MEDITATION XLV.

The Promises of God.

THIS may persuade us to make the promises of God another incentive to the love of him. For, though the benefits he hath given his servants are great; yet those which he hath engaged to give them, are incomparably greater. Now these are, rest from our labours, a change from bondage to liberty, from fear to security, from grief to comfort; resurrection to a life immortal after death; and after that resurrection, exquisite and endless joy; in a word, he hath promised to give us himself. So unspeakably glorious are his promises. And the love which these beget in us, he expects should exert itself after a very particular manner; and that is, by a vehement desire of the promise, in which it is impossible to be guilty of excess. In other cases we blame men for being impatient; but this case is an exception to the rest, and here men are to be commended for it. To be contented with delays argues languid desires and coldness of affection; and as the wise man observes very truly, Hope deferred, maketh the heart sick. Since then these blisses are to be obtained no where but in our heavenly country, it betrays too great an indifference for such noble reversions, when we do not long most earnestly to get at them, and are not weary and perfectly sick of every thing that conspires to detain us from them.

Let us then raise our thoughts as high, and

stretch them as wide as ever we can, that we may try to represent to ourselves in some measure the nature and perfection of that joy of the saints, to which no other is equal, no other like. Now that chief good, which we find called by the several titles of life, light, blessedness, wisdom, eternity, and the like, is but one most simple and supreme good, perfect and self-sufficient, without which no other thing can either be perfect, or indeed be at all this good, I say, is God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Here then is that one thing which is necessary for that must certainly be a necessary good, in which all good is, nay, which itself is good, the one whole and sole good. If each of these things, which we call good, minister so much delight, how much must flow from the possession of Him, who comprehends them all, and is as much superior to them in excellence, as the Creator is above the creature! Let us not then lavish away our time and pains upon things that only flatter us with deceitful promises of happiness; but let us love this one good, for that alone can suffice for all our exigencies, and fill all our largest desires. It is but lost labour to attempt a just description of the bliss reserved for us in our heavenly Father's kingdom; no words can express, no mind confined in flesh can expand itself sufficiently to conceive them. For when we have let loose our thoughts, still those joys are of a compass larger than they can fetch. Many and glorious things indeed have been spoken of this city of God, but yet the half of the truth hath not been told us. This is the only instance, in which report can never exceed, and praises can never flatter; no knowledge can come up to it, no glory compare with it. The kingdom of

God, in a word, is full of light and peace, charity and meekness, honour and glory, sweetness and love, joy and everlasting bliss; to be short, of every thing that is good, more and better than can be possibly expressed or conceived: but still this is no argument why I should not speak of it at all, or represent its excellencies as well as I can, because I cannot do it so well as I would. We believe the majesty of God to be unspeakably glorious, but no man is so extravagant sure, to infer from thence, that we ought never to speak of him; nay, it follows rather, that we should speak the most glorious things we are able, that they who hear us may believe him to be still far above all we can say of him. Much more, it is evident, may be comprehended by the understanding, than a man can find proper words to utter; and yet the most profound and capacious mind cannot comprehend or have any ideas of the kingdom of Heaven in any degree suitable to its real excellence. And therefore the life to come is what we have represented to us by the following character, that it is eternal in duration, and a blessedness to all eternity, a state where there is the most profound security and tranquillity, pleasure without passion, love without fear, day without night, activity and strength without possibility of decay, perfect unanimity, all the souls in it rejoicing in the contemplation of God, and past all apprehension of being ever deprived of his beatific presence: a city blest with the most glorious inhabitants, where all the saints and angels take up their perpetual residence; the splendour whereof consists in the shining graces of God's elect; where health abounds, and truth reigns for ever; where there is no deceiving, no being deceived; out of

which none of the happy are ever expelled, into which none of the wretched are ever admitted.

This is that happy life, which they who are sanctified by the Holy Ghost, shall for ever enjoy, and in which they shall be like the spirits of just men made perfect, and shall reign with them for ever. What such have here anticipated by faith, they shall there have in sight; beholding with pure hearts the substance of their Creator; rejoicing with never-ceasing and exceeding great joy; united inseparably to God, and to each other by the full fruition of the Divine goodness, and the charms of mutual love: then shall their once scattered bodies be restored, and put on immortality and incorruption; and thus united, they shall be made free subjects of their heavenly country, and invested with all the privileges of the city of God. Then shall they reap the fruits of all their holy labours, those eternal recompenses, the promises and distant expectation whereof, sustained their spirits in the many long and painful conflicts here below. A general gladness there shall overflow, and these joys shall be so agreeable, that they shall always be thankful to their bountiful rewarder, for the plenty with which he hath so nobly enriched them, and yet that plenty shall abate no man's satisfaction in the abundance he enjoys. There every man's heart shall be open to every man, for every breast shall be so white and pure, that the soul so cleansed shall find cause to thank God for washing away their stains in the blood of his Son, but not at all to be ashamed, or blush for any of their old blemishes; and why should they not see into one another's hearts freely, who have no secrets in reserve, no separate interest to promote, no deceit

to manage, no faults to conceal? Neither sins nor sinners are in heaven, for they who once were such, from the instant of their entering that place of purity, are out of all possibility ever to be so any more. None of the darkest secrets, none of the deepest mysteries shall then continue such: the blessed shall be let into a distinct knowledge of them; and which is infinitely better, they shall be ever viewing and admiring the adorable perfections of God himself.

This human nature shall then be advanced to its just and utmost perfection, incapable of being exalted or sunk lower any more. All the excellences communicated to it by being Made after the likeness of its maker, shall then be set at their highest pitch, and the corruption and defects introduced by sin utterly done away. Nay, we shall even rise above what was given us at our first creation, though we had been so happy as to retain our primitive advantages. We shall understand and judge without error, remember without forgetfulness, think without wandering, love without dissimulation; we shall have sense without any thing to offend it, ease without pain, life without death; power of acting without obstruction, fulness without nauseating, and such a perfection of every faculty, that there shall be in us all imaginable soundness and vigour, without any sort of disease or decay. Whatever maim our bodies may have suffered here, by sudden disasters or wasting distempers, or mortified sores; whatever limbs have been lost by the biting of wild beasts, or the cruelty of men no less barbarous than they, by war, or fire, or any other dismembering accident; nay, even the weakness and deformities of sickness and old age, shall