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dition of suppliants; who devoutly solicit the just punishment of enemies ;-and who are invested with robes of glory and triumph. All these things, however, are affirmed regarding the souls of the deceased. The deceased are possessed, therefore, of life, intelligence, and feeling.86

LXXI. But we are further to believe, that the souls of the righteous, when released from the body, are admitted into celestial habitations and joys. The same heavenly Jerusalem, which contains myriads of Angels, and Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, numbers among its inhabitants, "the spirits of just men made "perfect." The Apostle directs us to hope that when the earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, we shall inhabit "a building of God, an house not "made with hands, eternal in the heavens." And as the soul of Lazarus was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom, that at the celestial banquet he might occupy the nearest place to that venerable patriarch ;d so Christ promised to the penitent malefactor, that on the very day of crucifixion he should be with him in paradise.e

LXXII. The blessedness which the souls of the righteous enjoy in heaven, so far as it can be learned from Scripture, consists in the following things. 1st, They enjoy the glorious presence of God and Christ. 2dly, They see God clearly in the light of glory. They behold him as he discovers himself in those works of glory which are exhibited in heaven, and which, by their superior lustre, eclipse the works of nature in the world,

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and the works of grace in the militant Church. They see him also "in the face of Jesus Christ." And in fine, they see him more immediately in himself, since man has intercourse with God, not, as now, through "a glass darkly, but face to face." 3dly, Thus knowing God perfectly, they love him most ardently, with a love not merely of desire, but of delight, arising from that full fruition for which they had formerly longed.j 4thly, They are conformed to him in holiness and glory. For if the face of Moses shone with an extraordinary radiance, after he had enjoyed fellowship with God on the holy mount;k and if the contemplation of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, and in a glass, transforms us into the same image; how shall not the conformity of the soul to the Divine purity and glory, be the effect of that intimate communion with God, to which the saints are admitted in heaven? 5thly, As the result of all these blessings, they possess "fulness of joys."m 87

LXXIII. Although these felicities are truly excellent, they do not exhaust that plenitude of bliss, for which the Gospel teaches us to hope. And hence the consummation of our happiness is often spoken of as deferred till the coming of our Lord." It remains, therefore, to inquire in what manner our happiness is to be increased and completed at the last day.

LXXIV. Here it must be considered, in the first place, that whereas till then the soul alone is the subject of the heavenly blessedness, this blessedness shall

iii. 2.

h John xvii. 24.

1 Cor. xiii. 8.

12 Cor. iii. 18.

1 Cor. xiii. 12.
k Exod. xxxiv. 29,

m Psalm xvi. 11.

n 2 Tim. i. 12, 18. iv. 8. 1 Pet. ì. 5. v. 4. Col. iii. 4. 1 John

87 See NOTE LXXXVII.

from that time extend to the whole man.

The bodies

Though once animal,

of believers, being raised up in glory, shall be restored to their souls; and the bodies of those whom that day may find alive, shall be transformed into glory, that, together with their souls, they may be capable of perfect felicity. Here the almost incredible benignity of God is admirably displayed. He had determined to bless as well our bodies, as our spirits, with a participation of the heavenly felicity. But since they are unable, as now constituted, to bear so great a weight of glory, what measures will he adopt? Will he diminish the glory of heaven, that our bodies may be admitted to a share of it? By no means. He will rather change the qualities of the human body. he will make it spiritual; though once earthly, he will make it heavenly; that it may possess a proper meetness for the glory with which it shall be blessed. Thus Christ" shall change our vile body, that it may be "fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to "the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Thus, even in the corporeal part of our nature, we shall "shine forth as the sun in "the kingdom of our Father." The soul, too, owing to its natural affection for the body, cannot fail to perceive, with inexpressible pleasure, the great glory with which the body is adorned when re-united to itself.

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LXXV. Further, God will in that day most amply display his transcendant glory in very glorious works. Then we shall see this vast universe delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; and a new heaven and a new earth, wherein only righteousness dwelleth; and the general

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assembly of all the elect that have ever existed from the beginning of the world to the last day, clothed with renovated bodies, and shining with astonishing bright

And since in all these things the saints will admire nothing but the reflected beams of the Divine glory sparkling on every side, may it not be said that, whilst seeing these, they shall see God himself in the most conspicuous manner? Hence says the Apostle John: "We know that when he shall appear, we "shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." "As for me," says the Psalmist also, "I will behold

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thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I "awake" from the sleep of death, "with thy likeness.” The object will then be represented in the clearest manner, and its influence on the mind will be highly efficacious, and such as we cannot now explain: and at the same time the subject will be excellently suited to discern every thing in God and relating to God, that is calculated to perfect its felicity.

LXXVI. Their enjoyment of God, too, who is the Chief Good, will then be far more perfect and more immediate than all that they had formerly experienced. The remains of sin, with which even the holiest men have always to struggle in the present life, will no more be found. Nor shall any effects of sin continue, such as those that are to be seen in the bodies of the pious dead, whilst they remain under the power and in the territories of death-effects, of which the glorified saints cannot be ignorant, and which serve, it must be acknowledged, to prevent their joy from rising to the highest degree. So long as there are any of the remains or effects of sin in the elect, God holds commu

11 John iii. 2.

r Psalm xvii. 15.

t

nion with them only through the intervention of the Mediator. But by the resurrection, death itself" shall "be destroyed," and "cast into the lake of fire ;" and henceforth shall have no power except against the enemies of God and his people. There shall be nothing in the whole church which will not be perfectly holy, and entirely subject to God. And there will be nothing to hinder God from holding communion with the redeemed, as he doth with holy Angels, most intimately and immediately, without the intervention of a Mediator, whose economy shall then entirely cease. "When all things shall be subdued to him, then shall "the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all."* u

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LXXVII. What crowns their felicity, however, is, that it will be EVERLASTING. It is not only life, but "life eternal." The subject of this blessedness will be for ever capable of enjoying it, and the blessedness itself will never be taken away. The soul is, by the constitution of its nature, immortal. The body also will be entirely exempt from sin, which is the immediate cause of corruption : nor will it resemble those bodies which consist of a certain composition of the elements, and may be resolved into them; but, as we have already shown, it will be spiritual, heavenly, and incorruptible. Owing, besides, to the everlasting efficacy of the merits of Christ, and to the quickening power of the Holy Spirit, by whom both parts of the human nature are prepared for glory, the connexion subsisting between soul and body will remain for ever

* Sce Vol. I. NOTE LXI.

t Rev. xx. 14.

▾ Mat. xxv. 46. Rom. ii. 7.

* 1 Cor. xv. 26.

u 1 Cor. xv. 28.

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