head, and by a participation of Christ's own life. But while the saints are in the body, there is much remaining distance between Christ and them. The vital union is very imperfect; and so is the communication of spiritual life and vital influence. There is much between Christ and believers to keep them asunder, much indwelling sin, much temptation, a heavy moulded, frail body, and a world of carnal objects, to keep off the soul from Christ, and hinder a perfect coalescence. But when the soul leaves the body, all these hindrances are removed, every separating wall is broken down, every impediment is taken out of the way, and all distance ceases; the heart is wholly and perfectly drawn, and firmly and for ever bound to Christ, by a perfect view of his glory. The vital union is then brought to perfection; the soul lives perfectly in and upon Christ; being perfectly filled with his spirit, and animated by his vital influence; living as it were only by Christ's life, without any remainder of spiritual death, or carnal life.

IV. They enjoy a glorious, and immediate, intercourse and conversation with Christ.

While we are present with our friends, we have opportunity for a free and immediate conversation with them, which we cannot have when absent. Therefore, by reason of the far more free, perfect, and immediate intercourse with Christ, which the saints enjoy when absent from the body, are properly represented as present with him.

The most intimate intercourse becomes that relation in which the saints stand to Jesus Christ; and especially becomes that perfect and glorious union into which they shall be brought with him in heaven. They are not merely his servants, but his friends; John xv. 15; his brethren and companions; Psal. cxxii. 8; yea they are the spouse of Christ. They are espoused or betrothed to Christ while in the body: but when they go to heaven, their marriage with him is come, and the King brings him into his palace. Christ conversed in the most friendly manner with his disciples on earth, and admitted one of them to lean on his bosom: but they are admitted much more fully and freely to converse with him in heaven. Though Christ be there in a state of glorious exaltation, reigning in the majesty and glory of the sovereign Lord and God of heaven and earth, of angels and men; yet this will not hinder the intimacy and freedom of their intercourse, but will rather promote it. He is thus exalted, not only for himself, but for them. He is Head over all things for their sakes, that they may be exalted and glorified; and, when they go to heaven where he is, they are exalted and glorified with him; and shall not be kept at a greater distance. They shall be unspeakably more fit for it; and Christ will be in more fit circumstances to bestow on them this blessedness. Their seeing the great glory of their friend and Redeemer, will not

awe them to a distance, and make them afraid of a near approach; but on the contrary, will most powerfully draw them near, and encourage and engage them to holy freedom. They will know that he is their own Redeemer, and beloved friend; the very same who loved them with a dying love, and redeemed them to God by his blood; Matt. xiv. 27. "It is I; be not afraid." (Rev. i. 17, 18.) "Fear not: I am he that liveth, and was dead." The nature of this glory of Christ which they shall see, will be such as will draw and encourage them; for they will not only see infinite majesty and greatness, but infinite grace, condescension, gentleness and sweetness, equal to his majesty. He appears in heaven not only as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but as the Lamb, and the Lamb in the midst of the throne;" (Rev. v. 5, 6:) and this Lamb in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, to" feed them, and lead them to living fountains of water; (Rev. vii. 17 ;) so that the sight of Christ's majesty will be no terror to them; but will only serve the more to heighten their pleasure and surprise. When Mary was about to embrace Christ, being full of joy at seeing him again alive after his crucifixion, Christ forbids her to do it for the present; because he was not yet ascended; (John xx. 16,17,) “ Jesus saith unto her, Mary.' She turned herself, and saith unto him, 'Rabboni,' which is to say, Master.' Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father; But go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." As if he had said, "This is not the time and place for that freedom which your love to me desires. That is appointed in heaven after my ascension. I am going thither: and you who are my true disciples, shall, as my brethren and companions, soon be there with me in my glory. That is the place appointed for the most perfect expressions of complacence and endearment. Accordingly the souls of departed saints in heaven, find Christ manifesting those infinite riches of love towards them, which he has felt from eternity; and they are enabled to express their love to him, in an infinitely better manner, than they could while in the body. Thus they shall be eternally encompassed by the infinitely bright and mild and sweet beams of divine love; eternally receiving that light, and forever reflecting it to the fountain.

V. They are received to a glorious fellowship with Christ in his blessedness.

As the wife is received to a joint possession of her husband's estate; and as the wife of a prince partakes with him in his princely possessions and honours; so the church, the spouse of Christ, is received to dwell with him in heaven, and shall partake with him in his glory. When Christ rose from the dead,

and took possession of eternal life; this was not as a private person, but as the Head of his redeemed people. He took possession of it for them, as well as for himself; and "they are quickened together with him, and raised up together." So, when he ascended, he took possession of heaven not only for himself, but for his people, as their Forerunner and Head, that they might ascend also," and sit together in heavenly places with him." (Eph. ii. 5, 6. ) “Christ writes upon them his new name." (Rev. iii. 12. i. e.) He makes them partakers of his own glory and exaltation in heaven. His new Name is that new honour and glory with which the Father invested him, when he set him at his own right hand just as a prince, when he advances any one to new dignity in his kingdom, gives him a new title. Christ and his saints shall be glorified together, Rom. viii. 17.

The saints in heaven have communion with Christ in his glory and blessedness in heaven, in the following respects.

1.

They partake with him in the ineffable delights which he has in heaven, in the enjoyment of his Father.

When Christ ascended to heaven, he was received to a peculiar blessedness in the enjoyment of his Father, who in his passion hid his face from him; such an enjoyment as became the relation in which he stood to the Father; and such as was a meet reward for the great and difficult service which he had performed on earth. Then "God showed him the path of life, and brought him into his presence, where is fullness of joy, and and to sit on his right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore," as is said of Christ, Psal. xvi. 11. Then the Father; "made him most blessed forever: he made him exceeding glad with his countenance;" as in Psal. xxi. 6. The saints, by their union with Christ, partake of his child-like relation to the Father; and are heirs with him of his happiness in the enjoyment of his Father; as seems to be intimated by the Apostle, in Gal. iv. 4-7. The spouse of Christ, by her espousals to the only begotten Son of God, is a partaker of his filial relation to God; becomes the King's daughter; Psal. xlv. 13; and so partakes with her divine Husband in his "enjoyment of his Father and her Father, of his God and her God." A promise of this seems to be implied in those words of Christ to Mary, John xx. 17. Thus Christ's faithful servants" enter into the joy of their Lord," Matth. xxv. 21, 23. ; and "Christ's joy remains in them;" agreeably to those words of Christ, John xv. 11. Christ from eternity is in the bosom of the Father, as the object of his infinite complacence. In him is the Father's eternal happiness. Before the world was he was with the Father in the enjoyment of his boundless love; and had infinite delight and blessedness in that enjoyment; as he declares of himself in Prov. viii. 30. "Then I was by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." When Christ ascended to the Father

after his passion, he went to the enjoyment of the same glory and blessedness in the enjoyment of his love; agreeably to his prayer the evening before his crucifixion, John xvii. 5. "And now, O Father, glorify me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." In the same prayer, he manifests it to be his will, that his true disciples should be with him in the enjoyment of that joy and glory, which he then asked for himself; verse 13. "That my joy might be fulfilled in themselves;" verse 22. "And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them." This glory and joy of Christ, which the saints are to enjoy with him, is that which he has in the enjoyment of the Father's infinite love to him; as appears by the last words of that prayer of our Lord, verse 26, "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them." The love which the Father has to his Son is great indeed; the Deity does, as it were, wholly and entirely flow out in a stream of love to Christ; and the joy and pleasure of Christ is proportionally great. This is the stream of Christ's delight, the river of his infinite pleasure; which he will make his saints to drink of with him; agreeably to Psal. xxx. 8, 9. "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house: thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light." The saints shall have pleasure in partaking with Christ in his pleasure, and shall see light in his light. They shall partake with Christ of the same river of pleasure, shall drink of the water of life, and of the same new wine in his Father's kingdom; Matth. xxi. 29. That new wine is especially that joy and happiness which Christ and his true disciples shali partake of together in glory; which is the purchase of Christ's blood, or the reward of his obedience unto death. Christ at his ascension into heaven, received everlasting pleasures at his Father's right hand, in the enjoyment of his Father's love, as the reward of his own obedience unto death. But the same righteousness is reckoned both to the head and the members; and both shall have fellowship in the same reward; each according to their distinct capacity.

That the saints in heaven thus partake with Christ in his own enjoyment of the Father, manifests the transcendent excellence of their happiness, and their being admitted to a vastly higher privilege in glory than the angels.

2. They partake with Christ, in the glory of that dominion, to which the Father has exalted him.

The saints, when they ascend to heaven, and are made to sit together with Christ in heavenly places, are exalted to reign with him. They are through him made kings and priests, and reign with him, and in him, over the same kingdom. As the Father has appointed unto him a kingdom, so he has appointed it to them. The Father has appointed the Son to reign over

his own kingdom, and the Son appoints his saints to reign in his. The Father has given to Christ to sit with him on his throne, and Christ gives to the saints to sit with him on his throne, agreeably to his promise; Rev. iii. 21. Christ as God's Son, is the Heir of his kingdom; and the saints are joint-heirs with Christ; which implies, that they are heirs of the same inheritance, to possess the same kingdom, in and with him, according to their capacity. Christ in his kingdom reigns over heaven and earth; he is appointed the "Heir of all things;" and so all things are the saints; "whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come," all are theirs; because they are Christ's, and united to him; (1 Cor. iii. 21-23.) The angels are given to Christ as a part of his dominion, to wait upon him as ministering spirits: so they are all ministering spirits, to minister to them who are the heirs of salvation. They are Christ's angels, and they are also their angels. Such is the saint's union with Christ, and their interest in him, that what he possesses, they possess, in a much more perfect and blessed manner than if all things were given to them separately, and by themselves, to be disposed of according to their discretion. All things are now disposed of so as in every respect to be most for their blessedness, by an infinitely better discretion than their own; and are disposed of, also, by their head and husband, between whom and them there is the most perfect union of hearts, and of wills, and who are one, even as Christ and the Father are one.

As the glorified spouse of this great King reigns with him, in his dominion over the universe; so more especially does she share with him in the joy and glory' of his reign in his kingdom of grace. This is peculiarly the kingdom which he possesses as Head of the Church, and is that kingdom in which she is more especially interested. It was especially to reign in this kingdom, that God the Father exalted him to his throne in heaven. He set his King on his holy hill of Zion, especially that he might reign over Zion, or over his church, in his kingdom of grace; and that he might be under the best advantages to carry on the designs of his love in this lower world. Hence, the saints in heaven are partakers in Christ's joy when they witness the prosperity of his kingdom of grace on earth, and the success of his gospel here: which he looks on as the peculiar glory of his reign. The good shepherd rejoices when he finds but one sheep that was lost; and his friends and neighbours in heaven rejoice with him on that occasion. That part of the family which is in heaven are surely not unacquainted with the affairs of that part of the same family which is on earth. They who are with the King and are next to him, the royal family who dwell in his palace, are not kept in ignorance of the affairs of his kingdom. The saints in heaven are with the angels, the VOL. X.

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