CLXVI.

and poffefs'd of that felicity and glory which is there SERM. to be enjoyed before we can either speak or think of it in any measure as it deferves. In the mean time, whenever we fet about it, we fhall find our faculties opprefs'd and dazzled with the weight and fplendor of fo great and glorious an argument; like St, Paul, who, when " he was caught up into para

dife," faw and heard thofe things, which, when he came down again into this world, he was not able to exprefs, and which it was not poffible for the tongue of man to utter.

So that in difcourfing of the state of the bleffed, we must content ourfel ves with what the fcripture hath revealed in general concerning it; that it is a ftate of perfect freedom from all thofe infirmities and imperfections, thofe evils and miferies, those fins and temptations which we are liable to in this world. So

St. John describes the glory and felicity of that state, as they were in vifions represented to him, Rev. xxi. 2, 3, 4. "And I, John, faw the holy city, the new "Jerufalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her "hufband. And I heard a great voice out of hea"ven, faying, Behold! the tabernacle of GOD is "with men, and he will dwell with them, and they fhall be his people, and God himself fhall be with them, and be their GoD. And GoD fhall wipe "away all tears from their eyes; and there fhall be "no more death, neither forrow, nor crying, nei"ther fhall there be any more pain: for the former "things are paffed away;" that is all thofe evils which we faw or fuffered in this world, fhall for ever vanish and difappear, and, which is the great privilege and felicity of all, that there fhall no fin be there, ver. 27. "There fhall in no wife enter into it any thing that defileth," and confequently there

fhall

SERM. fhall be no mifery and curfe there. So we read, CLXVI. chap. xxii. 3, 4. "And there shall be no more curse;

but the throne of GOD and of the Lamb fhall be "in it, and his fervant fhall ferve him, and they "fhall fee his face." In which laft words our employment and our happiness are exprefs'd; but what in particular our employment fhall be, and wherein it fhall confift, is impoffible now to defcribe; it is fufficient to know in the general, that our employment fhall be our unfpeakable pleasure, and every way fuitable to the glory and happiness of that state, and as much above the noblest and most delightful employments of this world as the perfection of our bodies, and the power of our fouls, fhall then be above what they are now in this world.

For there is no doubt, but that he who made us, and endued our fouls with a defire of 'immortality, and fo large a capacity of happiness, does understand very well by what way and means to make us happy, and hath in readiness proper exercises and employments for that ftate, and every way more fitted to make us happy, than any condition or employment in this world is fuitable to a temporal happinefs: employments that are fuitable to "the fpirits

of juft men made perfect," united to bodies purified and refined almoft to the condition of fpirits ; employments which we shall be fo far from being weary of, that they fhall minifter to us a new and freth delight to all eternity; and this perhaps, not fo much from the variety, as from the perpetual and growing pleasure of them.

It is fufficient for us to know this in the general, and to truft the infinite power and wifdom and goodnefs of GOD, for the particular manner and circumftances of our happiness; not doubting but that he,

who

who is the eternal and inexhaustible spring and foun- SERM. tain of all happiness, can and will derive,and convey fuch a fhare of it to every one of us as he thinks fit, and in fuch ways as he, who beft understands it, is beft able to find out.

In a word, the happiness of the next life shall be fuch as is worthy of the great King of the world to bestow upon his faithful fervants, and fuch as is infinitely beyond the just reward of their best services; it is to fee GOD," i. e. to contemplate and love the best and most perfect of beings, and " to be for ever "with the LORD, in whose presence is fulness of joy, and at whofe right hand there are pleasures for "evermore."

I will fay no more upon this argument, left I should fay lefs, and because whoever ventures to wade far into it, will foon find himself out of his depth, and in danger to be swallowed up and loft in that great abyfs, which is not to be fathomed by the fhallow faculties of mortal men.

I fhall therefore only mention the

2. Thing I proposed to speak to, viz. the eternity of this happiness; " and the end everlasting life:" by which the apostle intends to express the utmost perfection, but not the final period of the happiness of good men in another world. For to a perfect ftate of happiness these two conditions are requifite, that it be immutable, and that it be interminable, that it can neither admit of a change nor of an end. And this is all that I fhall fay of it, it being impoffible to say any thing that is more intelligible and plain, concerning that which is infinite, than that it is fo. I fhould now have proceeded to the

II. Thing I propofed, viz. by what way and means we may be prepared, and made meet to be

made

SER M. made partakers of this happiness; and that is (as I CLXVI. have told you all along) by the conftant and fincere

1

endeavour of an holy and good life; for the text fuppofeth that they only who are " made free from "fin," and "become the fervants of GOD," and who have their fruit unto holinefs," are they whofe end fhall be everlasting life. But this is an argument which I have had fo frequent occafion to speak to, that I fhall not now meddle with it. All that I fhall do more at prefent fhall be to make an inference or two from what hath been faid upon this argument.

I. The confideration of the happy state of good men in another world, cannot but be a great comfort and fupport to good men under all the evils and fufferings of this prefent life. Hope is a great cordial to the minds of men, efpecially when the thing hoped for does fo vaftly outweigh the prefent grievance and trouble. The holy fcriptures, which reveal to us the happiness of our future ftate, do likewife affure us that there is no comparifon between the afflictions and fufferings of good men in this world, and the reward of them in the other. "I reckon (faith St, "Paul) Rom. viii. 8. that the fufferings of this pre"fent time, are not worthy to be compared with the "glory that fhall be revealed in us."

Particularly the confideration of that glorious change which fhall be made in our bodies at the refurrection, pught to be a great comfort to us under all the pains and difeafes which they are now liable to, and even against death itfelf. One of the greateft burdens of human nature, is the frailty and infirmity of our bodies, the neceffities which they are frequently prefs'd withal, the difeafes and pains to which they are liable, and "the fear of death," by

reason

teafon whereof a great part of mankind are "fubject SERM. "to bondage;" against all which this is an everlaft- CLXVI. ing fpring of confolation to us, that the time is coming when we fhall have other fort of bodies, freed from that burden of corruption which we now groan under, and from all thofe miferies and inconveniencies which flesh and blood are now fubject to. For the time will come, when thefe vile bodies," which we now wear," fhall be changed, and fashioned like "to the glorious body of the Son of GOD;" and when they fhall be raised at the laft day, they fhall not be raised fuch as we laid them down, vile and corruptible, but immortal and incorruptible: for the fame power which hath raised them up to life, fhall likewife change them, and put a glory upon them like to that of the glorified body of our LORD; and when this glorious change is made, "when this cor "ruptible hath put on incorruption, and this mortal "hath put on immortality then shall come to pass "the faying that is written, death is fwallowed up "in victory;" and when this last enemy is perfectly fubdued, we fhall be fet above all, the frailties and dangers, all the temptations and fufferings of this mortal state; there will then be no "fleshy lufts" and brutish passions to war against the foul;" no "law in our members" to rife up in rebellion against "the law of our minds," no difcafes to torment us, no danger of death to terrify us; all the motions and paffions of our outward man fhall then be perfectly fubject to the reafon of our minds, and our bodies fhall partake of the immortality of our fouls. How fhould this confideration bear us up under all the evils of life and the fears of death, that the refurrection will be a perfect cure of all our infirmities. and difeafes, and an effectual remedy of all the evils

that