it does more than compenfate the difficulties to which either the attainment or the praEtice of it can expofe a man. Lastly, He that is free from guilt, is free from fear too. And indeed this is the only way to get rid of all our fears; not by denying or renouncing God, with atheists; but by doing the things that pleafe him. He that is truly religious, is the only man who upon rational ground is raifed above melancholy and fear: for what should he fear? God is his glory, his boaft, his joy, his ftrength; and, if God be for him, who can be against him? neither things prefent, nor to come; neither life, nor death, can feparate him from the love of God in Chrift Jefus. There is nothing within the bounds of time or eternity that he needs fear. Man cannot hurt him; he is encompaffed with the favour and lovingkindness of God, as with a fhield. But if God permit him to fuffer for righteousness fake, happy is he; this does but increase his prefent joy, and future glory. But what is moft confiderable, death itself cannot hurt him, devils cannot hurt him; the fling of death is fin, and the strength of fin is the law; but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jefus Chrift. For there is no condemnation to them who are in Chrift Jefus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Thefe confiderations prove the prefent condition of a fervant of God happy : happy happy in comparison of the loofe and wicked; but in comparison with what he fhall be hereafter, he is infinitely short of the joy and glory of his end. In this refpect indeed he is yet in a state of tryal and trouble, of difcipline and probation; in this respect his perfection and happiness do but just peep up above the ground; the fulness and maturity of both he cannot enjoy till he come to heaven. And this is, §. 4. The laft fruit of Chriftian liberty. That heaven will confift of all the blessings, of all the enjoyments that human nature, when raised to an equality with angels, is capable of; that beauties and glories, joys and pleasures, will as it were, like a fruitful and ripe harveft here, grow up there in all the utmost plenty and perfection that Omnipotence itself will e'er produce, is not at all to be controverted. Heaven is the mafterpiece of God, the accomplishment and confummation of all his wonderful defigns, the laft and most endearing expreffion of boundlefs love. And hence it is, that the Holy Spirit in fcripture defcribes it by the most taking and the most admired things upon earth; and yet we cannot but think that this image, tho' drawn by a divine pencil, must fall infinitely fhort of it: for what temporal things can yield colours or metaphors ftrong and rich enough to paint heaven to the life? One thing there is indeed, which S 2 which feems to point us to a just and adequate notion of an heaven; it feems to excite us to ftrive and attempt for conceptions of what we cannot grafp, we cannot comprehend; and the labouring mind, the more it difcovers, concludes ftill the more behind; and that is, the beatific vifion. This is that, which, as divines generally teach, does conftitute heaven; and fcripture feems to teach fo too. I confefs, I have often doubted, whether our feeing God in the life to come, did neceffarily imply that God fhould be the immediate object of our fruition: or only, that we should there, as it were, drink at the fountain-head; and being near and dear to him in the highest degree, should ever flourish in his favour, and enjoy all good, heap'd up, prefs'd down, and running over. Í thought the fcriptures might be easily reconciled to this fenfe; and the incomprehenfible glory of the divine Majefty inclined me to believe it the most reasonable, and moft eafily accountable. Enjoyment, and especially where an intelligent Being is the object of it, feemed to imply fomething of proportion, fomething of equality, fomething of familiarity. But ah! what proportion, thought I, can there ever be between finite and Infinite? what equality between a poor creature and his incomprehenfible Creator? What fhall gaze on the fplendors of his effential beauty, when the very light he dwells in eye is is inacceffible, and even the brightness he veils himself in, is too dazling even for cherubs and feraphs, for ought I know, to behold? Ah! what familiarity can there be between this eternal and inconceivable Majefty, and beings which he has formed out of nothing? and when on this occasion I reflected on the effects which the prefence of angels had upon the prophets, and faw human nature in man finking and dying away, because unable to fuftain the glory of one of their fellow-creatures, I thought myself in a manner obliged to yield, and stand out no longer against a notion, which, though differing from what was generally received, feemed to have more reafon on its fide, and to be more intelligible. But when I called to mind, that God does not difdain, even while we are in a state of probation and bumility, of infirmity and mortality, to account us not only his fervants and his people, but his friends and his children; I began to question the former opinion: and when I had furveyed the nature of fruition, and the various ways of it a little more attentively, I wholly quitted it. For I obferved, that the enjoyment is most transporting, where admiration mingles with our paffion: where the beloved Object stands not upon the fame level with us, but condefcends to meet a virtuous and afpiring, and ambitious affection. Thus the happy favouS 3 rite rite enjoys a gracious mafter: and thus the child does with respectful love meet the tenderness of his parent: and the wisdom and virtue, which fometimes raises fome one happy mortal above the common size and height of mankind, does not furely diminish, but increase the affection and the pleasure of his friends that enjoy him. Again, the nature of enjoyment varies, according to the various faculties of the foul, and the fenfe of the body. One way we enjoy truth, and another goodness: one way beauty, and another harmony: and fo on. Thefe things confidered, I faw there was no neceffity, in order to make God the object of our fruition, either to bring him down to any thing unworthy of his glory, or to exalt our felves to a height we are utterly uncapable of. I eafily faw, that we, who love and adore God here, fhould, when we enter into his prefence, adinire and love him infinitely more. For God being infinitely amiable, the more we contemplate, the more clearly we difcern his divine perfections and beauties, the more muft our fouls be inflamed with a pafion for him: And I have no reafon to doubt, but that God will make us the moft gracious returns of our love, and exprefs his affections for us, in fuch condefcenfions, in fuch communications of himself, as will tranfport us to the utmost degree that created beings are capable of. Will |