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Sermons Volume 4 · Thomas Manton

Sermons Volume 4, Sermons on Titus · Sermon 14

SERMON XIV.

TITUS II.13.

—That Blessed Hope, &c.

Doct. II. THE Hope of Christians is a blessed Hope.

Hope is here put for the thing hoped for, as Col. 1.5. For the Hope that is laid up for you in Heaven. Where Hope is put for the Object of Hope. Now this Matter or Object of our Hope is sometimes called Life, sometimes Glory, sometimes Joy and Pleasure. It is a Life that never shall be quenched or put out; Iude 21. Looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternal Life. It is a Glory that is Eternal for Duration; 2 Cor. 4.17. it is called a far more exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory: for the measure of it, it is above our Conceit and Expression, as much as a Creature can bear. It is Joy and Pleasure without Mixture and without End; Psal. 16.11. In thy Presence is Fulness of Ioy, at thy right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore. Now this Hope is said to be blessed, because it puts us into the Fruition of absolute Blessedness. We cannot conceive of it now to the full; when we come to injoy it, we shall find it above all that ever we could conceive or hear of it: As much as we see and know of it, sheweth it is a blessed thing; but we shall understand it best when we hear the great Voice calling us, Come up and see.

But a little to set it before you. In Blessedness there must be a Removal of all Evil, and a Coacervation and compleat Presence of all that is Good. As long as the least Evil continueth, a Man is not blessed, only he is less miserable. If a Man had all things that Heart could wish for, what would it avail him? as Haman, when he wanted Mordecai's Knee, Esther 5.13. All this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Iew sitting at the King's Gate. Ahab had the Kingdom of Israel, but yet he fell sick for want of Naboth's Vineyard. If a Man were never so well fitted for a Journey, a little Gravel in his Shoe would founder him. As in Carriages of War, though there be a great Train, yet if one Peg be missing or out of Order, all stoppeth. Or in the Body, if one Humour be out of Order, or one Joint broken, it is enough to make us sick, or ill at Ease, though all the rest be sound and whole; so if there be the least Evil, a Man cannot be a compleat happy Man; Complaining will not suit with Blessedness. Now,

First; In the Hope that we look for, there is a Removal of all Evil. Evil is twofold, either of Sin or of Punishment; and in Heaven there is neither Sin nor Misery.

1. To begin with Sin, that is the worst Evil. Affliction is Evil, but it is not Evil in it self, but only in our Sense and Feeling; if a Man had a Dedolency, it is no Pain to a benummed Joint to be scourged. But Sin is evil, whether we feel it or no, but it is worst when we feel it not. Certainly that is Evil which separateth from the chiefest Good; Affliction doth not separate from God, it is a means and an Occasion to make us draw nigh to him; many had never been acquainted with God, but for their Afflictions: but Sin separateth us from God; Isa. 59.2. Your Iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your Sins have hid his Face from you, that he will not hear. Let a Man be never so loathsome, yet if he be in a State of Grace, he is dear to God; the Lord taketh Pleasure in him, though rough-cast with Ulcers and Sores, and thrown into a Prison, yet God will kiss him with the Kisses of his Mouth. There is nothing so loathsome and odious to God as Sin: This grieveth the Saints most; Rom. 7.24. O wretched Man that I am! who shall deliver me from this Body of Death? If any Man had Cause to complain of Afflictions, Paul had, he was often in Perils, whipped, imprisoned, stoned; but he doth not cry out, When shall I be delivered from these Afflictions? O but this Body of Death was worst of all, Lusts troubled him more than Scourges, and his Captivity to the Law of Sin more than Chains and Prisons. This is the Disposition of the Saints, they are weary of the World, because they are sinning here, whilst others are glorifying God, not only that they are suffering here, whilst others are injoying God. A Beast will forsake the Place where he hath neither Meat nor Rest. Carnal Men, when they are beaten out of the World, have a Fancy to Heaven, as a Place of Retreat; but that which troubles Godly Men is their Sin. Well, but in Heaven there is no Sin; Eph. 5.27. That he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having Spot or Wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and without Blemish. There is neither Spot nor Wrinkle upon the Face of the glorified Saints. Their Faces were once as black as yours, but now Christ presenteth them to God as a Proof of the cleansing Virtue of his Blood. And how pure and clean they are, without Spot or Wrinkle, the Apostle's Words, that he might present it, imply, as if Christ did glory and rejoice in their Purity, as the Fruits of his Purchase. There you are freed from all Sins. With much ado we mortify one Lust, but Nature recoileth: as Ivy in the Wall, if you cut it down, it breaketh out again. It is much here if the Dominion of Sin be taken away: there the being of it is abolished, in Heaven it is not at all; you will displease God no more, and are freed from all the immediate and inseparable Consequences of Original Sin, detraction in Duty, and the like. Here is no perfect Love, and therefore the Soul cannot be fixed in the Contemplation of God; that's the Reason of wandring Thoughts: but there the Heart cleaves to God without stragling. In Heaven we shall be freed from Pride, which lasts as long as Life, therefore called Pride of Life, 1 John 2.16. We cannot have a Revelation now, but we grow proud of it; 2 Cor. 12.7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelations, there was given to me a Thorn in the Flesh, the Messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Nor can there be an Influence of Grace, but we are apt to be proud of it. There is a Worm in Manna, but then we are most high and most humble, because most holy. O Christians! is not this a blessed Hope, that telleth you of a sinless State, of being like Christ in Purity and Holiness? 1 Iohn 3.2. Beloved, now are we the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. What is it that you have struggled with, and groaned under all your Lives, but Sin? Now that is blotted out, when the Days of Refreshing shall come. And as there is no Sin, so there are no Temptations: in Paradise there was a Tempter, but none in Heaven: Satan was long since cast out thence, and the Saints fill up the vacant Rooms of the Apostate Angels. The World is a Place of Snares, a Valley of Temptations; it is the Devil's Circuit, where did he walk but to and fro in the Earth? but in Heaven nothing entreth that defileth, Rev. 21.27. No Serpent can creep in there, though he could into Paradise. O Christians! lift up your Heads, you will get rid of Sin, and displease God no more. Here we cry, Lord deliver us from Evil! and then our Cries are heard to the full. Grace weakneth Sin, but Glory abolisheth it, and the old Adam is left in the Grave never to rise more.

2. The next Evil is the Evil of Affliction. Whatever is painful and burdensome to Nature, is a Fruit of the Fall, a Brand and Mark of our Rebellion against God; therefore Affliction must be done away as well as Sin, if we be compleatly happy. As in Hell there is Evil, and only Evil, a Cup of Wrath unmixed, without the least Temperament of Mercy; so in Heaven there is Happiness, and only Happiness; Sorrow is done away as well as Sin. It is said, Rev. 21.4. God shall wipe away all Tears from their Eyes, and there shall be no more Death, neither Sorrow, nor crying; neither shall there be any more Pain. The Afflictions of the Soul are gone, there are no more Doubts of God's Love, nor Sense of his Displeasure; here though we are pardoned, and the Wound be cured, yet the Scars remain. Absalom could not see the King's Face when he was restored. In wise Dispensation God sometimes hideth his Face from us here upon Earth. We need to be dieted, and to taste the Vinegar and the Gall sometimes, as well as the Honey and Sweetness, that we may the better relish our Christian Comforts. The World is a middle Place, standing between Hell and Heaven, and therefore hath something of both: the Saints have their Mixture of Pleasure and Sorrow; Iob 2.10. Shall we receive Good at the Hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive Evil? But there is Fulness of Joy, and Pleasures for evermore; Psal. 16.11. Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life; in thy Presence there is Fulness of Ioy, at thy right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore: there is no Mixture of Sorrow. Here we complain that the Candle of the Lord doth not shine with a like Brightness as in the Months that are past; there our Sun remaineth in an eternal High-noon, without Clouds and Overcasting, Nox null… secuta est, no Night follows. The Afflictions of the Body are done away. Heaven is a happy Air, where none are sick, there is no such thing there as Gouts and Aches, and the grinding Pains of the Stone. Here it is called a vile Body, Phil. 3.21. as it is the Instrument of Sin, and the Subject of Diseases. We have the Root of Diseases in the Soul, and that is Sin; and the Matter and Fuel of them in the Body, peccant Humours and Principles of Corruption. As Wood is eaten out with Worms that breed within it self; so there are in our Bodies Principles of Corruption, that do at length destroy them; but there we are wholly incorruptible. Yea, because Deformity in the Body is a Monument of God's Displeasure, one of the penal Events of Sin, introduced by Adam's Fall, it is done away; the Body riseth in due Proportion: Whatever was monstrous or mishapen in the first Edition, is corrected in the second, like the Errata's in a second Edition. And for Violence without, Heaven is a quiet Place; when there are Tumults in the World, God is introduced as sitting in the Heavens, a quiet Posture; Psal. 2.4. He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh. There is nothing to discompose those blessed Spirits, wicked Men cannot molest them nor abuse them. Here the very Company of wicked Men is a Burden; as Lot's righteous Soul was vexed with the filthy Conversation of the Wicked, 2 Pet. 2.7. David complains, Psal. 120.5. Wo is me that I dwell in Mesech, and sojourn in the Tents of Kedar. But there the Son of Man shall send forth his Angels, and gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do Iniquity, Matth. 13.41. The Wicked shall be bound Hand and Foot, and cast into utter Darkness; as when Men will not be ruled, they are sent to Prison. Here poor Saints are subject to a Number of Infirmities, Labour, Thirst, Hunger, Cold, Nakedness and Want, which all cease then. It is a rich Inheritance, as well as a glorious one; Ephes. 1.18. That ye may know what is the Hope of his Calling, and what the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints. These Distinctions of Poor and Rich, as they are understood in the World, do not outlive Time; we shall have enough of true Riches, which is eternal Glory, and the full Fruition of God. Labour ceaseth, though there be a continual Exercise of Grace: all things rest when they come to their proper Place, so do they that die in the Lord; we still serve God, but without Weariness. Yea, we are freed from the Necessities of Nature, Eating and Drinking, and Sleeping, to which the greatest Potentates are subject. Though they are exempted from hard bodily Labour, yet they are not exempted from the Necessities of Nature: but there the Use of Meats and of the Belly and Stomach is abolished; 1 Cor. 6.12. Meats for the Belly, and the Belly for Meats, but God shall destroy both it and them. It is a piece of our Misery, that our Life is patched up of so many Creatures; as a torn Garment is pieced and patched up with Supplies from abroad; the Sheep or Silkworm supplies us with Clothing, the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea with Food, and all to support a ruinous Fabrick, that is ever ready to drop about our Ears. But there we are above Meat and Drink and Apparel: it will be our Meat and Drink to do our Father's Will; Nakedness will be no Shame, we shall have Glory instead of a Robe. And the Body will not be a Clog to the Soul, but a Help. This Mass of Flesh we carry about with us, is now the Prison of the Soul, where it looketh out by the Windows of the Senses; but there it is no longer the Prison of the Soul, but the Temple of it. In short, all that I have to …ay upon this Branch, is comprized in Rev. 21.4. And God shall wipe away all Tears from their Eyes; and there shall be no more Death, neither Sorrow, nor Crying, neither shall there be any more Pain; for the former things are passed away. There is quite another kind of Dispensation, no Distraction of Business; our whole Employment there will be to think of God, and study God, but without Weariness, Satiety or Distraction.

Secondly; In Blessedness there is a Confluence of all Good. To the Happiness of the Creature it is necessary, that his Comforts should be full and eternal; Psal. 16.11. In thy Presence is Fulness of Ioy, and at thy right Hand are Pleasures for evermore. 2 Cor. 4.18. The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. That they may be full for Parts, full for the Degrees, and the manner of Enjoyment, and that they should continue for ever; that he may possess this Happiness without fear of losing it, let us examine these things.

1. He must injoy all Good, for the Parts of it; the whole Man in all his Relations must be blessed: For Man being foreign, a sociable Creature, is to be happy not only in his Person, but in his Company and Relations; so we hope for an Estate when our Persons shall be happy, both in Body and Soul conformed to Christ, and we shall be blessed in our Company and Relations; we are brought into the Presence of God, which is Blessedness it self, and into the Sight and Fellowship of his blessed Son, and into the Company of blessed Angels and Saints.

First; The Happiness of his Person, and there both of his Body and his Soul.

1st. Of his Body. It is good to consider that: It is now a Temple of the Holy Ghost, and he cannot leave his Mansion, and quit his ancient Dwelling-Place, and therefore he raiseth it up, and formeth it again into a compleat Fashion, like to Christ's glorious Body; Phil. 3.21. Who shall change our vile Body, that it may be like to his glorious Body, for Clarity, Agility, Strength and Incorruption. Solomon's Temple was destroyed, but the latter Temple was nothing so glorious as the former: Men wept when they saw it; Ezra 3.12. But many of the Priests and Levites, and chief of the Fathers, who were ancient Men, which had seen the first House, when the Foundations of this House was laid before their Eyes, wept with a loud Voice. But it is not so here, what is raised shall be quite another Body. For the present there is to be seen a beautiful Fabrick, wherein God hath shewed his Workmanship, every Member, if it were not so common, would be a Miracle, all is so ordered for the Service and Comeliness of the whole: but now it is a vile Body, subject to Diseases, fed with Meat, humbled with Wants, many times mangled with Violence, dissolved by Death, and crumbled to Dust in the Grave, like a dry Clod of Earth. This is the Body that we carry about with us, a Mass of Flesh, dressed up to be a Dish for the Worms. Men labour with a great deal of doe by embalming it with Spices, to keep it from Putrefaction, but all will not serve the turn, it moulders at last. But this vile Body shall rise in another manner, like to Christ's glorious Body. When the Sun appeareth, the Stars vanish, their lustre is eclipsed and darkned. But the Sun of Righteousness, when he appears at the last Day, doth not obscure but perfect our Glory. But wherein shall our Bodies be like to Christ's glorious Body? The Apostle will tell us that in another Place; 1 Cor. 15.42, 43, 44. It is sown in Corruption, it is raised in Incorruption; it is sown in Dishonour, it is raised in Glory; it is sown in Weakness, it is raised in Power; it is sown a natural Body, it is raised a spiritual Body. Let me single out three Expressions, it is raised in Incorruption, it is raised in Glory, it is raised a spiritual Body.

(1.) It is an incorruptible Body. Now it yielded to the Decays of Nature, and is exercised with Pains and Aches, till at length it droppeth down like ripe Fruit into the Grave; but hereafter it shall be clothed with Immortality, wholly impassible. What a Comfort is this to them that are racked with Stone and Gout, humbled with Diseases, or withered with Age, to think they shall have a Body without Aches, and without Decays, that shall be always in the Spring of Youth! The Trees of Paradise are always green.

(2.) It is a glorious Body. Here it is many times deformed, at least Beauty, like a Flower, is lost in Sickness, withered with Age, defaced by the several Accidents of Life; but then we shall be glorious like Christ's Body. The naked Body of Man at first was so beautiful, that the Beasts of the Field admired it, and thereupon did Homage to Adam, but we shall not be conformed to the first Adam, but the second Adam: When Christ was transfigured in the Mount, it is said, Matth. 17.2. His Face did shine as the Sun, and his Raiment was white as the Light: There was such strong Emissions of the Beams of Glory, that they could not indure the Shining of his Garments, but it astonished the Disciples: his Garments could not vail, nor their Eyes indure those Beams of Glory. Paul could not indure that Light that shined on him, when Christ appeared to him from Heaven, but was utterly confounded and struck blind: Acts 9.3, 4. And as he journied, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a Light from Heaven; and he fell to the Earth, and heard a Voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? By this you may guess a little what the Glory of our Bodies shall be, for we shall be like him. Moses by conversing with God forty days, the Complexion of his Face was altered, so that he was forced to put a Vail upon it. In this low Estate in which we are, we must make use of these hints. If we lose a Limb or a Joint, he that healed Malchus his Ear will restore it again.

(3.) It is a Spiritual Body, either for Agility, caught up into the Air to meet the Lord, not clogged as now. Or rather, because more disposed for spiritual Uses, for the Enjoyments and Employments of Grace. Here it is a natural Body, a great Clog to us; it is not a dexterous Instrument to the Soul: we are not in a Capacity to bear the new Wine of Glory: there it is made more capacious, as wide Vessels, to contain all that God will give out. The Disciples fainted at Christ's Transfiguration, Mat. 17.6. And when the Disciples heard it, they fell on their Faces, and were sore afraid. We cannot receive such large Diffusions and Overflowings of Glory as we shall then have; every strong Affection, and raised Thought doth overset us, and causeth Extasy and Ravishment; eminent Objects overwhelm the Faculty. But there it is otherwise, God maketh out himself to us in a greater Latitude, and we are more able to bear it.

2dly. For the Blessedness of the Soul, which is the Heaven of Heaven. Our Happiness is called the Inheritance of the Saints in Light: Col. 1.12. Giving Thanks to the Father, who hath made us meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light. It is not for a Man, that knows no other Heaven, but to eat, drink, sleep and wallow in filthy and gross Pleasures; it is an Inheritance in Light, and for Saints that know how to value Intellectual and Spiritual Delights. But wherein doth the Happiness of the Soul consist, in Knowledg, or in Love? Divines are divided, but certainly it is in both; our Happiness consists in the Love and Knowledg of God, from whence resulteth Union with God, and Fruition of God. But now which is to be preferred, to know God, or to love God? that is a Question. In one place it is said, Iohn 17.3. This is Life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent: so that it seemeth to be the Heaven of Heaven, to have the Understanding satisfied with the Knowledg of God. And Psal. 17.15. As for me, I shall behold thy Face in Righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness. That is our Happiness, we go to Heaven to know more of God, and the Acts of the Understanding are most noble. On the other side, 1 Iohn 4.16. God is Love, and he that dwelleth in Love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. It is not Sight meerly that makes us happy, the Embrace of the Soul is by Love, the Possession of the Soul is by Acts of Love. One saith, tho not modestly enough, Libentius sine aspectu te diligerem, quam te videndo non amarem Stella de amore Dei; I had rather not see thee than not love thee. Here in the World the Hatred of God is worse than the Ignorance of him, and therefore it should seem Love should have the Preheminence. But we need not make a Fraction between these Graces; by knowing, we come to love; and by loving, we come to know God: as Light is, so is Love, and so is Enjoyment. Here we love little, because we know little, Iohn 4.10. If thou knewest the Gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked, and he would have given thee living Water. And the more we love, the more we know, this is a Fire that casts Light. But to speak more distinctly.

1. There is the Perfection of Knowledg. All the Faculties must be satisfied before we can be happy, especially the Mind, which is the noblest Faculty, and that which maketh us Men. There is a natural Inclination to Knowledg, and the Soul taketh a great deal of Contentment in the Contemplation of any Truth; Prov. 24.13, 14. My Son, eat thou Honey, because it is good; and the Honey-comb, which is sweet to thy Taste. So shall the Knowledg of Wisdom be unto thy Soul, when thou hast found it. Right and clear Thoughts of God breed a rejoycing; Psal. 19.10. More to be desired are they than Gold, yea, than much fine Gold; sweeter also than the Honey, and the Honey-comb. A Man given to Pleasures hath no such choiceness of Delight: Therefore this is no small part of our Happiness in Heaven to have more Light and Knowledg of God, and of his Ways. We shall know many Mysteries of Salvation, that now we are ignorant of; as the Nature of God, Psal. 17.15. As for me, I shall behold thy Face in Righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy Likeness. The Union of the two Natures in the Person of Christ, Iohn 17.24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me. Our Union with Christ, and by Christ with God, Iohn 14.20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. The course of God's Decrees and Providences for our good, 1 Cor. 13.12. Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known: that is, we shall be able to see how the unchangeable Counsels of God for our Salvation have been carried on, through all the Passages of the present Life, to bring us safe to the heavenly State. These are the Deeps of God; and now there is a Darkness on the Face of these Deeps. The Church is but a Grammar-School; Heaven is an University. We shall have better Eyes, and other Light: here Prophecy is but in part, but there our Intuition is immediate. 1 Iohn 3.2. We know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. Now it is sicut vult, as he is pleased to reveal himself; then sicut est, as he is. Now we see what he is not, not corruptible, not mortal, not changeable, rather than what he is. Now we see him as he is in us, and as he is in other Creatures; we track him by the Effects of his Power, and Wisdom and Goodness: but then we shall see him as he is in himself: ipsum cognoscemus per ipsum, we shall know him by himself. 1 Cor. 13.12. Now we see through a Glass darkly, then face to face. In the Creatures there are Vestigium, the Tract and Foot-print of God; in the Law there is Vmbra, the Shadow of God; in the Gospel there is Imago, the Image of God, a fair Draught of God, as in a Picture; but in Heaven there is Facies Dei, the Face of God. We shall have excellent Books to study, the large Manifestations of Glory, the Majesty of Christ's Person, the Lamb's Face, who is the Bride; we shall be always sitting about the Throne, and the Lamb in the midst. There God maketh out himself in the highest Manifestations we are capable of.

2. There is compleat Love. There is a constant clearing of Heart to God, without Change and Weariness, a Love that never ceaseth working, without Weakness and Distractions. If we delight in any thing here, we soon grow weary, and have a Change of Objects; but God in heavenly Communion is always fresh and new. Here are Distractions and startings aside to the Creature; but there is an eternal Solace and Complacency, a continual Sabbath that never groweth weary and burdensome. All the Heart and Bowels run out after Christ, we shall never want the actual breathings of the Spirit: The Spirit came upon Sampson at times, so it doth upon us here, we have several Motions and Fleetings, but there Jesus Christ is a more lovely Object, and the Delights of the Soul are carried out to him without Satiety; we shall have a sweet Complacency in, and liking of him. Also outward things clog the Appetite, as soon as we have them we despise them, because our Desires are restless; we sip of them, as the Bee doth of the Flower, and then we must have Change, and go to a new Flower; but here is an eternal Complacency in Christ. Here we are troubled when we want outward Comforts, and cloyed when we have them; Curiosity is soon satisfied, and Fruition discovereth their Imperfection: still the more they are enjoyed, the less they are beloved; as Amnon hated Tamar, when his Lust was satisfied. Imperfections that before lay hid, then appear to view, and so our Affections are confuted by Experience. But there the more we enjoy God, the more his Infinite Perfections are manifested, and our Pleasure is augmented by our Enjoyment.

3. There is a compleat Union with God, and Fruition of him. 2 Cor. 5.6. Knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body, we are absent from the Lord. Phil. 1.23. I am in a strait between two, having a Desire to depart and to be with Christ. Here we are united to Christ by Faith, but that is nothing to Sight, and immediate Intuition; we lay hold upon Christ, but have not such an absolute Possession of him: He is a Head that gives out himself, not by Necessity, but Choice and Pleasure, therefore our Communion with Christ is not so perpetual and familiar as it shall be then. As an Iron that lieth long in the Fire, seemeth to be changed into the Nature of it; so we are then more conformed and changed into the Likeness of Christ: Psal. 16.11. In thy Presence is fulness of Ioy; at thy Right-hand there are Pleasures for evermore. All Comforts in this Life we enjoy in God's Absence, and have them at the second, third and fourth hand, by the Ministration of the Creatures, Sun, Moon and Stars, or by the Ministry of Men. Now these are not Vessels capacious enough to convey so much of God to us, as we shall receive when God is All in All immediately; 1 Cor. 15.28. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be All in All. There is no Temple nor Ordinances in Heaven, but the Lamb is the Light thereof. We shall enjoy God without Means, or intervention of Ordinances. We are fed among the Lillies, but it is but till the Day break, and the Shadows flee away. Cant. 2.16, 17. My Beloved is mine, aend I am his; he feedeth among the Lillies, until the Day break, and the Shadows flee away: turn my Beloved, and be thou like a Roe, or young Hart upon the Mountains of Bether.

Secondly; The Happiness of his Relations and Society. In our Company we shall be blessed, God, and Christ, and Saints and Angels, Heb. 12.22, 23, 24. But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and to the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable Company of Angels; to the general Assembly, and Church of the First-born, which are written in Heaven, and to God the Iudg of all, and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect, and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant, &c. We shall see God in Christ; the bodily Eye that cannot look upon the Sun, shall be perfectly glorified and strengthened; tho it cannot see the Essence of God, yet it shall see greater Manifestations of his Glory, than it is able to behold here. How will the Father welcome us, as he welcomed Christ! Psal. 2.8. Ask of me, and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession. So he will say to us, as Mat. 25.21. Well done, thou good and faithful Servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee Ruler over many things: enter thou into the Ioy of thy Lord. We shall come into his Presence with Shame. Sin causeth Shame, and maketh us shy of God: but as the Eye cannot endure the Light if it be wronged, so a wronged Conscience makes us afraid of the Presence of God; but when we shall be perfectly sanctified, and Sin shall be done away, we shall be able to stand in the Presence of God. So as to Christ, he cannot be contented without your Company, and you should not be satisfied without his. John 14.3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and take you to my self, that where I am, there ye may be also. O what a joyful meeting will there be between us and our Redeemer! it will be much sweeter than the Interview between Iacob and Ioseph. Christ longeth for the blessed hour as you do. The wise Men came from far to see him in a Manger; Zacheus climb'd up the Tree to see him riding to Ierusalem. There will be another manner of Sight of Christ in Heaven, than there was of him in the days of his Flesh. When Ioseph discovered himself to his Brethren, and said, Gen. 45.4. I am Joseph, your Brother, what rejoycing was there? much more will there be Joy in Heaven, when Christ shall say, I am Jesus, your Brother, your Saviour, your Redeemer; when he shall lead us to God in a full Troop, and goodly Company, and say, Behold, I and the Children which thou hast given me, Heb. 2.13. what a blessed Sight will that be? Then as to the Angels, what Welcome will there be between you and them? When Christ entred into Heaven, they entertained him with their Applauses and Acclamations: Psal. 24.11. Lift up your Heads, O ye Gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting Doors; and the King of Glory shall come in: So will they welcome the Saints to Heaven with Acclamations. They delight in the good of Men, in their Creation, Redemption, Conversion, so surely will they delight in the Glorification of a Sinner. And as to the Saints, your Acquaintance, with whom you have prayed, suffered, and familiarly conversed; Memory is not abolished in Heaven, but perfected: Those whom we knew here, we shall know again. A Minister shall see his Crown, and the Fruit of his Labours, 1 Thess. 2.19. You are our Crown and our Ioy. And those which have been relieved by us, shall welcome us into Heaven, who therefore are said to receive us into everlasting Habitations, Luke 16.9. Yea, we shall know those that we never saw; why else is it made a part of our Priviledg to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven? Mat. 8.11. As Adam knew Eve as soon as he saw her; and in the Transfiguration Peter knew Moses and Elias, who were dead many hundred Years before; so shall we know one another: certainly we shall not go to a strange People where we know no body. As Men at a Feast are free and familiar with one another, we shall be discoursing of God's Wisdom, Mercy and Justice in the Work of Redemption. So did Moses and Elias talk with Christ, Luke 9.30, 31. Behold, there talked with him two Men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in Glory, and spake of his Decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem: Of the wonderful Providence of God in conducting us to Glory; as Travellers in their Inn take Pleasure in discoursing with one another of the Dirtiness and Dangers of the Way. The Saints are clothed with Majesty and Glory, more lovely Objects than ever they were upon Earth; and here is an innumerable Company of them▪ With what Joy were the Disciples wrap'd when they saw but these two Prophets, Moses and Elias? Mat. 17.4. Heaven is called not only a Palace, but a City, a World to come, where there is a Multitude which no Man can number. This for the Parts of this Happiness.

2. For the Manner and Degree of enjoying, it is full. We are filled with the Fulness of God, and shall eternally lose our selves in an Ocean of Sweetness; the Soul is more capable, stretched out to the greatest Capacity of a Creature, yet God filleth it. Here we have but a few drops, there we shall be filled up to the Brim, and have as much as we can hold; Psal. 17.15. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy Likeness. There shall be compleat Joy and Satisfaction, all Want, Sorrow and Sin shall be done away: we shall enter into our Master's Joy. We do not say, the Sea entreth into a Bucket or Cup, or a River into a Man. In Heaven the Soul is so full of Joy and Glory as is inexpressible.

3. For the Duration of it, it is eternal. Our Happiness is immortal, we can never lose it; which doubleth the Joy and Contentment of that State. God's Love is everlasting, and so shall our Happiness be, there will be no fear of losing it, Rev. 22.5. They shall reign for ever and ever. We shall never lay aside our Diadem of Glory, it is a Garland that shall not wither. It is not only a certain and eternal State, but a State of actual Delights. Christ's Manifestations are not lessened by Enjoyment, but they are like the Widow's Barrel of Meal, and Cruse of Oil, never spent; but we shall always have the actual Comfort of his Presence.