preternatural to him; and such as he Would not, only the Violence of our Contempt forces them from him: But there fhall be no fuch Mixture; There he will appear purely As he is, i. e. purely Kind and Good, and Communicative of that Good to all that fee him; and then how can the Vifion be otherwife than Beatifying? Suitably to this the fame Apostle in his Vision of the New Jerufalem, Rev. 21. after he has defcribed it as a Magnificent City, and most preciously built, he adds, That the City had no need of the Sun to lighten it; for the Glory of God is the light thereof; Intimating that God is the fame Bleffing to the Heavenly Inhabitants, as he has conftituted the Sun to be to the Inhabitants of the Earth; the fame Bleffing in Refemblance, though infinitely greater in Proportion. And accordingly we may observe, that as the Word light is used peculiarly to exprefs God, 1 Joh. 1.5. fo the fame Word Light is used peculiar. ly ly to express Eternal Happiness, Col. 1. 12. to confirm the Argument, that God is the Eternal Happiness of the Future Life. From the whole that has been faid upon this Head, we may make this Inference (viz.) That it is not the Place Heaven, but rather the God of Heaven that is the Reward of his Saints; procuring them endless Bleffedness by the Light of his Countenance upon them, and the Influences and Emanations of his Bounty towards them. Which Bleffedness that the place it felf can no way procure, we may gather from that Inftance, 1 Kings 22. Where we are told, that a Lying Spirit, i, e. a Devil was in Heaven, mixing himself with the Bleffed about the Throne of God; And yet it is certain he was never the Happier for being there; but being deprived of the light of God's Countenance, i. e. his Love (which properly makes up the Beatifick Vifion) he even there carried his Hell about him. Well therefore and with good reafon does the Pfalmift cry unto God, Pf. 142. 25. Thou art my Hope and my Portion in the land of the Living: By the Land of the Living he means Heaven; For Earth is no more than the Land of the Dying; I fay by the Land of the living he means Heaven, and yet he does not look upon that Land, but meerly upon God in that Land to be his Hope and his Portion. And the Apostle St. Paul, speaking of the state of God's Eternal Kingdom, 1 Cor. 15. 28. clears and determines the whole matter in two words, while he fays that in that ftate God hall be πάντα ἐν πᾶσι, All in All Every thing to every Saint; For All that they can want, All that they can wifh for, All that they can conceive, God fhall be to every one of them. And now what farther Evidence can I need to my Conclufion(viz.) That if Heaven be to be delighted in, God is more? And if God be the Chief thing to be de lighted او lighted in hereafter, how Reasonable is it that he fhould be delighted in Now? For let us confider yet farther, If God be not delighted in Now, How fhall we be able to delight in him Hereafter? Now muft neceffarily be the Difpofition to Hereafter, there being no Interval that can form any New Difpofitions in He therefore that will Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, let him Enter: Why ftands he at a Distance from the State he pretends to defire ? Or why looks he for Another Opportunity? whereas there is no other but the present? For Delight in God is Heaven Begun; and the Confummation of that Delight is Heaven in the perfection of Blifs. THE |