of providence; yet may we not suppose these spirits have some special circumstances of sacred pleasure, suited to their labors and studies in their state of trial on earth? For the church on earth is but a training-school for the church on high, and as it were a tiringroom in which we are dressed in proper habits for our appearance and our places in that bright assembly.
But some will reprove me here, and say, what must none but ministers, and authors, and learned men, have their distinguished rewards and glories in the world of spirits? May not artificers, and traders, and pious women, be fitted by their character and conduct on earth for peculiar stations and employments in heaven?
Yes doubtless, their zeal for the honor of God, their fervent love to Christ, their patience under long trials, and the variety of their graces exercised according to their stations on earth, may render them peculiarly fitted for special rewards on high: The wisdom of God will not be at a loss to find out distinguishing pleasures to recompense them all; though where the very station and business of this life is such as makes a nearer approach to the blessedness and business of heaven, it is much easier for us to guess at the nature of that future recompense.
Let me ask my own soul then, “Soul, wdiat art thou busy about? What is thy chief employment during thy present state of trial? I hope thou art not making provision for the fiesh to fulfil the lusts thereof; for then thou art fit for no place in heaven, the doors will be for ever shut against thee. But what special works of the Spirit art thou engnged in? Dost thou redeem what hours thou art able, from necessary businesses of life, to do more immediate service for God, to converse with things heavenly? Art thou seeldug to gain a proper meetness for the sublimer employments of that upper world, and a relish of the most refined pleasures.”
But I proceed to the second particular:
II. The perfection of the spirits above, not only admits of a rich variety of entertainments, according to the various relish and inclination of the blessed, but it is such a perfection as allows of difter-
* Mr. Richard Baxter, a divine of great note among the Protestant dis’ senters, need no further paraphrase to make them known.
9*4 C II 0 I C E W 0 R K S 0 F
ent degrees even in the same blessedness, according to the diiferent capacities of spirits, and their different degrees of preparation. The word perfection does not always require equality.
If all the souls in heaven wei’e of one mould, and make, and inclination, yet there may be different sizes of capacity even in the same genius, and a different degree of preparation for the same delights and enjoyments; therefore though all the spirits of the just were uniform in their natures and pleasures, and all perfect, yet one spirit may possess more happiness and glory than another, because it is more capacious of intellectual blessings, and better prepared for them. So when vessels of various size are thrown into the same ocean, there will be a great difference in the quantity of the liquid which they receive, though all might be full to the brim, and all made of the richest metal.
Now there is much evidence of this truth in the holy Scripture. Our Saviour intimates such differences of rewards in several of his expressions. Matt. xix. 28. He promised the apostles, that they shall sit on twelve thrones, jud(jing the twelve tribes of Israel. And it is probable, this may denote something of superior honor or dignity above the meanest of the saints. And even among the apostles themselves he seems to allow of a difference; for though he would not promise James and John to sit next to him, on his right hand and his left in his kingdom, Matt. xx. 20, &c., yet he does not deny that there are such distinct dignities, but says. It shall he given to them for whom it is prepared of his Father; verse 23. Again our Lord says, Matt. x. 41, 42. he that receives a ‘prophet, and entertains him as a prophet, shall have a prophets reward: and he that entertains a righteous man, agreeable to his character, and from a real esteem of his righteousness, shall have a righteous mavDs reward: And even the meanest sort of entertainment, a cup of cold water given to a disciple, for the sake of his character, shall not go without some reward. Here are three sorts or degrees of reward mentioned, extending to the life to come, as well as to this life: Kow though neither of them can be merited by works, but all ai’e entirely conferred by grace, yet, as one observes here, “The Lord hath fixed a proportion between the work and the reward; so that as one has ditlereut degrees of goodness, the other shall have different degrees of excellency.”
Our Saviour assures us, that the torments of hell shall admit of various degrees and distinctions; some will be more exquisite and terrible than others: It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the dag of judgment, who never sinned against half so much light, than it shall be for Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, where Christ himself had preached his gospel, and confirmed it with most evident miracles; Matt. xi. 21 — 24. And the servants who did not the will of their Lord, shall be beaten with more or fewer stripes, according to their different degrees of knowledge and advantao-es of instruction; LuJce xii. 47, 48. Now may we cot, by a parallel reasoning, suppose there will be various orders and degrees of reward in heaven, as well as punishment in hell; since there is scarce a greater variety among the degrees of wickedness among sinners on earth, than there is of holiness among the saints?
When the apostle is describing the glories of the body at the great resurrection, he seems to represent the differences of glory that shall be conferred on different saints, by the difference of the great luminaries of heaven; 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another in glory: So also is the resurrection of the dead.
The prophet Daniel led the way to this description, and the same Spirit taught the apostle the same language; Dan. xii, 2, 3. And many of them, that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awaJce, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt; and they that he wise shall shine, with common glory, as. the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, shall have a peculiar lustre, as the stars, for ever and ever. And if there be a difference in the visible glories of the saints at the resurrection, if those loho turn many to righteousness shall sparkle in that day with brighter beams than those who are only wise for their own salvation, the same reason leads us to believe a difference of spiritual glory in the state of separate spirits, when the recompense of their labors is begun.
So, 1 Cor. iii. 8. He that planteth, and he that ivatereth, are one and every man shall receive his own retvard, according to his own labor. If all be rewarded alike, the apostle would not have said, each man shall receive according to his own labor. Surely, since there is a distinction of labors, there will be a distinction of rewards too.
And it is with this view that the same apostle exhorts the Corinthians, 1 Epist. XV. 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immoveable, ahvays abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Now that great labor and diligence, that steadfastness in profession, and that zeal in practice, to which the apostle exhorts them, might seem to be in vain, if those who were for less Laborious, less zealous, and less steadfast, should obtain an equal recompense.
It is upon the same principle that he encourages them to holy ypatience under afflictive trials; 2 Cor. iv. 17, when he says, owr I’r.lht a-fflktion which is but for a moment, workcth for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; tvhile we look not to the things that are seen, and temporal, but to things invisible aixl eternal. Now if the saint, who was called to heaven almost as soon as he was made a Christian, and went through no sufferings, should possess the same weight of glory with the martyrs and confessoi’s, under the long and tedious train of cruelties which they sustained from men, or painful trials from the hand of God, I cannot see how their afflictions could be said to work for them a far more exceeding weight of glory.
He urges them also to great degrees of liberality from the same motive; 2 Cor. ix. 6. This I say, he that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; and he which sovjcth bountifully, shall also reap bountifully. Which words may reasonably be construed to signify the blessings of the life to come, as well as the blessings of the present life; for this apostle, speaking of the same duty of liberality, expresses the same encouragement under the same metaphors; Gal. vi. 6, Y, 8, 9. Zet him, that is taught in the word, communicate to him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap: For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in ivell-doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. When God distributes the riches of his glory amongst the saints in heaven, he pours them out in a large and bountiful manner upon those who have distributed the good things of this life bountifully to the poor; but lie rewards the narrow-souled Christian with a more sparing hand.
With the same design does the apostle encourage Christians to great watchfulness against sin and heresy, as well as ministers to a solicitous care of their doctrine and preaching; 1 Cor. iii. 12 — 15. Jf any man build gold, silver, or precious stones, upon the true foundation Jesus Christ, and raise a glorious superstructure of truth and holiness, he shall receive a reward answerable to his skill and care in building; for his work shall stand, when it is tried by the fire of the judgment-day: But if he build wood, hay, and stubble upon it, evil inferences, and corrupt practices, or trifles, fruitless controversies, idle speculations, and vain ceremonies, his tvorks shall be burnt, and he shall sicker loss, shall obtain a far less recompense of his labor: Yet, since be bas laid Christ for the foundation, and lias taug:ht and practised the fundamental docti’ines and duties of Christianity, though mingled with much folly and weakness, he himself shall he saved; yet in so hazardous a manner as a man that is saved by tire, who loses all his goods, and just escapes with his life.
When you hear St. Paul or St. John, speaking of the last judgment, they give hints of the same distinction of rewards; 2 Cor, V. 10. For ive must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christy that every one may receive the things done in his hody according to that he hath done whether it he good or had. Eph. vi. 8. Whatsoever good thing any man doefh, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free; Rev. xxii. 12. And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is loith me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Though the highest and holiest saint in heaven can claim nothing there by the way of merit, for it is our Lord Jesus Christ alone who has purchased all those unknown blessings, yet he will distribute them according to the different characters and degrees of holiness which his saints possessed on earth; and those larger degrees of holiness were also the free gift of God our Saviour.
I have often represented it to my own thoughts under this compaiison. Here is a race appointed; here are a thousand different prizes, purchased by some prince, to be bestowed on the racers: And the piince himself gives them food and wine, according to what proportion he pleases, to strengthen and animate them for the race. Each has a particular stage appointed for him, some of shorter, and some of longer distance. When every racer comes to his own goal, he receives a prize in most exact proportion to his speed, diligence, and length of race: And the grace and the justice of the prince shine gloriously tn such a distribution. Not the foremost of the racers can pretend to have merited the prize; for the prizes were all paid for by the prince himself; and it was he that appointed the race, and gave them spirit and strength to run; and yet there is a most equitable proportion observed in the reward, according to the labors of the race. Now this similitude represents the matter so agreeably to the apostk-’s way of speaking, when he compares the Christian life to a race; 1 Cor. xi. 24, &c. Gal. v. 7. Philip, iii. 14. 2 Tim. iv. V. Heb. xii. 1. that I think it may be called almost a scriptural description of the present subject.
The reason of man and the light of nature entirely concur with Scripture in this point. The glory of heaven is prepared for those who are prepared for it in a state of grace; Bom. ix. 23. It is
God who makes each of us meet for our own inheritance among th(’ saints in light; Col. i. 12. And then he bestows on us that inheritance.
As gi-ace fits the soul for glory, so a larger degree of grace advances and widens the capacity of the soul, and prepares it to receive a larger degree of glory. The work of grace is but the means, the reward of glory is the end: Now the wisdom of God always fits and adjusts the means in a due proportion, to answer the end he designs, and the same wisdom ever makes the end answerable to the means he useth; and therefore he infuses more and higher glories into vessels more enlarged and better prepared.
Some of the spirits in heaven may be trained up by their stations and sacred services on earth for more elevated employments and joys on high. Can we imagine that the soul of David, the sweet psalmist, the prophet, and the king of Israel, is not fitted by all his labors and trials, all his raptures of faith, and love, and zeal, for some sublimer devotion and nobler business than his own infant child, the fruit of his adultery? And yet our divines have generally placed this child in heaven, because David ceased to mourn for him at his death, and said that he himself should go to him; 2 Sam. xii. 20, 23. Deborah, the prophetess, judged Israel, she animated their armies, and sung their victories: Is not Deborah engaged in some more illustrious employment among the heavenly tribes, than good Dorcas may seem to be capable of, whose highest character upon record is, that she luas fitU of alms-deeds, and made coats and garments for the poor; Acts ix. 36, 39. And yet perhaps Dorcas is prepared too for some greater enjoyments, some sweeter relish of mercy, or some special taste of the divine goodness above Rahab the harlot; Rahab, whose younger character was lewd and infamous, and the best thing that we read of her is, that her faith under the present terror of the armies of Israel taught her once to cover and conceal their spies: And unless she made great advances afterwards in grace, surely her place is not very high in glory.
The worship of heaven, and the joy that attends it, may be exceedingly difierent in degrees, according to the difierent capacity of spirits; and yet all may be perfect and free from sinful defects. Does not the sparrow praise the Lord its Maker upon the ridge of a cottage, chirping in its native perfection? and yet the lark advances in her flight and her song as far above the sparrow, as the clouds are above the house-top.
Surely superior joys and glories must belong to superior powers and services.
Can we think that Abraham and Moses, who were trained up in converse with God face to face as a man converses with his friend, and who followed him through the wilderness and unknown countries in a glorious exercise of faith, were not prepared for a greater intimacy with God, and nearer views of his glory in heaven, than Samson and Jephthah, those rude heroes, who being appointed of God for that service, spent their days in bloody work, in hewing down the Philistines and the Ammonites? For we read little of their acquaintance with God, or converse with him, beside a petition now and then, or a vow for victory and for slaughter; and we should hardly have charity enough to believe they were saved, if St. Paul had not placed them among the examples of faith in his eleventh chapter to the Hebrews. Can we ever believe that the thief upon the cross, who spent his life in plundering and mischief, and made a single though sincere profession of the name of Jesus just in his dying hour, was prepared for the same high station and enjoyment in paradise, so near the light hand of Christ, as the great apostle Paul, whose prayers and sermons, whose miracles of labor and suffering, filled up and finished a long life, and honored his Lord and Saviour more than all the twelve apo<^tles besides? Can we imagine that the child that is just born into this world under the friendly shadow of the covenant of grace, and weeps and dies, and is taken to heaven, is fit to be possessor of the same gloiies, or raised to the same degree there, as the studious, the laborious, and the zealous Christian, that has lived above fourscore years on earth, and spent the greatest pari of his life in the studies of religion, the exercises of piety, and the zealous and painful services of God and his country? Surely, if all these which I have named must have equal knowdedge and joy in the future world, it is hard to find how such an exact equity shall be displayed in the distribution of final rewards, as the word of God so frequently describes.
Objection. But in the parable of the laborers hii-ed to work in the vineyard. Matt. xx. 9, 12. does not every man receive his penny, they who were called at the first and third hour, and they who were called at the last? Were not their rewards all equal, those who had -wrought hut one hour and those who had home the burden and heat of the day?
Answer. It is not the design of this parable to represent the final rewards of the saints at the day of judgment, but to shew that the nation of the Jews, wdio had been called to be the people of God above a thousand years before, and had borne the burden and heat of the day, that is, the toil and bondage of many ceremonies, should have no preference in the esteem of God above the iientiles, who were called at the last hour, or at the end of the Jewish dispensation; for it is said, verse 16, the last shall he first, and the first last; that is, the gentiles, who waited long ere the gospel was preached to them, shall be the first in receiving it; and the Jews, to whom it was first offered, from an inward scorn and pride shall reject it, or receive it but slowly: And Christ adds this confirmation of it, for many be called, hut few chosen; that is, though multitudes of Jews were called to believe in Christ, that few accepted the call.
There is another reason why this parable cannot refer to the final rewards of heaven; because, verse 11, it is said, Some of them murmured against the good man of the house. Now there shall be no envy against their fellow-saints, nor murmuring against God in the heavenly state. But the Jews, and even the Jewish converts to Christianity, were ready often to murmur that the gospel should be preached to the gentile world, and that the heathens should be brought into privileges equal to themselves.
Thus it sutficiently appears, from the frequent declarations of Scripture, as well as from the reason and equity of things, that the rewards of the future world shall be greatly distinguished, according to the different degrees of holiness and service for God, even though every spirit there shall be perfect; nor is there any just and reasonable objection against it.
Is it certain then that heaven has various degrees of happiness in it, and shall my spirit rest contented with the meanest place there, and the least and lowest measure? Hast thou no sacred ambition in thee, O my soul, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Or dost thou not aspire, at least, to the middle ranks of glorified saints, though perhaps thou mayest despair of those most exalted stations which are prepared for the spirits of chief renown, for Abraham and Moses of ancient time, and for the martyrs and the apostles of the Lamb? Wilt thou not stir up all the vigor of nature and grace within thee, to do great service for thy God and thy Saviour on earth, that thy reward in heaven may not be small? Wilt thou not run with zeal and patience the race that is set before thee, looking to the brightest cloud of witnesses, and reaching at some of the richer prizes? Remember that Jesus thy Judge is coming apace: He has rewards with him of every size, and the lusire and weight of thy crown shall most exactly correspond to thy sweat and labor.
But I must not dwell always on this head: I proceed therefore to the next.
HI. The spirits of the just in heaven enjoy such a perfection as is consistent with perpetual changes of business and delights, even in the same person or spirit. They may be always perfect, but in a rich and endless variety.
It is only God who possesses all possible excellencies, and powers, and hap]»inesses at once, and therefore he alone is incapable of change: But creatures must possess and enjoy their delights in a succession, because they cannot possess and enjoy all that they are capable of at once. And according to this consideration, the heavenly state is represented in Scripture in various forms, both of business and blessedness.
Sometimes it is described by seei7ig God; Matt. v. 8. by beholding him face to face; 1 Cor. xiii. 12. by being jn-esent with the Lord; 2 Cor. V. 8. by being where Christ is to behold his glory; John xvii. 24. Sometimes the saints above are said to serve him as his servants; Rev. xxii. 3. Sometimes they are represented as worshipping before the throne, as being fed with the fruits of the tree of life, and drinking the living fountains of water; Rev. vii. 15, 17. and xxii. 1, 2. And let it be noted, that twelve manner of fruits grew on this tree, and they were new every month also. Sometimes they are held forth to us as singing a new song to God and to the Lamb; Rev. xiv. 3. And at another time they are described as wearing a crown of righteousness and glory, of sitting on the throne of Christ, of reigning for ever and ever and ruling the nations with a rod of iron; 2 Tim. iv. 8. 1 Pet. v. 4. Rev. xxii. 5. Rev. ii. 26, 27. And in another place, our happiness is represented as sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; Matt. viii. 11. Now surely this rich variety of language, whereby the heavenly state is proposed to us in Scripture, must intend a variety of entertainments and employments, that may in some measure answer the glory of such expressions.
It is not only the powers of our understanding that shall be regaled and feasted in those happy regions with the blissful vision of God and Christ, but our active powers shall doubtless have their proper entertainments too. When angels are so variously and delightfully employed in service for God, in his several known and unknown worlds, we cannot suppose the spirits of just men shall be eternally confined to a sedentary state of inactive contemplation.
Contemplation indeed is a noble pleasure, and the joy of it rises high when it is fixed on the subHmest objects, and when the faculties are all exalted and refined. But surely such a sight of God and our dear Redeemer, as we shall enjoy above, will awaken and animate all the active and sprightly powers of the soul, and set all the springs of love and zeal at work in the most illustrious instances of unknown and glorious duty,
I confess heaven is described as a place of rest, that is, rest from sin and sorrow, rest from pain and weariness, rest from all the toilsome labors and conflicts that we endure in a state of trial; but it can never be such a rest as lays all our active powers asleep, or renders them useless in such a vital and active world. It would diminish the happiness of the saints in glory to be unemployed there. Those spirits who have tasted unknown delight and satisfaction in many long seasons of devotion, and in a thousand painful services for their blessed Lord on earth, can hardly bear the thoughts of paying no active duties, doing no work at all for him in heaven, where business is all over delight, and labor is all enjoyment. Surely his servants shall serve him there, as well as worship him. They shall serve him perhaps as priests in his temple, and as kings, or viceroys, in his wide dominions; for they are made kings and priests unto God for ever; Rev. v. 10.
But let us dwell a little upon their active employments, and iperhaps a close and attentive meditation may lead us into an unexpected view and notice of their sacred commissions and embassies, their governments, and their holy conferences, as well as their acts of worship and adoration.
That heaven is a place or state of worship, is certain, and beyond all controversy; for this is a very frequent description of it in the word of God. And as the great God has been pleased to appoint different forms of woi’ship to be practised by his saints, and his churches under the different economies of his grace, so it is possible he may appoint peculiar forms of sacred magnificence to attend his own worship in the state of glory. Bowing the knee, and prostration of the body, are forms and postures of humility practised by earthly worshippers. Angels cover their faces and their feet with their wings, and cry, holy hohy holy, Lord God of hosts! Isaiah, vi. 2, 3. But what unknown and illustrious forms shall be consecrated by the appointment and authority of Christ for the unbodied or the bodied saints in heaven to adorn their sacred offices, is above our reach to describe or to imagine.
Let us consider now what parts of worship the blessed are employed in.
The various parts of divine worship that ai-e practised on earth, at least such as are included in natural religion, shall doubtless be performed in heaven too; and what other unknown worship of positive and celestial appointment shall belong to the heavenly
?tato, is as much above our present conjecture, as the forms of it are.
Heaven is represented as full of praises. There is the most glori(.)us and perfect celebration of God the Father and the Saviour in the upper world: And the highest praise is offered to them with the deepest humility. The crowns of glory are cast down at their feet, and all the powers and perfections of God, with all his labors of creation, his cares of providence, and the sweeter mysteries of his grace, shall furnish noble matter for divine praise. This work of praise is also exhibited in Scripture, as attended with a song and heavenly melody. What there is in the world of separate spirits to answer the representations of harps and voices, we know not. It is possible that spirits may be capable of some sort of harmony in their language, without a tongue, and without an ear; and there may be some inimitable and transporting modulations of divine praise, without the material instruments of string or wind. The soul itself, by some philosophers, is said to be mere harmony; and surely then it will not wait for it till the body be raised from the dust, nor live so long destitute of all melodious joys, or of that spiritual pleasure which shall supply the place of melody, till our oigaus of sense shall be restored to us again.
But is all heaven made up of praises? Is there no prayer there? Let us consider a little: What is prayer, but the desire of a created spirit, in an humble manner made known to its Creator? Does not every saint above desire to know God, to love and serve him, to be employed for his honor, and to enjoy the eternal continuance of his love and its own felicity? May not each happy s])iiit in heaven exert these desires in a way of solemn address to the divine Majesty? May not the happy soul acknowledge its dependence in this manner upon its Father and its God? Is there no place in the heart of a glorified saint for such humble addresses as these? Does not every separate spirit there look and long for the resurrection, when it is certain that embodied spirits on earth who have received the jirst- -fruits of grace and glory, groan within themselves waiting for the redemption of the body? Rom. viii. 23. And may we not suppose each holy soul sending a sacred and fervent wish after this glorious day, and lifting up a desire to its God about it, though without the uneasiness of a sigh or a groan? May it not, under the influence of divine love, breathe out the requests of its heart, and the expressions of its zeal for the glory and kingdom of Christ? May not the church above join with the church below in this language, Father, thy kingdom conu thy will he done on earth as it is iii heaven? Are not the souls of the martp’s that were slain represented to us as under the altar, crying with a loud voice, how long 0 Lord, holy and true? Rev. vi. 9, 10. This looks like the voice of prayer in heaven.
Perhaps you will suppose there is no such service as hearing sermons, that there is no attendance upon the word of God there. But are we sure there are no such entertainments? Are there no lectures of divine wisdom and grace given to the younger spirits there, by spirits of a more exalted station? Or may not our Lord Jesus Christ himself be the everlasting teacher of his church? May he not, at solemn seasons, summon all heaven to hear him publish some new and surprising discoveries, which have never yet been made known to the ages of nature or of grace, and are reserved to entertain the attention, and exalt the pleasure of spirits advanced to glory? Must we learn all by the mere contemplation of Christ’s person? Does he never make use of speech to the instruction and joy of saints above?
Moses and Elijah came down once from heaven to make a visit to Christ on mount Tabor, and the subject of their converse with him was his death and departure from this world; Luke ix. 31. Now since our Lord is ascended to heaven, are these holy souls cut off from this divine pleasure? Is Jesus for ever silent? Does he converse with his glonfied saints no more? And surely if he speak, the saints will hear and attend.
Or it may be that our blessed Lord, even as he is man, has some noble and unknown way of communicating a long discourse, or a long train of ideas and discoveries to millions of blessed spirits at once, without the formalities of voice and language; and at some peculiar seasons he may thus instruct and delight his saints in heaven. Thus it appears there may be something among the spirits of the just above, that is analagous to prayer and preaching, as well as praise. O how gustful are the pleasures of celestial worship! What unknown varieties of performance, what sublime ministrations there are, and glorious services, none can tell. And in all this variety, which may be performed in sweet succession, there is no wandering thought, no cold affection, no divided heart, no listless or indifferent worshipper. What we call rapture and ecstasy here on earth, is perhaps the constant and uninterrupted pleasure of the church on high in all their adorations.
But let the worship of the glorified spirits be never so various, yet I cannot persuade myself that mere direct acts or exercises of what we properly call worship, are their only and everlasting work. The Scripture tells us, there are certain seasons when the angels, those sous of God, came to present themselves before the Lord;
Job. 6, and ii. 1. It is evident then, that the intervals of these seasons are sp?ut in other employments: And when they present themselves before God, it does not sufficiently appear that mere adoration and praise is their only business at the throne. In the very place which I have cited, it seems more natural to suppose, that these angelic spirits came thither rather to render an account of their several employments, and the success of their messages to other worlds. And why may we not suppose such a blessed variety of employment among the spirits of men too?
This supposition has some countenance in the holy Scripture. The angel or messenger who appeared to St. John, and showed him various visions, by the order of Christ, forbids the apostle to worship him, for I am thy fellow-servant said he, and of thy brethren the prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book; Rev. xxii. 8, 9. These words naturally lead one to think, that though he appeared as a messenger from Christ, and in the form of an angel, yet he was really a departed saint, a brother, a fellow-prophet, perhaps the soul of David, or Isaiah, or Moses, who would count it an honor, even in their state of glory, to be thus employed by their exalted Lord; and they also keep or observe, and wait for the accomplishment of the sayings of that book or the Revelations, as well as the churches of the brethren, the saints on earth.
I freely allow immediate divine worship to take up a good part of their everlasting day, their sabbath; and therefore I suppose them to be often engaged, millions at once, in social worship; and sometimes acting apart, and raised in sublime meditation of God, or in a fixed vision of his blissful face, with an act of secret adoration, while their intellectual powers are almost lost in sweet amazement: Sometimes they are entertniuing themselves and their fellow-spirits with the graces and glories of the man Christ Jesus, the Lamb that was slain, in the 7nidst of the throne; But at other times they may be making a report to him of their feithful execution of some divine commission they received from him, to be fulfilled either in heaven or in earth, or in unknown and distant worlds.
There may be other seasons also when they are not immediately addressing the throne, but are most delightfidly engaged in recounting to each other the wondrous steps of providence, wisdom, and mercy, that seized them from the very borders of hell and despair, and brought them through a thousand dangers and difficulties to the possession of that fair inheritance. When the great God shall unravel the scheme of his own counsels, shall unfold every part of Ills mysterious conduct, and set before them the reason of every temptation they grappled with, and of every sorrow they felt hei’e on earth, and with what divine and successful influence they all wrought together to train them up for heaven, what matter of surprising delight and charming conversation shall this furnish the saints with in that blessed world? And now and then, in the midst of their sacred dialogues, by a sympathy of soul they shall shout together in sweet harmony, and join their exalted songs to him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamh. “Not unto us 0 Lord not unto us, but to thy power, to thy wisdom, and to thine abounding mercy, be renown and honor to everlasting ages.”
Nor is it improper or unpleasant to suppose, that among the rest of their celestial conferences, they shall shew each other the fair and easy solution of those difficulties and deep problems in divinity, which had exercised and perplexed them here on earth, and divided them into little angry parties. They shall look back with holy shame on some of their learned and senseless distinctions, and be ready to wonder sometimes what trifles and impertinences had engaged them in dark and furious disputes. Darkness and entanglement shall vanish at once from many of those knotty points of controversy, when they behold them in the light of heaven: And the rest of them shall be matter of delightful instruction for superior spirits to bestow upon those of lower rank, or on souls lately arrived at the regions of light. In short, there is nothing written in the books of nature, the records of providence, or the sacred volumes of grace, but may minister materials at special seasons for the holy conference of the saints on high. No history nor prophecy, no doctrine nor duty, no command nor promise, nor threatening in the Bible, but may recal the thoughts of the heavenlyinhabitants, and engage them in sw-eet conversation. All things that relate to the affairs of past ages and past worlds, as well as the present regions of light and happiness where they dwell, maygive them new themes of dialogue and mutual intercourse.
And though we are very little acquainted, whilst we are on earth, with any of the planetary worlds besides that which we inhabit, yet who knows how our acquaintance may be extended hereafter, amongst the inhabitants of the various and distant globes? And what frequent and swift journeys we may take thither, when we are disencumbered of this load of flesh and blood, or when our bodies are raised again, active and swift as sunbeams? Sometimes we may entertain our holy curiosity there, and find millions of new discoveries of divine power and divine contrivance in those unknown regions; and bring back from thence new lectures of divine wisdom, or tidings of the aft’airs of those provinces, to entertain our fellow-spiiits, and to give new honors to God the Creator and the Sovereign. So a pious traveller in our lower world visits Africa or both the Indies: At his return he sits in a circle of attentive admirers, and recounts to them the wondrous products of those climates, and the customs and manners of those distant countries: He gratifies their curiosity with some foreign varieties, and feasts their eyes and their eai’s at once: Then at the end of every story he breaks out into holy language, and adores the various riches and wisdom of God the Creator.
To proceed yet one step farther. Since there are different degrees of glory, we may infer a variety of honors as well as delights prepared for the spirits of the just made perfect.
Some part of the happiness of heaven is descnbed in Scripture by crowns and thrones, by royalty and kingly honors: Why may we not then suppose that such souls, whose sublimer graces have prepared them for such dignity and office, may rule the nations, even in a literal sense? Why may not those spirits that have passed their trials in flesh and blood, and come off conquerors, why may they not sometimes be appointed visitors and superintendants over whole provinces of intelligent beings in lower regions, who are yet laboring in their state of probation? or perhaps they may be exalted to a presidency over inferior ranks of happy spirits, may shine bright amongst them as the morning star, and lead on their holy armies to celestial work or worship. The Scripture itself gives us a hint of such employments in the angelic world, and such presidencies over some parts of our world, or of their own. Do we not read of Gabriel and Michael, and their management of the afiairs of Persia, and Greece, and Judah, in the book of Daniel? And it is an intimation of the same hierarchy, when some superior angel led on a multitude of the heavenly host to sing a hymn of praise at Bethlehem, when the Son of God was born there; Luke ii. 9, 13. Now if angels are thus dignified, may not human spirits unbodied have the same office? Our Saviour, when he rewards the faithful servant that had gained ten pounds, bids him i£ik.Q authority over ten cities; and he that had gained Jive, had five cities under his government; Luke xix. 17, &c. So that this is not a mere random thought, or a wild invention of fancy, but patronised by the word of God.
Among the pleasures and engagements of the upper world, there shall be always something new and entertaining; for the works and the dominions of God g,re vast beyond all our comprehension. And what a perpetual change, what a glorious but improving rotation of businesses and joys shall succeed one another through the ages of eternity, we shall never know till we come among them. This thought leads me to the last particular, viz.
IV. The perfection which the blessed spirits enjoy, gives room for large additions and continual improvement.
Their knowledge and their joy may be called perfect, because there is no mixture of error or sorrow with it; and because it is sufHcient every moment for the satisfaction of present desires, without an uneasiness of mind. But it may be doubted whether any creature ever was, or ever will be so perfect, that it is not capable of addition or growth in any excellency or enjoyment.
The man Christ Jesus, in his present glorified state, has not such a perfection as this. He waits daily to see his Father’s promises fulfilled to him; he waits till all things are put under him and his enemies be made his actual footstool: But we know that all things are not yet put under him; Heb. ii. 8, that is, all the nations are not yet subject to his spiritual kingdom, nor become obedient to his gospel. As ftist as his kingdom grows on earth, so tast his honors and his joys arise; and he waits still for the complete union of all his membere to himself the sacred head: He waits for the morning of the resurrection, when he shall he glorified in the bright and genei’al assembly of his saints and admired in all them that believe; 2 Thess. i. 10.
O that illustrious and magnificent appearance! That shining hour of jubilee, when the bodies of millions of saints shall awake out of the dust, and be released from their long dark prison! When they shall encompass and adore Jesus their Saviour and their God, and acknowledge their new life and immortal state to be owing to his painful and shameful death: When Noah, Abraham, and David, and all his pious progenitors, shall bow and worship Jesus their Son and their Lord: When the holy army of martyrs, springing from the dust with palms of victory in their hands, shall ascribe their conquest and their triumph to the Lamb that was slain: When he shall present his whole church before the presence of his own and his Father’’ s glory without spot, and faultless, with exceeding joy! Can we imagine that Christ himself, even the man Jesus, in the midst of all this magnificence and these honors, shall feel no new satisfaction, and have no relish of all this joy, above what he possessed while his church lay bleeding on earth, and this illustrious company were buried under ground in the chains of death? And yet you will say Christ in heaven is made perfect in knowledge and in joy, but his perfection admits of improvement.
Now if the head be not above the capacity of all irowth and addition, surely the members cannot pretend to it. But I shall propose several more arguments for this truth in the fulloAving section.
Section IV. — of the increase of the saints above in knowledge, HOLINESS, AND JOY.
That there is, and hath been, and will be continual progress and improvement in the knowledge and joy of separate souls, may be easily proved many ways, viz., from the very nature of human reason itself; from the narrowness, the weakness and limitation even of our intellectual faculties in their best estate; from the immense variety of objects that we shall converse about; from our peculiar concern in some future providences, which it is not likely we should know before they occur; and from the glorious new scenes of the resurrection.
1. We may prove the increase of knowledge amongst the blessed above, from the very nature of human reason itself, which is a faculty of drawing inferences, or some new propositions and conclusions, from propositions or principles which we knew before. Now surely we shall not be dispossessed of this power when we come to heaven. What we learn of God there, and the glories of his nature, or his works, will assist and incline us to draw inferences for his honor, and for our worship of him. And if we could be supposed to have never so many propositions, or new principles of knowledge, crowded into our minds at the first entrance into heaven, yet surely our reasoning faculty would still be capable of making some advance by way of inference, or building some superstructure upon so noble a foundation. And who knows the intense pleasure that will arise perpetually to a contemplative mind, by a progressive and infinite pursuit of truth in this manner, where we are secure against, the danger of all error and mistake, and every step we take is all light and demonstration.
Shall it be objected here, that our reason shall be, as it were, lost and dissolved in intuition and immediate sight, and therefore it shall have no room or place in that happy world?
To this I would reply, that we shall have indeed much more acquaintance with spiritual objects by immediate intuition, than we ever had hereon earth; but it does not follow thence, that we shall lose our reason. Angels have immediate vision of God and divine things; but can we suppose they are utterly incapable of drawing an inference, either for the improvement of their knowledge, or the direction of their practice? When they behold any special and more curious piece of divine workmanship, can they not further infer the exquisite skill or wisdom of the Creator? And are thry not capable of concludinc;, that this peculiar instance of divine wisdom demands ;in adoring thought? Thus intuition, or inimediate sight in a creature, does not utterly exclude and forbid the use of reason.
I reply again, can it ever be imagined, that being released from the body, we shall possess in one moment, and retain through every moment of eternity, all the innumerable ranks, and orders, and numbers of propositions, truths and duties, that may be derived in a long succession of ages by the use of our reasoning powers? But this leads me to the second argument, viz.
2. The weakness and narrowness of human understandings, in their best estate, seem to make it necessary that knowledge should be progressive.
Continual improvement in knowledge and delight among the spirits of the just made perfect, is necessary for the same reason that proved their variety of entertainments and pleasures, viz., because creatures cannot take in all the vast, the infinite variety of conceptions in the full brightness and perfection of them at once, of which they are capable in a sweet succession. Can we ever persuade ourselves, that all the endless train of thoughts, and ideas, and scenes of joy, that shall ever pass through the mind of a saint through the long ages of eternity, should be crowded into every single mind, the first moment of its entrance into those happy regions? And is a human mind capacious enough to receive, and strong enough to retain such an infinite multitude of ideas for ever? Or, is this the manner of God’s working among his intellectual creatures? Surely God knows our frame, and pours in light and glory as we are able to bear it. Such a bright confusion of notions, miages, and transports, would probably overwhelm the most exalted spirit, and drown all the noble faculties of the mind at once. As if a man who was born blind, should be healed in an instant, and should open his eyes first against the full blaze of the noon-day sun; this would so agitate the spirits, and confound the organs of sight, as to reduce the man back again to his first blindness, and perhaps might render him incurable for ever.
3. This argument will be much strengthened, if we do but take a short view of the vast and incomprehensible variety of objects that may be proposed to our minds in the future state, and may feast our contemplation, and improve our joy.
The blessed God himself is an infinite being: His perfections and glories are unbounded: His wisdom, his holiness, his goodness,
I S A A C W A T T S, D. D. Ill
his faithfulness, his power and justice, his all-sufficiency, his selforigination, and his unfathomable eternity, have such a number of rich ideas belongino: to each of them, that no creature shall ever fully understand. Yet it is but reasonable to believe, that he will communicate so much of himself to us by degrees, as he sees necessary for our business and blessedness in that upper world. Cati it be supposed that we should know every thing that belongs to God all at once, which he may discover to us gradually as our capacities improve? Can we think that an infent soul, that had no time for improvement here, when it enters into heaven shall know every thing concerning God, that it can ever attain to through all the ages of its immortality? When a blessed spirit has dwelt in heaven a thousand years, and conversed with God and Christ, angels and fellow-spirits, during all that season, shall it know nothing more of the nature and wondrous properties of God, than it knew the first moment of its arrival there ?*
But I add further, the works of God shall doubtless be the matter of our search and delightful survey, as well as the nature and properties of God himself. His works are honorable and glorious, and sought out of all that have pleasures in them; Psalm cxi. 2, 3, In his works we shall read his name, his properties, and his glories, whether we fix our thoughts on creation or providence.
The works of God and his wonders of creation in the known and unknown worlds, both as to the number, the variety, the vastness of ihem, are almost infinite; that is, they transcend all the limits of our ideas, and all our present capacities to conceive. Now there is none of these works of wonder, but may administer some entertainment to the mind of man, and may richly furnish him with new matter for the praise of God in the long successions of eternity.
There is scarce an animal of the more complete kind, but would entertain an angel with rich curiosities, and feed his contemplation for an age. What a rich and artful structure of flesh upon the sohd and well-compacted foundation of bones! What curious joiuts and hinges, on which the limbs are moved to and fro! What an inconceivable variety of nerves, veins, arteries, fibres, and little invisible parts, are found in every member! What various fluids, blood and juices, run through and agitate the innumerable slender tubes, the hollow tubes and strainers of the body! What
* God himself hath uifinite goodness in him, which the creatm-e cannot take in at once; they are taking of it in eternally. The saints see in God still things fresh, which they saw not in the beginning of their blessedness. — Dr. T. Goodwin.
millions of folding doors are fixed within, to stop those red or transparent rivulets in their course, either to prevent their return backwards, or else as a means to swell the muscles and move the limbs! What endless contrivances to secure life, to nourish nature, and to propagate the same to future animals! What amazing lengths of holy meditation would an angel run upon these subjects! And what sublime strains of praise would a heavenly philosopher raise hourly to the Almighty and All-wise Creator! And all this from the mere brutal world!
But if we survey the nature of man, he is a creature made up of mind and animal united, and would furnish still more numerous and exalted materials for contemplation and praise; for he has all the richest wonders of animal nature in him, besides the unknown mysteries of mind or spirit. Surely it will create a sacred pleasure in happy souls above, to learn the wonders of divine skill exerted and shining in their own formation, and in the curious workmanship of those bodily engines in which they once dwelt and acted.
Then let them descend to herbs and plants. How numerous are all the products of earth upon her green surface, and all within her dark bowels! All the vegetable and the mineral kingdoms! How many centuries would all these entertain a heavenly enquirer!
The woilds of air, and the worlds of water, the planetary and the starry worlds, are still new objects rich with curiosities; these are all monuments of divine wisdom, and fit subjects for the contemplation of the blessed. Nor can we be supposed to have for ever done with them all when we leave this body, and that for two reasons: One is, because God has never yet received the honor due to his wisdom and power, displayed in the material creation, from the hands or tongues of men. And the other is, because the spirits of the just shall be joined to bodies again, and then they shall certainly have necessary converse with God’s material works and worlds; though perhaps they have more acquaintance with them now in their separate state than we are apprised of.
And besides all these material works of God, what an unknown variety of other wonders belong to the world of pure spirits which lie hid from us, and are utterly concealed behind the veil of flesh and blood! What are their natures, and the reach of their powers! What ranks and orders they are distributed into! What are their governments, their several employments, the different customs and manners of fife in the various and most extensive regions of that intellectual world! What are their messages to our earth, or the other habitable globes, and what capacities they are endowed with to move or influence animate or inanimate bodies! All these, and a thousand more of the hhe nature, are made known doubtless to the inhabitants of heaven. These are things that belong to the provinces of light and immortality, but many of them are mysteries to us who dwell in these tabernacles; they lie far beyond our ken, and are wrapped up in sacred darkness, that we can hardly do so much as shoot a guess at them.
Now can we suppose that the meanest spirit in heaven has a full and entire survey of all these innumerable works of God, from the first moment of its entrance thither, throughout all the ages of immortality, without the change of one idea, or the possibiHty of any improvement? This would be to give a sort of omniscience to every happy spirit, which is more than is generally allowed to the man Christ Jesus. And if there be such a thing as degrees of glory among the saints above, we may be well assured that the lowest rank of blessed spirits is not advanced to this amazing degree.
Is there no new thing neither under nor above the szm, that God can entertain any of his children with in the upper world, throughout the infinite extent of all future ages? Are they all made at once so much like God as to know all things? Or if each of them have their stinted size of knowledge, or their limited number of ideas at their first release from their body, then they are everlastingly cut off from all the surprises of pleasure that arise from new thoughts, and new scenes, and new discoveries. Does eveiy saint in heaven read God’s great volume of nature through and through the first hour it arrives there? Or is each spirit confined to a certain number of leaves, and bound eternally to learn nothing new, but to review perpetually his own limited lesson? Dares he not, or can he not, turn over another leaf, and read his Creator’s name in it, and adore his wisdom in new wonders of contrivance? These things are improbable to such a high degree, that I dare almost pronounce them untrue.
The book of providence is another volume wherein God writes his name too. Has every single saint such a vast and infinite length of foreknowledge given him at his first admission into glory, that he knows beforehand all the future scenes of providence, and the wonders which God shall work in the upper and lower worlds? I til ought the lion of the tribe of t/udah, the root and the of spring of David hnd been the only person in heaven or earth that was worthy to take the hooJc, and loose the seven seals thereof; Rev. v. 5. Surely the meanest of the saints does not foreknow all those great and important counsels of God which our Lord Jesus Christ is entrusted with. And yet we may venture to say, that the spirits of the just in lieavon shall know those great and important events that relate to the church on earth, as they arise in successive seasons, that they may give to God, and to his Son Jesus Christ revenues of due honor upon this account, as I shall pro’e imniediately.
And indeed if the limits of their knowledge in heaven were so fixed at their first entrance there, that they could never be acquainted with any of these successive providences of God afterwards, we here on earth have a great advantage above them, who see daily the accomplishment of his divine counsels, and adore the wonders of his wisdom and his love; and from this daily increase of knowledge we take our share in the growing joys and blessings of Zion.
But this thought leads me to the fourth argument for the increase of knowledge in heaven.
4. There have been, and there are, many future providences on earth, and ti’ansactions in heaven, in which the s]^irits of the just have a very great and dear concernment, and therefore they must know them when they come to pass; and yet it is by no means probable, that they are known in all their glorious circumstances beforehand by every spirit in heaven.
Let us descend a little to some particular instances, and see whether we cannot make it appear from Scripture, with most convincing evidence, thnt the saints in heaven obtain some additions to their knowledge, by the various new transactions in heaven and in earth.
When our blessed Lord had fulfilled his state of sorrows and sufferings on earth, and ascended into heaven in his glorified human nature, with all the scars of honor, and the ensigns of victory about him; when the Lamb appeared in the midst of the throne with the marks of slaughter and death upon him, and presented himself before God in the midst of angels and ancient patriarchs, with the accomplishment of all the types and promises about him written in lettei’s of blood; did not those blessed angels, did not the spirits of those patriarchs, learn something more of the mysteries of our redemption, and the wondrous glories of the Redeemer, than what they were acquainted with before? And did not this new glorious scene spread new ideas, new joys and wonders through all the heavenly world? Can the principalities and powers in heavenly places gain by the church on earth any farther discoveries of the manifold wisdom of God? Eph. iii. 10. And can we l)elieve that when Christ, the head of the church, entered into heaven in so illustrious a manner, that these powT)”s, principalities, and blessed spirits, got no brighter discoveries of divine wisdom? To what purpose do they look and -[^ry into these things, 1 Pet. i, 12, if after all their searches they make no advances in knowledge? xlnd nuist angels be the only proficients in these sublime sciences, while human spiiits make no improvement? Can it be su)>posed that those ancient fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom the promises were made, that all the nations should he blessed in their seed, had no transporting pleasures when tltey first beheld that promised seed crowned with all his glory; when they saw their Son Jesus ascending on high, and leading captivity captive, and the chariots of God that attended him were twenty thousand, even an innumerable company of angels; Psalm lxviii. 17, 18.
If upon this occasion we may talk in the language of mortals, may we not suppose those ancient fathers raising themselves on high, and overlooking the walls of paradise, to gaze downward upon this ascending triumph? May we not imagine them speaking thus to each other in the holy transport: “And is this our great descendant? Is this our long-expected offspring? How divine his aspect! How godlike his air! How glorious and adoiable all the graces of his countenance! Is this, saith holy David, my Son and my Lord? the king of glory, for whose admission I called the gates of heaven to he lifted up, and opened the everlasting doors for him in an ancient song? Is this the man whose hands and whose feet they pierced on earth, as I once foretold by the spirit of prophecy? I see those blessed scars of honor; how they adorn his glorified limbs! I acknowledge and adore my God and my Saviour. I begun his triumph once on my hai’p in a lower strain, and I behold him now ascending on high: Awake my glory, he comes, he comes, with the sound of a trumpet, and with the pomp of shouting angels; sing yraises, all ye saints, 2into our God, sing 2)raises, unto our king, sing p)raises. Is this, saith Isaiah, the child horn of whom I spoke? Is this the Son given of whom I prophesied? I adore him as the mighty God, the Father of ages, and the Prince of peace. I see the righteous branch, adds the prophet Jeremy, the righteous branch from the stem of David, from the root of Jesse. This is the king whom I foretold should reign in righteousness: The Lord my righteousness is Ids name, I rejoice at his appearance, the thi’one of heaven is made ready for him. This, saith Daniel, is the Messiah, the Prince, who was cut off, hut not for himself: The seventy weeks are all fulfilled, and the W’Ork is done. He hath finished transgression, and made an end of sin, and hath brought in everlasting righteousness for all his people. But was this the person, saith Zachary the prophet, whom they sold for thirty pieces of silver? Vile indignity and impious madness! Behold he now appears like the man who is fellow or companion to the Lord of hosts. It is he, saith Malachi, it is he, the messenger of the coveyinnt who came suddenly to his own temple. There I held him in my withered arms, saith aged Simeon, and niptui’e and prophecy came upon me at once, and I expired in joy and praises.
And we hope our mother Eve stood up among the rest of them, and beheld and confessed the 2)romised seed of the woman. “O blessed Saviour, that didst break the head of the serpent, though thy heel was bruised, and hr.st abolished the mischief that my folly and his temptation had brought into thy new created world!”
Now could we ever suppose all this to be done in the upper regions, with no new smiles upon the countenances of the saints, no special increase of joy among the spirits of the just made perfect? God himself stands in no need of the magnificence of these transactions: Christ Jesus receives the new honors, and all the old inhabitants of heaven taste new and unknown satisfaction in the honors they pay to their exalted Savioui”. Some of the ancients were of opinion, that the souls of the fathers before” the ascension of Christ were not admitted into the holy of holies, or the blissful vision of God; but that it was our Lord Jesus, our great High-priest, at his ascent to the throne, led the way thither: He rent the veil of the lower heaven, and carried with him the armies of the patriarchal souls into some upper and brighter, and more joyful regions, whereas before they were only admitted into a state of peace and rest. Whether this be so or no the Scripture does not sufficiently declare: But whatsoever region of heaven ihey were placed in, we may be well assured, fromhe very nature of things, that such transactions as the triumphant ascent of Christ, could never pass through any of the upper worlds without enlarging the knowledge and the joy of the blessed inhabitants.
When our Lord Jesus Christ sat down at the light hand of God, liQ prevailed to open that hook of divine counsels and decrees. Rev. v. 5. and to acquaint himself with all the contents: And this was necessary that he might manage and govern the affairs of the church and the world in the several successive ages, according to the counsels of the Father. He therefore, and he alone among creatures, knows the end from the hegiyining, as I hinted before. But as the seals of this book are opened by degi’ees, and the counsels of God are executed in the lower world, doubtless the angels that are ministers of the providence of Christ carry tidings to heaven of all the greater changes that relate to the church; and
ISAAC WATTS, D.D. llV
Jesus the Son of God, the King of saints and of nations, receives the shouts and honors of the heavenly world, as last as the joyful tidings arrive thither.
Nor is this spoken by mere conjecture, for the Scripture informs us of the certainty of it. We have frequent accounts in the book of Revelations of new special honors that were paid to him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamh, at certain special periods of time.
When he first took upon him the execution of his Father’s decrees, the living creatures and elders fell dotvn before the Lamb, and they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the hooJc, and to open the seals thereof; and ten thousand times ten thousand angels echoed to the song with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamh that was slain, &c.; Rev. v. 8, 9, 11. So when the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads, the innumerable multitude of saints shouted salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamh; Rev. vii. 3, 9, 10. So when the seventh angel sounded, there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever / and the four-andtwenty elders fell upon their faces, and worshipped and gave thanks; Rev. xi. 15, 16. Again, when the old dragon and his angels were cast out of heaven, there was a loud voice, saying, now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down; Rev. xii. 9, 10. So upon the fall of Babylon, chap. xiv. and the victory of the saints, chap. xv. and the final destruction of anti-christ, chap. xix. there are new honors done by the saints to God the Father, and his Son Jesus. There are new songs addressed to them at these surprising revolutions on earth, these wondrous turns of judgment on the world, and mercy to the church; all which supposes that the heavenly inhabitants are acquainted with them, and thus their knowledge and their joys increase.
Ohjectio7i. But does not the prophet Isaiah say, in the name of the church of Israel, Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledges us not? Isaiah lxiii. 16.
Answer 1. The words knowledge and acknowledgment often signify a friendly and beneficial care manifested in special acts of kindness and benefits conferred. Therefore the tribe of Levi is said neither to have seen his father or his mother, nor to acknovdedge his brethren, nor to know his own children; Deut. xxxiii. 9. because the sons of Levi slew every man his brother, and every man his neighbor, to execute the vengeance of the Lord upon them; Exod. xxxii. 26 — 29. So Abraham and Israel in heaven, in the same sense, know not their posterity on earth, when they approve of the anger of God let out upon them, and afford them no defence. This interpretation perfectly agrees with the context. But it does not follow, that Abraham and Israel were utterly unacquainted with all the greater events of providence towards the Jewish nation, though perhaps they might not know the lesser and more minute circumstances of their afflictions or their deliverances.
Answer 2. If we could suppose that the souls of the ancient patriarchs were ignorant of the affairs of their posterity before the coming of the Messiah, yet since Christ in our nature now dwells in the midst of them, and has taken the book of divine counsels into his own hands, since the great God-man rules all things in the upper and lower worlds, it is not probable that Abraham and Israel are so ignorant of the affiiirs of the church as they were in the days of Isaiah.
And not only the greater and more extensive dispensations that attend the “church on earth are made known to the spirits of the just made perfect but even some lesser and particular concerns are very probably revealed to them also.
Is it not said, that when one sinner on earth repents there is joy among the angels in heaven? Luke xv. 7, 10. For every such convert is a new trophy of divine grace. And when the spirits of the just in heaven shall, in successive seasons, behold one and another of their old relatives and acquaintance on earth entering in at the gates, and received into heaven, can, we imagine there is no new joy amongst them? Do the pleasures of angels increase when they see a man brought into the state of grace, and shall not the souls of men testily their exultation and delight, when they see one of their fellow-souls, perhaps a dear and intimate friend, translated to the state of glory! Surely every increase of that happy world shall diffuse increasing joy through the holy ones that dwell in it: and tljose shall have the sweetest taste of this joy that had the dearest concern in it. Oh the transporting and celestial gratulations that pass between two souls of intimate endearment at their first meeting there!
The last argument that I shall use, and it is also the last instance I shall mention, wherein the knowledge and the pleasure of glorified saints must receive addition and improvement is, the great, resurrection-day.
The spirits of men are formed on purpose for union with bodies, and if they could attain complete happiness in the highest degree without them, what need would there be of new-creatino- their bodies from the dust? Upon this supposition the resurrection itself must seem to be almost in vain. But it is evident, from the word of God, that the spirits of the just with all the perfections that belonjT to a separate state, wait yet for greater perfection when their bodies shall be restored to them; for as they suffered pain and agony in the body, they shall have a recompense of pleasure too. All the days of their o,ppointed time they wait, till this blessed change shall come; Job xiv. 14. God shall call and the dust of the saints shall answer; God the Creator will have a desire again to the loork of his own hands, verse 15; and the happy souls will have a desire to be rejoined to their old companions.
O glorious hour! O blessed meeting-time! A magnificent and divine spectacle, worthy to attract the eyes of all the creation! When the long-divided parts of human nature shall be united with unknown powers and glories! When these bodies shall be called out of their long dark dungeon, all fashioned anew, and all new dressed in immortality and sunbeams! When these spirits shall assume and animate their limbs again, exulting in new life and everlasting vigor!
Now can we suppose it possible that all this vast and amazing change shall be made by the conflagration of the earth and the lower heavens, by the awful and illustrious splendors and solemnities of the last judgment, by the bodies of millions of saints and sinners rising into a painful or joyful immortality, and yet no new ideas hereby communicated to the happy spirits; no increase of their knowledge, or improvement of their joys?
Shall the apostles and the prophets, the confessors and the martyrs, stand at the right hand of Christ, and be owned and acknowledged by him with divine applause in the sight of the wdiola creation, and yet have no new transports of pleasure running through their souls? Shall they be absolved and approved by the voice of God, with thousands of applauding angels, in the face of heaven, earth, and hell, and all this without any advancement of their knowledge or their blessedness? Shall St. Paul meet the Thessalonian converts in the presence of his Lord tTesus, those souls who were once his labor and his hope, and shall they not at that day appear to be his glory and his joy? Does not he himself tell them so in his first epistle, chap. ii. verses 19, 20. And can we believe that he or they shall be disappointed? Shall that great apostle see the immense fruits of his labors, the large harvest of souls which he gathered from many provinces of Europe and Asia, all appearing at once in their robes of light and victory, and shall he feel no new inward exultations of spiiit at such a sia’ht? And doubtless many thousand souls, whom he never knew on earth, shall be made known to him at that day, and own their conversion to his sacred writings. And shall all this make no addition to his pleasures? The very mention of so absurd a doctrine refutes and condemns itself.
The saints at that day shall, as it were, be brought into a new world, and he that sits upon the throne shall make all thinr/s netv; and as he crowns his happy followers with new and unknown blessings, so shall he receive the homage of new and unknown praises. This is a new heaven and a new earth indeed, beyond all our present apprehensions; and the magnificent language of prophecy shall be fulfilled in its utmost force and brightness.
Doubtless there are pleasures to be enjoyed by complete human nature, by imbodied souls, which a mere separate spirit is not capable of. Is it not part of the blessedness of human spirits to enjoy mutual society, and hold a pleasing correspondence with each other? But whatsover be the means and methods of that correspondence in a separate state, surely it wants something of that complete pleasure and sensible intimacy which they shall be made partakers of, when they shall hold noble communion in their bodies raised from the dust, and refined from every weakness. Is it not the happiness of the saints in heaven to see their glorified Saviour? But even this sight is and must be incomplete, till they are endued with bodily organs again. What converse soever the spirits of the just have with the glorified man Jesus while they are absent from the body, yet I am persuaded it is not, nor can it be, so full and perfect in all respects as it shall be at the general resurrection. They cannot now see him face to face in the literal sense, and they wait for this exalted pleasure, this immediate beatific sight. Job himself yet waits, though the loorms have destroyed his body, till that glorious hour when in his flesh he shall see God, Job xix. 26; even God his Redeemer, who shall stand at the last day on the earth, verse 25.
Not only all the saints on earth who have received the first fruits of the Spirit wait for the adoption, that is, the redemption of the body, Rom. viii. 23; but the saints in heaven also live there, waiting till the body be redeemed from the grave, and their adoption shall appear with illustrious evidence: Then they shall all look like the sons of God, like Jesus, the first beloved and the first born. The spirits above, how perfect soever they are in the joys of the separate state, yet wait for those endless scenes of unknown delight that shall succeed the resurrection.
And there is abundant reason for it to be drawn from the word of God; for the Scripture speaks but very little concerning the blessedness of separate souls, in comparison of the frequent and large accounts of the glory and triumph that shall attend the sound of the last trumpet, and the great rising day. It is to this blessed hour that the apostles in their writings are alway directinothe hope of the saints. They are ever pointing to this glorious morning, as the season when they shall receive their reward and their prize, their promised joy and their crown; as though all that they had received before in their state of separation were hardly to be named in comparison of that more exceeding and eternal weight of additional glory.
What new kinds of sensations shall entertain us in that day, what a rich variety of senses we shall enjoy, what well-appointed and immortal organs we shall be furnished with, instead of our present feeble eyes and ears, and what glorious and transporting objects shall surround us in those unknown worlds, and fill the enlarged powers of the soul with sensible as well as intellectual delights: These are wonders too sublime even for our present conjecture, and are all reserved in the counsels of God, to complete the final felicity of the saints. Thus we have made it appear, that the knowledge and joy that belongs to the spirits of the just made perfect, may admit of large increase.
But can their holiness be increased too? Can perfect holiness receive any improvement?
I will not assert any thing in this matter, lest the manner of expression should offend weaker minds: But I desire leave to enquire, whether those who have the brightest and fullest visions of him are not most transformed into his image, and made most nearly like to him? Now if the separate spirits in heaven are advanced to different degrees of divine knowledge, may they not in this sense have different degrees of holiness too? Is it not possible that one saint should love God more intensely than another, and be more impressed with his likeness as he beholds more of his beauty? Is it not possible that a soul shall grow in the strength and fervor of its love and zeal for God, and be more exactly assimilated to him as it gets nearer to God, and grows up into higher measures of acquaintance with him? Has not the angel Gabriel, the apostle Paul, and the glorified human nature of Christ in any respect more of holiness or love, or likeness to God, than the meanest saint or angel in heaven? Is not their sublimer knowledge and nearness to God attended wdth proportionable rays of divine sanctity and glory-? Is not the divine image in these exalted saints more complete than in the very lowest? And yet we may boldly assert, that the meanest saint or angel there is so perfect in holiness, as to be free from all sin: There is nothing to be found in any spirit there contrary to the nature or the will of God. So a soul released from the body may perhaps grow in likeness and love to God perpetually, and yet it may have no sinful defects either in its love or conformity to God from the first moment of its entrance into heaven.
I shall first illustrate this by two similitudes, and then propose a rational and clear account of it in a way of argument.
When the distant morning sun shines on a piece of polished metal, the metal reflects the face of the sun in perfection, when the sun first rises on it. But the same instruments coming directly under the meridian sunbeams, shall reflect the same image brighter and warmer: And yet every moment of this reflection, from the morniig to the highest noon, shall be perfect, that is, without s2Jot, without blemish, and without defect. Such perhaps, is the holiness of all the saints in heaven.
Or shall I rather borrow a similitude from Scripture, and say, the holiness of the spirits in heaven is compared to fine linen? JRev. xix. 8. The Jine linen clean and white is the righteousness of the saints, ra diKaiLdiiara rCdV dyio)v. Now, though a garment may be perfectly clean without the least spot or stain, yet fine linen may grow wdiiter hourly, as it is bleached by the constant influence of the heavens. So though every spirit be perfectly cleansed and purified from all sin and defilement, yet it is not impossible that the degrees of its grace and holiness, or conformity to God, may grow brighter, and much improve by nearer approaches to God, longer acquaintance with him, and the continued influences of his majesty and love.
Now let me propose a rational account of this matter to the consideration of those whose minds are raised above common prejudices.
The holiness of an innocent creature con&ists in attaining the knowledge of the nature and will of God, according to the utmost of its own p; esent capacity, and the means of discoveiy which it enjoys, and in the various exercises of love to God in an exact proportion to its knowledge; or, to express it briefly, thus, an innocent creature is perfectly holy when it knows and loves God to the utmost reach of its present powers. If this be done, there is no sinful defect, no guilty imperfection; and yet there may be alniost an infinite difference in the various degrees of powder and capacity, of knowledge and love, amongst innocent spirits: One spirit may be formed capable of knowing much more of his Maker than another, and may be favored with richer discoveries. Now if every new divine discovery raise an equal proportion of love in the soul, then is it possible that any soul might be perfectly holy at its first entrance into heaven, and yet may make sublime advances in holiness hourly.
Can we suppose that innocent Adam, at his very formation in paradise, knew all the wonders of divine wisdom and goodness that ever he was designed to attain had he lived sinless and immortal? And then can we believe, since his knowledge of his Maker’s goodness and wisdom was to receive continual advances, that he should admire him no more, and love him no better, after a thousand years converse with him, than he did at his first creation? Now the case of the saints in heaven is much the same. The rule and measure of their duty is their knowledge, and the rule and measure of their knowledge is their own capacity, and their means of discovery. They never fall short of their duty, and therefore they have no sin: And thus their holiness may be every moment perfect, and yet perhaps every monient increasing, as their capacities are enlarged, and receive new discoveries through all the ages of their immortality.
Ha])py souls, whose aspiring knowledge, and love, and zeal, move onward hourly, and get still nigher to their God! Surely while they behold his face in the unveiled beauties of his holiness, they shall love him with warmer zeal, and be more abundantly satisjied with his likeness; Psalm xvii. 15.
After all that I have said on the subject, some will insist on this objection, viz., Can there be any such thing as imperfection in heaven? is it not said to be a perfect state? Now if the spirits above be always growing in excellency and holiness, then they are ahvays defective, and eternally imperfect; which is very hard to suppose concerning the saints in glory, and contrary to the very expression and letter of my text.
The answer to this is very easy to all that will give their reason leave to exercise itself upon just ideas, and to think and argue beyond the chime of words.
Perfection, as I told you before, is not to be taken here in an absolute, but in a comparative sense. Nothing is absolutely perfect but God; and, in comparison of God, the highest and most exalted of all creatures is, and will be, eternally imperfect and defective: The heavens are not pure in his sight, amd he charges his angels with folly; Job iv. 18. Even the man Chiist Jesus shall for ever fall short of the perfection of the divine nature to which he is united, and in this sense will be imperfect for ever. But where any creature has attained to such exalted degrees of excellency as are far superior to what others have attained, it is the custom of the Scripture to call them perfect, and that with a design to do honor to their character: So Noah was a just man, and peifect in his generation; Gen. vi. 9. Job also has this honor done him, ho was perfect and upright; Job i. 1. And the saints on earth are called .perfect in many parts of the word of God, even while they are here on earth, and have many defects and imperfections. So, though it be literally true that the saints in heaven are continually imperfect in comparison of God and Christ, and of what they themselves shall farther attain, yet the Scripture, which delights to do honor to them, chooses rather to call them perfect, because of the sublime degree of excellencies they possess above their fellow-saints on earth: And it is not fit for us to degrade them in our common language by the diminishing and abasing names of defect and imperfection, though their present perfection and excellency admits of everlasting increase.
If any man, after he has read this treatise thus far, and has duly weighed all the former arguments, can see force enough in this last objection to baffle or destroy them all, or can find terror enough in the mere sound of the word imperfect to forbid his assent, I desire he may not be disturbed in the possession of his own sentiments, till the sweet and surprising sensations of ever-growing felicity convince him that heaven is a place of glorious improvement.
This shall sufl[ice for the third general head of my discourse, wherein I hare shewn, that the perfection of the spirits of the just is such a perfection as admits of a rich variety of employments and pleasures, according to the various taste and inclination of the blessed; it allows of their difierent degrees of felicity, according to their difierent capacities and preparations: It furnishes each blessed spirit with a frequent change of pleasures, and it gives room for perpetual increase.
Section V. — of the means of attaining this perfection.
My fourth and last enquiry is this, how do these good spirits of just men arrive at this perfection? I answer, by the death of the body, and their departure from flesh and blood. You will ask, what reasons are there why their departure from the body should bring them into this perfect state? I will content myself to mention these four:
I. Because at death their state of trial is ended, and the time of recompense begins by divine appointment: Now all their imperfections must end with their state of trial.
This is the account of things in the Scripture, Heh. ix. 27. It is apjoointed for all men once to die, and after death the judgment. At the hour of death those words are spoken aloud in the most dreadful or most dehghtful hmguage, Rev. xxii. 11. He that is unjust or filthy, let him he so still: He that is righteous and holy, let him he so still. And then upon the determination of the state, the reward or recompense follows, verse 12. Mij reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall he. Many inconveniences and imperfections, and difficulties, are proper for a state of trial, and by these methods we are trained up for glory. Christ himself was ignorant of many things in the day of his trial; his knowledge on earth was imperfect, and his joys were so too; for he grew in wisdom and knowledge, he loas a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Though he were a. Son, yet he learned obedience by the things that he sneered, and the Captain of our Salvation was made perfect through sufferings; Heb. v. 8, and ii. 10. But when the time of probation and suffering ceases, then perfection is come, and glory appears.
Hail, blessed spirits above, who have passed your state of trial well! You have run the laborious race under many burdens, and you have received the prize. You have fought with mighty enemies, you have overcome a thousand difficulties, and you enjoy the crown. No more shall you complain of the mixture of error with your knowledge; no more shall you groan under the perplexities of thought, the tumults of passion, the burdens of indwelling iniquity, nor cry out because of oppressing enemies or sorrows. The hour of your trial is finished. You have been sincere and faithful in your imperfect services, and you are arrived at the world of perfection.
II. At the hour of death the spirits of the just leave all the natural and the sinful infirmities of flesh and blood behind them, which are the causes and springs of a thousand imperfections.
The very natural circumstances and necessities of the body, and the inconveniences that attend it in this frail state, do very much embarrass and clog the spirit in its pursuit of knowledge, or holiness, or divine joy.
The flesh is a dark covering to the soul; it beclouds our ideas, confuses our conceptions, and prevents a clear and distinct know!* Q(lgQ of a thousand objects. It is a dull dark tabernacle for a spirit’s residence. It has windows indeed to let in light, but those very windows, like painted or curled glass, too often discolor the objects, or distort the shape of them. These very senses of ours frequently impose upon us in the searches after truth, and represent things not as they are in themselves, and in their own nature, but as they are useful and hurtful to us; and often we pass a false judgment on the nature of things by their influence, and are led into many mistakes in our enquiries after knowledge.
Our fancy or imagination raises up false images of things, and we forsake the solid and real truth to follow the shapes, and colors, and appearances of it painted upon fancy. From our very infancy, our souls are imposed upon by the animal; we draw in early many false judgments, and establish them daily. We are nursed up in prejudice against a hundred truths, both in the philosophical, the moral, and the religious life; and it is the labor of an age even for a wise and good man to wear off a few of them, and to judge with any tolerable freedom, evidence, and certamty.
A great part of our life is spent in sleep, wherein the soul is bound up from exerting any regular thoughts, confined every night to a periodical delirium, subjected to all the fluttering tyranny of the animal spirits, and dragged away into all the wild wanderings of dreaming nature; and indeed the thoughts of many of us always, and of all of us sometimes, even when we are awake, are but little better, because we perpetually dance after the motions of passion and fancy, and our reason seldom judges without them. Alas 1 how imperfect is the best of us in knowledge here! But knowledge is not the only good of which the body deprives the spirit. The necessities of the body, hunger and thirst, weakness, and weariness, and drowsy spirits, sit very heavy upon the soul, and hinder it in the pursuit of holy and heavenly thoughts, break oft’ many a divine meditation, and interrupt and spoil many a delightful piece of worship. In sickness oi- in old age, what long and weighty troubles, what tiresome infirmities clog the soul, and what restless pains of nature overwhelm the spirit, and forbid the lively exercises of devotion!
And then also the sinful appetites and perverse affections of nature are very much seated in flesh and blood; so much, that the apostle in many places calls the principles of sin by the general name of flesh. Read the latter end of the seventh chapter of his epistle to the Romans. How doth he complain of the flesh and members of the body, which are fatal instruments of sin and Satan! Read the black catalogue of iniquities. Gal. v. 19, 20, 21, and hear them called the works of the flesh. Pride and malice, and envy, and lust, and covetousness, and wrath, and revenge, are found secretly working in flesh and blood. Oh! how much ar« the springs of these sinful evils seated in the very composition of depraved animal nature! And how is the ])oor laboring spirit of a saint drendfully betrayed thereby into frequent actual guilt, even notwithstanding all its care and watchfulness! 0 wretched men that we are! ivJio shall deliver us / Blessed be God, there is a time of release.
And as our knowledge and our holiness are rendered very imperfect, by reason of these sensible and corrupt engines of flesh and blood, so are the joys and satisfactions of the soul perpetually impaired and diminished hereby. The heart of the saint is in pain to feel sin working in it, and the conscience complains under the anguish of guilt. Blessed be God for the balm that is found in the blood of Christ to ease the anguish of conscience! Besides, what spirit can enjoy perfect peace, while it is tied to so many thousand nerves, each of which may become an instrument of intense pain and torture? And the body itself has sharp humors enough in it to corrode those nerves, and fill the indwelling spirit with agonies. What millions of seeds of painful disease lurk in animal nature, that render this body a most uncomfortable dwelling! And how many thousand strokes and accidents are we liable to from abroad, whence new pains and sorrows are derived to the soul! The wind and the weather, the rain and the hail, and the scorching sun, the air, the water, and fire, and every element, may afflict the animal, and pain the unhappy spirit.
But O happy souls, that are free from all the cumbersome and mischievous influences of flesh and blood! from these instruments of iniquity, and springs of deadly guilt and torment! Happy souls, that are released from sick and languishing bodies, from feeble and burdensome limbs, and all the tiresome and painful disorders of dying nature! that are raised beyond the reach and injury of all these lower elements, these mediums of disease and pain! Rejoice and triumph, ye prisoners newly discharged; ye feel the pleasurable truths that we guess at, but ye feel and enjoy them with a relish of sublime pleasure beyond all our conjectures. Rejoice and exult in your new liberty, like a bird released from the imprisoning cage, and sing with sweetest notes to the praise of your Redeemer. O worship and serve him in the full freedom of all your active powers; attend at his feet with intense delight, and love him with joy mis’peakable and fall of glory.
III. By the death of the body, and their release from it, these spirits of the just are free from all the tempting powers and the sinful influences of earth and hell.
This world of sensible allurements, and this world of sinful men, hath a mighty influence on the spirits of the saints while they dwell in flesh and blood. How often are we deceived into practices of iniquity by the enticing vanities of this life? How often tempted by evil companions, by flattering mischiefs, and ensnaring circumstances? And many times too the fear of men, and the terror of their threatenings, fright us to a neglect of duty, or hurry us into the commission of some active iniquity. Sometimes the pleasing enjoyments of life tie our hearts to the creature by the bands of excessive love; and sometimes the injuries and reproaches we receive from them kindle our fiery passions, and rouse up our sinful wrath and revenge.
This world also is much under the evil influences of the prince of darkness; he is called the God of this world: It is greatly given up to the ravages of the roaring lion, and he worries the spirits of the saints while they dwell within his territories, though he is not suffered to destroy and devour them. But at the moment of death the happy spirit is released from the senses, and thereby from the impressions of all sensible things. All the flattering vanities of this lower world have no more power to entice the soul, than the grossest sensualities could entice a pure angel. Sinful companions can no more invite, and threatening tyrants have no more power to terrify.
The spirit is then got out of the territories of Satan; he i& prince of the potver of the air, but his dominion reaches no farther. The heaven where Christ is, never admits him. Michael with his angels hath cast out the old dragon and his angels and there is no more place found for them there. Happy spirits, delivered and secured from the devil and the world at once, and from all their tempting and destructive influences!
Now when a sanctified soul is thus released both from its union to sinful flesh and blood, and from all possible assaults of the powers of earth and hell, it may be worth our enquiry, whether this release be not sufficient of itself to render the work of sanctification complete, and bring it to a state of perfection, supposing still the ordinary concurrence or influence of the sanctifying spirit? Or whether there must be any immediate, almighty and present change wrought in the soul by a new and extraordinary influence of the blessed Spirit at the very moment of death, by wdiich sanctification is at once completed. Which of these is true I know not. I confess this last has generally been the opinion of our protestant writers; and perhaps it may be the truth: But the Scripture is silent.
Who can tell therefore whether a holy soul, that hath received.
the divine seed of grace, wliicli is called the divine nature, and is regenerated, and renewed, and sanctified by the Iloly Spirit, hath not all its remaining sins and imperfections owing to its bonds of sinful flesh and blood? And whether its compliance with so many temptations, is not to be attributed to its close attachments to corrupt animal nature and sensible things? And therefore whether this sanctified nature would not become completely free from sin, when it is freed from all the influence of a tempting body and a tempting world? Whether the divine bent and bias that is given it by the Spirit of God at first conversion, and by which it maintains continual opposition to sinful flesh, would not make its own way toward perfection without new and extraordinary operations? Whether this would not be sufficient to cause the soul for ever to ascend naturally toward God in desire, and love, and delight, when all clogs and emban-assments are removed? So a vessel filled with upper air, and dragged down by some heavy weight to the bottom of the sea, labors and wrestles with the uneasy burden, and hath a perpetual tendency toward this upper region: But if the weight be once taken oft*, it immediately of itself rises through the water, and never ceases its motion till it come to the surfoce.
I confess this is a nicer speculation, and of doubtful evidence; though when St. Paul lays his sinful compliances and captivity so much to the charge of his flesh and members in the vii. chapter to the Romans, and in other places of his writings, one would be ready to think St. Paul was of this opinion. However, this we are sure of, that a sanctified soul released from the body shall be made free from every sin, and its absence from flesh and the world have a large, if not a sufficient influence to effect this freedom. And if we should grant it, that a soul just dismissed from this world is not perfectly sanctified by the mere influence of this release; yet this perfection is sufficiently secured by its dismission from flesh; for when absent from the body, it is present with the Lord: And this leads me to the next particular, viz.
IV. At death the spirits of the just, released from bodies, enter into another- state, a different world, where they have a thousand atlvantages for improvement in knowledge, and advances in holiness and joy, vastly beyond what any thing in this world could furnish them with.
They see God, and are for ever with him. They behold him face to face, as I have before explained it, in a more immediate and intuitive manner; and doubtless such a sight fills the spirit with a clearer and brighter idea of the nature and attributes of God, than all the former lessons it had learned in the books of nature and of Scripture could ever give it.
They see our Lord Jesus Christ, our glorified Saviour, in such a way and manner as glorified separate spirits can converse with spirits imbodied; and one such view as this will pei’haps lead us into more intimate acquaintance with his human nature and his united Godhead, than many years of converse with him by all the mediums of ordinances, those divine glasses wherein we see him darkly as the apostle speaks, and whereby God and Christ represent and manifest themselves to saints on earth.
And as our knowledge shall receive immense and surprising improvements by these new methods of discovery, so I think it shall in due proportion advance our holiness or conformity to God the Father, and his brightest image Christ Jesus: for we cannot behold them in such a manner without a glorious transformation into their likeness, as I have hinted already.
When a soul, that hath a new nature given it by sanctifying grace, is placed in the immediate view and presence of God the most holy, it will ever be growing into a greater degree of nearness and love, and it will be powerfully changed more and more into the likeness of God himself, as a needle when placed within the reach of a loadstone’s attractive power, ceases not its motion till it be joined in perfect union, and itself acquires the virtues of that wonderful mineral.
Nor is it possible in heaven that, we should advance in knowledge and holiness without an equal improvement in felicity and joy. On earth indeed we are told, he that will live godly shall suffer persecution; a,nd he that increases knowledge increases sorrow; 2 Tim. iii. 12. and Eccles. i. 18. But as heaven is high above the earthy so are the customs and the blessings of that state superior to this; for there are no present sorrows to be known, nor any future to be feared: And holiness has no enemy there. All things round the saint shall have a tendency to promote his blessedness.
The spirit of a good man released from the body, and ascending to heaven, is surrounded with thousands and tens of thousands of blessed spirits of the human and angelic order: When it gets within the confines of the heavenly country, it sweetly and insensibly acquires the genius and temper of the inhabitants; it breathes, as it were, a new air, and lives, and thinks, and acts just as they do. It shines and burns with new degrees of knowledge, zeal, and love, and exults in the transporting communications of the same joy. How vastly shall our unlerstandings be improved by the kind narrntivos and instructions of the saints that arrived at heaven before us, and by converse with the ministering angels.
You will say, perhaps, thar we shall have no need of their teaching when we get to heaven, for Ave shall be near to God hiniself, and receive all immediately from him.
But hath the Scripture any where excluded the assistance of our follow-s])irits? God can teach us here on earth immediately by his own Spirit, without the use of books and letters, without the hell) of prophets and ministers, men of like passions with ourselves; and yet he chooses rather to do it in an instrumental way, and makes his creatures in the lower world the means of our instruction under the superior influence of his own Spirit: And why may he not use the same methods to communicate knowledge to the spirits that newly arrive at that upper world?
There we shall see the patriarchs of the old world, and prophets of the old dispensation, as well as the apostles and evangelists of Christ and his gospel. There we shall be conversant with those blessed angels whom he has used as ministers of his vengeance, or his mercy, to persons and churches, families and nations; and they will not be unwdlling to inform us of those great and surprising transactions of God with men.
There we shall find a multitude of other eminent saints before and after Christ.
Adam doubtless will take a peculiar pleasure in acquainting all his happy posterity with the special form and terms of the covenant of innocency; he shall tell us the nature of the trees of knowledge and of life, and how fatally he fell, to the ruin of his unborn otispring. Unhappy father, deriving iniquity and death down to his children! But with what immense satisfaction and everlasting surprise he views the second Adam, his Son and his Saviour, and stands in adoration and transport, while he beholds millions of his seed that he once ruined, now raised to superior glories above the promises of the law of works, by the intervening influence of a Mediator? Enoch, the man that walked with God and Elijah, the great reformer, shall instruct us how they were translated to heaven, and passed into a blessed immortality without calling at the gates of death. Noah will relate to his sons among the blessed, what was the wickedness of the old world befoi-e the flood, that provoked God their Maker to drown them all: he shall entertain us with the wonders of the ark, and the covenant of the rainbow in all its glorious colors. Abraham the father of the faithful, and the friend of God, shall talk over again with us his familiar converse with God and angels in their frequent apparitions to him, and shall tell us how much the promised seed transcends all the poor low ideas he had of him in his obscure age of prophecy. For we caimot suppose that all intimate converse with our lather Abraham shall be forbidden us, by any of the laws or manners of that heavenly country, since heaven itself is described by our sitting down as at one table with Abraham, and dwelling in his bosom; Matt. viii. 11; and Luke xiv. 15; and xvi. 23.
There Paul and Moses shall join together to give us an account of the Jewish law, and read wondrous and entertaining lectures on the types and figures of that economy, and still lead our thoughts to the glorious antitype with surprising encomiums of the blessed Jesus, Paul shall unfold to us the dark places of his own writings, better than he himself once understood them; and Moses shall become an interpreter of his own law, who knew so little of the mystery and beauty of it on earth himself.
There we shall acquaint ourselves with some of the ancient fathers of the Christian church, and the martyrs, those dying champions of the faith and honors of the Chiistian name. These will recount the various providences of God to the church in their several ages, and shew the visions of St. John in the book of the R(3Velation, not in the morning twilight of prophecy, but as in the light of noon, as a public history, or as an evening rehearsal of the transactions of the day. The tvitnesses themselves shall tell us how they prophesied in sackcloth and were slain by the man of sin; how they rose from the dead in three days and a half and how the chui’ch was at last reformed from the popish mysteries of iniquity and superstition. Cranmer and Ridley, Calvin and Luther, and the rest of the pious reformers, shall make known to us the labors and sufferings of their age, and the wonders of pure Christianity rising as it were out of the grave, and throwing off the chains, the darkness and defilements of Antichrist: And those holy souls who labored in the reformation of Great-Britain, while they relate the transactions of their day, shall perhaps enquire and wonder why their successors put a stop to that blessed work, and have made no further progress in a hundred and fifty years.
Did one of the elders near the throne give notice to the apostle John concerning the martyrs; Rev. vii. 14. These are they which came out of great tribulations and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; and shall we not suppose that the happy spirits above tell one another their victories over sin and temptation, and the powers of this world? Shall not the martyrs who triumphed in their own blood, and overcame Satan and Antichrist by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony shall they not make it known to the inhabitants of the upper world, and tell it to the honor of Christ their Captain and their King-, how they fought, and died, and conquered? Methinks I hear these noble histoiians rehearsing their sacred tragedy; how they entertain a bright circle of listening angels .lud fellow-spirits with their olti glorious and dreadful story, dreadful to suffer, and glorious to relate!
Shall it be objected here, that all the glorified saints cannot be supposed to maintain immediate discourse with those blessed ancients? Can those ancients be imagined to repeat the same stories perpetually afi’esh, to entertain every stranger that is newly arrived at heaven?
I answer, that since one single spirit, dwelling in flesh, can communicate his thoughts immediately to five or six thousand hearers at once by his voice, and to millions more successively by books and writings, it is very unreasonable to suppose, that spirits made perfect and glorified have not a power of communicating their thoughts to many more thousands by immediate converse; and it is past our reach to conceive what unknown methods may be in use amongst them, to transmit their ideas and narratives in a much swifter succession, than by books and writings, through all the courts of heaven, and to inform all the new comers, without putting each happy spirit to the everlasting labor of a tiresome repetition. Though every saint in heaven should not be admitted to inmiediate and speedy converse with these spirits of renown in past ages, yet doubtless these glorious minds have communicated their narratives, and the memoirs of their age, to thousands of that blessed world already, and from them we may receive a repetition of the same wonders with faithfulness and exact truth. History and chronology are no precarious and uncertain sciences in that country- *..
It is very probable indeed, that we shall have more intmiate nearness to, and more familiar communion with those spirits that were of the same age and place with ourselves, and of the same church or family; for we can more delightfully expatiate in our convei-se with them about the same providences and the same methods of grace, and agreeably entertain and improve each other with notices of the affairs of the upper and lower worlds. Nor must w-e suppose such sort of historical converse among the blessed spirits is merely designed to fill the mind with new and strange ideas. This pleasure, considered by itself, is not sacred enough for the spirits of the just made perfect. There is not a narrative in the world, but shall disclose some wondrous instances of divine wisdom or mercy, power or faithfulness, patience and for giveness, or wrath and justice. The speaker shall feel th6 workinga of all proper reverence, zeal and love, and every hearer shall be impressed with correspondent affections, and join in adoration and holy wonder.
And while we speak of the means and advantages that glorified spirits enjoy for their improvement in all the parts of their felicity, surely we may expect the greatest and the best assistances, even those of the Holy Spirit, to render all these means more etFectual. Is he not promised to abide with us, to be in us, and dwell with us for ever? John xiv. 16, 17. Is he not represented as dwelling in the sjnrits of the just made perfect, when it is said, the Spirit that dwelleth in them shall raise their mortal bodies from the dead? Horn. viii. 11. May we not then reasonably infer, that that glorious Spirit, who hath been om* enlightener, our comforter, and our sanctifier on earth, will be our perpetual enlightener, our eternal sanctifier, and our everlasting comforter? He that hath so wondeifully begun the divine work in us, and laid foundations of joy in knowledge and holiness, will he not finish and perfect his own work, and add the top-stone to crown the heavenly building?
O blessed state of spirits discharged from the prison of flesh and this world! this wicked world, where Satan the evil spirit has so wide a range, and so poisonous an influence, and where sinful men swarm on every side, and bear the largest sway! What divine advantages are you possessed of, for the improvement of all your sacred excellencies and joys I When we can raise our thoughts a little, and survey your privileges, we feel somewhat of an inward wish to dwell among you, and send a breathing meditation, or a glance of warm desire towards your world and your society. We poor prisoner-spirits, when we hear such tidings from the country at which you are arrived, we stretch our wings a little, and are ready to wish for the flight. But God our sovereign must appoint the hour; he sees that we are not yet refined enough. Keep our souls, O Father, in this erect posture, looking, reaching, and longing for the celestial world, till thou hast completely prepared us for the promised glory, and then give us the joyful word of dismission.
Thus I have endeavored to make it appear, on what accounts a dismission from the body is both the season when, and the means whereby the spirits of the just arrive at this perfection. Their state of trial is ended at death, and therefore all inconveniences and imperfections must cease by divine appointment: hj death the soul is released from all the troublesome and tempting influences of flesh and blood; it is delivered from this sinful world, it is got beyond the reach of Satan the tempter and the tormentor: and it is surrounded with a thousand advantages for improvement in knowledge, holiness, and joy.
Section VL — remarks on the foregoing discourse.
I. Are the spirits of the just made perfect at the death of the body? Then we may be assured that they neither die nor sleep; for sleep and death are both inconsistent with this state of perfection which I have described. The dead saints are not lost nor extinct. They are not perished out of God’s world, though they are gone from ours. They are no more in the world that is enlightened by the sun and moon, and the glimmering stars; but they themselves shine gloriously, like stars of ditierent magnitude, in the world where there is no sun, nor is there any need of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God enlightens it, and the Lamb is the everlasting light thereof; Rev. xxi. 23. They are lost from earth, but they are found in heaven. They are dead to us at present, but they are alive to God their Father, and to Jesus their Saviour; they are alive to the holy angels, and all their fellow-saints in that upper world.
If there had been any such thing as a soul sleeping or dying, our Saviour would never have argued thus with the Sadducees, Luke XX. 37, 38, nor have proved the doctrine of the resurrection from the doctrine of the separate state of souls. It is as if he had said, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead long ago; but God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still. Now God is not the God of the dead, hut the God of the living; therefore the souls of those patriai-chs are yet alive, for they all live to God in the separate state, and they shall appear in their complete human nature, soul and body, at the resurrection. This is the language and the force of our Saviour’s argument, and therefore I must believe the soul of Abraham is alive now.
When Jesus promised the penitent thief upon the cross, Luke xxiii. 43. This day shalt thou he with me in Paradise, can we persuade ourselves that he intended no more than that the thief should be with him in the grave, or in a state of indolence and snsensibility? Does he not assure him in these words, that there is a state of happiness for spirits dismissed from the body, whither the soul of our Lord Jesus was goino-, and where the dying penitent should find him? So when the infidel Jews stoned Stephen the fii-st martyr, Acts. vii. 59, while he expressed his faith and hope in these words, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit was this spirit of his to be laid asleep till the resurrection? Can we suppose the dying saint would have made such a request upon so lethargic a principle, and in the view of such a stupid state? No, surely; for he expected, and desired, and prayed to be received to dwell where Christ is, and to behold that glory which he had a glimpse of in the agonies of death.
Would the apostle Paul have been so willing to he absent from the body, where he did much service for his Saviour, if he had not a joyful view of being present with the Lord? As he expresses it, 2 Cor. V. 8. What doth he mean by this blessed language of presence with the Lord, if his soul was to lie asleep in a senseless and inactive state, till the second coming of Jesus? Or would he have told the Philippians, chap. i. verse 23, that he had a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better, if he had hoped for no advantage for his spirit by it, but a mere stupid indolence and rest in the silent grave?
Besides, we are told of rebellious spirits that are in prison; 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20, and of Sodom and Gomorrah, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire; Jude verse 7. Whether this be material fire, or merely a metaphor to express torment, is not necessary to enquire here: But surely we can never imagine that the justice of God has provided the prison of hell and fiery torments for the souls of the wicked, separate from bodies, and yet that the mercy and goodness of God has provided no heaven of happiness for the spirits of those that have loved, honored, and obeyed him all the days they dwelt in the flesh. There is then, there is certainly a state” of happiness prepared for holy souls immediately after death.
When we think of our pious friends departed, our foolish imagination is too ready to indulge and improve our sorrow. We sit solitary in the parlor and the chanjbcr, we miss them there, and we cry, “They are lost.” We retire melancholy to the closet, and bewail a lost father, or lost mother, or perhaps a nearer and dearer relative. We miss them in our daily conversation, we miss them in all their friendly offices, and their endearing sensible characters, and we are ready to say again, “Alas! they are lost.” This is the language of flesh and blood, of sense and fancy. Come, let our faith teach us to think and speak of them under a more cheerful and a juster representation: They are not utterly lost, for they are present with Christ and with God, They are departed our world, where all things are imperfect, to those upper regions where light and perfection dwell. They have left their offices and stations here among us, but they are employed in a far diviner manner, and have new stations and nobler oflBces on riigh. Their places on earth indeed know them no more, but their places in heaven knew them well, even those glorious mansions that were prepared for thein from the foundation of the world. Their place is empty in the earthly sanctuary, and in the days of solemn assembly, but they appear above in the heavenly Jerusalem as fair pillars and ornaments in the temy of God on high, and shall for ever dwell with him there.
It is a very natural enquiry now. But where are these places of blessed spirits? What part of the creation is it, in which they have their residence: Is it above or below the sun? Is their habitation in any of the planetary or starry worlds? Or are they fled beyond them all? Where is the proper place of their presence?
Let me propose a brief answer to these curious questions in a few propositions.
1. The chief properties of spirits are knowledge and activity; and they are said to be present there, where they have an immediate perception of any thing, and where they lay out their immediate activity or influence. So our souls are said to be present with our bodies, because they have inmiediate consciousness or knowledge of what relates to the body, and they move it, and act upon it, or influence it, in an immediate manner.
2. God, the infinite Spirit, has an immediate and universal presence; that is. He is immediately conscious of and acquainted with every thing that passes in all the known and unknown parts of the creation, and by his preserving and governing power manages all things. Wheresoever he displays his glory to separate spirits, that is heaven; and where he exerts his vengeance, that is hell.
3. Finite spirits have not such an immediate and universal presence. Their knowledge and their activity are confined to certain parts of the creation: And wheresoever they are, if they are under the immediate influences of divine glory, they are in heaven; if of his vengeance, they are in hell.
4. They are usually represented as having some relation to a particular place or places; because, while we dwell in flesh and blood, we know not how to conceive of their presence so well in any other way; and therefore they may be described in Scripture, or in common discourse, as being in heaven, and above the heavens, and in the third heaven and as coming down to earth, &c., according as they are supposed to put forth any actions there, or to have an immediate cognizance of things that are done in those places; for the chief notion we have of the presence of spirits, is their iminediate consciousness, and their immediate aoency.
5. But if (hey are provided with any subtle ethereal bodies, which are called vehicles, in and by which they act as soon as they leave flesh and blood, then they may properly be said to reside in those places where their vehicles are, even as our souls at present are said to be in a room, or a closet, or a field, because our bodies are there, in and by which they act.
6. There must be some place where the glorified body of Christ is, and the souls of departed saints are, in some sense, with him. There Enoch and Elijah are in their immortal bodies, and other saints who rose at the resurrection of Christ. They may be, for ought we know, in or among some of the planets, or amongst the stars, though the distance of the stars is so pi’odigious and amazing, according to the exactest calculations of the new philosophy, that if the motion of a spirit or glorified body were no swifter than that of a cannon-bullet, they would not get so far as the stars in a thousand ages; nor would the journey of so swift a traveller to any of the planets, except the moon, cost less than the labor of several years.
7. These things are so puzzling to our reason, so confound our imagination, and so far transcend the reach of our present faculties to enquire and determine, that it is sufficient for us to know and believe, that the spirits of the just made perfect have an existence under the blissful influences of the grace and glory of God. And though we freely speak of them, and the Scripture leads us to conceive of them, as dwelling in a world of light, and in some si)ecial place of magnificence and apartments of glory, or as moving from one place to another, yet perhaps it is to be understood chiefly in condescension to the weakness of our present capacities, or in relation to vehicles to which they may be united. But our ignorance in these matters shall be no hinderance to our arrival at heaven, if we tread the paths of faith and holiness, though we know not in what part of the creation it lies. I proceed to the second remark.
II. If all the spirits of the just that depart from this world are made perfect, then there is much better company above than there is below. The society in heaven is much more agreeable than the best society on earth.
Here we meet with a multitude of sinners; they are ready to mingle in all the affairs of life, and sometimes hypocrites join with us in the sacred ordinances of the sanctuary. The apostle himself hath told us, that in the civil concerns of this life we cannot avoid
IS A AC WATTS, D. D. 13t)
them; for if we will keep no company with sinners, we must have nothing to do in this world, we must needs go out of it; 1 Cor. v. 10. But in the world above there are nothing but saints; no inhabitant there but what is holy. Thei’e are no persons there that will tem])t or defile us, or lead us astray from the paths of purity or peace. HoUyiess to the Lord is inscribed on every soul there; nor is there one Canaanite in that upper house of the Lord of hosts; Zech. xiv. 21.
But this is not all. For there are many of the saints themselves here on earth, that make but very indifferent companions. Some of them are shamefully ignorant, impi’udent, and foolish; and we have much ado to bear with their folly. Some of them are morose and contentious, captious and peevish, envious and censorious, and ready to take offence on the slightest occasions; a look or a smile placed wrong shall disoblige them, a mistaken word shall affront them for a month, and it is very hard work to humor and please them: Or we ourselves perhaps are foolish and imprudent, we are peevish and resenting, and our fellow-Christians have as much to do to bear with us or to please us. There are some persons, concerning whom we have reason to hope, that their hearts in the main are right with God, but either by the iniquity of their animal natures, or the power of their temptations, they look so like the men of this world, that it is hard to distinguish them, and their society is dangerous, or at least very unprofitable and undesirable. Some of us fall into gross mistakes, and lead our friends into error, and hand in hand we forsake the truth. Some of us are melancholy, and sit in darkness; then we spread a gloom and heaviness over all our conversation, and banish all the joys of earth and heaven; or at best it may be, and in our sprightly days, we fill up the visiting hour with trifles and impertinences, and there is little of heavenly conversation among us. Poor low grovelling subjects furnish our tongues, and entertain our ears, because we are so very imperfect here on earth in knowledge, in holiness, or in divine
But what a glorious difference is there in the society above, where we may be secure from all mistake and falsehood, from all impertinence and foily in the longest discourse or conference! for every spirit there is so perfect in knowledge as to be free from eri-or, and has so divine a turn of mind, that, nothing relishes but what is holy and heavenly. No quarrels, no complaints are found there to embitter our converse, to diminish the pleasure of society, or to draw the heart away from God.
If we would know what the society of heaven is, let us renew the memory of the wisest and holiest, the kindest and the best companions that we were ever acquainted with here on earth; let us recollect the most pleasing hours that we ever enjoyed in their society; let us divest them of all their mistakes and weaknesses, of all their sins and imperfections; and then by faith and hope let us divest ourselves of all our own guilt and folHes too; let us fency ourselves engaged with them in delightful discourse on the most divine and most aliecting subjects, and our hearts mutually raising each other near to God, and communicating mutual joys. This is the «tate of the blessed, this the conversation of heaven, this and more than this shall be our entertainment when we arrive at those happy regions.
This thought would very naturally lead me to the mention of our honored and departed friend, but I withhold myself a little, and must detaiu your expectation till I have made a remark or two more.
III. Are the spirits of the just, who are departed from earth, made perfect in heaven; then they are not the proper subjects for our perpetual sorrows and endless complaints. Let us moderate our grief, therefore, for that very providence that has fixed them in perfect holiness and joy.
We lament their absence, and our loss indeed is great; but the spirit of Christian friendship should teach us to rejoice in their exaltation. Is it no pleasure to think of them as released from all the bonds of infirm nature, from pains of mortality, and the disquietudes of a sinful world? Is it not better to lift our eyes upward, and view a parent or a beloved friend adorned with perfect grace and complete in glory, exulting in the fulness of joy near the throne of God, than to behold him laboring under the tiresome disorders of old age, groaning under the anguish and torment of acute distempers, and striving with the troublesome attendants of this sinful and painful state? Do we profess fondness and aft’ection for those that are gone, and shall we not please ourselves a little in their happiness, or at least abate our mourning? Doth not St. Paul tell the Corinthians, this is what we wish, even our perfection 2 Cor. xiii. 9; and should not saints in the lower world take some satisfaction when a fellow-saint is arrived at the sum of his own wishes, even perfect holiness and joy on high?
But I correct m) self here; nature must have its way and be indulged a little; let it express its sensible pain at the loss of such endearments. A long separation fiom those who are so near akin to us in flesh and blood, will touch the heart in a painful place, and awaken the tenderest springs of sorrow. The sluices must be allowed to be held open a little; nature seems to demand it as a debt to love, and grace does not utterly forbid it. When Lazarus died, Jesus groaned and we-pt; John xi. 33, 35. Yet let not sorrow triumph and reign, and like a flood break over all its bounds; rather give the stream of it a little diversion into a better channel. Come, let us take the advice which our blessed Saviour gives to the daughters of Jerusalem, who attended him to his cross with tears, Luke xxiii. 28. Weep not for me, hut if you must loeep do it for yourselves and your children; because you are still left in the valley of sin and sorrow, while the saints departed are arrived at the land o:^ peace, and their feet stand upon the mountains of paradise.
Could the voice of those blessed spirits made perfect reach cmears, we should hear them speak in the language of their Lord, “Weep not for us, but for yourselves; you are still encompassed with temptations and difficulties, we have surmounted them all: You are wrestling with many errors, and entangled in dark and noisy controversies; we are perfect in knowledge, and see divine mysteries in a divine light: You are laboring in the race; we are crowned, and have received the prize: You are striving in the field of battle, and we well remember the toilsome and painful conflict; we pity you, and call you rather to weep for yourselves than for us; we have finished all the war through divine grace, and are secure in the city of triumph: You are yet travelling through the valley of tears; we are refreshing ourselves in the gardens of pleasure, and on hills of everlasting gladness. Hold on with courage, and faith, and patience; there are mansions of joy prepared for you also, and we wait your happy arrival.”
IV. Are the spirits of just men in heaven made perfect in the same excellencies and privileges which they possessed on earth? Then if our curiosity or our love has a mind to know what are the circumstances of our pious friends departed, or how they are employed above, let us review what they were here below, and how they employed themselves when they were with us; for, as I told you, in this life we are trained up for the life of glory: We shall then be advanced to a glorious and transcendent degree of the same graces; and there will be something in the future state of rewards answerable and correspondent to the present state of labor and trial.
This thought necessarily calls our meditations backward a little, to take a short survey of some peculiar characters of our excellent iriend departed, that we may learn to rejoice in the present perfection of his graces and glories.
Section VII. — the character of the deceased.
AVhen I name Sir John Hartopp, all that knew him will ngrec that I name a gentleman, a scholar, and a Christian; and neither of these characters, in the best and most valuable sense of them, could forsake him at his entrance into heaven.
He shone with eminence among persons of birth and title* on earth; while his obliging deportment and affable temper rendered him easy of access to all his inferiors, and made him the delight (^ all his friends. Though he knew what was due to his quality in this world, yet he affected none of the grandeurs of life, but daily practised condescension and love, and secured the respect of all, without assuming a superior air. Then surely he carried this temper with him to the upper world, where gentleness and goodness reign in the highest perfection; and doubtless he practises now all the same graces of conversation among the blessed spirits there, but in a for superior manner, according to the unknown laws and customs of that region of light and love.
He had a taste for universal learning, and ingenious arts were his delight from his youth. He pursued knowledge in various forms, and was acquainted with many parts of human science. Mathematical speculations and practices were a favorite study with him in his younger years; and even to his old age he maintained his acquaintance with the motions of the heavenly bodies, and light and shade whereby time is measured. And may we not suppose that there are entertainments amongst the works of God on high to feast the spirits of such a genius? May they not in that upper region look down and survey the various contrivances of divine wisdom, which created all things in these lower worlds in number, weight, and measure? May not our exalted friend give gloi-y there to his Maker, in the contemplation of the same heavenly bodies, though he dwells in the region where night and shadows are never known, and above the need or use of sunbeams.
But the book of God was his chief study and his divinest delight. His Bible lay before him night and day, and he was well acquainted with the writers that explained it best. He was desirous of seeing what the Spirit of God said to men in the original languages. For this end he commenced some acquaintance with Hebrew when he was more than fifty years old: And that he might’
* Ilis grandfather, Sir Edward Hartopp, was created a baronet by King James I. 1619, which was but a few years after the first institution of that order.
be capable of judging of the true sense of any text in the New Testament, he kept his youthful knowledge of the Greek language in some mea’^ure even to the period of his life.
But earthly languages are of little nse in heaven. There are too many defects and ambiguities in them to express the bright, the complete, and the distinct ideas of separate spirits. We may allow our learned friend, therefore, to be divested of these when he dropped mortahty. Now he is out of the body, and caught up to dwell in paradise, where Saint Paul made heretofore a short visit, 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4, he hears and he speaks those unspeakahle words it is not possible for a mortal tongue to utter. The things of heaven are not to be expressed in any foreign language.
Among the various themes of Christian contemplation, he took peculiar pleasure in the doctrines of grace, in the display of the glories of the person of Christ, God in our nature, and the wondrous work of redemption by his cross. He adored him as his Lord and his God: And while he trusted in his I’igbteousness as the great Mediator, and beheld him as his crucified Saviour, he was ever zealous to maintain the honors due to his divine nature and Majesty. And we may be sure this is a study in which he is still engaged, and he spends the days of his eternity in the pleasurable contemplations of his glorified Redeemer, and the sacred mysteries of his cross, and his throne, which things the angels desire to pry into.
His practice in life was agreeable to his Christian principles, for he knew that the grace of God that brings salvation to men teaches them to deny all ungodliness, and to Hue sober, righteous and religious lives, that in all things they may adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour. Now that this part of his character is continued and exalted in the region of the blessed spirits, is too evident to need any amplification or proof; for holiness in every part of it is made perfect there, and all under the sweet constraint of love. His conversation was pious and learned, ingenious and instructive: He was inquisitive into the affairs of the learned world, the progress of arts and sciences, the concerns of the nation, and the interest of the church of Christ: And upon all occasions was as ready to communicate as he was to enquire. What he knew of the things of God or man, he resolved not to know them only for himself, but for the benefit of all that had the honor of his acquaintance. There are many of his friends that will join with me to confess, how often we have departed from his company refreshed and advanced in some useful knowledge. And I cannot but reckon it among the blessings of heaven, when I review those five years of pleasure and improvement, which I spent ia his family in my younger part of life; and I found much instruction myself, where I was called to be an instructor.
Nor can I think such enquiries and such communications as are suitable to the affairs of the upper world, are unpractised among the spirits of the just men made perfect there; for man is a sociable creature, and enjoys communion with his fellow-saints there, as well as with his Maker and his Saviour. Nor can the spirit of our honored and departed friend be a stranger to the pleasures of society amongst his fellow-spirits in those blessed mansions.
His zeal for the welfare of his country, and of the church of Christ in it, carried him out to the most expensive and toilsome services in his younger and his middle age. He employed his time, his spirits, his interest and his riches, for the defence of this poor nation, when forty years ago it was in the utmost danger of popery and ruin.* And doubtless the spirits of the just in heaven are not utterly unacquaioted with the affairs of the kingdom of Christ on earth. He rejoices and will rejoice among his fellow-saints, when happy tidings of the militant church, or of the religious interests of Great Britain, are brought to the upper world by ministering angels. He waits there for the full accomplishment of all the promises of Christ to his church, when it shall be freed from sins and sorrows, from persecutions and all mixtures of superstition, and shall be presented to the Father, a fflorious church without spot or vjrinJcle, in perfect beauty and
His doors were ever open, and his carriage always friendly and courteous to the ministers of the gospel, though they were distinguished among themselves by names of different parties: for he loved all that loved our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. He chose indeed to bear a part in constant public worship with the Protestant Dissenters, for he thought their practice more agreeable to the rules of the gospel: He joined himself in communion with one of their churches, which was under the pastoral care of the reverend Dr. John Owen, where he continued an honorable member under successive pastors till the day of his death. Nor was he ashamed to own and support that despised interest, nor to frequent those assemblies, when the spirit of persecution raged highest in the days of king Charles and king James the Second. He was a
* He was three times cbosea representative in parliament for his county of Leicestershire, in those years when a sacred zeal for liberty and religion Btrove hard to bring in the bill of exclusion, to prevent the Duke of York, afterwards King James 11. from inheriting the crown of England present refuge for the oppressed, and the special providence of God secured him and his friends from the fury of the oppressor. He was always a devout and diligent attendant on public ordinances till these last years of his life, when the infirmities of age growing upon him, confined him to his private retirements.
But if age confined him, death gave him a release. He is exalted now to the church in heaven, and has taken his place in that glorious assembly, where he worships among them before the throne: There he has no need to relieve his memory by the swiftness of his pen, which was his perpetual practice in the church on earth, and by which means he often entertained his family in the evening worship on the Lord’s-day with excellent discourses; some of which he copied from the lips of some of the greatest preachers of the last age: There his unbodied spirit is able to sustain the sublimest raptures of devotion, which run through the worshippers in that heavenly state; though here on earth I have sometimes seen the pious pleasure too strong for him: And while he has been reading the things of God to his household, the devotion of his heart has broken through his eyes, has interrupted his voice, and commanded a sacred pause and silence.
He enjoyed an intimate friendship with that great and venerable man Dr. Owen, and this was mutually cultivated with zeal and delight on both sides, till death divided them. The world has already been acquainted, that it is to the pious industry of Sir John Hartopp, that we are indebted for many of those sermons and discourses of the Doctor’s, which have lately been published in folio. A long and familiar acquaintance enabled him also to furnish many memoirs or matters of fact, toward that brief account of the Doctor’s life, which is prefixed to that volume, though it was drawn up in the present form, with various enlargements, by another hand. Now can we suppose two such souls to have been so happily intimate on earth, and may we not imagine they found each other among the brighter spirits on high! May we not indulge ourselves to believe, that our late honored friend hath been congratulated upon his arrival by that holy man that assisted to direct and lead him thither? Nor is it improbable that he has found other happy souls there, who were numbered among his pious acquaintance on earth. Shall I mention that excellent man, Sir Thomas Abney, who was his late forerunner to heaven, and had not finished two months there before Sir John Hartopp’s arrival! Happy spirits! May I congratulate your meeting in the celestial regions? But the world and the churches mourn your absence; and the Protestant Dissenters lament the loss of two of their fairest ornaments and honors.
And is til ere not the same reason to believe, that our departed friend hath by this time renewed his sacred endearments with those kindred spirits, that were once related to him in some of the nearest bonds of flesh and blood? There they rejoice togethei- in unknown satisfaction, they wait and long for the arrival of those whom they left behind, and for whose immortal welfare they had a solicitous concern in the state of their mortality.
This thought opens my way to address the posterity, the kindred, and the friends of the deceased, in the fifth remark.
Section VIII. — an address to the friends and relatives of
THE deceased.
V. If the perfection of blessed spirits above consists in a glorious increase of those virtues and graces which were begun below, let us see to it then, that those graces and those viitues are begun in us here, or they will never be perfected in us hereafter. If our spirits have nothing of that divine righteousness wrought in them on earth, we can never be admitted into the company of the spirits of the righteous made perfect in heaven. It is an old saying among divines, but it is a most rational and a certain truth, that grace is glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected. The saints above have the same divine nature, the same sanctified inclinations, and are engaged in many of the same sacred employments with the saints below, but all in a superior degree, and in a more transcendent manner.
As for you, my friends, who have the happiness and honor to be descended from such parents, or to be nearly related to such saints, you have seen the virtues and graces, the exemplary character and piety of them who are gone before; you have had many bright and shining examples in your family; you are the children of the blessed of the Lord, and may you for ever be blessed with them! And in order to it, see that you are made like them now, that ye may he followers of them, who through faith and 27atie?ice inherit the promises. This is a proper season to examine yourselves, and call your souls to account in such language as this: My father, my mother, my honored and superior kindred are gone to glory: Their graces are perfected, and are not mine begun? What, have I no evidences for heaven yet ready? no exercises of faith, of love, of repentance, of true holiness? Are they arrived at heaven, and am I not yet travelling in the same road?
They were convinced of sin, and the danger of eternal death, so as to give themselves no rest till they found salvation. Have I ever been convinced of the sin of my nature, and the guilt of my life?
Have I beheld myself exposed to the anger of God, and in danger of everlasting misery, so as to cry out with myself. What shall I do to he saved
They have seen Jesus the Son of God, the all-sufficient Saviour, and have committed their souls by humble faith into his hands, to obtain pardon for the sake of his atonement, to be justified through his righteousness, to be renewed and made holy by the grace of his Spirit, and to be preserved to eternal glory. Now what have 1 seen of the excellency, or all-sufficiency, or necessity of Christ as a Mediator? Have I been persuaded to trust in him for my acceptance with God, to give my soul up to him as my guide, guard, and ruler, to be formed after his image, and to venture all my immortal concerns with him, to be brought safe to heaven? Have I ever received him as my Lord and my Saviour, under those condescending characters and offices which he sustains for a sinner’s salvation? They have believed in him while he was unseen, and they loved him, though they saw him not; they rejoiced in him as their all, and they knew not how to live without him. How is it with my soul in this respect? Do I love Jesus the Lord? Is he the desire of my heart, and the delight of my life?
Though they were kept by the grace of God from the pollutions of the world, and upheld their unblemished character to the last, yet they found sin to be their most dangerous enemy; they have felt it bitter and painful to their souls, and they long groaned under it as their daily burden. What is my grief? what my chief sorrow? Do I groan in this tabernacle being burdened, because of this inward enemy? And do I long to be rid of it? Are my sinful affections like a pain at my heart, and do the workings of sin within me awaken my continual repentance? They maintained a sacred tenderness of conscience, and were aftaid to indulge themselves in that company, in that practice, and in those liberties of life which have often proved a dangerous snare to souls. Now can I appeal to God, who sees my heart, that I am cautious and watchful against every snare, that I stand afar off from every temptation, and abstain from all appearance of evil?
They took sweet pleasure in retirement, in prayer, and other holy exercises: This was the refreshment of their hearts, and the throne of grace was their refuge under every distress and difficulty. Let me ask my heart, what is my pleasure, my inward delight? Do I find a sweet relish in devotion? And wdien outward troubles perplex me, do I make the mercy-seat my speedy and constant refuge? They lived upon their Bible, they counted the gospel their treasure, and the promises and the words of God written there, were more valuable to them than all their outward rlclies. But what is my life? What is my treasure? What is my hope? Do I count heaven and the gospel my chief inheritance? Do I converse much with my Bible, and find food and support there! Do I look at things unseen and eternal and feed and rest upon the promised glories of another world, when I meet with disappointments here?
They had a large share of Christian experience, a rich stock of divine and spiritual observations, by much converse with God and with their own souls. What have I got of this kind for the support of my soul? or are all these strange things to me? Believe me, my dear and honored friends, these are matters of infinite importance; I am sure you will think so one day: And I trust and persuade myself, you think them so now. I cannot give myself leave to imagine that you put these thoughts far from you. Some of you have made it appear that they lie next your heart, and that your souls are deeply engaged in the ways of God and goodness. Oh that every one of you would give the same comfort and joy to your friends! Be not satisfied with a mere negative holiness, and unspotted character in the eyes of the world; but let the world know that you dare be religious, and piofess universal piety in a degenerate age. Let those that honor the memory of your parents, and love your souls, rejoice in your public Christianity. Let them know, that there are the foundations of heavenly glory laid within you all, and the blessed work begun on earth, that shall surely be made perfect among the spirits of the just in heaven.
And methinks I would not have you contented with the lowest seat there; but stir up yourselves to a most unwearied pursuit of holiness in the sublimer degrees of it. And thus laboring in the Christian race, contend for some of the brighter prizes, some of the richer crowns of glory. Be not satisfied to sit at a great distance below your parents departed, even in the heavenly country: But strive with a holy ambition that you may come near them, that the whole family together may arrive at some superior degrees of blessedness. And oh may divine grace grant me the pleasure to be a witness to your exalted stations, and to worship and rejoice amongst you there! Amen.