"to them that trouble you'; and to you, who are "troubled, reft with us," 2 Theff. i. 6, 7.- Where, you cannot but fee that reft is the antithefis to tribulation; confequently, that must no less include pofitive happiness, than this does pofitive mifery.

As one branch of positive salvation, their fitting, or lying down, conveys the chearing and delightful idea of being at home. While on earth, the heirs of glory are pilgrims, ftrangers, fojourners, and way-faring men, i. e. they are not at home, are not in a reclining and refting, but in a moving and striving posture: Whereas, in the kingdom of God, they will be where all their prefent defires and endeavours tend;-at the point wherein all their ambition terminates; nay, beyond which it does not, would not, cannot poffibly go. There they fhall find "the work of righteoufnefs" to have been "peace, and the effect of righteousness,

quietness and affurance for ever."-There they "shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in fure "dwelling, and in quiet refting-places," If. xxxii. 17, 18.

Their fitting down in the kingdom of heaven, according to the fpirited import of this phrafe, is particularly expreffive of the repaft or entertainment to which they will there be admitted. There fhall be a table covered for all the heirs of promife, at which they will be perpetually regaled with the richeft produce of Emmanuel's land.

One end our Lord has in view, by the convey. ance of this inheritance, is, "that they may eat "and drink at his table, in his kingdom," Luke xxii. 30. It is his table; and, therefore, the banquet itfelf will be fuited to the state of fuch a king. All the blifs which the hidden manna, Rev. ii. 17. -the tree of life, Rev. ii. 7.-the rivers of pleafures, Pfal. xvi. 11.-and the wine of the king

dom,

dom, Matth. xxvi. 29. can yield, will there be copiously enjoyed.

And, what cannot fail of giving a distinguishing relish to the whole, the ransomed guests will have the prefence and hearty welcome of the King of Glory himself, who, as the munificent entertainer, fhall occupy a chief room, and cut a moft diftinguishing figure at his own table above :-for "the "Lamb which is in the midst of the throne fhall "feed them, and lead them unto living fountains " of waters," Rev. vii. 17.

When all these various circumftances are taken into the account, who can fay how glorious the reft,-how inconceiveable the privilege, and how rich the entertainment will be ?-It is reprefented indeed by material imagery, to fuit the weakness of our prefent capacities;-but will be found infi nitely to out-do all the richness, beauty, and excellence, to which it is compared.

That this gospel-argument for endeavouring "to propagate Christian knowlege," may be the more conclufive, there is yet another part of the happiness promised to Gentile finners in our text, which merits particular attention, -namely, their fitting down in the kingdom of heaven, with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets.

Man is a focial creature, and much of his happinefs depends upon the quality of thofe with whom he is connected: that nothing, therefore, may be awanting to render the heavenly ftate a rational, it is reprefented as a fecial happiness; while the whole members of that fociety are of fuch a quality, as fhall render them blessings unto, and blessed in one another *. For illuftrating this part of the argument, it may be obferved,

That

This and the former circumstance in future hap

piness,

That, though none but the patriarchs and prophets are mentioned, other faints under the Old Teflament difpenfation are by no means excluded. Than fpeaking of the whole by a part, there is no figure in fpeech more familiar to the holy writers. All the faints, therefore, from Abel, who first sat down in the kingdom of God, until the day when our Lord uttered the words of this text, whether in the antedeluvian world,-the patriarchal ages,... or days of the prophets; all the Old Teftament faints, whether male or female, more or lefs remarkable,-recorded, or unnoticed, in fcripturehiftory;-all of them are included in the blifsful fociety with whom ransomed finners, under the New Teftament difpenfation, fhall spend an eternity in the kingdom of heaven.

Their fitting down with thefe venerable tribes, feems farther to intimate, that they fhall be introduced to their particular acquaintance, though they never faw one another on earth. The fweetness of focial life depending fo much upon this, it is scarce

to

pinefs, entered into the theology of the ancient Hea. thens: "Neque vero, (aiebat Cicero) cos folum con"venire aveo, quos ipfe cognovi; fed illos etiam de

66

quibus audivi, et legi, et ipfe confcripfi.-Nec nie "vixiffe poenitet: quoniam ita vixi, ut non frustra me natum exiftimem; et ex hac vita ita difcedo, tanquam ex hofpitio, non tanquam ex domo : commorandi enim natura diverforium nobis, non habitandi, "dedit. O præclarum diem, cum ad illud divinum a"nimorum concilium, coetumque, proficifcar; cumque "ex hac turba et culluvione difcedam !-Proficifcar "enim, non ad eos folum viros, de quibus ante dixi,

fed etiam ad Catonem meum,-quo, nemo vir melor natus eft, nemo pictate præftantior,' &c.→→ CIC. De fenect. cap. 23.

to be imagined, that the redeemed tribes will fit down with those they know nothing of.

The knowlege, indeed, and enjoyment of "the "only true God, and Jefus Chrift whom he hath "fent," will be a happiness fo complete, to glorious, and finished in itself, that nothing will be needed to crown the jubilee, or pertect the falvation: John xvii 3 But, if our Lord had not confidered the fociety of faints, as, at least, contributing toward the perfection of that blifs, it is not ealy to fee why he would have made fuch particu lar mention of their partners in the glory to be revealed.

Befides, there are different notices in the facred records, by which this hypothefis will be more directly fupport.d. Hath Jefus Chrift, for inftance, promised to confefs his people, not only before his Father which is in heaven, Matth. x. 32. but before the angels of God, Luke xii. 8 who are not fo much as of the fame order in the fcale of being with themselves? and can it be thought, that he will leave them unacquainted with their dear brethren and fellow-heirs?

Of Peter. James, and John, we are told, that they knew Mofes and Elias upon the mount, and diftinguished them by their names, though they had never feen thefe illuftrious perfonages, or either of them, in the fiefh, Matih xvi, 3, 4. But is it to be imagined that, in fuch paffing excurfions, glorified faints fhould be known by men on earth, and yet unknown by the fame very perfons when they meet with them to part no more, in the heavenly world?

And if in a certain parable, Luke xvi. 23. 24. it is infinuated, that from the farther fide of the impaffable gulph, the heirs of glory may both be defcried and diftinguished,-can any thing be more

abiurd,

abfurd, than to hefitate a moment concerning the propriety of this delightful truth?

Moreover, fitting down with the patriarchs and prophets, is an intimation that Gentile converts fhall be raised to a level with the most eminent faints in the Jewish church. They fhall be in the fame ftate, of the fame family, at the fame table... and have all their immunities fecured by the fame divine perfections. Have the patriarchs and prophets the feal of God in their foreheads? Rev. vii. 3.-they fhall have the name of God written upon theirs, Rev. iii. 12. Are those arrayed in the uniforms of Emmanuel's land-fo fhall thefe. Do the former make effential parts of the heavenly, the triumphant commonwealth? fo fhall the lat.

ter.

A difference indeed may take place between the glory of one faint and another, in refpect of degrees; but each of them fhall be as glorious as they are capable of, -as glorious as it is poffible for them to be. Though, like fo many veffels, redeemed fouls may be more or lefs capacious, they fhall all be filled to the brim, confequently, according to their different meafures, intirely upon la level

We

* We cannot with precision now judge of the rank which different faints may bear in the church of God above, from the places they occupy in the church of God on earth; for it is not only puffible, but beyond doubt, that fome bearing office in the church, and in that view fuperior to those whom the exercise of their office refpecteth, are not the holiest of the community; and therefore, in as far as the degrees of future gloiy may be inferred from the degrees of prefent grace, it muft follow, that thofe who are greatest in the church here, may be leaft in the church hereafter; while thefe

who