ANGELS.

ICANNOT see why it should be thought more disagreeable to reason to suppose, that angels may have influence on matter so as to cause those alterations in it, which are beyond the established laws of matter, more than to suppose that our spirits should have such an influence. And I do not see why other spirits should not have influence on matter according to other laws; or why, if we suppose spirits have an influence on matter, that it must necessarily be according to the same established rules as our spirits. We find that from such motions of mind there follows such an alteration in such and such matter, according to established rules; and those rules are entirely at the pleasure of him that establishes them. And why we should not think that God establishes other rules for other spirits, I cannot imagine. And if we should suggest, that according to established laws, angels do make alterations in the secret springs of bodies, and so of minds, that otherwise would not be, I cannot see why it should he accounted more of a miracle than that our souls can make alterations in the matter of our hands and feet, which otherwise would not be. [442] Angels confirmed. The angels that stood are doubtless confirmed in holiness, and their allegiance to God; so that they never will sin, and they are out of every danger of it. But yet I believe God makes use of means to confirm them. ‘they were confirmed by the sight of the terrible destruction that God brought upon the angels that fell. They see what a dreadful thing it is to rebel. They were further confirmed by the manifestation God had made of his displeasure against sin, by the eternal damnation of reprobates amongst men, and by the amazing discovery of his holy jealousy and justice in the sufferings of Christ, They are confirmed by finding, by experience, their own happiness in standing, and finding the mistake of the angels that fell, with respect to that which was their temptation, and by new and greater manifestations of the glory of God, which have been successively made in heaven, and by his dispensations towards the church, and above all, by the work of redemption by Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3:10. 1 Timothy 3:16. 1 Peter 1:12. Vide No. 51.5.

Corol. Hence we learn that the angels were not concerned in the work of redemption by Jesus Christ.

So I believe the saints in heaven are made perfectly holy and impeccable, by means, viz, By the beatific vision of God in Christ in’ glory; by experiencing so much the happiness of holiness, its happy nature and issue; by seeing the wrath of God on wicked men, etc. [681] The angels of heaven, though a superior order of being, and of a more exalted nature and faculties by far than men, are yet all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be the heirs of salvation; and so in some respect are made inferior to the saints in honour. So likewise the angels of the churches, the ministers of the gospel that are of a higher order and office than other saints, yet they are, by Christ’s appointment, ministers and servants to others, and are least of all, as Matthew 20:25,26,27. “ Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.”

Matthew 23:8,9,10,11,12. “ But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ, But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” And Mark 9:35. “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” It is as it is in the body natural, those parts that we account more noble and honourable are, as it were, ministers to the more inferior, to guard them, and serve them, as the apostle observes, 1 Corinthians 12:23,24. “And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.” God’s ways are all analogous, and his dispensations harmonize one with another. As it is between the saints that are of an inferior order of beings, and the angels which are of more exalted natures and degrees, and also between those Christians on earth that are of inferior order, and those who are of superior, being ministers of Christ; so without doubt it also is in some respects in heaven, between those that are of lower and those that are of higher degrees of glory. There, those that are most exalted in honour and happiness, though they are above the least, yet in some respects they are the least; being ministers to others, and employed by God to minister to their good and happiness. These sayings of Christ, in Matthew 20:25, etc. and Mark 9:35. were spoken on occasion of the disciples manifesting an ambition to be greater in his kingdom, by which they meant his state of exaltation and glory; and so it is in some sort, even with respect to the man Christ Jesus himself, who is the very highest and most exalted of all creatures, and the head of all. He, to prepare himself for it, descended lowest of all, was most abased of any, and in some respects became least of all. Therefore, when Christ in these places directs that those that would be greatest among his disciples, should be the servants of the rest, and so, in some respects, least; he enforces it with his own example. Matthew 20:26,27,28. “ Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even so the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” And Luke 22:26,27. “ He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that doth serve, for whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am among you as he that serveth.” None in the kingdom of heaven ever descended so low as Christ did, who descended as it were into the depths of hell. He suffered shame and wrath, and was made a curse. He went lower in these things than ever any other did, and this he did as a servant not only to God, but to men, in that be undertook to serve us, and minister to us in such dreadful drudgery, while we sit at meat in quietness and rest, and partake of those dainties which he provides for us. Christ took upon him to minister to us in the lowest service, which he represented and typified by that action of washing the disciples’ feet, which he did chiefly for that end. Thus Christ is he that seems to be intended in Matthew 11:11. by him “that is least in the kingdom of heaven;” who is there said to be greater than John the Baptist.

The design of God in thus ordering things, is to teach and show that he is all, and the creature nothing, and that all exaltation and dignity belong to him; and therefore those creatures that are most exalted shall in other respects be least and lowest. Thus, though the angels excel in wisdom and strength, and are advanced to glorious dignity, and are principalities and powers, and kings of the earth, yet God makes them all ministers to them who are much less than they, of inferior nature and degree. Thus, also, the saints who are most exalted in dignity are servants to others. The angelic nature is the highest and most exalted created nature; yet God is pleased to put greater honour upon our inferior nature, viz. the human, by causing that the Head and King of all creatures should be in the human nature, and that the saints in that nature in Christ, should be in many respects exalted above the angels, that the angelic nature may not magnify itself against the human; and the man Christ Jesus, that creature who is above all, owes his superiority and dignity, not at all to himself, but to God; viz, to his union with a divine person. Though he be above all, yet in some respects he is inferior; for he is not in the highest created nature, but in a nature that is inferior to the angelic. To prepare him for his exaltation above all, he was first brought lowest of all in suffering and humiliation, and in some respects in office, or in those parts of the office that were executed by him in his state of humiliation. Though the saints are exalted to glorious dignity, even to union and fellowship with God himself; to be in some respects divine in glory and happiness, and in many respects to be exalted above the angels; yet care is taken that it should not be in themselves, but in a person who is God, and they must be as it were emptied of themselves in order to it. And though the angels are exalted in themselves, yet they are ministers to them who are not exalted in themselves, but only in communion with a divine person as of free grace partaking with them. Thus wisely hath God ordered all things for his own glory, that however great and marvellous the exercises of his grace, and love, and condescension are to the creature, yet he alone may be exalted, and that he may be all in all. And though the creature be unspeakably and wonderfully advanced in honour by God’s grace and love; yet it is in such a way and manner, that even in its exaltation it might be humbled, and so as that its nothingness before God, and its absolute dependence on God, and subjection to him, might be manifested. Yet this humiliation or abasement, which is joined with the creatures’ exaltation, is such as not to detract from the privilege and happiness of the exaltation. So far as exaltation is suitable for a creature, and is indeed a privilege and happiness to the creature, it is given to the creature and nothing taken from it. That only is removed that should carry any shadow of what belongs only to the Creator, and which might make the difference between the Creator and creature, and its absolute, infinite dependence on the Creator, less manifest. That humiliation only is brought with the exaltation that is suitable to that great humility that becomes the creature before the Creator. This humiliation does not detract any thing from the happiness of elect holy creatures, but adds to it, for it gratifies that humble disposition that they are of, it is exceeding sweet and delightful to them to be humbled and abased before God, to cast down their crowns at his feet as the four and twenty elders do in Revelation 4:10. — And to abase themselves, and appear nothing, and ascribe all power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing to him.

They will delight more in seeing God exalted than themselves, and they will not look on themselves the less honoured because that God appears to be all, even in their exaltation, but the more. These creatures that are most exalted will delight most in being abased before God, for they will excel in humility as much as in dignity and glory, as has been elsewhere observed, The man Christ Jesus, who is the head of all creatures, is the most humble of all creatures. That in Matthew 18:4. “Whosoever therefore humbleth himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” is true, with respect to the humility that they exercise, both in this and in another world. They that have most humility in this world, will continue to excel in humility in heaven; and the proposition is reciprocal, They that have the greatest humility, shall be most exalted, and shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and they that are greatest in the kingdom of heaven, are most humble Corol. I What has been said above, confirms the conclusion that some in heaven will be a kind of ministers in that society: teachers; ministers to their knowledge and love, and helpers of their joy, as ministers of the gospel are here.

Corol. II. Hence we may learn the sweet and perfect harmony that will reign throughout that glorious society, and how far those that are lowest will be from envying those that are highest, or the highest from despising the lowest, for the highest shall be made ministers to the happiness of the lowest, and shall be even below them in humility, and the lowest shall have the greatest love to the highest for their superior excellency, and for the greater benefit which they shall receive from their ministration, as it is the disposition of the saints to love and honour their faithful ministers here in this world. [838] Angels-why called Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers.

As the angels are made to be employed as the ministers of God’s providence of the government of the world, and as they are beings of a limited understanding, and not equally capable of understanding and managing the affairs of the whole universe, or of the whole extent and compass of divine providence, or of any part indifferently, as they may be of affairs of some particular kind, or system, or series of events, or of some particular part of the universe; (for it must needs be so with all that are of limited understanding, that they must be more capable of the care and management of things in a certain particular sphere than of any thing indifferently without any fixed limits;) so it is very reasonable to suppose from hence that the different angels are appointed to different kinds of work, and that their ministry more especially respects some certain limited parts of the universality of things which God has in some respect committed to their care, so that over these things they have a ministerial dominion, some of larger and others of lesser extent; some in a more exalted, others a less humble station. So they are a kind of princes under God, over such and such parts of the creation, or within such a certain sphere. Though their dominion be only ministerial, (as the dominion of ministers of the gospel, or angels of the churches is,) yet it is very honourable and exalted, It is a very honourable work in which they are employed, an image of the work of the Son of God, as God man, who has the vicegerency of the whole universe, and so they as well as the princes of Israel are called gods, Elohim, Psalm 92:7. “ Worship him, all ye gods,” which is rendered by the apostle, “Let all the angels of God worship him.”

And they are called “The sons of God,” as they are, Job 38:” When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”

They may, on this account also, be fitly compared to stars, (as they are here, and also in the song of Deborah, “The stars in their courses fought against Sisera,”) not only for their brightness in wisdom and holiness, and for their being the native inhabitants of heaven, and obeying the commands of God, as the stars do, but because they have their particular dominion set them in the lower universe, as the stars have, “Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?” (Job 38:33.)

And also because they have their certain sphere and course to which they are limited in heaven. These seem in part to be signified by the kings of the earth, that shall bring their honour and glory into the church. They are made chiefly for a ministerial dominion over, and management of, the world of mankind on the earth, as ministering spirits unto Christ; and on the account of their honourable place and trust in heaven, they may be called ministers of the new earth, there spoken of in that chapter. God hath concealed the particular spheres of the angels’ dominion and ministry, that we might not be tempted to idolatry. They, therefore, that worship angels under a notion of such and such angels having a superintendency over such particular persons or affairs, intrude into those things that they have not seen.

It is not reasonable to suppose that the angels are called thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, merely for the honour they have in their great abilities and excellent qualifications, for the words do properly denote rule and authority. Earthly rulers are called principalities and powers. Titus 3:1. “ Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, and to obey magistrates.” [p937] Angels elect — their dependence on Christ.

Two questions may be raised with respect to the elect angels.

Ques. I. How far the elect angels are dependent on Christ for eternal life?

Ans. I Probably the service appointed them as the great trial of their obedience, was serving Christ, or ministering to him in his great work that he had undertaken with respect to mankind.

II. When Lucifer rebelled and set up himself as a head in opposition to God and Christ, and drew away a great number of the angels after him, Christ, the Son of God, manifested himself as an opposite head, and appeared graciously to dissuade and restrain by his grace the elect angels from hearkening to Lucifer s temptation, so that they were upheld and preserved from eternal destruction at this time of great danger by the free and sovereign distinguishing grace of Christ. Herein Christ was the Saviour of the elect angels, for though he did not save them as he did elect men from the ruin they had already deserved, and were condemned to, and the miserable state they were already in, yet he saved them from eternal destruction they were in great danger of, and otherwise would have fallen into with the other angels. The elect angels joined with him, the glorious Michael, as their captain, while the other angels hearkened to Lucifer and joined with him, and then was that literally true that was fulfilled afterwards figuratively. Revelation 12 “When there was war in heaven:

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was there place found any more in heaven, And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

III. They were dependent on the sovereign grace of Christ to uphold them and assist them in this service, and to keep them from mining themselves, as the fallen angels had done; by the fall of the angels, especially of Lucifer, the greatest, brightest, and most intelligent of all creatures, they were taught their own emptiness and insufficiency for themselves, and were led humbly in a self-diffidence to look to Christ, to seek to him, and depend on him, in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell to preserve them. So that they all along hung upon him. Through the whole course of their obedience during their time of trial, having no absolute promise, as believers in Christ have amongst men of perseverance in one act of faith, but only God the Father had revealed to them that if they were preserved, it must be by influence and help from his Son, and also made known to them the infinite riches of the grace of his Son, and its sufficiency for them, and given the experience of it in reserving them when the other angels fell, and God directed them to seek to his Son for help. But this humble dependence was part of their duty or work by which they were to obtain eternal life, and it was not as it is with men, the fruit of the purchase of life already made, the first act of which entitles to all other fruits of this purchase through eternity. Thus angels did depend on Christ, and they were supported by strength and grace from him freely communicated; it was sovereign grace that he was not obliged to afford them, for he was not obliged to afford them any more grace than he did the angels, so that it can truly be said of the angels, that they have eternal life by sovereign grace through Christ in a way of self-emptiness, self-diffidence, and humble dependence on him. So far is the way of the elect angels’ receiving eternal life like that of elect men’s receiving of it.

IV. Christ is their Judge, and they actually receive their reward at his hands as their Judge, as I have elsewhere shown.

V. They not only have the reward of eternal life adjudged to them by Christ, but actually, continually, and eternally derive it from him as their head of life and divine influence, the Spirit is given them through him.

VI. They have their happiness in him in this brightness of God’s glory and express image. It is that they behold the glory and love of God, and so have eternal life in the enjoyment of God. Thus Christ is the tree of life in paradise, on whose fruit all its inhabitants live to all eternity, and the Lamb is the light of that glorious city.

Quest. II. How far the angels are dependent on Christ as God man, and have benefit by his incarnation, sufferings, and exaltation, and the work of redemption that he wrought out for mankind?

Ans. I. The work of redemption is their end; they were created to be subservient to Christ in this affair.

II. Their work and service that was appointed them, that was the trial of their obedience, was to serve Christ and his elect people in this affair and it was by obeying Christ as his servants in this affair, that they actually obtained eternal life.

III. Especially did the angels obtain life by attending on Christ, and being faithful to him during the time of his humiliation, which was the last and most trying part of their obedience.

IV. The Lord Jesus Christ God man is the Judge of the angels, that gives them the reward of eternal life. They did not enjoy perfect rest till he descended and confirmed them, so that the angels, as well as men, have rest in Christ God man. (See the next.)

V. They have this benefit by the incarnation of Christ, that thereby God is immediately united with a creature, and so is nearer to them, whereby they are under infinitely greater advantages to have the full enjoyment of God.

VI. Jesus Christ God man is he through whom, and in whom, they enjoy the blessedness of the reward of eternal life, both as the Head of influence through whom they have the Spirit, and also as in Christ God man they behold God’s glory, and have the manifestations of his love.

VII. As the perfections of God are manifested to all creatures, both men and angels, by the fruits of those perfections, i.e. by God’s works, (the wisdom of God appears by his wise works, and his power by h is powerful works; his holiness and justice by his holy and just acts, and his grace and love by the acts and works of grace and love,) so the glorious angels have the greatest manifestations of the glory of God by what they see in the work of man’s redemption, and especially in the death and sufferings of Christ. [940] The elect angels have greatly increased both in holiness and happiness, since the fall of those angels that fell, and are immensely more holy than ever Lucifer and his angels were; for perfection and holiness, i.e. a sinless perfection, is not such in those that are finite, but that it admits of infinite degrees. The fall of the angels laid a foundation for the greater holiness of the elect angels, as it increased their knowledge of God and themselves, gave them the knowledge of good and evil, and was a means of their being emptied of themselves and brought low in humility, and they increased in holiness by persevering in obedience. What they behold of the glory of God in the face of Christ as men’s Redeemer, and especially in Christ’s humiliation, greatly increased their holiness; and their obedience, through that last and greatest trial, contributed above all things to an increase of their holiness. This further shows how the elect angels are dependent on Christ God man. [941] Christ’s humiliation many ways laid a foundation for the humiliation of all elect creatures. By seeing one infinitely above them descending so low, and abasing himself so much, they are abundantly made sensible how no abasement is too great for them. Lucifer thought what God required of him too great an abasement for so high and worthy a creature as he; but in Christ Jesus they see one infinitely higher than he descending vastly lower than was required of him. It tends to humble the angels, and to set them for ever at an immense distance an thought that any thing that God can require of them can be too great an abasement for them; and then it tended to humble them, as this person that appeared in such meanness, and in so despicable a state, is appointed to be their Lord and their God, and as they were required humbly to minister to him in his greatest abasement. It tends to abase elect men two ways. 1. As here is the example of the voluntary humiliation of one infinitely more worthy than they; and, 2. As here is the greatest manifestation of the evil, dreadful nature of sin, and particularly as here is the effects of their sin. Here appears the venomous nature of their corruption, as it aims at the life of God, and here appears the infinite greatness of its demerit in such sufferings of a person of infinite glory. So that all elect creatures are as it were humbled and abased in their head. This shows further how the elect angels are dependent on Christ God man. [938] Heaven — How the elect angels know good and evil. It is a thing supposed, without proof, that the glorious inhabitants of heaven never felt any such thing as trouble or uneasiness of any kind. Their present innocency and holiness does not prove it. God may suffer innocent creatures to be in trouble for their greater happiness. The nature and end of that place of glory does not prove it, for if that did not hinder sin from entering, neither will it necessarily hinder trouble from entering there.

The elect angels probably felt great fear at the time of the revolt of Lucifer and the angels that followed him. They were then probably the subjects of great surprise, and a great sense of their own danger of falling likewise; and when they saw the wrath of God executed on the fallen angels, which they had no certain promise that they should not suffer also by their own disobedience, being not yet confirmed; it probably struck them with fear.

And the highest heavens was not a place of such happiness and rest before Christ’s ascension as it was afterwards; for the angels were not till then confirmed. So that it was in Christ God man that the angels have found rest. The angels, therefore, have this to sweeten their safety and rest, that they have it after they have known what it is to be in great danger, and to be distressed with fear. [1098] That the angels in the times of the Old Testament did not fully understand the counsels and designs of God with regard to men’s redemption, may be argued from that text, Isaiah 64:4. “ For since the beginning of the world they have not heard, (men is not in the original,) nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” In the original, what “he hath made or done for him that waiteth for him.” It is rendered in the margin, “hath seen a God besides thee which doth so for him that waiteth for him.” But our translation gives the sense more agreeable to the citation of the apostle, 1 Corinthians 2:7-9. It is manifest by this text, if we take it in a sense agreeable to the apostle’s understanding of it, that none of old understood the mystery of man’s redemption by Jesus Christ, it never entered into the hearts of any; and if this be the sense, it will follow from the words of the text, not only that it had not entered into the hearts of any of mankind, but also of the angels, for all are expressly excluded but God himself; none have heard, seen, or perceived, O God, beside thee. The meaning is not only that no works had been already done that ever any had seen or heard of parallel to this work; for if the meaning was, that no works that were past had been seen or heard of like this work, those words, O God, beside thee, would not be added; for if that were the sense, these words would signify, That, though others had not seen any past works parallel with this, yet God had, which would not have been true; for God himself had not seen any past works parallel with this. The same may also be argued from Ephesians 3:9-11. compared with Romans 16:25,26. and Colossians 1:26. Not only are the words of Ephesians 3:10. very manifestly to my present purpose, but those words in the verse preceding are here worthy of remark. The mystery which, from the beginning of the world, hath beenHID IN GOD; which seems plainly to imply, that it was a secret which God kept within himself, which was hid and sealed up in the divine understanding, and never had as yet been divulged to any other, which was hid in God’s secret counsel, which as yet no other being had ever been made acquainted with; and so the words imply as much as those in the forementioned place in Isaiah, that none had perceived it beside God. [1247] Angels. That they are as the nobles and barons of the court. of heaven, as dignified servants in the palace of the King of kings, is manifest by Matthew 18:10. See my Notes. So in their being called thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. [1276] Angels ignorant of the majesty of the gospel till Christ’s coming.

Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you the hope of glory. Dr. Goodwin says, “This doctrine of the gospel he kept hid and close in his own breast; no creature knew it; no, not the angels, who were his nearest courtiers and dearest favourites, it lay hid in God, Ephesians 3:9. even hid from them, ver. 10. A mystery, which when it should be revealed, should amaze the world, put the angels to school again, as if they had known nothing in comparison of this, wherein they should know over again all those glorious riches which are in God, and that more perfectly and fully than ever yet. And so after they had a little studied the catechism and compendium, there should come out a large volume, a new system of the riches of the glory of God, the mystery of Christ in the text, which is the last edition, also, now set out enlarged, perfected, wherein the large inventory of God’s glorious perfections is more fully set down with additions. (Dr. Goodwin’s Works, vol. 1 part 3:p. 64. on Colossians 1:26,27.)

FALL OF THE ANGELS. [438] So it was also with the angels, their judgment was likewise decreed.

Probably they thought it would be degradation and misery to be ministers to a creature of an inferior nature, whom God was about to create, and subjects and servants to one in that nature, not knowing particularly how it was to be, God having only in general revealed it to them. They thought it would be best for themselves to resist, and endeavour to be independent of God’s government and ordering; and, having an appetite to their own honour, it overcame holy dispositions, which when once overcome, immediately wholly left them to the full and unrestrained rage of the principles that overcome, and their holy inclination to subjection was greatly damped by their opinion of God, as though he intended to deal unbecomingly by them in subjecting them to one of such a nature, and so it was the more easily overcome. [320] Devils. It seems to me probable that the temptation of the angels, which occasioned their rebellion, was, That when God was about to create man, or had first created him, God declared his decree to the angels that one of that human nature should be his Son, his best beloved, his greatest favourite, and should be united to his eternal Son, and that he should be their Head and King, that they should be given to him, and should worship him, and be his servants, attendants, and ministers: and God having thus declared his great love to the race of mankind, gave the angels the charge of them as ministering spirits to men. Satan, or Lucifer, or Beelzebub, being the archangel, one of the highest of the angels, could not bear it, thought it below him, and a great debasing of him. So he conceived rebellion against the Almighty, and drew away a vast company of the heavenly hosts with him. But he was cast down from the highest pitch of glory to the lowest hell for it, and himself was made an occasion of bringing that to pass which his spirit so rose against, yea, his spite and malice was made an occasion of it, and that same act of his by which he thought he had entirely overthrown the design, and that same person in human nature which they could not bear should rule over them in glory, and should be their King and Head, to communicate happiness to them, by this means proves their King in spite of them, and becomes their Judge; and though they would not be his willing subjects, they shall be his unwilling captives, he shall be their sovereign to make them miserable and pour out his wrath upon them; and mankind whom they so envied and so scorned, are by occasion of them advanced to higher glory and honour, and greater happiness, and more nearly united to God; and though they disdained to be ministering spirits to them, yet now they shall be judged by them as assessors with Jesus Christ. [833] Occasion of the full of the angels. Christ had his delegated dominion over the world committed to him as soon as the creation of the world was finished; for though Christ did not actually begin the work and business of a Mediator till man had fallen, vet the world, even in its very creation, was designed to be for the use of Christ in the great affair of redemption, and his purpose in that work was the end of the creation, and of all God’s providences in it from the beginning. Therefore the government of the world was committed into his hands from the very beginning; for even the very creation was committed into his hands for that reason, as the apostle intimates, Ephesians 3:9,10. Much more have we reason to think that the disposal of it was committed into his hands when it was made, because it was created for his disposal and use. It was therefore most fit that it should be committed to him, not only in the actual accomplishment of that great work of his, the work of redemption, but also in those antecedent dispensations that were preparatory to it during that short space of time that was taken up in the preparation before the work of redemption actually began. It was most meet that Christ should have the disposal of those things that were to prepare the way for his own work, otherwise the work would not wholly be in his hands; for the accomplishing of the work itself, so as best to suit his own purpose and pleasure, depends in a great measure on the preparation that was made for it, and so there is the same reason that the preparation should be in his hands as the work itself, There is the same reason, that those things that are without the limits of the work itself, as to time, should be in the hands of Christ, because of the relation they have to that work, as that those things that are without the limits of the work itself, as to place, and nature, and order of being, should be in his hands; as the angels in heaven, and indeed all the works of God that were before the fall of man, were parts of the work of preparation for the work of redemption. The creation itself was so; and for this reason the creation of the world was committed into his hands; and there is no reason to suppose that one part of this work of preparation was committed into Christ’s hands, because it was a preparation for his work, and not other parts of the preparation for the same work. All things are for Christ, for his use; and therefore God left it with him to prepare all things for his own use, that in every thing he might have the pre-eminence, and that in him might all fulness dwell, a perfect sufficiency every way for the design that he had to accomplish; and therefore by the will and disposition of the Father, all things were made by him, and all things consist by him, and he was made Head over all things to the church, and for the purposes of the work of redemption that he was to accomplish for the church. Colossians 1:16,17,18,19. “For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things are created by him and or him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.” Ephesians 1:22. “And hath put all things under his feet, and given him to be head over all things to the church.” It is manifest by these things that not only the creation of the world, but the upholding and government of the world, were committed into the hands of Christ, and doubtless it was so from the beginning. As Christ’s delegated dominion over the world will not at an end till his use of it is finished, and he has completed that work in which its great use consists, and has fully obtained his end of it, which will be at the end of the world, when he will deliver upTHAT kingdom to the Father. So doubtless the delegated dominion over the world began when his use of it began, which was at the beginning of the world, or as soon as the world was finished, and then the kingdom was committed to him of the Father. [936] Fall of the angels. — Satan, the prince of the devils. It seems manifest by the Scripture, that there is one of the devils that is vastly superior to all the rest. His vast superiority appears in his being so very often spoken of singly, as the grand enemy of God and mankind, the grand adversary, the accuser of the brethren, and the great destroyer. He is more frequently spoken of singly, in Scripture, than devils are spoken of in the plural number, as though he were more than all the rest. He seems commonly in Scripture to be spoken of instar omnium. It seems to be from his great superiority above all the rest, that he is so often spoken of under so many peculiar names that are never found in the plural number, as Satan, Diabolos, Beelzebub, Lucifer, The Dragon, The Old Serpent, The Wicked One, The God of this world, The Prince of this world, John 12:31.

The Prince of the power of the air, The Accuser of the brethren, The Tempter, The Adversary, Abaddon, Apollyon, The Enemy, and The Avenger. His strength and subtlety are very great indeed; so much superior to the rest, that he maintains a dominion over them, and is able to govern and manage them, that they durst not raise rebellion against him, agreeable to Job 41:25. “When he raiseth up himself the mighty are afraid.” But he is king in hell, the prince of the devils; as leviathan is said, Job 41:34. to be “king over all the children of pride.” See Revelation 9:11. All the rest of the devils are his servants, his wretched slaves, they are spoken of as his possession, Matthew 25:41. “ Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil andHIS angels.” They are his attendants and possession, as the good angels are Christ’s attendants and possession, Re”. 12:7. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels.”

This angel, before his fall, was the chief of all the angels, of greatest natural capacity, strength, and wisdom, and highest in honour and dignity, the brightest of all those stars of heaven, as is signified by what is said of him, under that type of him, the king of Babylon, Isaiah 14:12.” How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” This signifies his outshining all the other stars, as the morning star outshines the rest. It is yet more manifest from what is said of the king of Tyrus, as a type of the devil, in Ezekiel 28:12-19. Here I would observe several things. (See note on the place.)

I. it is exceeding manifest that the king of Tyrus is here spoken of as a type of the devil, or the prince of the angels or cherubim that fell. 1. Because he is here expressly called an angel or cherub, once and again, ver. 14, 16. And is spoken of as a fallen cherub. 2. He is spoken of as having been in heaven under three different names; by which names heaven is often called in Scripture, viz. Eden, The Garden of God, or the Paradise of God; ver. 13. The Holy Mountain of God,ver. and i6; and The Sanctuary, ver. 18. 3. He is spoken of as having been in a most happy state in the paradise of God, and holy mountain of God, in great honour, and beauty, and pleasure. 4. He is spoken of as in his first estate, or the state wherein he was created, to be perfectly free from sin, but afterwards falling by sin. Ver. 15. “thou wast perfect in thy ways, from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” 5. The iniquity by which he fell was pride, or his being lifted tip by reason of his superlative beauty and brightness. Ver. 17. “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.” 6. He is represented as being cast out of heaven, and cast down to the earth for his sin. Ver. 16. “Therefore I will cast thee, as profane, out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the flames of fire.” Ver. 17. “ I will cast thee to the ground.” 7. He is represented as being destroyed by fire here, in this earthly world.

Ver. 18. “ I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee: it shall devour thee; and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the midst of all that behold thee.” 8. His great wisdom is spoken of as being corrupted by sin, i.e. turned into a wicked craftiness. Ver. 17’. “Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom because of thy brightness.” If the king of Tyrus were not here expressly called “a cherub,” “in the paradise of God,” and “in God’s holy mountain;” by which it is most evident that he is spoken of as a type of a cherub in the paradise of God; yet I say if it had not been so, the matter would have been very plain, for the things here spoken of cannot be applied to the king of Tyrus with any beauty, nor without the utmost shining, any other way than as a type of the devil that was once a glorious angel in paradise. For how could it be said of the king of Tyrus, in any other sense, but as a type of the anointed angel, that he had been in God’s holy mountain, and in Eden, the garden of God, and in God’s sanctuary, and there been first perfect in his ways? (For the original word is a kind of expression that is ever used in Scripture to signify holiness, or moral perfection.) And how in any other sense was he afterwards cast, as profane, out of the mountain of God?

II. It is evident that this cherub or angel is spoken of as the highest of all the angels. This is evident by several things. 1. He is called the anointed cherub. This expression alone shows him to have sat higher than any other cherub; for his being anointed, must signify his being distinguished from all others. Anointing of old was used as a note of distinction, to show that that person was marked out and distinguished from all the rest for a higher dignity. The Lord’s anointed, in Israel, was he that God of his mere good pleasure had appointed to the chief dignity in Israel; so the Lord’s anointed among the cherubim, is the cherub that God had appointed to the highest dignity of all. It is said, ver. 14. “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so;” i.e. plainly,” It has been my pleasure to set thee, by my anointing, in the highest dignity of all.” 2. He is called, “The cherub that covereth, on God’s holy mountain,” ver. 14. and “The covering cherub, in the midst of the flames of fire,” ver. 16.

In which there seems to be a reference to the cherubim in the temple in the holy of holies, next to the throne of God that covered the throne with their wings. Exodus 25:19,20. and 27:9. From this it appears, that by the covering cherub is meant the cherub next to the throne of God himself, having a place in the very holy of holies. There were represented two cherubim that covered the mercy-seat in the temple, that are called by the apostle, “cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat,” Hebrews 9:5. which represent the great dignity and honour of the cherubim that are next to God’s throne, and are covering cherubim, But before the fall of this cherub he is spoken of as being alone entitled to this great honour and nearness to God’s throne in heaven, that he was anointed to be above his fellows. (See note on Matthew 18:10.) 3. This covering cherub is here spoken of as the top of all the creation, or the summit and height of all creature perfection in wisdom and beauty.

Ver. 12. “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect beauty.” He is spoken of not only as being in the midst of many things that are very bright and beautiful, ver. 13, 14. and as walking up and down among them, but as having the sum of all their beauty completed, perfected, and sealed up in himself. [It seems implied, that no being is stronger than Beelzebub, and able to bind him, but God himself. Matthew 12:29. with the context.] Corol. I. Hence learn that Satan before his fall was the Messiah or Christ, as he was the anointed, The word anointed is radically the same in Hebrew as the word Messiah: so that in this respect our Jesus is exalted into his place in heaven.

Corol. II. These things show another thing, wherein Jesus is exalted into the place of Lucifer; that whereas he had the honour to dwell in the holy of holies continually, so Jesus is there entered, not as the high priests of old, but to be there continually, but in this respect is exalted higher than Lucifer ever was; that whereas Lucifer was only near the throne, or kneeling on the mercy-seat in humble posture, covering it with his wings, Jesus is admitted to sit down for ever with God on the throne.

Corol. III. From what is said in this passage of Scripture, we may learn that the angels were created in time. Though we have no particular account of their creation in the story of Moses, we read here, once and again, of the day wherein this anointed cherub was created, ver. 13, 15. This is also implied in Genesis 2:1. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them.” The angels are often in Scripture spoken of as the host of heaven, and the angels are expressly spoken of as created by Christ, in Colossians 1:16. “ For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him.” So Psalm 104:4.” Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire;” which is meant of proper angels, as appears by Hebrews 1:7. It appears also further, because they are called the sons of God, in Job 38:which cannot be meant by eternal generation, for so Christ is God’s only-begotten Son. See Psalm 148:2,3,4,5.

Corol. IV. In another respect also Jesus succeeds Lucifer, viz. in being the covering cherub. The word translated cover, often and commonly signifies to protect. It was committed to this archangel especially, to have the care of protecting the beloved race, elect man, that was God’s jewel, his first-fruits, his precious treasure, laid up in God’s ark, or cabinet, hid in the secret of his presence. That was the great business the angels were made for, and therefore was especially committed to the head of the angels.

But he fell from his innocency and dignity, and Jesus in his stead becomes the Cherub that covereth, the great Protector and Saviour of elect man, that gathereth them as a hen her chickens under his wings.

Corol. V. Lucifer, while a holy angel, in having the excellency of all those glorious things that were about him, all summed up in him, was a type of Christ, in whom all the glory and excellency of all elect creatures is more properly summed, as the head and foundation of all, just as the brightness of all, that reflects the light of the sun, is summed up in the sun.

And as the devil was the highest of all the angels, so he was the very highest of all God’s creatures; he was the top and crown of the whole creation; he was the brightest part of the heaven of heavens, that brightest part of all the creation; he was the head of the angels, that most noble rank of all created beings; and, therefore, when spoken of under that type of him, the Behemoth, he is said to be “ the chief of the ways of God,” Job 40:19. And since it is revealed that there is a certain order and government among the angels, the superior angels having some kind of authority over others that are of lower rank; and since Lucifer was the chief of them all, we may suppose that he was the head of the whole society, the captain of the whole host. He was the archangel, the prince of the angels, and all did obeisance unto him. And as the angels, as the ministers of God’s providence, have a certain superintendency and rule over the world, or at least over some parts of it that God has committed to their care, hence they are called thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. Therefore, seeing Lucifer was the head, and captain, and prince of all, and the highest creature in the whole universe, we may suppose that he had, as God’s chief servant, and the grand minister of his providence, and the top of the creation, in some respect committed to him power, dominion, and principality over the whole creation, and all the kingdom of providence; and as all the angels are called the sons of God, Lucifer was his first-born, and was the firstborn of every creature, But when it was revealed to him, high and glorious as he was, that he must be a ministering spirit to the race of mankind which he had seen newly created, which appeared so feeble, mean, and despicable, so vastly inferior, not only to him, the prince of the angels, and head of the created universe, but also to the inferior angels, and that he must be subject to one of that race that should hereafter be born, he could not bear it. This occasioned his fall; and now he, with the other angels whom he drew away with him, are fallen, and elect men are translated to supply their places, and are exalted vastly higher in heaven than they. And the Man Jesus Christ, the Chief, and Prince, and Captain of all elect men, is translated and set in the throne that Lucifer, the chief and prince of the angels, left, to be the head of the angels in his stead, the head of principality and power, that all the angels might do obeisance to him; for God said, “Let all the angels of God worship him;” and God made him his first-born instead of Lucifer, higher than all those thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, and made him, yea, made him in his stead the first-born of every creature, or of the whole creation, and made him also in his stead the bright and morning star, and head and prince of the universe; yea, gave this honour, dignity, and power unto him, in an unspeakably higher and more glorious manner than ever he had done to Lucifer, and appointed him to conquer, subdue, and execute vengeance upon that great rebel. Lucifer aspired to be “ like the Most High,” but God exalted one of mankind, the race that he envied, and from envy to whom he rebelled against God, to be indeed like the Most High, to a personal union with the eternal Son of God, and exalted him in this union to proper divine honour and dignity, set him at his own right hand on his own throne, and committed to him proper divine power and authority, constituting him as God man, the supreme, absolute, and universal Lord of the universe, and Judge of every creature, the darling of the whole creation, the brightness of God’s glory, and express image of his person; as, in his divine nature, he is theNATURAL IMAGE of God. God, in his providence, was pleased thus to show the emptiness and vanity of the creature, by suffering the insufficiency of the highest and most glorious of all creatures, the head and crown of the whole creation, to appear, by his sudden fall from his glorious height into the lowest depth of hatefulness, deformity, and misery. God’s design was first to show the creature’s emptiness in itself, and then to fill it with himself in eternal, unalterable fulness and glory. To show the emptiness of the creature, the old creation, or the old heavens and earth, were to go to ruin and perish, in some sense, or at least all was to be emptied. Great part of the old creation was actually to sink into total and eternal perdition, as fallen angels and some of fallen men; all mankind was in a sense to be totally; though some of them were to be restored, after they had sensibly been emptied of themselves. And though the highest heaven never was to be destroyed, yet, before it should have its consummate and immutable glory, the highest and most glorious part of it was to perish, and a considerable part of the glorious heavenly inhabitants; and the rest were hereby to be brought to see their own emptiness and utter insufficiency, and so as it were to perish or die as to self-dependence and all self-fulness, and to be brought to an entire dependence on the sovereign grace and all-sufficiency of God, to be communicated to them by his Son as their head. And thus the whole old creation, both heaven and earth, as to all its natural glory and creature-fulness, was to be pulled down; and thus, way was to be made for the creation of the new heavens and new earth, or the setting forth of the whole elect universe in its consummate, everlasting, immutable glory in the fulness of God, in a great, most conspicuous, immediate, and universal dependence on his power and sovereign grace, and also on the glorious and infinitely excellent nature and essence of God, as the infinite fountain of glory and love; the beholding and enjoying of which, and union with which, being the elect creature’s all in all, all its strength, all its beauty, all its life, its fruit, its honour, its blessedness.

Corol. 1. From the last paragraph. This may show us the necessity of a work of humiliation in men as the necessity of man’s being emptied of himself in order to a partaking of the benefits of the new creation, and the redemption of Jesus Christ.

Corol. II. This shows that even the elect angels have their eternal life in a way of humiliation, and also dependence on sovereign grace, as well as elect men, though not the same sort of humiliation and dependence in all respects.

To show the emptiness of all creatures in themselves, the ruin of the creation began in heaven, in the very best and highest part of the creation, and in the highest creature in it, the crown and glory of the whole creation; because it was the will of God that a mere creature should not be the head of the creation, but a divine person, and that he should be the crown and glory of the creation. Heaven was the first of the creation that was subject to ruin, and it shall be the last part that shall be renewed or amended by a new creation. There are two parts of the creation connected with the work of redemption; one is the world of man, and that is this visible world; and the other is the world of angels, and that is heaven. The whole is to be changed: the former shall be destroyed, because all men fell, and only an elect number are saved out of it; the other shall not be destroyed, because all the angels did not fall, those that stood supported it, a blessing was left in it, and therefore God said, Destroy it not, and therefore the change that is to be made iii that is to be of a contrary nature to destruction; it is to be made infinitely more glorious by a new creation. And therefore God’s dealings with respect to the world of angels, are contrary to his dealings with the world of men. The world of men is to be destroyed, and therefore, elect men are taken out of it, and carried into the world of angels, and reprobate men left in it to perish and sink with it. The world of angels is not to be destroyed, but renewed and glorified; and therefore, reprobate angels are taken out of it, and cast into the world of men, and elect angels are kept in it, to be renewed and glorified with it.

Because God’s design was to show the emptiness of the creature, and its exceeding insufficiency, therefore God suffered both angels and men quickly to fall, and the old creation quickly to go to ruin.

Some may be ready to think it to be incredible, and what the wisdom of the Creator would not suffer, that the most glorious of all his creatures should fall and be eternally ruined, or that it should be so that the elect angels, those that are beloved of God, should none of them be of equal strength and largeness of capacity with the devil, To this I would say, 1. That the man Christ Jesus that is exalted into the place of Lucifer in heaven, though he be of a rank of creatures of a nature far inferior in capacity to that of the angels, and especially far below the highest of all the angels, yet God can and hath exalted that little worm of littleness and weakness to an immensely greater capacity, dignity, and glory, than Lucifer ever had. 2. God can reward the elect angels that originally are inferior to Lucifer, and can increase their capacity and strength; and there is no reason to think but that he has rewarded, or will reward, elect angels, as well as elect men, with a great exaltation of their nature. And probably Christ did, at his ascension, exalt the natures of some of them at least, so as to exceed all that ever Lucifer hind. It seems probable, by Revelation 20:at the beginning; and probably at the day of judgment, the natures of all the angels will be so exalted as to be above the devil in capacity.

Seeing that this was the case with the devil, that before his fall he was the head of the creation, the captain and prince of the angels, and had some kind of superintendency over the whole universe, and seeing his sin was his pride, and affecting to be like the Most High, no wonder that he seeks to reign as god of this world, and affects to be worshipped as God.

That the devil so restlessly endeavours to set up himself in this world, and maintain his dominion here, and to oppose God, and fight against him to the procuring his own continual disappointment and vexation, and to work out his own misery, and at last to bring on his own head his own greatest torment, his everlasting and consummate misery, is the fruit of a curse that God has laid him under for his first ambition, and envy, and opposition to God in heaven, He is therefore made a perfect slave to those lusts that reign over him, and torment him, and will pull down on him eternal destruction. [930] Occasion of the fall of the angels. We cannot but suppose that it was made known to the angels, at their first creation, that they were to be ministering spirits to men, and to serve the Son of God in that way, by ministering to them as those that were peculiarly beloved of him, because this was their proper business for which they were made; this was the end of their creation. It is not to be supposed that seeing they were intelligent creatures, that were to answer the end of their beings as voluntary agents, or as willingly falling in with the design of their Creator, that God would make them, and not make known to them what they were made for, when he entered into covenant with them, and established the conditions of their eternal happiness, and especially when they were admiring spectators of the creation of this beloved creature for whose good they were made, and this visible world that God made for his habitation. Seeing God made the angels for a special service, it is reasonable to suppose that the faithfulness of the angels in that special service must be the condition of their reward or wages; and if this was the great condition of their reward, then we may infer that it was their violating this law, and refusing and failing of this condition, which was that by which they fell. Hence we may infer, that the occasion of their fall was God’s revealing this their end and special service to them, and their not complying with it. That must he the occasion of their fall.

COROL. Confirmation of the angels at Christ’s ascension.

Hence it is rendered exceedingly probable that the angels were not confirmed till Christ’s ascension. For, by what has been now said, it appears that the proper condition of their reward or wages must be their faithfulness in that special service for which God made them, or which was the end of their being; but that was to be ministering spirits to Christ in the great work of his exalting and glorifying beloved mankind, But the angels had not any great opportunity to do this business till this work of Christ’s glorifying mankind had been carried on considerably in the world; nor had they the proper and chief trial whether they would submit to that service of being subservient to Christ in the work of redemption of fallen men, till that work of redemption was wrought, and Christ had gone through his humiliation, and it was seen whether they would submit to serve, obey, and adore their appointed Head and King in his abject meanness, and when set at nought and abased to hell for beloved, though sinful, vile men. [1057] Occasion of the fall of the angels. How it is agreeable to the opinions of many divines, that their refusing to be ministering spirits to beings of inferior rank, and to be subject to Jesus Christ in our nature, when the design of his incarnation was first revealed iii heaven, and how that as man he was to be the head of the angels; see Mr. Charles Owen’s Wonders of Redeeming Love, p. 74, etc. in our young people’s library. See also Mr. Glass’s Notes on Scripture Texts, Numbers 3. p. 1-7. [1261] Occasion of the fall of the angels, It is supposed by some, and very rationally and probably by Zanchius, whom I account the best of protestant writers in his judgment, and likewise by Suarez, the best of the school-men, that upon the very setting up, or at least upon the first notice that the angels had of the setting up, of a kingdom for the man Christ Jesus predestinated for to come, (and this, whether it was without the fall predestinated as some suppose, or upon supposition of the full, as others, vet so much might be revealed to them,) and of the divine purpose that the human nature was to he assumed by, and united to, the second person of the Trinity, and that he was to be the head of all principality and power, and that angels and men should have their grace from him; it is supposed, I say, that on this being declared to he the will of God, that the rejection of this kingdom on the part of many of the angels, and their refusing to be subject unto Christ, as man thus assumed, was their first sin. And now in opposition hereunto they did set up another kingdom against him. Thus those writers whom I have mentioned do think; and they allege that place in the epistle of Jude, ver. 6. where, the sin of the angels being described, it is said they kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, (which, say they, is not there brought in as their punishment,) they left the station God had set them in, and they left their dwelling in heaven, to set tip a kingdom here below in opposition to Christ, and so to have an independent kingdom of themselves; for which God hath condemned them into eternal torments, and to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, 2 Peter 2:4, And to set up this great kingdom is their business, and therefore they do now associate themselves together, not out of love, but as becometh rational creatures that would drive on a project and design. These writers not only go upon this place in Jude, but on that in John 8:44. where Christ lays open both the devil’s sin and the sin of the Jews. The sin of the Jews was this, they would not receive that truth which Christ had delivered to them, as he tells them, ver. 45. “Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not;” and not receiving it, they sought to kill him. Now, if you ask what that truth was which Christ had so much inculcated upon them, you shall see, ver. 25. what it is. They asked him there, Who he was;” Even the same,” saith he,” that I have told you from the beginning,THE MESSIAH,THE SON OF GOD. If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed,” ver. 36. This was the great truth that these Jews would not receive. Now he tells them, likewise, ver. 44. that Satan, their father, the devil, abode not in the truth. He was the first, saith he, that opposed and contradicted this great truth, and would not be subject to God who revealed this, nor would he accept, or embrace, or continue, or stand; he would quit heaven first; and so from hence come to be a murderer, a hater of this man Christ Jesus, and of this kingdom, and of mankind. For he that hateth God, or he that hateth Christ, he is, in what in him lieth, a murderer of him, and he showed it in falling upon man. And they backed it with this reason, why it should be so meant, because otherwise the devil’s sin which he compares them to, had not been so great as theirs. There had not been a likeness between the sin of the one and that of the other; his sin would have been only telling a lie, a lie merely in speech, and theirs had been a refusing that great truth,JESUS CHRIST IS THE MESSIAH AND HEAD; and so the devil’s sin would have been less than theirs. Whereas he is made the great father of this great lie, of this great stubbornness to receive Christ, and to contradict this truth; and this, saith he, he hath opposed from the beginning with all his might, and he setteth your hearts at work to kill me. But I say I will not stand upon this, because I only deliver it as that which is the opinion of some, and hath some probability. However, this is certain, whatsoever his sin was, he hath now, being fallen, set up his kingdom in a special manner against Christ; and so Christ hath been the great stumbling-stone, and angels full upon it, and men fall upon it. So that indeed the first quarrel was laid in this; God himself proclaimed it at the very beginning. “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head;” which, though spoken to the serpent, comes in by way of curse, as striking at the very spirit of the devil’s sin. “ He shall break thy head,” saith he. “Thou wouldest have lifted up thyself. He shall crush thee.” God, I say, proclaimed the war, and the quarrel hath continued from the beginning of the world to this day, and will do, till Satan be put out of the air, for so long he is to have his kingdom, though Christ beateth him out of it every day in the world, and so will continue to do till he hath won the world from him, and then he will chain him up in the bottomless pit. This from Dr.

Goodwin, vol. 1. of his Works, part 2:p. 32, 33. [1266] Fall of the angels. The same Dr. Goodwin, in the 2nd vol, of his Works, in his Discourse on the Knowledge of God the Father, -and of his Son Jesus Christ, speaking of the pride of some, has these words: “A lower degree of accursed pride fell into the heart of the devil himself, whose sin in his first apostatizing from God, — is conceived to be a stomaching that man should be one day advanced unto the hypostatical union, and be one person with the Son of God, whose proud angelical nature (then in actual existence, the highest of creatures) could not brook.”

THE DEVIL. [48]SEEING the devil is so cunning and subtle, it may seem a paradox why he will endeavour to frustrate the designs of an Omniscient Being, or to pretend to controvert him that is omnipotent, and will not suffer any thing but what is for his own glory, seeing that God turns every thing he does to the greater and more illustrious advancement of his own honour. And seeing he has experience of it, for so long a time, all his deep-laid contrivances have at last come out to his own overthrow, and the work has beets directly contrary to his design. To this I say that although the devil be exceeding crafty and subtle, he is one of the greatest fools and blockheads in the world, as the subtlest of wicked men are. Sin is of such a nature, that it strangely infatuates and stultifies the mind. Men deliberately choose eternal torments rather than miss of their pleasure of a few days; and to esteem a little silver and gold above eternal happiness, makes men choose few minutes pleasure, though eternal misery be joined thereunto, rather than not have it; this do the cunningest of wicked men. Sin has the same effect on the devils to make them act like fools, and so much the more as it is greater in them than in others. The devil acts here according to his deliberate judgment, being driven on to his own inexpressible torment by the fury of sin, malice, revenge, and pride, and is so entirely under the government of malice, that although he never attempted any thing against God but he was disappointed, yet he cannot bear to be quiet and refrain from exercising himself with all his might and subtlety against the increase of holiness; though, if he considered, he might know that it will turn to its advantage. [226] Devils. — It is probable one reason why men have the offer of a Saviour, and the devils never had, was because their sin was attended with that malice, and spite, and haughty scornfulness, that was equivalent to that sin against the Holy Ghost. Their sin was a downright spiteful rebellion, and a direct malicious war against God, a scorn of subjection, and a proud seeking of his throne. [353] Angels — The fall and misery of the rebel angels contributes exceedingly to the happiness of the faithful angels; it greatly exalts and gives life to their joy, their love, and admiration, and praise; not, however, by any pleasure they take in their misery, but by seeing the miserable state of those of the same kind, from whom they are distinguished by God’s electing love, which leads them to reflect what evil they have escaped, by withstanding the temptation of the chief of the rebel angels.

CONFIRMATION OF THE ANGELS. [442]SEE Angels. [515] The fall of the angels that fell, was a great establishment and confirmation to the angels that stood. They resisted a great temptation by which the rest fell, whatever that temptation was, and they resisted the entreaties of the ringleaders which drew away multitudes: and the resisting and overcoming great temptation naturally tends greatly to confirm in righteousness. And probably they had been engaged on God’s side in resisting those that fell when there was war and rebellion raised in heaven against God. All the hosts of heaven soon divided, some on one side, and some on the other, and standing for God in opposition and war against those that are his enemies, naturally tended to confirm their friendship to God; and then they saw the dreadful issue of the fallen angels’ rebellion, how much it was to their loss; they saw how dreadful the wrath of God was, which tended to make them dread rebellion, and sufficiently careful to avoid it. They now learnt more highly to prize God’s favour by seeing the dreadfulness of his displeasure; they now saw more of the beauty of holiness, now they had the deformity of sin to compare it with. But when their time of probation was at an end, and they had the reward of certain confirmation by having eternal life absolutely made certain to them, is in some degree uncertain. However, there are many things that make it look exceedingly probable to me, that whenever this was done, it was through the Son of God, that he was the immediate dispenser of this reward, and that they received it of the Father through him. 1. We have shown before, in No. 320, that it was in contempt of the Son of God that those of them that fell, rebelled; it was because they would not have one in the human nature to rule over them. How congruous, therefore, is it, that those that stood should be dependent on him for their reward of confirmation in contempt of whom the others had rebelled. It was congruous that Christ, who was despised and rejected by a great number of the angels, should become the foundation upon which the rest should be built for eternal life, Psalm 118:22. “The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner.”

That God should thus honour his Son in the sight of the angels, who had been thus contemned by the angels that fell in their sight, this makes it seem probable to me that the time of their confirmation was when Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; for, First . It was Jesus Christ in the human nature, that was despised and rejected by the rebelling angels. It was congruous therefore, that it should be Jesus Christ in the human nature that should confirm them that stood.

Secondly . It was also congruous that their confirmation should be deferred till that time, that before they were confirmed they might have a thorough trial of their obedience in that particular, wherein the rebelling angels were guilty, via. in their submission to Jesus Christ in the human nature. It was congruous therefore that their confirmation should be deferred till they had actually submitted to Christ in man’s nature as their King, as they do when Christ in man’s nature ascended to heaven.

Thirdly . It seems very congruous that this should be reserved to be part of Christ’s exaltation. We often read of Christ’s being set over the angels when he ascended, and set at the right hand of God, and of his being then made head of all principality and power, that then all things were put under his feet, that then God the Father said, “Let all the angels of God worship him.” It was very congruous that Christ should have this honour immediately after such great humiliation and sufferings.

Fourthly . it was fit that the angels should be confirmed after they had seen Christ in the flesh, for this was the greatest trial of the angels’ obedience that ever was. If the other angels rebelled only at its being foretold that such an one in man’s nature should rule over them, if that was so great a trial that so many mighty angels fell in it; how great a trial was it when they actually saw a poor, obscure, despised, afflicted man, one whom they had just seen so mocked, and spit upon, and crucified, and put to death like a vile malefactor! This was a great trial to those thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, those mighty, glorious, and exalted spirits, whether or no they would submit to such an one for their sovereign Lord and King.

It was also very fit that God should honour the day of the ascension and glorious exaltation of his Son, which was a day of such joy to Christ, with joining with it such an occasion of joy to the angels as the reception of their reward of eternal life: that when Christ rejoiced, who had lately endured so much sorrow, the heavenly hosts might rejoice with him.

Object. I. It may be objected, That it was a long time for the angels to be kept in a state of trial from the beginning of the world till the ascension of Christ, but there might very fitly be a longer time of trial for those mighty spirits than for others.

Object. II. That the angels could not enjoy quiet and undisturbed happiness for all that while, if they were all the time unconfirmed, and did not certainly know that they should not fall.

I answer, there was no occasion for any distressing fears, for they never could be guilty of rebellion without knowing, when they were going to commit it, that it was rebellion, and that thereby they should forfeit eternal life, and expose themselves to wrath by the terror of God’s covenant; and they could not fall, but it must be their voluntary act; and they had perfect freedom of mind from any lust; and they had been sufficiently warned, and greatly confirmed when the angels fell, so that there was a great probability that they should not fall, though God had not yet declared and promised absolutely that they should not: they were not absolutely certain of it; this was an occasion of joy reserved for the joyful and glorious day of Christ’s ascension.

Fifthly . The angels are now confirmed, and have been since Christ’s ascension.

I. For Christ, since he appeared in the flesh, gathered together, and united into one society, one family, one body, all the angels and spirits in heaven, and the church on earth. Now it is not to be supposed that part of this body are in a confirmed state, and part still in a state of probation. But, II. The second argument that the angels are confirmed by Christ, is, that we learn by Scripture that Christ is the head of the angels, and that the angels are united to him as part of his body, which holds forth that he is not only their head of government, but their head of communication too. Christ is therefore the head, from whence the angels receive communication of good: but how well doth this agree with their receiving their reward of obedience from him? God in making Christ- head of angels and men, hath made him his dispenser of his benefits to all universally. It is therefore most probable that he, who now dispenses the blessings of the angels’ reward to them, is he from whom they first received that reward; that God bestowed it upon them at first through his hands. And this also confirms that the time of the angels’ confirmation was at Christ’s ascension; for then was he made the head of the angels, then were all things put under his feet.

III, It is most congruous that that person who is to judge the angels, who shall publicly declare the unalterable condemnation of those that fell, and also shall publicly declare the unalterable confirmation of those that stood, should be the same person who acted the part of a Judge before, when they were first confirmed. He that is the Judge of the angels at the last day, publicly before heaven, earth, and hell, to confirm them, is probably the same person who was their Judge when they were first confirmed in heaven, The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son, and this he did to Christ God man; for the committing all judgment to him was done at Christ’s first exaltation, and the first fruits of it was probably his confirming the angels, as their Judge.

IV. Christ’s being called “ the tree of life, that groweth in the midst of the paradise of God,” Revelation 2:7. If we consider the use of the tree of life that grew in the midst of the earthly paradise, it was to confirm man in life in case of obedience. If he had stood, he was to have received the reward in that way, by eating the fruit of that tree. Christ, being the tree of life in the heavenly paradise, is so to all the inhabitants of that paradise. [570] Confirmation of angels. We learn by the first chap. of Colossians 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th verses, that it was the design of the Father, that his Son should have the pre-eminence in all things, not only with respect to men, but with respect to angels-thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers; and there are some things there mentioned, wherein he has the pre-eminence, viz, that they were created by him and for him, and that they consist by him, and that every creature has all fulness in him. Why then hath not Christ the pre-eminence with respect to the angels, as he is the dispenser of God’s benefits to them, so that they should have all fulness in him; and particularly that the gift of eternal life should be from his hands? One thing mentioned, wherein God’s will that his Son in all things should have the pre-eminence, and that all fulness should dwell in him, is, that by him, he reconciles all things to him, whether they be things in heaven or things on earth. If this be understood only to extend to men; yet, if it be one thing wherein God wills that his Son should in all things have the pre-eminence, and that all fulness should dwell in him, that it is by him that men are brought to an union with God; why would it not be another, that by him the angels also are brought to their confirming union with him, when it is plainly implied in what the apostle says, that it is the Father’s design that Christ should in all things have the pre-eminence with respect to the angels as well as with respect to men, and that both angels and men should have all their fulness in him? If they have their fulness in him, I do not see how it can be otherwise than that they should have their reward and eternal life and blessedness in him.

Again, it is said, 1 Corinthians 8:6. that all things are if God the Father, and all things by Jesus Christ. God gave the angels their being by Jesus Christ; and I do not see why this would not be another instance of all things being by him that he gives them their eternal life by Jesus Christ. This very thing giving eternal life, is one instance of men’s being by him, and is intended in those words that follow, “ and we by him.” [591] Confirmation of the angels. It is an argument that it was Christ that confirmed the angels, and adjudged to them their reward; that this was an act of judgment; was the proper act of a judge, whereby judgment was passed, whether they had fulfilled the law or no, and were worthy of the reward of it by the tenor of it. But Christ is constituted Universal Judge of all, both angels and men. John 5:22. “ For the Father judgeth none, but hath committed all judgment to the Son;” and Christ is not only constituted the judge of men, but of angels. 1 Corinthians 6:3. “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” If this be meant only of the evil angels, yet that shows that Christ’s power of judging is extended beyond mankind to the angelic nature; and if he be constituted the Judge of the evil angels, that will confirm me that he is of the good too, as he is the Judge of both good and bad of mankind, and Christ tells us that all power is given him in heaven and in earth, Matthew 28:18. And we are often particularly told as to the good angels, that he is made their Lord and Sovereign, and that they are put under him. The apostle, in Romans 14 ver. 10-12. speaking of Christ’s being universal Judge, before whose judgment-seat all must stand, and to whom all must give an account, speaks of it as meant by those words in the Old Testament, “As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God;” which place of the Old Testament the apostle refers to in Philippians 2:9-11. “ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name, — That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” And these things are spoken of Christ, as God man; for in this last-mentioned place, it is mentioned as the reward of his being found in fashion as a man, and humbling himself, and in that other place, and in the place in Romans, his being universal Judge, and every knee bowing to him, and every tongue confessing to him, is spoken of him as God man; for it is said that he “died, rose, and revived,” that he might have this honour and authority. So in John 5:at the 27th verse, it is said that the Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of God: so that if he has acted the part of a Judge, towards the elect angels, it must be since his incarnation: and we know that he is to judge angels at the last day as God man.

Corol. 1. Hence Christ is the tree of lift in the heavenly paradise, to all the inhabitants of it. If our first parents had stood in their obedience, and were found meet for their reward of eternal life; then they were to be brought to the tree of life, and were to receive it from that tree, by eating the fruit of it, as the eternal life was the fruit of that tree. Thus it is in the earthly paradise, the dwelling place of men. And there was also a tree of life in the heavenly paradise, the dwelling-place of angels. When they had stood in their obedience, and were looked upon of God meet for the reward of eternal life, they were brought to Jesus, to receive the reward at his hands, which they in God’s account especially become worthy of by their being willing to be subject to him as God man, and being willing to depend on him as their absolute Lord and supreme Judge.

Corol. II. Here we may observe the wonderful analogy there is in God’s dispensations towards angels and men.

Corol. III. Here we may take notice of the manifold wisdom of God; what glorious and wonderful ends are accomplished by the same events in heaven, earth, and hell, as particularly by those dispensations of Providence in Christ’s incarnation, death, and exaltation. How manifold are the wise designs that are carried on in different worlds by the turning of one wheel!

Corol. IV. Here we may observe how the affairs of the church on earth, and of the blessed assembly of heaven, are linked together. When the joyful times of the gospel began on earth, which began with Christ’s exaltation, theii joyful times began also in heaven among the angels there, and by the same means . When we have such a glorious occasion given us to rejoice, they have an occasion given them. So long as the church continued under a legal dispensation, so long the angels continued under law; for since their confirmation, the angels are not under law, as is evident by what I have said in my Notes on Galatians 5:18. So doubtless at the same time there was a great addition to the happiness of the separate spirits of the saints, of which the resurrection of many of them at Christ’s resurrection is an argument. And in the general, when God gradually carries on the designs of grace in this world, by accomplishing glorious things in the church below, there is a new occasion of joy and glory to the church in heaven; thus the matter is represented in John’s Revelations, and it is fit that it should be thus, seeing they are one family. [744] Confirmation of the angels by Jesus Christ. That Christ in his ascension into heaven, gave to the angels the reward of eternal life, or of confirmed immutable happiness, may be argued from Ephesians 4:10. “He that descended, is the same also that ascended up fur above all heavens, that he might fill all things,” i.e. all things not only on the face of earth, but all things in the world where he dwelt before he descended into the lower parts of the earth, as in the foregoing verse: all things in the lower parts of the earth whither he descended, and all things in heaven. By” all things,” agreeably to the apostle’s way of using such an expression, is meant all persons or intelligent beings, as in Philippians is. 9, 10. “ Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;” as there, so here, the apostle is speaking of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, as appears by comparing this with the foregoing verse; and the apostle there in Philippians mentions these three, as therein enumerating all things whatsoever; for certainly, whatever things there are, they must be either in heaven, or in the earth, or under the earth; and doubtless by all things there, that are spoken of as being included in these three, is intended the same with all things spoken of here, as included in the same three divisions of the universe, But it is evident, that by things there, is meant persons, or intelligent creatures: it is certainly they who shall bow the knee to him, and whose tongues shall confess to him. And as there, God is said highly to have exalted Christ, and to have given him a name above every name, i.e. above the highest angels in heaven, as well as above the highest prince upon earth; so here, he is said to have ascended up far above all heavens, or above the highest part of heaven, and therefore, above the seat of the highest angel, that he might fill all universally, the highest as well as the lowest, that all might depend on him and receive their fulness from him.

By things in heaven, in that place in Philippians, and so doubtless here, is meant the angels; and by things in earth., is meant elect men living on earth; and by things under the earth, or in the lower parts of the earth, is meant the souls of departed saints, whose bodies are gone under the earth, and especially the saints that were dead and buried before Christ came, or before Christ descended into the lower parts of the earth. Christ died and was buried, that he might fill those that were dead and buried. Romans 14:9. “ For to this end Christ doth died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.” That by things or creatures under the earth, is meant souls of buried saints, and not devils and damned souls in hell, is’ manifest from Revelation 5:13. “ And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and aft that are in them, heard I, saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” This would not be said of devils and wicked, damned souls, who are far from thus praising and extolling God and Christ with such exultation: instead of that, they are continually blaspheming them.

And again; by all things, is meant all elect intelligent creatures: “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are in earth, even in him.” (Ephesians 1:10.)

And if he means all intelligent elect creatures there, by all things in heaven and earth, doubtless he also does, when he speaks of all things in heaven and on the earth, and the lower parts of the earth, in this 4th chap. of the same epistle, where he is treating of the same thing, viz. the glory of Christ’s exaltation. So again, Colossians 1:20. “And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by hum to reconcile all things to himself, by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” In these two places last referred to, are mentioned only things in heaven and things in earth. Those, which in those other places are called things under the earth, being here ranked among things in heaven, because their souls are in heaven, though their bodies are in the lower parts of the earth.

Christ is said to have descended and ascended, that he might/ill all things not only in earth and under the earth, but in the highest heavens. Now by his filling all things, or all elect creatures, according to the apostle’s common use of such an expression, must be understood filling them with lift, and the enjoyment of their proper good- giving them blessedness, and perfecting their blessedness-making them complete in a happy state; as in the 3rd chap. of this epistle, 19th verse, “ And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Colossians 2:10. “Ye are complete in him.” Romans 11:12. “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness!” So that when we are put in mind that Christ, who dwelt once on the earth, descended into the lower parts of the earth, and then ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things, the meaning is, that Christ came down from heaven and dwelt among us on the earth; the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; that we might partake of his fulness, and might be made happy by him and in him; agreeably to John 1:14,16. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth: and of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace;” and then Christ descended into the lower parts of the earth in a state of death, that he might bless those that were in a state of death; agreeably to Romans 14:9. “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”

So we read, that when he died, the graves of many saints were opened, and that many bodies of saints that slept arose and came out of their graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many; and then Christ ascended into heaven, and filled them, bestowing eternal lift and blessedness upon them, that the angels in heaven might all receive the reward of confirmed and eternal glory from him and in him.

That Christ, at his ascension into heaven, thus filled the angels of heaven, is also plainly taught in the last verse of the first chapter of this epistle, “Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” The apostle here has a special respect to his filling the angels, and particularly to their being subjected to him to receive their fulness from him as their head and as their Lord, at his ascension; for he in those foregoing verses is speaking of Christ’s being made the Lord and head of the angels at his ascension, “Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and given him to be head over all things to the church.” By all things, is here meant, as in the verse we are upon, especially all intelligent creatures, men and angels, as in that verse in the 4th chap, that we are upon. God has given him to be head over the angels to the church; agreeably to Hebrews 1:14. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them that shall be the heirs of salvation?”

The same all things that Christ is here said to be made head over, he is said in the next verse to fill. By this it appears, that the angels at Christ’s ascension received their fulness, i.e. their whole reward, all their confirmed life and eternal blessedness, from Christ, as their Judge, because they received it from him as their Lord, or head of government; for they are said to be put under his feet, and also that they received it in him as the fountain of communication, he did not only adjudge it to them, but he gives it to them, and they possess it as united to him in a constant dependence on him, and have that more full enjoyment of God than they before had, as beholding God’s glory in his face, and as enjoying God in him; for he is here spoken of not only as their Lord, but their Head, as a natural head to a body, as appears by comparing the two last verses together.

This is confirmed again by the 10th verse, “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him.” The apostle adds, even in him, at the end of the verse, because it might seem wonderful that not only things on earth, but even things in heaven, or the angels, should be gathered together in him, who was one that existed in the human nature, By gathering together in one, is meant making happy together in one head, or waiting all in one fountain of life and happiness as appears by John 17:20,21,22,23.

The same thing is taught again in Colossians 2:9,10. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principalitv and power.” What is rendered complete in him, in the original properly signifies filled up, or filled f all in him. He is he in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells, and in whom the creature receives that fulness; and he is the head of communication whence ye receive fulness, or in whom we are filled fall, who is the same person, who is also the head, in whom the angels receive their fulness, as it is added, “who is the head of all principality and power.”

This is very agreeable to what the apostle says, Colossians 1:18,19. “ And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence, for it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell.” By this it appears that it was the design of God so to exalt and glorify his Son, that all his intelligent creatures should in every thing be after him, inferior to him, subject to him, and dependent on him, and should have all their fulness, all their supplies from him, and in him; especially if we compare this verse with the context, and with many other places in the New Testament.

That the angels have their fulness, or their eternal good and happiness, not only from the hands of Christ, but also in him as the head and fountain of it, and as enjoying God in him, and that they have their confirmation in and by him, is confirmed in Christ’s being called angels’ food. The Psalmist, speaking of marina, says, Psalm lxxviii. 26. “Man did eat angels’ food;” which can be understood no otherwise than that that, of which manna was the type, was angels’ food; but this Christ tells tis is himself, in.John 6:31,32. There Christ tells us that that bread from heaven spoken of in this very place in the 78th Psalm, is himself; for the Jews quote the beginning of this passage, that is, the verse immediately preceding in the psalm, ver. 31. “Our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat;” and then we have Christ’s answer in the two next verses. “Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, (i.e. that bread from heaven spoken of in that place that you cite,) but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven; for the bread of God is he which cometh down, and giveth life unto the world.” Christ is called the tree of life that grows in the midst of the paradise of God; but we know that the use of the tree of life in paradise was that they that ate of that fruit might have confirmed life, and never die, but live for ever. And the same is signified by Christ’s being called, in the 6th chap. of John, the bread of life, viz, that he that eats of this bread should have confirmed life, and not die, but live for ever, as Christ himself there teaches, ver. 48, etc. “I am the bread of life; your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die; I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one (for so the original signifies) eat of this bread he shall live for ever.” But we are taught from the forementioned place that it is the angels’ bread of life as well as ours, and therefore it is that bread by which they have eternal life, or which they eat of and live for ever, and is a tree of life to them as well as to us, a tree, the fruit whereof they eat and live for ever as well as we.

Corol. 1. Here we may take occasion to observe the sweet harmony that there is between God’s dispensations, and particularly time analogy and agreement there is between his dealings with the angels and his dealings with mankind; that though one is innocent and the other guilty, the one having eternal life by a covenant of grace, the other by a covenant of works, yet both have eternal life by His Son Jesus Christ God man, and both, though different ways, by the humiliation and sufferings of Christ; the one as the price of life, the other as the greatest and last trial of their stedfast and persevering obedience. Both have eternal life through different ways, by their adherence, and voluntary submission, and self-dedication to Christ crucified, and he is made the Lord and King of both, and head of communication, influence, and enjoyment to both, and a head of confirmation to both; for as the angels have confirmed life in at-id by Christ, so have the saints: all that are united in this head have in him a security of per severance. Thus Christ is the tree of life that groweth in the paradise of God to all that belong to that paradise, and to all that ever eat of the fruit of that tree. As Adam, if he had persevered through his trial, would have eat of the fruit of the tree of life, and after that would have bad confirmation and been secure of perseverance; so are all that taste of the fruit of this tree, this branch that grows out of the stem of Jesse, this tender plant and root out of a dry ground, this branch of the Lord and fruit of the earth, this bush that God dwells in this low tree which God exalts. Seeing the saints and angels are formed to be one society dwelling together as one company to all eternity, it was fit that they should be thus united in one common head, and that their greatest interests, and those things that concern their everlasting happiness, should be so linked together, and that they should have such communion, or common concern in the same great events in which God chiefly manifests himself to them, and by which they come to the possession of the eternal reward.

Corol. II. Here also we may observe, that God’s work from the beginning of the universe to the end, and in all parts of the universe, appears to be but one. It is all one design carried on, one affair managed, in all God’s dispensations towards all intelligent beings, viz. the glorifying and communicating himself in and through his Son Jesus Christ as God man, and by the work of redemption of fallen man. Those of the angels that fell are destroyed for their opposition to God in this affair, and are overthrown, and condemned, and destroyed by the Redeemer; those of them that stood, are confirmed for thcir submission and adherence to God in this great affair. So the work of God is one, if we view it in all its parts; what was done in heaven, and what was done on earth, and in hell, in the beginning, and since that through all ages, and what will be done at the end of the world.

Corol. III, From this we may see that the angels are interested in Jesus Christ God man, as well as elect men, and that the incarnation of Christ was not only for our sakes, (though chiefly for ours,) but also for the sake of the angels. For God having from eternity, from his infinite goodness, designed to communicate himself to creatures, the way in which he designed to communicate himself to elect beloved creatures, all of them, was to unite himself to a created nature, and to become one of the creatures, and to gather together in one all elect creatures in that creature, whom he assumed into a personal union with himself, and to manifest to them, and maintain intercourse with them through him. All creatures having this benefit by Christ’s incarnation, that God thereby is, as it were, come down to them from his infinite height above them, and is become a fellow-creature, and all elect creatures hereby have opportunity for a more free and intimate converse with God, and full enjoyment of him, than otherwise could be. And though Christ is not the Mediator of the angels in the same sense that he is of men, yet line is a middle person between God and them, through whom is all their intercourse with God, and derivations from him.

Corol. IV. That the person who is the head of all elect creatures, in whom all are gathered together in one, by whom they all have their eternal fulness and glory, and who is the common fountain of all their good, and the common medium through whom God communicates himself to all, is so much nearer to men than to the angels, confirms it, that the saints are higher in glory than the angels.

Corol.V. This confirms it that the church, or blessed assembly in heaven, is in like progressive state with the church on earth; for, at the same time that the church in this world was advanced to a state of new light and glory by the dawning of the gospel-day, the angels in heaven were advanced to a new state of glory and happiness; and not only so, but the souls of the saints that died under the Old Testament were advanced much higher in glory, at Christ’s resurrection and ascension, for the text in Ephesians 4:10. teaches that at that time of the manifestation of Christ God man in this universe, each of those three were advanced to a state of new blessedness, viz. the church on earth, and departed souls of saints whose bodies were in the lower parts of the earth, and also the angels in heaven. He came and dwelt upon earth among us, and we beheld his glory, and received of his fulness, When he rose from the dead he begat the church again to a living hope, as it were, raised the church from the dead with him, and the church here was advanced to so much higher glory, that her former glory was no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth; and then descended into the lower parts of the earth, and filled those that were there- advanced the souls of departed saints in glory, in becoming Lord of the dead; and in token of it, and one instance of it then, was his granting a resurrection to many of them, whereby the future glory of the resurrection was in a measure anticipated. Doubtless those saints, that rose with Christ, ascended triumphing with him into heaven, into new glory and blessedness.

These things confirm that the assembly in heaven has all along been in a like progressive state with the church on earth, and is in a preparatory state; and that things there, from the beginning of the world hitherto, have been working towards a great end, and glorious issue, and consummation at the end of the world, as it is here.

The church of angels and saints there at first was in a state of infancy to what it is now, as it was with the church on earth, and have been brought forward to greater fulness and perfection by great events of providence, as it has been with the church here; and things there will arrive at a consummation at the same time, and in the same great event at the end of the world, that they will here. The church in heaven was greatly advanced in happiness at Christ’s exaltation, whence commenced the gospel-day to the church in this world; and so again the church in heaven will receive another still much higher advancement in glory at the time of the fall of antichrist, as appears in several passages in the book of Revelation, as abundantly appears, Revelation 18:20. and the nine first verses of the 19th chap. and 20th chap. ver. 4. And both that part of the church that is on earth, and that which is in heaven, shall at the same time receive their highest advancement in glory, together with the consummation of Christ’s exaltation at the day of judgment. See No. 777, Corol. 3. [942] Confirmation of the angels. Before that the angels were confirmed in holiness judicially, so that they were sure of never falling away, they were first greatly prepared for it by having their hearts greatly confirmed in holiness, naturally in some respect so: i.e. holiness was greatly confirmed by the tendency and influence of the means God used with them to that end. They were first greatly confirmed by what they saw of evil, the knowledge they gained of the evil of sin and its punishment in the fall of the angels, the dreadful ruin that sin brought, and also by what they saw of their own weakness, and mutability, and insufficiency for themselves, and also the distinguishing grace of Christ to them in preserving them when others fell; and afterwards by what they saw in that fall of man, and its consequences, and the grace of God to man, and what they saw in God’s dispensations of providence, in behalf of his church, and against his enemies from age to age, and by the many trials they had of their obedience through the age of the Old Testament. But their natural confirmation, and so their preparation for a judicial confirmation, had its finishing stroke by what they saw and did in the time of Christ’s humiliation, and above all at the time of his last sufferings. What came to pass then, did above all other things confirm their hearts in holiness and ripen their preparation for a judicial confirmation, which then was completed, and crowned their preparation. Their hearts were then confirmed by what they saw then of God’s glory, which had its chief manifestation then, and what they then saw of the evil and dreadful nature of sin, which had a much greater manifestation in what Christ did and suffered for sin, and sinners, than in the sum and punishment of fallen angels; and in the honour that they saw one so infinitely great and glorious as Jesus Christ, put upon God’s authority and law, and the hatred he manifested of sin, and his willingly abasing himself so infinitely to honour God, and promote the happiness of his little unworthy sinful creatures, and by their own stedfast, universal, and perfect obedience to God, and thorough subjection to Christ under such a trial, and in seeing Christ s exaltation, and the success of suds humiliation and obedience as Christ performed, and the infinite benefit of thorough obedience to God, in great humiliation, and self-denial in what they saw in Christ.

This confirmation of the hearts of the elect angels, that prepared them for a judicial confirmation, consisted in the following things: 1. In the warning they had, or what they saw, to make them sensible of the evil nature and dreadful consequences of sin, and so to cause them to fear God. 2. In their humiliation, by what they saw to make them sensible of their own emptiness, and insufficiency for themselves, and dependence on the grace of Christ. 3. In what they saw more of God in the manifestations of his glorious excellency, and goodness, and grace to them, to increase their love to God and Christ. 4. In the example they had set them of obedience by Christ, whose obedience was performed by a person infinitely greater than they, and was performed with such infinite abasement, and an abasement of a like kind with what was required of them, (only infinitely greater,) viz. abasement in ministering to so mean and despicable a creature as man; and in the infinite love to God, and regard to his authority, that was manifested by that obedience. 5. They had their hearts confirmed in obedience by habit and custom, having long persevered in perfect obedience, and having often overcome under trials which they had. And then besides the natural tendency and influence to confirm their hearts in holiness that those things had, which came to pass while they were yet in a state of preparation for their judicial confirmation; that judicial confirmation itself had also a great natural tendency to confirm them, as the bestowment of this infinite reward upon them made manifest God’s eternal, electing, distinguishing love, and sovereign and infinite grace to them; and as they hereby receive the sweet and infinitely precious fruit of that grace and love, which tendency for ever must strongly engage their hearts to God in love, and to move them with great devotedness now to make an everlasting dedication of themselves to God and Christ. [935] Confirmation of the angels at Christ’s ascension — Progress of the work of redemption. The service of the angels of heaven was altered after Christ’s ascension from what it had been before, in some analogy to the alteration that was made in the service of the church on earth. The service of the church on earth before Christ’s ascension, and that establishment of the evangelical dispensation consequent thereupon, was more legal and mercenary, more from a spirit of bondage, not so free and ingenuous; but afterwards, when faith as the great condition was more fully revealed, and God here more clearly revealed the saints’ infallible perseverance, the service of the church is more the service of those that are not under the law, but under grace, from a free spirit, as a spirit of adoption, which is a spirit of love. So the angels, till they were confirmed at Christ’s ascension, served God more from a spirit of fear, being yet in probation; and their eternal happiness or eternal damnation being yet suspended on their perfect obedience not yet completed, their service was more mercenary; but when Christ ascended, and they were confirmed, thenceforward their service became more disinterested, and merely the service of love; being now no longer in a state of probation, but sure of eternal life by the infallible promise of God. [947] Confirmation of the angels. The service of the angels will not be at an end till the end of the world, when the work of redemption shall be finished; and Christ, whose servants they are, shall have finished his work as Mediator, having fully brought home and glorified all his elect, to whom the angels are ministering spirits, and therefore their most solemn judgment and reward shall be then; but God is pleased to confirm them before the last judgment, and grants them an anticipation of their reward, and deals with them in this respect as he deals with mankind. Man is confirmed when he first believes in Christ, but his work is not done till death, and the reward not bestowed till then; and therefore let the saint be never so fully confirmed and assured before, yet it is proper that judgment should succeed the finishing of his work. The bestowment of reward for a work done is by an act of judgment. [994] Confirmation of the angels. One trial of the obedience of the angels before Christ’s exaltation was, that till then they were in a great measure kept in the dark as to God’s drift and aim in those great works of God in which they were employed as his ministers from age to age. The grand design and scheme of infinite wisdom in the successive operations of his hands and dispensations of his providence from one age to another, was not opened to them till Christ’s exaltation, as appears by Ephesians 3:9,10.

So the obedience of God’s church, which in its minority was tried by prescribing to them a manifold and burdensome ceremonial service, of which they did not know the meaning or design. [1329] Confirmation of the angels. It is an argument that the angels were not confirmed till Christ ascended into heaven, that Jesus Christ God man is risen and ascended, is appointed the head of the new creation, which only is that which cannot be shaken. As to the old creation, it is all that which is liable to pass away. Christ himself, while in the flesh, did in some respects belong to the old creation that passed away, but in his rising again to a glorious immortal life, and so being the first-born from the dead, he is the beginning of the creation of God, the first-horn of every creature; the Beginning and Head of the new creation.

HEAVEN.

Death of a saint. — When a saint dies, he has no cause at all to grieve because he leaves his friends and relations whom he dearly loves; for he doth not properly leave them, he enjoys them still in Christ, because every thing that they love in them, and love them for, is in Christ in an infinite degree. whether it be nearness of relation, or any perfection and good received, or love in us, or a likeness in dispositions, or whatever is a rational ground of love.

Union with Christ. By virtue of the believer’s union with Christ, he doth really possess all things. That we know plainly from Scripture: but it may be asked, How he possesses all things; what is he the better for it; how is a true Christian so much richer than other men? To answer this, I will tell you what I mean by possessing all things. I mean that God, three in one, all that he is and all that he has, and all that he does, all that he has made or done, the whole universe, bodies and spirits, light, heaven, angels, men, and devils, sun, moon, stars, land, and sea, fish and fowls, all the silver and gold, all beings and perfections, as well as mere man, are as much the Christian’s as the money in his pocket, the clothes he wears, or the house he dwells in, or the victuals he eats; yea, more properly his, more advantageously, more his than if he commanded all these things mentioned to be just in all respects as he pleased, at any time, by virtue of the union with Christ; because Christ who certainly doth here possess all things, is entirely his, so that he possesses it all, more than a wife the property of the best and dearest of husbands, more than the hand possesses what the head doth. All the universe is his, only he has not the trouble of managing it; but Christ, to whom it is no trouble to manage it, manages it for him a thousand times as much to his advantage as he could himself; if he had the managing of all the atoms in the universe. Every thing is managed by Christ so as to be most to the advantage of the Christian. Every particle of air, or every ray of the sun; so that he in the other world, when he comes to see it, shall sit and enjoy all this vast inheritance with surprising, amazing joy.

And how is it possible for a man to possess any thing more than so as shall be most to his advantage? And then besides this, the Christian shall have every thing managed just according to his will; for his will shall so be left in the will of God, that he had rather have it according to God’s will than any way in the world. And who would desire to possess all things more than to have all things managed just according to his will? And then besides, he himself shall so use them as to be most to his own advantage in his thoughts, and meditations, etc. Now, how is it possible for any one to possess any thing more than to have it managed as much as possible according to his will, as much as possible for his own advantage, and for himself to use it as much as possible according to his advantage? But it is certain that so far shall the true Christian possess all things: it is not a probable scheme, but absolutely certain; for we know that all things will be managed so as shall be most agreeable to his will: that cannot be denied, nor that it shall be most to his advantage, and that he himself shall use it most to his own advantage, This is the kingdom Christ so often promised: they shall be kings with a witness at this rate: this is the sitting in Christ’s throne, and inheriting all things promised to the victors in the Revelation, and the like in many other places. 2. Saints, Is it not a very improper thing that saints in some respects should be advanced above angels, seeing angels are of more excellent natural parts? I answer, No more improper than it is for the queen in some respects to be advanced above the nobles and barons of far nobler natural powers. 5. Heaven. There is no more reason why it should be a damp to the happiness of some in heaven that others are happier, than that their happiness should be damped by a bare possibility of greater happiness, supposing them to be all equal; for if they were all equal and all full of happiness, yet every one would know that greater happiness is possible, absolutely, and possible for them if God had hut enlarged their capacity.

And why should not they who are actuated by pure reason desire it, as much as if it were actually enjoyed by some beings? for barely that it is enjoyed by other beings cannot possibly cause those that are actuated by pure reason, and whose desires in every respect are agreeable to reason to desire it, any more than if it was only possible to be enjoyed, and were never actually enjoyed by any. But instead of the superiority of some above others in happiness, being a damp on the happiness of those that are inferior, there is undoubted reason why it should be an addition to their happiness, and why it would rather be a detraction from their happiness if it were otherwise; for most certainly there is a pure, ardent, and inconceivably vehement, mutual love between the glorified saints, and this love is in proportion to the perfection and amiableness of the object loved.

Therefore, seeing their love to them is proportional to their amiable ness, it must necessarily cause delight when they see their happiness proportional to their amiableness, and so to their love to them; it will not damp. any to see them loved more than themselves, for they shall have as much love as they desire, and as great manifestations of love as they can bear, and they themselves will love those that are superior in holiness as much as others, and will delight to see others love them as much as themselves, We are very apt to conceive that those that are more holy and more happy than others in heaven will be elated and lifted up above them; whereas their being superior in holiness implies their being superior in humility, or having the greatest humility; for humility is a part of holiness that is capable of degrees in the perfect state of heaven as well as other graces; not that the holiest shall think more meanly of themselves than the least holy, for they shall all be perfectly humble, and perfectly free from pride, and none shall think more high lv of themselves than they ought to think, but yet as they see further into the divine perfections than others, so they shall penetrate further into the vast and infinite distance there is between them and God, and their delight of annihilating themselves that God may be all, shall be greater. And besides, those that are highest in holiness, and so necessarily highest in happiness, (for holiness and happiness are all one in heaven,) instead of any thing like despising those that are less holy and happy, will love those that are inferior to them more than they would do if they had not so much holiness and happiness, more than if they were but equal with them, and more than those do that are equal with them. This is certain; for the foundation of the saints’ love to each other will be their love to the image of God which they see in them. Now most certainly the holier a man is, the more he loves the same degree of the image; so that the holiest in heaven will love that image of God they see in the least holy more than those do that are less holy; and that which makes it beyond any doubt that this superior happiness will be no damp to them, is this, that their superior happiness consists in their great humility, and in their greater love to them, and to God, and Christ, whom the saints look upon as themselves. These things may be said of this, beside what may be said about every one being completely satisfied and full of happiness, having as much as he is capable of enjoying or desiring; and also what may be said about their entire resignation; for God’s will is become so much their own, that the fulfilling of his will, let it be what it may, fills them with inconceivable satisfaction. [105] Heaven, That the glorified spirits shall grow in holiness and happiness in eternity, I argue from this foundation, that their number of ideas shall increase to eternity. How great soever the number of their ideas when they are first glorified, it is but limited; and it is evident the time will come when they shall have lived in glory so long that the parts of duration, each equal to a million million ages, that they have lived, will be more in number than their ideas were at first. Now we cannot suppose that they will ever entirely forget every thing that has passed in heaven, and in the universe, for a whole million million of ages. It is undoubted that they never will have forgot what passed in their life upon earth, the sins they have been saved from, their regeneration, the circumstances which did heighten their mercies, their good works which follow them, their death, etc. They will without doubt retain innumerable multitudes of ideas of what passed in the first seventy years; so also they shall retain to eternity their ideas of what was done in the ages of the world, with relation to the church of God, and God’s wondrous providence with respect to the world of men; and can we then think that a whole million million ages of those great and most glorious things that pass in heaven shall ever be erased out of their minds? But if they retain but one idea for one such vast period, their ideas shall be millions of times more in number than when they first entered into heaven, as is evident, because by supposition the number of such ages will be millions of times more in number; therefore, their knowledge will increase to eternity; and if their knowledge, their holiness; for as they increase in the knowledge of God, and of the works of God, the more they will see of his excellency, and the more they see of his excellency, ceteris paribas, the more will they love him, and the more they love God, the more delight and happiness will they have in him. See Note on Psalm lxxxix. 1, 2. It will be objected that at this rate we might prove that the damned increase in perfection. I answer, No; for, though it is true that they shall increase in knowledge, they will increase in odiousness in the same proportion. [112] Heaven. Addition to 2nd Corol. of 108. What beauteous and fragrant flowers will these be, reflecting all the sweetness of the Son of God! how will Christ delight to walk in the garden among those beds of spices, to feed in the garden, and to gather lilies! [152] Heaven. The saints in heaven will doubtless eternally exercise themselves in contemplation. They will not want employ this way; not in exercising their thoughts and study upon intricacies and seeming repugnance, to unfold them and discover another further and further that way, as it is here, but by viewing in their minds one thing after another, as they will naturally be led, and. sweetly drawn by love and delight, and with such intenseness as the natural bent of their hearts will cause. Their sight shall reach further and further, and new things shall plainly p resent to their minds, without the mixture of any error. It is error always from whence intricacy proceeds, and seeming repugnance, and not from ignorance. The object of their thoughts shall be the glory of God, which they shall contemplate in the creation in general, in the wonderful make of it: particularly of the highest heavens, and in the wonders of God’s providence, It shall most clearly and delightfully be manifested in the church of saints and angels, which they shall discover more and more by their conversation, assisting one another to discoveries in other things, and most of all mediate ways in the man Christ Jesus. They shall employ themselves in singing God’s praise, or expressing their thoughts to God and Christ and also to one another, and in going from one part of heaven and of the universe to another, to behold the glories of God shining in the various parts of it. [143] Heaven, In the future world the saints’ love, one to another, will be such, that it will be a very delightful consideration to them, that Christ Jesus dearly loves the other saints, and it will fill them with joy to see him manifesting his love to them. They again shall see the other saints rejoicing that Christ loves and delights in them.

Singing is amiable, because of the proportion that is perceived in it singing in divine worship is beautiful and useful, because it expresses and promotes the harmonious exercise of the mind. There will doubtless in the future world he that which, as it will be an expression of an immensely greater and more excellent harmony of the mind, so will be a far more lively expression of this harmony, and shall itself be vastly more harmonious, yea, than our air, or ear, by any modulation, is capable of, which expressions, and the harmony thereof, shall be sensible, and shall in a far more lively manner strike our perception than sound. [182] Heaven. Flow ravishing are the proportions of the reflexions of rays of light., and the proportion of the vibrations of the air! and without doubt God can contrive matter so that there shall be other sort of proportions that may be quite of a different kind, and may raise another sort of pleasure in the sense, and in a manner to us now inconceivable, that shall he vastly more ravishing and exquisite. And in all probability the abode of the saints alter the resurrection will be so contrived by God that there shall be external beauties and harmonies altogether of another kind from what we perceive here, and probably those beauties will appear chiefly in the bodies of the man Christ Jesus and the saints. Our animal spirits will also be capable of immensely more fine and exquisite proportions in their motions, than now they are, being so gross; but how much more ravishing will the exquisite spiritual proportions be that shall be seen in minds, in their acts between one spiritual act and another, between one disposition and another, and between one mind and another, and between all their minds and Christ Jesus, and particularly between the man Christ .Jesus and the Deity and among the persons of the Trinity, the supreme harmony of all!

And it is out of doubt with me that there will be immediate intellectual views of minds, one of another, and of the Supreme Mind, more immediate, clear, and sensible than our views of bodily things with bodily eves. In this world we behold spiritual beauties only mediate by the intervention of our senses, in perceiving those external actions which are the effects of spiritual proportion. Hereby the ravishingness of the beauty is much obscured, and our sense of it flattened and deadened; but when we behold the beauties of mind more immediately than now we do the colours of the rainbow, how ravishing will it be! All that there wants in order to such an intellectual view, is that a clear and sensible apprehension of what is in mind should be raised in our own mind constantly according to such and such laws; for it is no other way that we perceive with our bodily eyes, or perceive by any of our senses.

Then also our capacities will be exceedingly enlarged, and we shall be able to apprehend, and to take in more extended and compounded proportions.

We see that the narrower the capacity the more simple must the beauty be to please: thus, in proportion of sounds, the birds and brute creatures are most delighted with simple music, and in the proportion confined to a few notes; so little children are not able to perceive the sweetness of very complex tunes, where respect is to be had to the proportion of a great many notes together, in order to perceive the sweetness of the tune; then perhaps we shall be able fully and easily to apprehend the beauty, or, where respect is to be had to thousands of different ratios, at once to make up the harmony Such kind of beauties, when fully perceived, are far the sweetest. [188] Heaven. The best, most beautiful, and most perfect way that we have of expressing a sweet concord of mind to each other is by music. When I would form in my mind ideas of a society in the highest degree happy, I think of them as expressing their love, their joy, and the inward concord, and harmony, and spiritual beauty of their souls, by sweetly singing to each other. But if in heaven minds will have an immediate view of one another’s dispositions without any such intermediate expression, how much sweeter will it be! But to me it is probable that the glorified saints, after they have again received their bodies, will have ways of expressing the concord of their minds by some other emanations than sounds, of which we cannot conceive, that will be vastly more proportionate, harmonious, and delightful than the nature of sounds is capable of; and the music they will make will be in a measure capable of modulations in an infinitely more nice, exact, and fine proportion than our gross airs, and with organs as much more adapted to suck proportions. [95] Happiness of heaven, When the body enjoys the perfections of health and strength, the motions of the animal spirits are not only brisk and free, but also harmonious; there is a regular proportion in the motion from all parts of the body, that begets delight in the soul, and makes the body feel pleasantly all over-God has excellently contrived the nerves and parts of the human body. But few men since the fall, especially since the flood, have health to so great a perfection as to have much of this harmonious motion.

When it is enjoyed, one whose nature is not very much vitiated and depraved, is very much assisted thereby in every exercise of body or mind; and it fits one for the contemplation of more exalted and spiritual excellencies and harmonies, as music does. But we need not doubt but this harmony will be in its proportion in the bodies of the saints after the resurrection; and that as every part of the bodies of the wicked shall be excruciated with intolerable pain, so every part of the saints’ refined bodies shall be as full of pleasure as they can hold; and that this will not take the mind off from, but prompt and help it in, spiritual delight, to which even the delight of their spiritual bodies shall be but a shadow. [198] Happiness. How soon do earthly lovers come to an end of their discoveries of each other’s beauty! how soon do they see all that is to be seen! Are they united as near as possible, and have communion as intimate as possible? How soon do they come to the most endearing expressions of love that it is possible to give, so that no new ways can be invented, given, or received! And how happy is that love in which there is an eternal progress in all those things wherein new beauties are continually discovered, and more and more loveliness, and in which we shall for ever increase in beauty ourselves; where we shall be more capable of finding out and giving, and shall receive more and more endearing expressions of love for ever; our union will become more close, and communion more intimate! [206] heaven. In heaven it is the direct reverse of what it is on earth, for there by length of time things become more and more youthful, that is, more vigorous, active, tender, and beautiful. [263] Heaven. If the saints after the resurrection shall see by light, and speak and hear by sounds, it is probable that the medium will be infinitely finer, and more adapted to a distant and exact representation, so that a small vibration in sound, though-the undulations may proportionally decrease according to the distance from their rise or fountain, yet may be conveyed infinitely farther with exactness before they begin to be confused and lost through the sluggishness of the medium, or through the bulk, the roughness, or tenaciousness of the particles, and the conveyance may likewise be with far greater swiftness. The organs also will be immensely more exquisitely perceptive, so that perhaps a vibration a thousand times less than can now be perceived by the ear, may be distinctly and easily perceived by them; and yet the organs may be far more able to bear a very strong vibration than ours in this state; and through niceness of the organ they shall be able to distinguish in the greatest multitude of sounds according to their distance and direction, more exactly by the ear than we do visible objects by the eye; and we know not how far they may clearly hear one another’s discourses. So the eye may be so much more sensible, and the medium of vision (the rays) so much more exquisite, that for aught we know they may distinctly see the beauty of one another’s countenances and smiles, and hold a delightful and most intimate conversation at a thousand miles distance.

The light of the heavenly regions shall be the brightness of glorified bodies, and especially in the countenance, but chiefly that of the man Christ Jesus, and the glory of God, if there shall be any visible appearance representing the presence of the Deity. The light of the face of Christ will, for the above-mentioned cause, be an infinitely more excellent and delightful sort of refulgence than the light of this world. The brightness of the saints shall far excel that; but the splendour of the Son of righteousness shall be immensely more sweet and glorious, except that the light of the bodies of the saints shall be some way or other a communication of the light of Christ, and then the difference will be rather in degree than in kind of brightness, as the light which is reflected from a lily is the same light, but less bright than that of the sun. This world is pleasant to us because. the light is sweet, and the sensation is pleasant to the mind; how delightful a place then is heaven with its light, so much more fine, more harmonious, more bright, but yet easy and pleasant to behold! Vide Note on Revelation 21:11. Vide Nos. 721, 95, 182. [264] Spirits separate. Though we do not certainly know that separate spirits can properly be said to be in any place; seeing that a spirit cannot be said to be in place at all, only with respect to the immediate mutual operation there is between that and body; now we know not whether there be any such mutual operation with regard to separate spirits, whether or no there be any immediate excitation of any corporeal ideas, or any other way than as they see them in minds that are united to bodies, or remember them as formerly excited in themselves; I say, though we do not certainly know this, yet it does not seem probable that their manner of existence and receiving ideas shall be so exceedingly different from what it is here, and from the church on earth, with whom they are of the same family, and so exceedingly aliene from what it will be after the resurrection, so exceedingly different from the existence of the man Christ Jesus, their head, so exceedingly aliene from Enoch and Elijah, some of their number, and who are now of the same glorified society. Doubtless they are not more so than the angels who never were united to bodies; but it seems to me very improbable that there should be no corporeal world with respect to the angels who have so much to do with the church on earth, and who shall be conversant with the saints after the resurrection, and with whom they shall be conversant: I therefore cannot think that as soon as a spirit leaves a body, the corporeal world is annihilated with regard to it, but that corporeal ideas are excited in them by some law. Why is Christ’s body made glorious now in heaven, if there are none in heaven to behold his glory, or if separate spirits do not perceive the beauty of bodies? [272] happiness of heaven, It is not only for want of sufficient accurateness, strength, and comprehension of mind, that from the motion of any one particular atom we cannot tell whether that ever has been that now is, in the whole extent of the creation, as to quantity of matter, figure, bulk, motion, distance, and every thing that ever shall be. [371] Resurrection. The addition of happiness and glory made to the saints at the resurrection, it seems to me evident by the current of the Bible when it tells of those things, will be exceeding great. It is the marriage of the Lamb and the church; the state of things then is the state of perfection; all the state of the church before, both in earth and in heaven, is a growing state. Indeed, the spirits of just men made perfect will be perfectly free from sin and sorrow: will have inexpressible, inconceivable happiness and perfect contentment. But yet part of their happiness will consist in hope of what is to come. They will have as much happiness as they will desire in their existing state, because they will choose to have the addition at that time, and in that order, which God has designed; it will be every way most pleasing, and satisfying, and contenting to them that it should be so. Their having of perfect happiness does not exclude all increase, nor does it exclude all hope, for we do not know but they will increase in happiness for ever. The souls of the saints may now have as much happiness as they while separate, desire; and such happiness as so answers their nature in its present state, as to exclude all sort of uneasiness and disquietude; and yet part of that happiness, part of that sweet rest and contenting joy, consists in the sight of what is future. They do not desire that that addition should be now, they know that it will be most beautiful, most for God’s glory, most for their own happiness, and most for the glory of the church, and every way most desirable, that it should be in God’s order.

But the more properly perfect and consummate state of God’s people of the church will be after the resurrection; and the whole is now only growing and preparing for that state: all things that are now done in the world, are but preparations for it.

The accession of happiness will consist partly in these things 1. Then the saints will be in their natural state of union with bodies, glorious bodies, bodies perfectly fitted for the uses of a holy glorified soul. 2. Then the body of Christ will be perfect, the church will be complete; all the parts of it in being; no hart of it under sin or affliction; all the parts of it in a perfect state: all the parts of it together no longer mixed with ungodly men: then the church will be as a bride adorned for her husband, therefore the church will exceedingly rejoice. 3. Then the Mediator will have fully accomplished his work; will have destroyed, and will triumph over all his enemies. Then Christ will fully have obtained his reward; then shall he have perfected the full design that was upon his heart from all eternity, and then Jesus Christ will rejoice, and his members must needs rejoice with him. 4. Then God will have obtained the end of all his great works that he had been doing from the beginning; then all the deep designs of God will be unfolded in their events; then the wisdom of his marvellous contrivances in his hidden, intricate, and inexplicable works will appear, the ends being obtained; then God’s glory will more abundantly appear in his works, his works being perfect; this will cause a great accession of happiness to the saints who behold it; then God will fully have glorified himself, and glorified his Son, and his elect; then he will see that all is very good, and will rejoice in his own works, which will be the joy of all heaven. God will rest and be refreshed; and thenceforward will the inhabitants keep an eternal sabbath, such an one as all foregoing sabbaths were but shadows of. 5. Then God will make more abundant manifestations of his glory, and of the glory of his Son, and will pour forth more plentifully of his Spirit, and will make answerable additions to the glory of the saints, such as will he becoming the commencement of the ultimate and most perfect state of things, and as will become such a joyful occasion as the finishing of all things and the marriage of the lamb. Then also the glory of the angels will receive proportional additions; for the evil angels are then to have the consummation of their reward. So that the good angels will have the consummation of their reward This will he the day of Christ’s triumph, and the day will last for ever. This will be the wedding-day between Christ and the church, and this wedding-day will last for ever; the feast, and pomp. and entertainments, and holy mirth, and joys of the wedding will be continued to all eternity. [372] Heaven. It seems to be quite a wrong notion of the happiness of heaven that it is in that manner unchangeable, that it admits not of new joys upon new occasions. The Scriptures tell us that there is joy in heaven, and among the angels of God, upon the conversion of one sinner; and why not among the saints? And if there he new joy upon such an occasion, how great joy have they upon the conversion of nations, and the spiritual prosperity of the whole church on earth! It seems to me evident that the church in heaven have received new joys from time to time upon new occasions, ever since the first saint went to heaven; their joy is continually increased as they see the purposes of God’s grace unfolded in his wondrous providences towards his church. Their happiness is increased as their number increases; as it will be greatly for the happiness of the body of Christ to be completed as it will be at the resurrection, so it is increasing as the body grows towards perfection. The coming of Christ Jesus, I believe, made an exceedingly great addition to the happiness of the saints of the Old Testament, who were in heaven; and especially was the day of his ascension a joyful day among them. Then Abraham, and David, and holy men that lived under the Old Testament, “received the promise,” which was matter of such joyful expectation to them when on earth. When Christ arose, many bodies of saints of the Old Testament that slept, arose and went to heaven with Christ; for it is unreasonable to suppose they only arose for a few days to die again. The saints must needs have new discoveries of God’s glory upon this occasion, as the angels had, Ephesians 3:10. Luke 2:14. 1 Peter 1:12. It is evident by those scriptures that the angels saw much more of the glory of God by these things; and if they did, undoubtedly the saints also. It was a great addition to the glory of heaven to have Jesus Christ God man made their head: they bad then far more near admittance unto God, and more familiar communication with him, and many other ways did this increase their happiness, and their happiness has been exceedingly greater ever since. Thus the Old-Testament prophecies of the glories and blessedness that should attend the coming of the Messiah, I believe, not only aimed at the glory that should be brought to the church on earth, by it, but to that part of the church that was in heaven. Thus, the church of Israel, those same saints to whom those promises were given, do receive them in heaven.

I believe, also, that it greatly contributes to the happiness of the saints in heaven to see the success of the gospel after Christ’s ascension, and its conquering the Roman empire, and that they greatly rejoice at the Reformation from popery; and will exceedingly rejoice at the fall of antichrist and the conversion of the world to Christianity. Those things seem clear to me by many passages in the Revelation, and that their joy is increasing, and will be increasing, as God gradually in his providence unveils his glory, till the last day. [413] Heaven — Separate spirits. One reason why the apostle so much insisted upon the resurrection of the dead, rather than the blessedness of a separate state, as an encouragement to Christians, was because they in those days looked upon Christ’s coming, and so the resurrection, as just at hand. [421] Heaven. It seems to me probable that that part of the church that is in heaven have been from the beginning of the world progressive in their light, and in their happiness, as the church on earth has, and that much of their happiness has consisted in seeing the progressive wonderful doings of God, with respect to his church here in this world Thus Moses with great joy saw the promises of God fulfilled, in bringing the children of Israel into Canaan, with far greater satisfaction than he would have seen it on earth; because he could much better see the glorious ends God proposed by it, and his wonderful wisdom in that work So those saints, who die now, before the accomplishment of the far more glorious things to the church that God has foretold which are not yet fulfilled, and for which they have prayed and waited, will see the fulfilment of them with greater satisfaction than if they lived upon the earth till they were accomplished. The church in heaven and the church on earth are more one people, one city, and one family, than is generally imagined. [430] Heaven. As there will be various members of different degrees in the body of Christ in heaven, so it seems to me probable that there will be members of various kinds and different offices, as it is in the church on earth. 1 Corinthians 10.

That is, there will be some especially distinguished for one grace, others for another; some of one manner of the exercise of grace, others of another; some fitted for this work, others for that: every one will have their distinguishing gift, one after this manner, and another after that, the perfection of the saints in glory nothing hindering; for that perfection will not be of such a kind that one saint may not be more eminent than another in grace, or that they shall not be capable of increasing, and so attaining to higher degrees, nor that one grace in the same saint shall not have a more remarkable and eminent exercise than others; and it is most probable, if it be so, that they shall excel most in the same grace, and the same kind of works, by which they were most distinguished on earth: God rewarding their graces and works by giving of them grace more abundantly of the same kind; as Christ hath promised, that to him that hath shall be given.”

This difference will be for the beauty and the profit of the whole: they will profit one another by their distinguishing graces; with respect to those graces they will not be beyond being profited by one another, as well as delighted, they will still be employed, and improving themselves. [431] Heaven- Degrees of glory. The exaltation of some in glory above others, will be so far from diminishing any thing of the perfect happiness and joy of the rest that are inferior, that they will be the happier for it. Such will be the union of all of them, that they will be partakers of each other’s glory and happiness. “If one of the members are honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26.) [432] Heaven. Though the saints in heaven will see their exceeding folly and vileness in much of their behaviour here in this world, will see a thousand times as much of the evil and folly of sin as they do now; yet they will not experience any proper sorrow or grief for it, for this reason, because they will perfectly see at the same time how that it is turned to the best to the glory of God, or at least will so perfectly know that it is so; and particularly they will have so much the more admiring and joyful sense of God’s grace in pardoning them, that the remembrance of their sins will rather be an indirect occasion of joy. Sorrow and grief for sin is a duty, because we are not capable of having so perfect views of those things. But that a right sense of the odiousness and folly of sun will, under all circumstances, necessarily cause grief, is not so clear. A sense of the great evil of sin is good, absolutely considered; but grief for sin is so only in a certain pre-supposed state and circumstances. [435] Heaven. The church now in heaven is not in its fixed and ultimate, but in a progressive, subordinate, and preparatory state. The state which they are in is in order to another. In the employments in which they are now exercised, they look to that which is still future, to their consummate state, which they have not yet arrived at. Their p resent happiness is, in many respects, subordinate to a future; and God in his dealings with them has a constant and perpetual respect to the great consummation of all things. So it is both with respect to the saints and angels: all things in heaven and earth, and throughout the universe, are in a state of preparation for the state of consummation; all the wheels are going, none of them stop, and all are moving in a direction to the last and most perfect state. As the church on earth is in a state of preparation for the resurrection state, so is that part of the church which is in heaven, It is God’s manner to keep things always progressive, in a preparatory state, as long as there is another change to a more perfect state yet behind. The saints in this world are progressive, and all things relating to them are subordinate and preparatory to the more perfect state of heaven; which is a perfect state, in that it is a state of freedom from sinful and uneasy im perfections; but, when the saints are got to heaven there is yet another great change yet behind, there is yet another state, which is that fixed and ultimate and most perfect state, for which the whole general assembly both in heaven and earth are designed, and therefore they are still progressive, Not but that I believe the saints will be progressive in knowledge and happiness to all eternity. But when I say the church is progressive before the resurrection, 1 mean that they are progressive with a progression of preparation for another and more perfect state, their state is itinerary, viatory; their state, their employments, their glory and happiness, are subordinate and preparatory to a future more glorious state.

So, the state of the devils and damned spirits is thus, only in order to a future state of more perfect misery. A criminal in a prison, or in a dungeon, suffers misery, but it is only a subordinate misery, being in order to his approaching execution: so they are spirits in prison, they are bound in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great day. Much of the misers’ of the devils and damned souls consists in fear; the devil is dreadfully afraid of his approachiing punishment, as appears by his so crying out when he was afraid that Christ was going to execute it upon him; he beseeches him not to torment him, and says, “Art thou come to torment me before the time?”

So much of the happiness of the saints and angels in heaven consists in hope. The church in heaven, as to the happiness it now has in Christ, compared with its ultimate happiness, is, as it were, in a betrothed state.

The introducing of the glorious state that succeeds the resurrection, is like the marriage of the Lamb. The glorification of the separate soul, is a marriage, compared with its state in this world. The coming of Christ into the world, and introducing of the gospel state of the church, is a marriage with respect to the state of the church under the Old Testament; and the appearing of Christ incarnate in heaven upon his ascension, together with the great access of glory to the church, was like a marriage with respect to the state of the glorified church before; and the glorious times of the church on earth after the destruction of antichrist, will be like the marriage of the Lamb. But these are but lower steps; and, in comparison of the final consummation, are but as betrothings, in order to that everlasting marriage of the church with the Lamb, which shall be in the end of the world.

Much of the happiness of the saints, now, consists in beholding and contemplating the wonderful works of God, that are in order to the consummation, the works of God in his church, both in this world and in heaven. [477] Happiness of heaven, vide Notes on John 4:14. [499] Hades-Separate spirits — Heaven-Hell. Our first parents enjoyed great happiness: they dwelt in paradise, and there had a confluence of spiritual and outward blessings and delights, before they had so much as performed the condition of eternal happiness, or had had a trial for it. It need not therefore be wondered at, that the separate spirits of saints should be in a very happy state before they are judged at the last judgment, and that the wicked should be very miserable. [529] Heaven. There can be no doubt but that the saints in heaven shall see the flourishing and prosperity of the church on earth; for how can they avoid it, when they shall be with the King himself, whose kingdom this church is, and who as King manages all those affairs? Shall the royal family be kept in ignorance of the success of thin affairs of the kingdom? They shall also be with the angels, those ministers by whom the King manages those affairs. In the flourishing of Christ’s kingdom here on earth consists much of Christ’s mediatorial glory, and of the reward that the Father promised him for his performing what he did on earth in the work of redemption; the happiness of the saints in heaven consists much in that, that they are with Christ, and are partakers with him in that glory and reward. The saints are not only with the King that reigns over this kingdom, but they reign with him in the same kingdom, they sit with him in his throne; and therefore it is said that they shall reign on earth; that is, when the time of the flourishing and prosperity of Christ’s kingdom comes on earth, when he shall reign here in such a glorious manner in his kingdom of grace, they shall reign with him; so they are said to reign with him a thousand years. Therefore doubtless they are not ignorant of the flourishing of the church here on earth.

Can it be supposed that the saints in heaven had not notice of Christ’s incarnation, and did not know what he did here upon earth; and that they had no notice when he was crucified and buried, and rose again; and if not, why should they be ignorant of what succeeded, or of the pouring out of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost; and how the kingdom, of which Christ had thus laid the foundation, flourished? Why should their knowledge of the affairs of Christ’s kingdom on earth cease, as soon as Christ was ascended?

The saints in heaven are under infinitely greater advantages to take the pleasure of beholding how Christ’s kingdom flourishes than if they were hete upon earth; for they can better see and understand the marvellous steps that divine wisdom takes in all that is done, and the glorious ends he accomplishes, and what opposition Satan makes, and how he is baffled and overthrown. They can see the wise connexion of one event with another, and the beautiful order of all things that come to pass in the church in different ages, that to us appear like confusion. They will behold the glory of the divine attributes in his works of providence infinitely more clearly than we can.

The greatest objection that I think of against this, is, the prayer of Simeon; who had it revealed to him, that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah; and when he saw him, said,” Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation:” as though be should have missed of the pleasure and satisfaction of seeing this salvation, if he had died before. But shall we conclude from hence that if Simeon had died before, he would not have known of Christ’s birth? He surely at least would have seen this salvation then, when Christ ascended into heaven, But the case was this: Simeon was now more willing to die, more willing to venture his soul into another world, and could die in much stronger hope, because his faith in God’s salvation was abundantly strengthened by this sight. He had the greater assurance, that when he did depart, he should depart in peace; for his eyes had actually seen the salvation which God had provided for souls, and was therefore more fully persuaded that his soul should be safe and happy in a future state: or if otherwise, it was because the state of separate souls in that particular was not known to him.

Indeed it is desirable to live to see the flourishing of God’s church upon this account; that those saints who live to see it will probably be partakers in that spiritual prosperity; their souls will receive a portion of the Spirit that is then plentifully poured out, and so will be increased in grace and holiness; their own souls will prosper, and will be partakers of the prosperity of the church; and besides, they will have a more glorious opportunity to do good, in having a hand in promoting that public prosperity.

An objection may be raised from Ecclesiastes 9:6. The dead “have no more a portion for ever in any thing done tinder the sun;” but see an answer in my notes on the verse. [546] Separate state-Hell torments-Heaven. It may possibly seem strange that the torments of the wicked should be so great, while they are only in prison, in order to their judgment and punishment. But there is no difference in God’s dealing with sinners in this respect. from the treatment of malefactors by human judges and rulers, but what naturally arises from the difference of the nature and qualifications of the judges, and the difference of the ends of judgment. Men commit supposed malefactors to prison, in order to a determination whether they are guilty or no, the matter not being yet sufficiently determined; but God, who imprisons wicked men, certainly and infallibly understands whether they are guilty or not: they are not imprisoned, that it may be determined whether they are guilty, but because it is determined and known that they are. The end of human judgment, is to find out whether a man be guilty or no; but the end of divine judgment is only to declare their guilt, and God’s righteousness in their punishment. The guilt of wicked men is infallibly determined when they die: it is fit therefore that they should be bound in chains of darkness and misery; it fit that God’s enemies, and rebels against him, and the objects of his eternal wrath, should be imprisoned in dark and dismal recesses while they are reserved for execution; it is fit that the prison of the objects of divine wrath should be a doleful horrid abode. So it is fit that those who are his elect, whom he hath chosen to make the objects of his love, should be reserved in a paradise in order to that consummation, It is fit that the church, which is the bride, the Lamb’s wife, should be reserved in a blissful abode previous to the time of marriage, It is fit that in the mean time it should have blessed communion and conversation with God. The glorification of the souls of the saints at their death, is a marriage in comparison of their conversion, and their state of grace; but it is a state of betrothment, compared with the glory that shall be after the resurrection.

So the state of the damned separate spirits, thought it be inexpressibly doleful, is yet but as a confinement in chains, and a dark dungeon in order to execution, in comparison of their misery after the day of judgment. See Note on Matthew 18:34. [555] Heaven — Separate state-Angels. The saints are spectators of God s providences relating to his church here below. (Vide Hebrews 6:15.

Notes.) One end of the creation of the angels, and giving them such great understanding, was, that they might be fit witnesses and spectators of God’s works here below, and might behold all parts of the divine scheme, and see how it was accomplished in the divine works and revelations from age to age. Mortal men see but a very little, they have but a very imperfect view of God’s providence in the world while they live, and they do not live long enough to see more than a very small part of the scheme. God saw fit that there should be creatures of very great discerning, and comprehensive understanding, that should he spectators of the whole series of the works of God; and therefore they were created in the beginning of the creation, that they might behold the whole series from the beginning to the consummation of all things. And therefore we read that they sang together, and shouted for joy when they beheld God forming this lower world. Job 38:7. So we are taught that they are spectators of the work of redemption, and the progress of it. 1 Timothy 3:16. Ephesians 3:10. And as God has made them to be spectators of the great works of the divine wisdom and power, so that their minds may be the more engaged and entertained, God allows them to have a subordinate hand in them, and he improves them as his messengers and servants in bringing them to pass.

Hence I argue, that undoubtedly the souls of departed saints are also spectators of the same things; for they go to be in heaven with the angels.

The angels carry them to paradise; and we cannot suppose that they leave them there, and that the only opportunity they have to converse with angels from their death till the end of the world, is while they are on their way from earth to Abraham’s bosom. The saints even on earth have from time to time been admitted to converse with angels; and shall they not do so much more familiarly, when they go to be with Christ in paradise? The spirits of just men made perfect, are reckoned as of the same society with the angels, and as dwelling with them in mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, which the apostle elsewhere calls “ Jerusalem which is above,” by which he doubtless means heaven. Why should not the saints go to be with the angels when they go from their bodies, seeing they are of the same family? The angels are their brethren: why should they be kept separate from the angels, who are their brethren in the same family? as the angel in the Revelation tells John he is of his brethren, Revelation 22:9.

And if any one would understand that, not of a proyiner angel, but of the departed soul of one of the saints, then will it make much more to our present purpose. If one of them was sent to reveal to John the providences of God relating to the church on earth, then certainly departed saints are acquainted with them. But that the departed saints do dwell in heaven with the angels, is most evident, because we learn by Ephesians 3:15. that the whole family is in heaven and in earth. Departed saints are doubtless of the family; the angels they also are of the family saints and angels are all gathered together in one in Christ, Ephesians 1:10. Colossians 1:16,20.

But none can doubt but that heaven is the dwelling-place of the angels.

It is no privilege to be continued in this world, to have opportunity to see here the success of the gospel and glorious things accomplished in the church. If this had been any privilege, the man Christ Jesus should have been allowed it: he saw very little success, while he was here, of all that he did and suffered; the success was chiefly after he went to heaven, and there he can see it better than if he were here; and this is part of his promised glory, that he there sees the success of his redemption, and his own kingdom carried on and flourishing in this world, Isaiah 53:10,11,12. And it is the will of Christ, that departed saints should be with him where he is, that they may behold this glory of Christ, which the Father gives him, and be partakers with him in it. John 17:24. [565] Heaven-Separate spirits. The happiness which the departed souls of the saints being with Christ have before the resurrection, is proleptical, or by way of anticipation. This is not the proper time of their reward: the proper time of the reward and glory of saints is after the end of the world, when an end shall be put to the world’s state of probation; then succeeds the state of retribution. When all the present dispensations of the covenant of grace shall be ended, and Christ shall have brought all enemies under his feet, and shall have fully accomplished the ends and designs of his mediatorial kingdom, and his own glory shall be fully obtained, and he shall have fully finished God’s scheme in the series of revolutions in divine providence; then will be the time of Christ’s joy and triumph, and then will be the proper time of judgment and retribution, and then will be the proper time of the reward and glory of Christ’s followers. The state that spirits of just men are in now is not the proper state of their reward; it is only a state wherein they are reserved against the time of their reward; it is the time wherein the pure chosen espoused virgin is reserved in the King’s house against the day of marriage, and the joy and blessedness that they now enjoy with Christ in their conversation with him, though it appear to us unspeakably great, is only by way of prelibation of what is future, and therefore vastly short of it. Such is God’s overflowing love to them, that, while they are only reserved for their designed glory, they shall be reserved in blessed abodes, as a king would entertain her whom he reserves for marriage, and whom he loves with a strong and ardent love, in no mean manner, but in a way suitable to his love to her and his design concerning her. The state of the blessed souls in heaven is not merely a state of repose, but of a glorious degree of anticipation of their reward; as is evident by Hebrews 6:12. See my Notes on it. Thus it is God’s way, from his overflowing goodness to his people, to grant a prelibation of blessings before the proper season. So the church of the Old Testament had an anticipation of gospel benefits before Christ came, and the gospel days commenced. So the saints now, are allowed in a measure to anticipate the blessedness that is to succeed the fall of antichrist. Revelation 6:9,10,11. “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given to every one of them; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren also, which should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” Those white robes were the glory and reward which God gave them beforehand, the earnest of what was to be after antichrist’s fall. So the saints here in this world have that light, holiness, and joy, that is an anticipation and earnest of what they are to have in heaven; and what they have now in heaven is but an earnest of what they are to have afterwards at the consummation of all things, and when all things come to be settled in their fixed and eternal state. Therefore the apostle so often speaks of the reward and glory of the saints at Christ’s second coming, and encourages Christians with that, without any mention of the glory which they shall receive before. [571] Heaven — Wisdom and the gloriousness of the work of redemption.

When the saints get to heaven, they shall not merely see Christ and have to do with him, as subjects and servants with a glorious and gracious Lord and Sovereign, but Christ will most freely and intimately converse with them as friends and brethren. This we may learn from the manner of Christ’s conversing with his disciples here on earth; though he was the supreme Lord of the disciples, and did not refuse, yea, required, their supreme respect and adoration; yet he did not treat them as earthly sovereigns are wont to do their subjects; he did not keep them at an awful distance, but all along conversed with them with the most friendly familiarity as with brethren, as a father amongst a company of children. So he did with the twelve, and so he did with Mary and Martha, and Lazarus; he told his disciples that he did not call them servants, but he called them friends. So neither will he call his disciples servants, but friends, in heaven.

Though Christ be in a state of exaltation at the right hand of God, and appears in an immense height of glory, yet this will not hinder his conversing with his saints in a most familiar and intimate manner; he will not treat his disciples with greater distance for his being in a state of exaltation, but he will rather take them into a state of exaltation with him.

This will be the improvement Christ will make of his own glory, to make his beloved friends partakers with him, to glorify them in his glory, as Christ says to his Father, John 17:22,23. “And the glory which thou hast given me, have I given them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them,” etc. For we are to consider, that though Christ be greatly exalted, yet he is exalted not as a private person for himself only, but he is exalted as his people’s head, and he is exalted in their name, and upon their account, and as one of them, as their representative, as the first-fruits: he is not exalted that he may be more above them, and be at a greater distance from them, but that they may be exalted with him. The exaltation and honour of the head is not to make a greater distance between the head and the members, but the members and head have the same relation and union as they had before, and are honoured with the head.

When believers get to heaven, Christ will conform them to himself, he will give them his glory; they shall in their measure be made like to him; their bodies after the resurrection shall be conformed to his glorious body.

Christ, when he was going to heaven, comforted his disciples with that, that after a while he would come and take them to himself, that they might be with him again. And we are not to suppose, when the disciples got to heaven, though they found their Lord in a state of infinite exaltation, yet that they found him any more retiring or keeping at a greater distance from them than he used to do. No, he embraced them as friends, he welcomed them home to their common Father’s house, he welcomed them to their common glory, who had been his friends here in this world, that had been together here, had lived here together, partook of sorrows and troubles, now welcomed them to their rest to partake of glory with him, he took them and led Them into his chambers, and showed them all his glory; as Christ prayed, “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.” (John 17:24.)

And there ensued without doubt a most pleasant and free conversation between Christ and his disciples when they met together in their common rest and glory.

Christ did not behave with greater distance towards his disciples, after they had seen his transfiguration, than before; no, nor after his resurrection; nor will he in his highest exaltation in heaven.

Christ took on him man’s nature for this end, that he might be under advantage for a more familiar conversation than the infinite distance of the divine nature would allow of; and such a communion and familiar conversation is suitable to the relation that Christ stands in to believers, as their representative, their brother, and the husband of the church. The church being so often called the spouse of Christ, intimates the greatest nearness, intimacy, and communion with of Christ will conform his people to himself; he will give them his glory, the glory or his person; their souls shall be made like his soul, their bodies like to his glorious body; they shall partake with him in his riches, as coheirs in his pleasures; he will bring them into his banqueting house, and they shall drink new wine with him; they shall partake with him in his dominion; they shall sit with him in his throne, and shall rule over the nations; they shall partake with him in the honour of judging the world at the last day. When Christ shall descend from heaven in the glory of his Father, in such awful and dreadful majesty, with all his holy angels, and all nations shall be gathered before the saints, at the same time shall they be as familiar with Christ as his disciples were when he was upon earth: they shall sit with him to judge with him. As Christ died as the head of believers, and in their name, and was exalted in their name, so shall he judge the world as their head and representative. It was God’s design in this way to confound and triumph over Satan, viz. by making man, whom he so despised, and envied, and thought to have had as a slave to lord it over, and thought to have glutted his own pride, and malice, and envy with his blood, and in his everlasting misery; 1 say, by making man his judge. It was God’s design that the elect of mankind should be Satan’s judge, and therefore the head of them, the elder brother of them, is appointed to this work in the room of the rest, and the rest are to be with him in it. God gave Christ “authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man,” John 5:27. partly upon this account we have mentioned.

The conversation of Christ’s disciples in heaven shall in many respects be vastly more intimate than it was when Christ was upon earth; vide Notes on John 20:17. for in heaven the union shall be p effected. The union is but begun in this world, and there is a great deal remains in this world to separate and disunite them; but then all those obstacles of a close union and most intimate communion shall be removed. When the church is received to her consummate glory, that is her marriage with Christ, and therefore doubtless the conversation and enjoyment will be more intimate, This is not a time for that full acquaintance, and those manifestations of love, which Christ designs towards his people.

When saints shall see Christ’s divine glory and exaltation in heaven, this will indeed possess their hearts with the greater admiration and adoring respect; yet this will not keep them at a distance, but will only serve the more to heighten their surprise and pleasure, when they find Christ condescending to treat them in such a familiar manner.

The saints, being united to Christ, shall have a more glorious union with, and enjoyment of, the Father, than otherwise could be; for hereby their relation becomes much nearer, they are the children of God in a higher manner than otherwise they could be; for, being members of God’s own Son, they are partakers of his relation to the Father, or of his Sonship; being members of the Son, they are partakers of the Father’s love to the Son and his complacence in him. John 17:23. “I in them, and thou in me:- thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me and verse 26. “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them;” and 16:27. “The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” So they are, in this measure, partakers of the Son’s enjoyment of his Father; they have this joy fulfilled in themselves, and by this means they come to a more familiar and intimate conversion with the Father than otherwise ever would have been; for there is, doubtless, an infinite intimacy between the Father and the Son, and the saints being in him shall partake with him in it, and of the blessedness of it.

Such is the contrivance of our redemption; thereby we are brought to an immensely more glorious and exalted kind of union with God and enjoyment of him, both the Father and the Son, than otherwise could have been. For, Christ being united to the human nature, we have advantage for a far more intimate union and conversation with him than we could possibly have had if he had remained only in the divine nature. So, we being united to a divine person, can in him have more intimate union and conversation with God the Father, who is only in the divine nature, than otherwise possibly could be. Christ, who is a divine person, by taking on him our nature, descended from the infinite distance between God and us, and is brought nigh to us, to give us advantage to converse with him. So, on the other hand, we, by being in Christ, a divine person, ascend nearer to God the Father, and have advantage to converse with him. This was the design of Christ, to bring it to pass that he, and his Father, and his people, might be brought to a most intimate union and communion, John 17:21,22,23. “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me; and the glory which thou hast given me have I given them, that they may be made perfect in one.” Christ has brought it to p ass, that those that the Father has given him should be brought into the household of God, that he, and his Father, and they should be as it were one society, one family, that his people should be in a sense admitted into the society of the Three Persons in the Godhead. In that family or household, God is the Father; Jesus Christ is his only-begotten and eternal Son; the saints, they also are children in the family, they have all communion in the same Spirit, the Holy Ghost.

Corol. I. Seeing that God hath designed men for such exceeding exaltation, it was but agreeable to his wisdom to bestow in such a way as should abase man and exalt his own free grace, and wherein man’s entire, and absolute, and universal dependence on God should be most evident and conspicuous.

Corol. II, It is easy to observe the wisdom of God, that seeing he designed man for such a height of glory, that it should be so ordered that he should be brought to it from the lowest depths of wretchedness and misery.

Corol. III. Hence we may learn something how vastly greater glory and happiness the elect are brought to by Christ than that which was lost by the fall, or even than that which man would have attained to if he had not fallen; for then man would never have had such an advantage for an intimate union and converse with the Father or Son, Christ remaining at an infinite distance from man in the divine nature, and man remaining at an infinite distance from the Father, without being brought nigh by an union to a divine person.

Corol. IV. Hence we may see how God hath confounded Satan in actually fulfilling that which was a lie in him, wherewith he deluded poor man and procured his fall, viz, that they should be as gods. When Satan said so, he did not think that this would really be the fruit of it, he aimed at that which was infinitely contrary, his lowest depression, debasement, and ruin. But God has greatly frustrated him in fulfilling of it, in making the issue of eating that fruit to be the advancement of the elect to such an union with the persons of the Trinity and communion with them in divine honour and blessedness, and particularly he united one of them, the head and representative of the rest, in a perfect union with the Godhead, and so to the honour, dominion, and work of God in ruling the world, and judging it, and particularly in judging the devils, in which all the rest of the elect, according to their measure, partake with him. [576.] Heaven’s happiness. If nothing be too much to be given to man, and to be done for man in the means of procuring his happiness, nothing will be too much to be given to him as the end, no degree of happiness is too great for him to enjoy.

When I think how great this happiness is, sometimes it is ready to seem almost incredible, But the death and sufferings of Christ make every thing credible that belongs to this blessedness; for if God would so contrive to show his love in the manner and means of procuring our happiness, nothing can be incredible in the degree of happiness itself; if all that God doth about it be of a piece, he will also set infinite wisdom on work to make their happiness and glory great in the degree of it. If God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Nothing could have been such a confirmation of their blessedness as this. [585.] Heaven’s happiness. It has sometimes looked strange to me that men should be ever brought to such exceeding happiness as that of heaven seems to be, because we find that here Providence will not suffer any great degree of happiness; when men have something in which they hope to find very great joy, there will be something to spoil it. Providence seems watchfully to take care they should have no exceeding joy and satisfaction in this world. But indeed this, instead of being one argument against the greatness of heaven’s happiness, seems to argue or i; or we cannot suppose that the reason why Providence will not suffer men to enjoy great happiness here is, that he is averse to the creature’s happiness, but because this is not a time for it. To every thing there is an appointed season and time, and this agreeable to God’s method of dispensation, that a thing should be sought in vain out of its appointed time. God reserves happiness to be bestowed hereafter, that is the appointed time for it, and that is the reason he does not give it now. No man, let him be never so strong or wise, shall alter this divine establishment by anticipating happiness before his appointed time. It is so in all things: sometimes there is an appointed time for man’s prosperity upon earth, and then nothing can hinder his prosperity; and then when that time is past, then comes an appointed time for his adversity, and then all things conspire for his ruin, and all his strength and skill shall not help him; history verifies this with respect to many kings, generals, and great men: one while they conquer all, and nothing can stand before them; all things conspire for their advancement, and all that oppose it are confounded; and after a while it is right the reverse. So has it been with respect to the kingdoms and monarchies of the world; one while is their time to flourish, and then God will give all into their hands, and will destroy those that oppose their flourishing, and then after that comes the time of’ their decay and ruin, and then every thing runs backward, and all helpers are vain. Jeremiah 27. [639] Heaven. Whether the saints, when they go to heaven, have any special comfort in their meeting with those that were their godly friends on earth: I think that it is evident that they will , by 1 Thessalonians 4:13,14, and the following verses, “ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others, which have no hope. For if’ we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”

Here, 1. It seems to me that what the apostle mentions here as matter of comfort to mourners, is, not only that their departed friends, though dead, shall be happy; they are not so miserable in being dead as persons are ready to imagine, because they shall rise again; but that they shall meet them and see them again, seems to be intimated in the manner of expression, “ God shall bring them to them.” Christians mourn when their near friends are dead, because they are departed and gone; they are parted from them; but when they rise God shall bring them to them again; and this is further confirmed by the following verses, especially the 17th and 18th, “ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord: wherefore comfort one another with these words:” where the apostle may well be understood that they should comfort one another, when mourners, with the consideration that they should be hereafter again with their departed friends, and in a glorious and happy state. 2. I think it is evident hereby that there will be something else that will be comfortable in meeting them in a future state than in seeing other saints.

The apostle doubtless mentions it as what may be a comfortable consideration to them, that they shall again see and converse with the same persons; implying that they will have a different comfort in seeing them from what they would in seeing other saints; otherwise, why did die apostle mention it for their comfort, that they should see them again, rather than any other saints that they had seen or heard of? The apostle speaking thus to the Thessalonians, might give them just ground to expect that that peculiarly dear affection which they cherished for their departed friends, which was crossed by their departure, would be again gratified by meeting them again; or this crossing of that affection was the ground of their mourning. If the Thessalonians knew that to see their friends again in another world would be no gratification to their affection which they had to them as their friends, and did no way think or conceive of it as such, then to think of it would be no more comfort to them, or remedy to their mourning, than to think that they should see any other saint that lived and died in another country, or a past age; and that because it would be no remedy to the ground and foundation of their mourning, viz. the crossing of their affections to them as their friends; and if it would be no remedy to their mourning to think of it, it never would have been mentioned to them by the apostle as a ground of comfort, or a reason why they need not mourn. That was what they mourned for, viz, that they should not have their affections towards them gratified by seeing of them, conversing with them, etc. That was what the heathen, here spoken of; that have no hope, mourned excessively for, that they should never more have that affection gratified. The apostle here would inform them that they have not this ground to mourn which the heathen had, because they should have their affection gratified again.

Hence it follows, that the special affection which the saints have in this world to other saints, who are their friends, will in some respect remain in another world. I do not see why we should not suppose that saints that have dwelt together in this world, and have done and received kindness to each other’s souls, have been assistant to each other’s true happiness, should not love one another with a love of gratitude for it in another world, and that the joy in meeting those and seeing their happiness is part of that joy that is spoken of, 2 Corinthians 1:14. “As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus; and 1 Thessalonians 2:19,20. “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? are not even ye in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy.” Or why those that have loved one another with a virtuous love, and from such a love have shown kindness one to another, should not love one another the better for it in another world? God and Christ will reward them and favour them the more for such love, and all the fruits of it, to all eternity; and I do not see why they should not love one another the more for it. Neither do I see how it argues infirmity for a saint in glory to have a special respect to another, because God made use of him as an instrument to bring him into being, and so is the remote occasion of his eternal blessedness; or because he himself was the occasion of bringing the other into being; or that the same agreeableness of temper, which is the foundation of’ special friendship here, may be so also in another world, or even that a former acquaintance with persons, and their virtues, may occasion a particular respect in another world. They may go to heaven with a desire to see them upon that account; the idea that they have of them by their acquaintance here, may be what they carry to heaven with them; and the idea we have of the proper object of our love may be an occasion of the exercises of love, especially towards that object, and more than towards another of which we have not the idea.

This should move us to lay religion and virtue on the foundation of all our friendship, and to strive that the love we have to our friends be a virtuous love, duly subordinated to divine love; for, so far as it is so, it will last for ever. Death does not put an end to such friendship, nor can it put an end to such friends’ enjoyment of each other. [666] Separate state. Texts made use of by Dr. Watts in his essay to prove a separate state: Psalm 73:24,26. Ecclesiastes 12:7. Isaiah 57:2. Luke 9:30,31. Acts 7:59. 2 Corinthians 5:1,2. 2 Corinthians 12:2,3. it shows that St. Paul thought that a soul might exist, think, know, and act, in paradise, in a state of separation. (Vide my Notes on the text.) Philippians 1:21. 1 Thessalonians 4:14. I Peter 3:18-20. Spirits in prison: Jude Revelation 6:9. Hebrews 11:14. The Jews generally supposed separate spirits; and Christ did not correct them. Matthew 14:26. Luke 24:36, etc.

Acts 23:8,9. More evident proofs: Matthew 10:28. Luke 16:22, etc. Luke 20:37,38. Luke 23:42,43. 2 Corinthians 5:6,8. Philippians 1:23,24.

Hebrews 12:23. 2 Peter 1:13,14. To which may be added, Acts 1:2.5.See my Note on Hebrews 12:1. Blank Bible, p. 766. [678] Beatifical vision. Whether there be any visible appearance or glory, that is the symbol of the divine presence, in which God manifests himself in heaven, beside the glorified body of Christ: see of the Beatifical Vision, in my sermon from these words, Romans 2:10. “But glory, honour, and peace, to every one that worketh good.” [679] Goodness of God-Love of God-Happiness of heaven. God stands in no need of creatures, and is not profited by them; neither can his happiness be said to be added to by the creature. But yet God has a real and proper delight in the excellency and happiness of his creatures: he hath a real delight in the excellency and loveliness of the creature, in his own image in the creature, as that is a manifestation, or expression, or shining forth of his own loveliness. God has a real delight in his own loveliness, and he also has a real delight in the shining forth, or glorifying of it. As it is a fit and consequent thing that God’s glory should shine forth, so God delights in its shining forth. So that God has a real delight in the spiritual loveliness of the saints; which delight is not a delight distinct from what he has in himself, but is to be resolved into the delight he has in himself; for he delights in his image in the creature, as he delights in his own being glorified; or as he delights in it, that his own glory shines forth, and so he hath real proper delight in the happiness of his creatures, which also is not distinct from the delight that he has in himself, for it is to be resolved into the delight that he has in his own goodness; for as he delights in his own goodness, so he delights in the exercise of his goodness, and therefore he delights to make the creature happy, and delights to see him made happy, as he delights in exercising goodness, or communicating happiness, This is no proper addition to the happiness of God, because it is that which he eternally and unalterably had. God hath no new delight when he beholds his own glory shining forth in his image in the creature, and when he beholds the creature made happy from the exercises of his goodness; because those and all things are from eternity equally present with God. This delight in God cannot properly be said to be received from the creature, because it consists only in a delight in giving to the creature; neither will it hence follow that God is dependent on the creature for any of his joy, because it is his own act only that this delight is dependent on, and the creature is absolutely dependent on God for that excellency and happiness that delights in. God cannot be said to be the more happy for the creature, because he is infinitely happy in himself, and he is not dependent on the creature for any thing, nor does he receive any addition from the creature.

But yet in one sense it can be truly said that God has the more delight for the loveliness and happiness of the creature, viz, as God would be less happy if he were less good, or if it were possible for him to be hindered in exercising his own goodness, or to be hindered from glorifying himself.

God has no addition to his happiness, when he exercises any act of holiness towards his creatures; and yet God has a real delight in the exercises of his own holiness, and would be less happy if he were less holy, or were capable of being hindered from any act of holiness.

Corol. I. Hence when the saints get to heaven they will have this to rejoice them, and add to their blessedness, that God hath a real delight and joy in them, in their holiness and happiness.

Corol. II. Hence God’s love to the saints is real and proper love; so that those have been to blame, who have represented, much to the prejudice of religion, the love of God to creatures as if it were merely a purpose in God of acting as the creature does that has love.

Corol. III. Hence we learn how all God’s love may be resolved into his love to himself, and delight in himself. His love to the creature is only his inclination to glorify himself, and communicate himself; and his delight in himself glorified, and in himself communicated. There is his delight in the act, and in the fruit: the act is the exercise of his own perfection; and the fruit is himself expressed and communicated. [701] Happiness of heaven increasing, It is certain that the inhabitants of heaven do increase in their knowledge, “the angels know more than they did before Christ’s incarnation, for they are said to know by the church, i.e. by the dealings of God with the church, the manifold wisdom of God: and to desire to look into the account the gospel gives of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” Ridgley’s Body of Divinity, p. 61, 62. vol. 1. [710.] Heaven-Separate Resurrection — Dispensations. How the happiness of the resurrection state will exceed the present happiness in heaven. It looks to me probable, that the glory of the state of the church after the resurrection will as much exceed the present glory of the spirits of just men made perfect, as the glory of the gospel dispensation exceeds the Mosaic dispensation; or as much as the glory of the state of the church in its first or purest state of it, or rather in its state in the Millennium, (wherein alone the glory of the gospel dispensation will be fully manifested,) exceeds the state of the church under the law, and as much as the state, the company, of glorified souls exceed this. Of old, under the Mosaic dispensation, the church saw things very darkly; they saw as it were by a reflex light, as we see the light of the sun by that of the moon; they saw gospel things in dark types and shadows, and in dark sayings, that were, as it were, riddles, or enigmas. The glory of that dispensation was no glory in comparison of the glory of the evangelical dispensation it so much excels, but under the gospel dispensation those dark shadows are ceased, and instead of enigmas or dark sayings, the apostle uses great plainness of speech. 2 Corinthians 3:12. The night, in which we saw by a reflex light only, is ceased, and Christ is actually come, we enjoy day-light. John the Baptist was the daystar to usher in the day; and when he was born, the day-spring from on high visited us, as Zachariah his father sang. Luke 1:78, 79. And when Christ himself came, the sun rose; especially when he rose from the dead, and shed forth his light and heat on the day of Pentecost; and now we see the sun by his own direct light, we see him immediately, the veil is taken away, and we all see with open face. 2 Corinthians 3:18. But still, even under the gospel dispensation, we see by a reflex light, we see only the image in a looking-glass in comparison of what we shall in the future state. 1 Corinthians 13:12. We understand not by plain speeches and declarations, but as in an enigma, or dark saying, as it is said in the same place; for the things of heaven cannot be expressed as they be in our language. The apostle, when he went there, said of them, that it was not lawful or possible to utter them. But when the souls of the saints are separated from their bodies, they shall no longer see heavenly things as in an enigma, or dark saying, for they shall go themselves to heaven to dwell there, and shall immediately see and hear those things that it is not possible or lawful to utter plainly, or know immediately in this world. They shall then no longer see Christ by reflexion as in a looking-glass, because they shall be where Christ himself shall be immediately present; for they that are departed are with Christ, they that are absent from the body are present with the Lord; when that which is perfect is come, then we shall no more see by a looking-glass or enigma, but shall see face to face, as the apostle shows, 1 Corinthians 13:10,12. “But when that which is perfect is come,” is said with respect to the separate souls of the saints, as is evident by Hebrews 12:23. for they are there called the spirits of just men made perfect and therefore when the soul of the saint leaves the body and goes to heaven, it will be like coming out of the dim light of the night into daylight.

The present state is a dark benighted state; but ‘when the soul enters into heaven, it is like the rising of the sun, for they shall then see the Sun of righteousness, by his own direct light, because they shall be with him; they will be spirits made perfect in that respect, that is, it will be perfect day with them. Proverbs 4:18. We cannot in the present state see clearly, because we have’ a veil before us, even the veil of the flesh. The church is Christ mystical: the church in the Old-Testament state was represented by Christ in his fleshly state, such as he was in before his death; for Christ was the head of that church in that state, and was subject to the same ordinances with them, was under the same dispensation with his church till his death.

His flesh was as it were a veil that hindered our access to heavenly things, or seeing them immediately. When Christ died, this veil was rent from the top to the bottom, and the holy of holies, with the ark of the testament, were opened to view; and especially will this be fulfilled in the glorious period of this evangelical dispensation, when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, Revelation 11:15,19.

But still the church of Christ has a veil before it, to hinder it from seeing immediately things in the holy of holies; and this veil is their flesh, which is mystically the flesh of Christ. Christ in his members is still in his fleshly state, but when the saints die this veil is rent from the top to the bottom, and a glorious prospect will be opened through this veil.

The day is a time of glory in comparison of the night, because of the sun that is then seen, which is the glory of the visible universe, and by his light fills the world with glory. So the gospel state of the church is spoken of as a state of glory, in comparison of its Old-Testament state. 1 Peter 1:11.”

Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” 2 Corinthians 3:10. “For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth;” and this state was prophesied of, of old, as a state of glory, but the state of the holy separate souls is a state of glory in comparison of the present state. Psalm 73:24,26. “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” So it is said of Moses, and Elijah, who were in the state that the saints are now in heaven, that at Christ’s transfiguration they appeared in glory. Luke 9:30,31.

But yet the glorified souls of saints in their present state in heaven, though they cannot be said properly to see as in an enigma, is but darkly, in comparison of what they will see after the resurrection. Therefore, though we are said now to see with open face, in comparison of what they did under the Old Testament; and though separate souls in heaven see face to face, in comparison of what we do now; yet the sight that the saints shall have at the resurrection, is spoken of as it were the first sight wherein they should see him as he is. 1 John 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.” The glory of Christ is what will as it were then first appear to all the church, to all that shall then lift up their heads out of their graves to behold it, as well as to those that will then be alive, It is called the blessed hope, and glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, with respect to both those companies of which the church consists. The apostle speaks of it as what would be a glorious appearing to them, to the Christians that were then living, Titus 2:13.; which implies something that will be seen anew, as though he had been till then unseen. That appearing of Christ will be like the appearing of the sun when it rises to all, both those that shall then be found alive, and those that will then rise: it will he to them both as the morning succeeding the dim light of the night. Psalm 49:14.” The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning.” Though, in the state the saints are now in heaven, there is no proper darkness, because there is no evil, yet the light they have is dim, like the light of the night, in comparison of the glorious light that shall appear in that morning. The happiness that separate souls have now in heaven, is like the quiet rest that a person has in bed before a wedding day or some other joyful and glorious day, in comparison of the light and joy after the resurrection. Isaiah 57:1,2. “The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart., and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.” 1 Thessalonians 4:14,15. “Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep.” The morning of the natural day when the sun rises, and persons awake out of sleep, and the face of the whole world is revived, seems to be a type of the resurrection, when the saints shall awake out of sweet repose to glory.

The saints now in heaven see God or the divine nature by a reflex light, comparatively with the manner in which they will see it after the resurrection, seeing now through the glass of the glorified human nature of Christ, and in that glass of his works especially relating to redemption, as was observed No. 702.

Of old under the Old Testament, the church of Christ was as a child, Galatians 4:1.; so still under the gospel dispensation the church on earth is as a child, in comparison of what the church of glorified souls in heaven is, where what is perfect is come. 1 Corinthians 13:10,11. “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” But yet the church remains a child, and does not come to the stature of a man until die resurrection. Ephesians 4:10-13. “ He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things; and he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” But this will not be till that time comes, when the work of those offices ceases, which will not be till the end of the world, and there be no further use of them. Matthew 28:20.

It will not be till the time comes when he that is ascended shall descend again. It will not be till the church has all its members; and all its members are delivered from all remaining corruption; and all are brought to their consummate glory.

Of old the church was in a preparatory state, as a woman preparing for her marriage. The coming of Christ, his destroying the Jewish state and church, and setting up the gospel dispensation, is compared to the coming of the bridegroom, and his marriage with the church; the gospel day, to the wedding day; and the provision of God’s house under the gospel, to the wedding feast; and gospel ministers, to servants sent out to invite persons to the wedding; Matthew 22, at the beginning; and Isaiah 61. 10. And especially is the most glorious time of the christian church on earth, when the glories of the gospel dispensation shall be most fully manifested, called the marriage of the Lamb. Revelation 19:7. “Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready,” etc. But yet the translation of the soul from the earthly to the heavenly state at death, is represented as its marriage to Christ, and therefore, Christ’s coming by death, is called the coming of the bridegroom, in the beginning of the 25th chap. of Matthew.

One thing that Christ has there respect to, is his coming by death: this is the application Christ makes of it; in the 13th verse, Christ speaks of the coming of the bridegroom as what would be sudden and unexpected, and as it were at midnight, to them that then were his hearers; and what they therefore should continually watch and wait for, that they might not be found slumbering and sleeping as the foolish virgins were. “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” But this manner of speaking is not applicable to those that wore then living with respect to Christ’s last coming at the end of the world, but with regard to his coming by death. But yet the glorification of the church after the last judgment is represented as the proper marriage of the Lamb.

Revelation 21:2. “I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, corning down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;” and ver. 9. “Come hither, I will show thee the bride the Lamb’s wife.” See Luke 14:14,15,16. etc. compared with Matthew xxii, at the beginning.

See No. 774, Corol. 5. [721] Happiness of heaven after the resurrection- Their external blessedness and delight. As the saints after the resurrection will have an external part, or an outward man, distinct from their souls, so it necessarily follows that they shall have external perception, or sense; and, doubtless, then all their sense and all the perception that they have will he delighted and filled with happiness- every perceptive faculty shall be an inlet of delight. Particularly then, doubtless, they will have the seeing, which is the noblest of all the external senses, and then, without doubt, the most noble sense will receive most pleasure and delight, This sense will be immensely more perfect than now it is, and the external light of the heavenly world will be a perfectly different kind of light from the light of the sun, or any light in this world, exciting sensations or ideas in the beholders perfectly different, of which we can no more conceive than we can conceive of a colour we never saw, or than a blind man can conceive of light and colours; a sort of light immensely more pleasant and glorious; in comparison of which the sun is a shade, and his light but darkness; and this world, full of the light of the sun, is a world under the darkness of night, but that a world of light affording inexpressible pleasure and delight to the beholders, immensely exceeding all sensitive delights in this world. That the light of heaven, which will be the light of the brightness of Christ’s glorious body, shall be a perfectly different sort of light from that of this world, seems evident from Revelation 21:11. and that it will be so, and will also be ravishingly sweet to the eye, is evident from the circumstances of Christ’s transfiguration; (see Note on 2 Peter 1:11, to the end;) and also from the circumstances of Moses’s vision of God in the mount. (See Note on Exodus 33:18, to the end; No. 266.)

But yet this pleasure from external perception will, in a sense, have God for its object, it will be in a sight of Christ’s external glory, and it will be so ordered in its degree and circumstances as to be wholly and absolutely subservient to a spiritual sight of that divine spiritual glory, of which this will be a semblance, an external representation, and subservient to the superior spiritual delights of the saints; as the body will in all respects be a spiritual body, and subservient to the happiness of the spirit, and there will be no tendency to, or danger of, inordinacy, or predominance. This visible glory will be subservient to a sense of spiritual glory, as the music of God’s praises is to the holy sense and pleasure of the mind; and more immediately so, because this that will be seen by the bodily eye will be God’s glory, but that music will not be so immediately God’s harmony. [741] Happiness of heaven, There is scarce any thing that can be conceived of or expressed, about the degree of the happiness of the saints in heaven, the degree of intimacy, of union, and communion with Christ, and fulness of enjoyment of God, for which the consideration of the nature and circumstances of our redemption by Christ do not allow us and encourage us to hope. This redemption leaves nothing to hinder our highest exaltation, and the utmost intimacy, and fulness of enjoyment of God. Our being such guilty creatures would be no hinderance, because the blood of Christ has perfectly removed that, and by his obedience he hath procured the contrary for us in the highest perfection and glory. The meanness of our nature need be no hinderance, for Christ is in our nature. There is an infinite distance between the human nature and the divine; the divine nature has that infinite majesty and greatness, whereby it is impossible that we should immediately approach to that, and converse with that, with that intimacy with which we might do to one who is in our own nature. Job wished for a near approach to God; but his complaint was that his mean nature did not allow of so near an approach to God as he desired: God’s majesty was too great for him. Job 9:32, etc. But now we have not this to keep us from the utmost nearness of access and intimacy of communion with Christ; for, to remove this obstacle wholly out of the way, Christ has come down, and taken upon him our nature; he is as Elihu tells Job he was according to his wish. He is a man as we are; he also was formed out of the clay, This the church anciently wished for, before it came to pass, to that end that she might have greater opportunity of near access and intimacy of communion. Song of Solomon 8:1. “O that thou wert my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother, when I should find thee without I would kiss thee, yea, I should not be despised.” Christ descending so low in uniting himself to our nature, tends to invite and encourage us to ascend to the most intimate converse with him, and encourages us that we shall be accepted and not despised therein; for we have this to consider of, that let us ‘be never so bold in this kind of ascending, for Christ to allow us and accept us in it will not be a greater humbling himself than to take upon him our nature. Christ was made flesh and dwelt among us in a nature infinitely below his original nature, for this end, that we might have, as it were, the full possession and enjoyment of him. Again, it shows how much God designed to communicate himself to men, that he so communicated himself to the first and chief of elect men, the elder brother, and the head and representative of the rest, even so that this man should be the same person with one of the persons of the Trinity. It seems by this to have been God’s design to admit man as it were to the inmost fellowship with the Deity.

There was, as it were, an eternal society in the Godhead in the Trinity of persons; and it seems to be God’s design to admit the church into the divine family; so that which Satan made use of as a temptation to our first parents, “Ye shall be as shall be fulfilled contrary to his design. The saints’ enjoyment of Christ shall be like the Son’s intimate enjoyment of the Father, John 17:21,22,23,24. “ That they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gayest me have I given them, that they may be one even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, even as thou hast loved me.

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, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” Ver. 26. “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them.” The Son’s intimate enjoyment of the Father is expressed by this, that he is in the bosom of the Father; so we read that one of Christ’s disciples leaned on his bosom, John 13:23. These things imply not only that the saints shall have such an intimate enjoyment of the Son, but that they, through the Son, shall have a most intimate enjoyment of the Father; which may be argued from this, that the way which God hath contrived to bring them to their happiness, is to unite them to the Son as members, which doubtless is that they may partake with the head, to whom they are so united, in his good.

And so “our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3.)

We have all reason to conclude that no degree of intimacy will be too much for the manhood of Christ, seeing that the divine Logos has been pleased to assume him into his very person; and therefore we may conclude that no degree of intimacy will be too great for others to be admitted to, of whom Christ is the head or chief, according to their capacity; for this is in some sort an example of God’s love to manhood, that he hath so advanced manhood. He hath done this to the head of manhood, to show forth what honour and happiness God designs for manhood; for the end of God’s assuming this particular manhood was the honour and happiness of the rest. Surely, therefore, we may well argue the greatness of the happiness of the rest from it. The assumption of the particular manhood of Christ was but as a means of the honour and advancement of the rest, and we may well argue the end from the means, and the excellency of the one from the excellency of the other.

Christ took on him our nature, that he might become our brother, and our companion. The saints are called Christ’s brethren, Hebrews ii, and his followers. Hebrews 1:9. “God hath anointed thee with the ‘oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Psalm 45:8. The Hebrew word properly signifies a companion: [ ãrbjm ] comes from a root that properly signifies to consecrate, or to be joined with.. This teaches both the saints’ intimate cotiverse with, and enjoyment of, Christ, and their fellowship with him, or being joined with him, in partaking with him in his glory and happiness.

But nothing so much confirms these things as the death and sufferings of Christ. “He that hath not withheld his own Son, but hath freely delivered him up for us all in death, how shall be not with him also freely give us all things?” If the consideration of the greatness of Christ’s condescension, in taking on him our nature, invites us to ascend high in our intimacy with him, and encourages us that he will condescend to allow us and accept us in it; much more does his so condescending and humbling himself as he did in his last sufferings. No degree of the enjoyment of God that we can suppose, can require grace and condescension that exceeds what was requisite in order to God’s giving Christ to die, or will be a greater expression of love. Christ will not descend lower, nor shall we ascend higher, in having Christ for us, and giving himself to us in such a high degree of enjoyment, than to give himself to us to be our sacrifice, and to be for us in such a degree of suffering; It is certainly as much for God to give his Son to bear his wrath towards us, as it is to admit us to partake of his love towards him.

The latter in no respect seems no more too much to do for a creature, and for a mean worthless creature, than the former. Surely the majesty of God that did not hinder the one will not hinder the other, especially considering that one is the end of the other. We may more easily conceive that God would go far in bestowing happiness on an inferior nature, than that he would go far in bringing sufferings on an infinitely superior divine person; for the former is in itself agreeable to his nature, to the attribute of his goodness; but bringing suffering and evil on an innocent and glorious person, is in itself,. in some respect, against his nature. If, therefore, God hath done the latter in such a degree for those that are inferior, how shall he not freely do the former? It will not be in any respect a greater gift for Christ thus to give himself in enjoyment, than it was for him to give himself in suffering.

The sufferings of Christ for believers, also argue the greatness of intimacy with Christ, and fulness of enjoyment of him, that believers shall have, as it shows the fulness of propriety they shall have in him, or right that they have to him. Propriety in any person is just ground of boldness of access and freedom in enjoyment.

The beloved disciple John would not have made so free with Jesus Christ as to lean on his bosom, had not he looked upon him as his own. Christ did in effect give himself to the elect, to be theirs from eternity in the same covenant with the Father, in which the Father gave them to him to be his; and therefore Christ ever looked on himself to be theirs, and they his; and Christ looked on himself to be so much theirs, that he as it were spent himself for them. When he was on the earth, he had, in the eternal covenant of redemption, given his life to them, and so looked upon it as theirs, and laid it down for them when their good required it; he looked on his blood as theirs, and so spilt it for them when it was needed for their happiness; he looked on his flesh as theirs, and so gave it or their life. John 6:51. “The bread I will give is my flesh.” His heart was theirs; he had given it to them in the eternal covenant, and therefore he yielded it up to be broken for them, and to spill out his heart’s blood for them, being pierced by the wrath of God for their sins. He looked on his soul to be theirs, and therefore he poured out his soul unto death, and made his soul an offering for their sins.

Thus he from eternity gave himself to them, and looked on them as having so great a propriety in him as amounted to his thus spending and being spent for them. And as he gave himself to them from eternity, so he is theirs to eternity; the right they have to him is an everlasting right; he is theirs, and will be for ever theirs. Now what greater ground can there be for believers to come boldly to Christ, and use the utmost liberty in access to him, and enjoyment of him? Will it argue Christ to be theirs in a higher degree, for them to be admitted to the most perfectly intimate, free, and full enjoyment of Christ, than for him so to be as it were perfectly spent for them, and utterly consumed in such extreme sufferings, and in the furnace of God’s wrath.

Again: If his enemies -were admitted to be so free with Christ in persecuting and afflicting; if Christ, as it were, yielded himself wholly into their hands to be mocked and spit upon, and that they might be as hold as they would in deriding and trampling on him, and might execute their utmost malice and cruelty to make way for his friends’ enjoyment of him; doubtless his friends, for whom this was done, will be allowed to be as free with him in enjoying of him: he will yield himself as freely up to his friends to enjoy him, as he did to be abused by his enemies, seeing the former was the end of the latter. Christ will surely give himself as much to his saints as he has given himself for them.

He whose arms were expanded to suffer, to be nailed to the cross, will doubtless be opened as wide to embrace those for whom he suffered. He whose side, whose vitals, whose heart was opened to the spear of his enemies, to give access to their malice and cruelty, and to let out his blood, will doubtless be opened to admit the love of his saints. They may freely come even ‘ad intima Christi’, whence the blood hath issued for them, the blood hath made way for them.

God and Christ, who have begrudged nothing as too great to be done, too good to be given, as the means of the saints’ enjoyment of happiness, will not begrudge any thing in the enjoyment itself.

The awful majesty of God now will not be in the way to hinder perfect freedom and intimacy in the enjoyment of God, any more than if God were our equal; because that majesty has already been fully displayed, vindicated, and glorified in Christ’s blood: all that the honour of God’s awful majesty requires, is abundantly answered already, by so great sufferings of so great a person. A sense of those wonderful sufferings of Christ for their sins will be ever fixed in their minds, and a sense of their dependence on those sufferings as the means of their obtaining that happiness. Sufficient care is taken in the method of salvation, that all, that have the benefit of Christ’s salvation, and the comforts and joys of it, should have them sensibly on that foundation, that with their joys and comforts they should have a sense of their dependence on those sufferings and their validity, and that comforts should arise on the foundation of such a sense; and as God began to bestow comforts in this way here, so he will go on in heaven, for the joy and glory of heaven shall be enjoyed as in Christ, as the members of the Lamb slain, and the divine love and glory shall be manifested through him; and the sense they will have of this, together with a continued sight of the punishment of affronting this majesty in those who were of the same nature and circumstances with themselves, will be sufficient to keep up a due sense of the infinite awful majesty of God, without their being kept at a distance; even though all possible nearness and liberty should be allowed. All the ends of divine majesty are already answered fully and perfectly, so as to prepare the way for the most perfect union and communion with out the least injury to the honour of that majesty.

Though it might seem that an admission to such a kind of fellowship with God perhaps could not be, without God’s own suffering; yet when Jesus Christ, a divine person, united to our nature, has been slain, way is made for it, seeing that he has been dead: the veil is rent from the top to the bottom by the death of Christ; nothing of awful distance towards the believer can now be of any use, the way is all open to the boldest and nearest access, and he that was dead and alive again is ours fully and freely to enjoy.

Again: We may further argue from the misery of the damned, as God will have no manner of regard to the welfare of the damned, will have no pity, no merciful care, lest they should be too miserable; they will be perfectly lost and thrown away by God as to any manner of care for their good, or defence from any degree of misery; there will be no merciful restraint to God’s wrath; so on the contrary with respect to the saints, there will be no happiness too much for them; God will not begrudge any thing as too good for them; there will be no restraint to his love, no restraint to their enjoyment of himself; nothing will be too full, too inward and intimate for them to be admitted to, but Christ will say to his saints, as in Song of Solomon 5:I, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundance, O beloved.”

Corol. I. Humiliation. Hence we may see a reason why humiliation should be required, in order to a title to those benefits; and why such abundant love has been exercised in all God’s dispensations with fallen man to make provision for man’s humiliation and self-diffidence, and self-emptiness; why it is so ordered and contrived that it should not be by our own righteousness, but altogether by the righteousness of another, viz, that there might be the more effectual provision to keep the creature humble, and in the place of a creature in such exceeding exaltation, and that the honour of God’s majesty and exaltation above the creature might in all be maintained; and how needful it is to believe those truths, and how far those doctrines are fundamental or important that tend to this; and how much they militate against the design and drift of God in the contrivance for our redemption, that maintain contrary doctrines.

Corol. II. Hence we may learn that a believer has more to be free and bold in his access to Christ than to any other person in heaven or earth. The papists worship angels and saints as intercessors between Christ and them; because they say it is too much boldness to go to Christ, without some one to intercede for them; but we have far more to imbolden and encourage us to go freely and immediately to Christ, than we can have to any of the angels. The angels are none of them so near to us as Christ is; we have not that propriety in them: yea, we have a great deal more to encourage and invite us to freedom of access to, and communion with, Christ, than with a fellow-worm. There is not the thousandth part of that to draw us to freedom and nearness towards them, as there is towards Christ. Yea, though Christ is so much above us, yet he is nearer to us than the saints themselves, for our nearness to them is by him; our relation to them is through him. [743] New heavens and new earth — Consummation of all things — Heaven. The place of God’s eternal residence, and the place of the everlasting residence and reign of Christ, and his church, will be heaven; and not this lower world, purified and refined. Heaven is every where in Scripture represented as the throne of God, and that part of the universe that is God’s fixed abode, and dwelling-place, and that is everlastingly appropriated to that use. Other places are mentioned in Scripture as being places of God’s residence for a time, as mount Sinai, and the land of Canaan, the temple, the holy of holies; but yet God is represented as having dwelt in heaven before he dwelt in those places. Genesis 19:24. Exodus 3:8. Job 22:12-14. Genesis 28:12. And when God is spoken of as dwelling in those places, he is represented as coming down out of heaven. So he is represented as coming on mount Sinai. Genesis 19:11. ver. 18. ver. 20.

Exodus 20:22. Deuteronomy 4:36. Nehemiah 9:13. So he is represented as coming to the temple. 2 Chronicles 7:3. So when the cloud of glory first came on the tabernacle, Exodus ult . 34. it doubtless was the same cloud that till then abode on mount Sinai; but God had first descended from heaven on mount Sinai, and while God did dwell in the tabernacle and temple, he was represented as still dwelling in heaven, as being still his original, proper, and everlasting dwelling-place, and dwelling in the temple and tabernacle in a far inferior manner. 1 Kings 8:30. “ When they shall pray towards this place, then hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling-place.” So verses 32, 34, 36, 39, 43, 45, 49. Psalm 11:4. “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven.” Deuteronomy 33:26. “There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rideth on the heavens in thine help, and in his excellency on the sky.” Psalm 20:6. “Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed: he will hear him from his holy heaven.” Deuteronomy 26:15. Isaiah 63:15. Lamentations 3:50. 1 Chronicles 21:26. 2 Chronicles 6:21. 23, 27, 30. and chap. 7:14. Nehemiah 9:27,28. Psalm 14:2. and 53:2.

Psalm 23:13,14. “The Lord looketh from heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of men from the place of his habitation, he booketh on all the inhabitants of the earth.” Psalm 57:3. 76:8. 80:14. 102:19. “For he hath looked from the height of his sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth.”

Ecclesiastes 5:2. God is in heaven, and thou on the earth.” 2 Kings 2:1. “would take up Elijah into heaven,” and so we have an account how he was taken up, ver. 11. 2 Chronicles 30:27. Psalm 68:4. 33. 123:1. “Unto thee lift I up mine eves, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.” Psalm 115:2,3. “Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he pleased.” Lamentations 3:41. 2 Chronicles 20:19. Job 31:2. Psalm 113:5. Isaiah 33:5. Jeremiah 25:30.

Isaiah 57:15.

The manner in which God dwells in heaven is so much superior to that wherein he dwells on earth, that heaven is said to be God’s throne, and the earth his footstool; Isaiah 66:1. “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?”

The holy places on earth, where God is represented as dwelling, are called his footstool. Lamentations 2:1. “And remembered his footstool in the day of his anger;” 1 Chronicles 28:2.” As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building;” Psalm 132:7. “We shall go into his tabernacle, we will worship at his footstool.” God’s sanctuary is called the place of his feet. Isaiah 60:13. “To beautify the place of my sanctuary, and to make the lace of my feet glorious.” The inferior manner in which God we dwelt in the Jewish sanctuary, was expressed by this, that God placed his name there. Earthly holy places, which were called God’s house, or the place of his habitation, were so in such a manner, and a manner so inferior to that in which heaven is God’s house, that they are represented as only outworks or gates of heaven. “This is none other but the house of God, this is the gate of heaven.” (Genesis 28:17.)

Yea, though God is represented as dwelling in those earthly holy places, yet he was so far from dwelling in them as he does in heaven, that when he appeared in them from time to time, he is represented as then coming from heaven to them, as though heaven were his fixed abode, and not mount Sinai; and the tabernacle and the temple, places into which he would occasionally turn aside and appear. Thus God is said to have descended in a cloud, and appeared to Moses when he passed by him and proclaimed his name, though he had be ore that from time to time appeared there as in the mount of God, and though Moses had at that time been long conversing with God in the mount. Exodus 34:5. And so God descended from time to time on the tabernacle. Numbers 11:25. and 12:5. Heaven is always represented as the proper and fixed abode of God, and other dwellingplaces but as occasional abodes. When the wise man speaks of worshipping God in his house, he at the same time would have those that worship him there be sensible that he is in heaven, and not on the earth: Ecclesiastes 5:1,2. “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God-Let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth.”

So God, when he withdrew from the land of Israel, is spoken of as returning to heaven; which is called his place, as though the hand of Israel were not his place, Hosea 5:15. “I will go and return to my place.” And God is spoken of as being in heaven in the time of the captivity, as he is in the prophecy of Daniel, Daniel 4:37. Daniel 5:23. and in Daniel’s vision, Daniel 4:13,23,31.

And heaven is also in the New Testament every where represented as the place of God’s abode. Christ tells us that it is God’s throne, Matthew 5:34.

This we are taught in the New Testament to look on as God’s temple, after all that was legal and ceremonial concerning holy times and holy places ceased. Acts 7:48,49. “ Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool, what house will ye build me saith the Lord, and where is the place of my rest?” This is the true temple and the true holy of holies, as it is represented in the epistle to the Hebrews. Heaven is the place whence Christ descended, and it is the place whither he ascended. It was the place whence the Holy Ghost descended on Christ, and whence the voice came, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; and is the place whence the Holy Ghost was poured out at Pentecost: and whatever is from God is said to be from heaven, Matthew 16:1. Mark 8:11. Luke 11:16. Matthew 21:25. Luke 9:54. Luke 21:11. John 3:27. John 6:31. Acts 9:3. and 11:5, 9’ Romans 1:18. 1 Corinthians 15:47. I Peter 1:12. Hebrews 12:25. Revelation 3:12. and other places. The angels are spoken of as coming from heaven from time to time, in the New Testament; and visions of God are represented by heaven’s being opened and prayer and divine worship are enjoined under the New Testament to be directed to heaven, We are to pray to our Father which is in heaven, which appellation is very often given to God in the New Testament. So we are to lift up our eyes and hands to heaven in our prayers. And heaven is every where in the New Testament spoken of as the place of God and Christ, and the angels, and the place of blessedness; and all good whatever of a divine nature, is called heavenly; and heaven is always spoken of as the proper country of the saints, the appointed place of all that is holy and happy.

Whenever God comes out of heaven into this world, he is represented as bowing the heavens: intimating that heaven is so much the proper place of God’s abode, that it is something very great and extraordinary for him to manifest himself as he is pleased to do in this world among his people; that heaven, the proper place of his abode, is, at it were, rent, or bowed, and brought down in part to the earth to make way for it, 2 Samuel 22:10.

Psalm 18:9. Psalm 144:5. Isaiah 64:1. God is called the God of heaven, the Lord of heaven, the King of heaven, Daniel 5:23. 4:37. 2:44.

Heaven is so much the proper place of God’s abode, that, by a metonomy, heaven is put for God himself. 2 Chronicles 32:20. “And for this cause, Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, prayed, and cried to heaven;” Psalm 73:9. “ They set their mouth against the heavens;” and when any thing is spoken of in Scripture as being from heaven, the same is to he understood as to be from God; thus the prodigal says, “ I have sinned against heaven,” i.e. against God, Luke 15:21.

Heaven is a part of the universe which God in the first creation, and the disposition of things that was made in the beginning, appropriated to himself, to be that part of the universe that should be his residence, while other parts were destined to other uses. Psalm 115:15. 16. “ You are blessed of the Lord, who hath made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s, but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” God having taken this part of the universe for his dwelling-place in the beginning of the creation, he will retain it as long as the creation lasts.

When man was in a state of innocency, before the world was polluted and brought into the perfect state of confusion, God was in heaven. Heaven was God’s dwelling-place, for the angels fell from thence: we read that when they fell God cast them down from heaven. And therefore, whenpolluted, confused state of the world is at an end, and elect men shall be perfectly restored from the fall to another state of innocency, and perfect happiness after the resurrection, heaven will also then be the place of God’s abode.

This lower world in its beginning came from God in heaven. He dwelt in heaven when he made it, and brought it out of its chaos into its present form; as is evident, because we are told that when God did this, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God, i.e. the angels, shouted for joy. Without doubt the habitation of the angels was from the beginning that high and holy place where God dwells, and their habitation was heaven in the time of the creation, because those that fell were cast down from thence. But if the lower world in its beginning was from God in heaven, without doubt in its end it will return thither: as he dwelt in heaven before, and when he made it and brought it out of its chaos into its present form, so he will dwell in heaven when and after it is destroyed and reduced to a chaos again.

Heaven is that throne where God sits in his dominion, not only over some particular parts of the universe, as the mercy-seat in the temple, but it is the throne of his universal kingdom. Psalm 103:19. “The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all,” i.e. over all his works, or all that he hath made; which appears by verse 22.” Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion.” Because it is the throne in which God rules over the whole universe, therefore it is the uppermost part of the universe as above all; and it is evident that the heaven where God dwells is far above those lower heavens; it is said to be far above all heavens. And as it is the throne of his universal kingdom, so it is the throne of his everlasting kingdom, as he here reigns by a dominion that is universal with respect to the extent of it. The psalmist in this same place is speaking of things that are the fruits of God’s everlasting dominion, especially his everlasting mercy to his people, (which mercy will be especially manifested after the day of judgment,) as in the words immediately preceding in the two foregoing verses, “But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,” etc. The word here translated prepared, also signifies established, having respect to its firmness and durableness, It is fit, as God’s kingdom is everlasting so the throne of that kingdom should be everlasting, and never should be changed, for that which moves is ready to vanish away. The everlastingness of God’s kingdom is signified by the same word in the original that in the place now mentioned is translated prepared. Psalm 93:2. “Thy throne is established of old, thou art from everlasting,” together with the context.

If God should change the place of his abode and his throne from heaven to some other part of the universe, then that which has hitherto been God’s chief throne, and his metropolis, his royal city, must either be destroyed, or put to a so much meaner use, and be deprived of so much of its glory, as would be equivalent to a destruction; which is not a seemly thing for the chief city, palace, and throne of the eternal King, whose royal throne never shall be destroyed. Psalm 45:6. “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.”

This heaven, that is so often spoken of as the place of God’s proper and settled abode, is a local heaven, a particular place or part of the universe, and the highest or outermost part of it, because it is said to be the heaven of heavens; it is the place where the body of Christ is ascended, which is said to be far above all heavens, and is called the third heaven.

Is it likely that God should change the place of his eternal abode, and remove, and come and dwell in another p art of the universe; or that he should gather men and bring them home to himself, as to their great end and centre, whither all things should tend, and in which all should rest?

It is fit that an immutable being, and he who has an everlasting and unchangeable dominion, should not move the p lace of his throne.

The apostle John, even when he is giving a description of the state of the church after the resurrection, represents the place of God’s abode as being then in heaven, for he says he saw the new Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven.

The dwelling-place of the saints is said to be eternal in the heavens; Corinthians 5:1. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

If any say that this earth will be heaven after the day of judgment, is it not as easy to say that, after the resurrection, heaven will be the new earth? is there any more force upon words one way than the other?

The natural images and representations of things seem to represent heaven to be the place of light, happiness, and glory; such as the serenity and brightness of the visible heavens, of which I have spoken elsewhere.

It is an argument, that this globe we now dwell upon is not to be refined to be the place of God’s everlasting abode, because it is a movable globe, and must continue moving always, if the laws of nature are upheld. It being so small, it cannot remain and subsist distinct among the neighbouring parts of the universe without motion; but it is not seemly that God’s eternal glorious abode, and fixed and everlasting throne, should be a movable part of the universe.

As heaven will be everlastingly the place of God’s chief, highest, and most glorious abode; so without doubt it will be the place of Christ’s everlasting residence, and therefore the place whither he will return after the day of judgment. He who has had the honour and glory of dwelling in this glorious abode of God hitherto, will not have his honour diminished after he has completed all his work as God’s officer, by then dwelling in a place far separated from God’s dwelling-place. If he returned in triumph to heaven, entering into the royal city after his first victory in his terrible conflict under sufferings, much more shall he return thither after his more perfect and complete victory, when all his enemies shall be put under his feet after the day of judgment. And if Christ, after the day of judgment, returns to heaven to dwell, doubtless all his saints shall go there with him; hew ill invite them to come with him and inherit the kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the world.

The place of both Christ and his church, their everlasting residence, will be heaven: when Christ comes forth at the day of judgment with the armies of heaven, the saints and angels attending him, it will be as it were on a white horse going forth to a glorious victory. And as the Roman generals after their victories returned in triumph to Rome, the metropolis of the empire, delivering up their power to them that sent them forth; so will Christ return in triumph to heaven, all his armies following him, and shall there deliver up his delegated authority to the Father. As Christ returned to heaven after his first victory, after the resurrection of his natural body, so he will return thither again after his second victory, after the resurrection of his mystical body. [745] New heavens and new earth. It is manifest that the world of the blessed, that is, the new world, or the new heavens and earth, or the next world that is to succeed this as the habitation of the church, is heaven, is the same world that is now the habitation of the angels. For heaven, or the world of the angels, is called the world that is to come. Ephesians 1:20-22. “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet.” Heaven, the habitation of principalities and powers, is that which is here called the world to come, as being the world that was to succeed this, as the habitation of the church. It cannot be understood in any other sense, or merely that Christ was to be at the head of things in the new world when it did exist; but it speaks of what is already done and was done at Christ’s ascension, a past effect of God’s mighty power, according to the working of the exceeding greatness if his power which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. [775] Happiness of separate saints. The proper time of Christ’s reward is not till after the end of the world, for he will not have finished the work of Mediator till then; but yet he has glorious rewards in heaven before. The proper time of the angels’ reward is not till the end of the world; and their work of attending on, and ministering to, Christ in his humbled militant state, both in himself and members, or body mystical, is not finished till then; but yet they are confirmed before, and have an exceeding reward before. The proper time of the saints’ reward is not in this world, nor is their work, their hard labour, trial, and sufferings, finished till death; but yet they are confirmed as soon as they believe, and have an earnest of their future inheritance, the first-fruits of the Spirit, now. And so, though the proper time of judgment and reward of all elect creatures is not till the end of the world, yet the saints have glorious rewards in heaven immediately after death. [889] Heaven-the eternal abode of the church. The house not made with hands is eternal in the heavens; but, if the saints’ abode in heaven be temporary as well as their abode on earth, it would not be said so; their house there would be but a tabernacle as well as here. By the house eternal in the heavens, it is evident there is some respect had to the resurrection body, which proves that the place of the abode of the saints after the resurrection will be in heaven, as well as before.

If the saints were only to stay in heaven till the resurrection, then they would be pilgrims and strangers in heaven, as well as on earth, and the country that the saints of old declared plainly that they sought, though they were in possession of the earthly Canaan, will be but a temporary Canaan, as well as the earth; and in some respects more so, because the earth is to be their eternal abode, (though changed,) and not heaven.

We are directed to lay up treasure in heaven, as in a safe place, where it will be subject to no change or remove. The names of the saints are written or enrolled in heaven, and they have their citizenship in heaven, as being their proper fixed abode where they belong, and where they are to be settled. The inheritance incorruptible, is reserved in heaven for the saints, and they are kept by the power of God to this salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, or at the day of judgment. So that the inheritance in heaven is the saints’ proper, incorruptible, and everlasting inheritance; and the saints shall be so far from changing the place of their abode in heaven for an abode on a renewed earth at the day of judgment, that this is the proper time of the church’s being translated to this incorruptible inheritance in heaven, and the whole army of Israel’s passing Jordan to that inheritance; for that is the last time wherein this salvation shall be revealed.

The Lord from heaven does not come to give his elect the country of the earthly Adam only renewed to the paradisiacal state wherein the earthly Adam enjoyed it; Colossians 1:5. “For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.”

The proper time of the reward of the saints is after the resurrection, as is evident by Luke 14:14. “But thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just;” and the proper place of that reward is heaven, as is evident by Matthew 5:12. “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven;” Hebrews 10:34. “Ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance;” and the time, when the apostle encourages them that they shall receive this enduring substance in heaven, is when Christ comes to judgment, as is evident by the three following verses.

Christ is entered into the holiest of all, and is set down for ever on the right hand of God in heaven, and therefore will not eternally leave heaven to dwell in this lower world in a renewed state.

Christ ascended into heaven as the forerunner of the church; and therefore the whole church shall enter there, even that part that shall be found alive at the day of judgment. Christ entered into heaven with his risen and glorified body, as an earnest of the same resurrection and ascension to the bodies of the saints; therefore, when the bodies of the saints shall rise, they shall also ascend into heaven. See No. 743. 1184. [917] Saints in heaven acquainted with what is done on earth. That the blessed inhabitants of heaven are very much occupied in observing gospel wonders done on earth, and that their blessedness in seeing God consists very much in beholding his glory as displayed in those wonders, is manifest not only by the book of Revelation, but many other passages of Scripture; as Psalm 89. which treats of these wonders; ver. 5. “And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, 0 Lord; thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints;” and Psalm 19:1,2. considering the subject of the psalm, see Psalm 149:5, to the end, with Notes on verses 5 and 9. See Matthew 19:29. Mark 10:30. Luke 18:29. [952] New heavens and new earth-Consummation of all things-Progress of’ the work if redemption. Heaven shall be chanced and exalted to higher glory at the end of the world. The creation consists of two parts, upper and lower. Thus we read of the worlds, in the plural number, that were made in the creation, Hebrews 1:2. which the apostle in the next chapter distinguishes into two, viz. this world, and the world to come, ver. 5. as also Ephesians 1:21. The upper world is said to be the world to come, both because it is future to us in this world, and also because the whole elect church it is to succeed this world when this is destroyed, and also on another account, that we will observe by and by. The one of these worlds God hath made for his own Son, and for his attendants, and ministers, the angels; and the other for man. “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s, but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” (Psalm 155:16.)

According to the two different kinds of intelligent creatures that God hath made, angels and men, there are two worlds. The one is corruptible, but the other incorruptible; the one is that which can be shaken, the other that which cannot be shaken, but shall remain to all eternity. But yet both in their own nature are mutable; and that heaven is incorruptible, is by the divine will and grace, and not necessarily from the nature of heaven. If the angelic nature, the highest and most excellent part of heaven, is corruptible, or liable to be shaken and destroyed, as appears by the event; doubtless the place, what is inanimate in heaven, is in its own nature capable of destruction. Heaven is not unalterable in its own nature, so but that it may be exalted. That part of the universe that is capable of ruin is not so unalterable in its own nature, but that it may be brought to a higher excellency; but the highest heavens in their own nature are capable of ruin in the highest and most excellent part of it, in the head of all that part of the creation, and so of the whole creation, viz. Lucifer.

God only is incorruptible in his own nature. The one of these worlds is to fall and be ruined, and is to be the eternal seat of those creatures that fall and are ruined; the other is to stand, and to be exalted and brought to higher excellency, perfection, and glory, and is to be the seat of those creatures that stand, and are brought to higher excellency. As all the intelligent creatures that God hath made the inhabitants of the universe, all the spiritual world, (which is the chief part of the universe, and instar totius,) is mutable and is to be changed, either by suffering ruin, or by being exalted to a vastly higher perfection; so is the whole universe itself (the habitation, the inferior and inanimate part of the universe) all of it mutable, and all to be changed, either by suffering ruin, or being gloriously exalted in excellency. This universal change shall be at the end of the world, or immediately after the day of judgment. Then shall be the change on the inhabitants: some shall perish, and others shall he exalted to an immensely higher degree of excellency and glory. And so shall it then be with the two worlds: this lower world, that is to be the place of those that perish, shall be destroyed by fire; the upper world, that is to be the seat of the elect, shall be exalted exceedingly in its nature. And this is the new creation, so far as that respects the external and inanimate universe. This will be the external new heavens, and new earth; as there are two spiritual worlds, the elect and the reprobate, so there are two natural worlds, that are to be the everlasting external seats or places of those spiritual worlds.

And as it is to be with those spiritual worlds themselves, that one will be destroyed as in a spiritual furnace of fire, and the other will be exalted to a state of excellency and glory, vastly greater than their original excellency; as even the angels, the original inhabitants of heaven, will be; so there is no reason to think but that it will be likewise with the two external worlds, which they have relation to.

When God created this lower world, he made different orders or ranks of creatures, of which the lower creation is constituted, of which man is the most noble and excellent; and so when God made the upper world, he made different p arts, of which the angelical nature is the most noble and exalted, and those parts which constitute the habitation are inferior. Surely, therefore, the angels, the highest part of the upper creation, will he changed and exceedingly exalted iii the glory in which they shine (as doubtless they will be in some proportion to the great and vast alteration that will be made in the glory of the saints, seeing the day of judgment is the proper time of the reward of the angels as well as saints), There is no reason to think that the inferior parts will not also be proportionally exalted.

God built heaven chiefly for an habitation for Christ, his dear Son, and the angels themselves are made for him, and are as it were only parts of his house, or habitation; as it is said of the church in Hebrews 3:6. All that is in heaven is a habitation for God’s beloved Son; the angels are only the more noble and excellent parts of the structure, the chief ornaments of the building. The inanimate parts of heaven are to the angels a habitation; but the intelligent parts of it are to Christ a habitation. As they are called his chariots, the seat on which he rides, so they are his throne, the seat on which he reigns. As the throne is the noblest part of the palace, and as God built the whole of the upper world to be a habitation for his dear Son; so when the time comes that God shall reward his Son for his perfect and great obedience, and finishing his great work appointed him to do, when the work he was appointed to in his office is all finished at the end of the world, and the time comes for him to receive his full reward, to be glorified with his complete and highest glory in the head and all his members, and all enter into heaven together at Christ’s last and greatest ascension thither; the house shall be garnished and beautified exceedingly, to make it fit for his reception in this his highest glory, as it shall be so with the glorious angels who are his chariot, in which he shall ascend, (they shall ascend in far greater glory than they descended, because they shall have received the glory that is their reward,) and who will be his throne when he is come thither, and the chief and most noble parts of the building. I say, as they will be as it were made new, appearing in new glory, so will it be with all the inferior parts of the habitation. . The house shall be garnished to prepare it for the glorious bridegroom, who shall enter into it with his blessed bride in her complete and perfect beauty, when they shall enter into heaven to celebrate the solemnity, and to partake of the glorious entertainments and joys, of an eternal wedding; as when king Ahasuerus made a great feast, wherein he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty; and, to show the beauty of his queen, the palace was exceedingly adorned on that occasion. Ephesiansi.6.

There is nothing in the Scripture that in the least intimates the external heaven or paradise to be unchangeable, and not capable of being perfected and exalted to higher glory, There is nothing so but the divine nature itself; and it is too much honour to any created thing to suppose it to be so perfect, that no occasion whatsoever, even the reward of the infinite merits of the infinitely beloved Son of God himself, is occasion great enough for allowing of it, or that shall render it fit and proper, that it be yet further adorned. The only heaven that is unalterable, is the state of God’s own infinite and unchangeable glory; the heaven which God dwelt in from all eternity, which is absolutely of infinite height and infinite glory, and which might metaphorically be represented as the heaven that was the eternal abode of the blessed Trinity, and of the happiness and glory they have one in another; which is a heaven that is uncreated, and the heaven from whence God infinitely stoops to behold the things done in the created paradise; and of which, that which we conceive of as the infinite and unchangeable expanse of space, that is above and beyond the whole universe, and encompasses the whole, is the shadow, This is what is meant, Isaiah 57:15. (See Notes in hoc.)

It is true the things of the highest heavens are things that cannot be shaken, but shall remain through divine grace. Heaven is God’s throne, and his throne is established for ever, and therefore shall be for ever and ever, and the saints shall receive a kingdom that cannot be moved. Hebrews 12:28.

Heaven is a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God; it is a house not made with hands, and so eternal, This is an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. What is reserved in heaven is represented in Scripture as far above the reach of all the changes of time that should injure it, and the doors of the palace are everlasting doors. Psalm 24. But none of these things argue heaven to be in any other respect unchangeable, than only as being above all changes that might destroy it, or mar it, or in any respect fade its glory, or bring it into any danger of those things. Heaven is no otherwise out of the reach of change than the precious jewels and treasures that are there kept are so, as the angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, and the man Christ Jesus, the most precious and brightest jewel that God has made, the first-born of every creature, the crown and glory of heaven and men, the sun of that world of light; but yet all these are susceptive of change in this respect, that they will be exalted to vastly higher glory. Christ’s glory after the day of judgment will be greater than before, as the devil that has managed the war against him shall then be punished for all the mischief that he has done. So Christ, God’s General, the Captain that he hath sent forth in this great war against his enemies, when he shall have fully conquered and put down all authority and power, having come forth out of heaven to that end with all his hosts, and has so gloriously finished all the work that his Father gave him a commission for, shall be exceedingly rewarded and glorified, When he shall return with the victory in every respect perfect, he shall enter the city with great triumph to receive a great reward from the Supreme Authority of the city. if Christ God man, the King of heaven, and its most bright and precious jewel, the first-born of every creature, the head and crown, ornament and glory of heaven, and its bright and only luminary, the Sun of heaven, whose glory and sweetness is the fullness, and glory, and happiness of all that world; who is the Alpha and Omega of all that is there, and the sum of all; I say, if he shall be exalted in glory, why not the place, the external habitation that is the lowest part of that world? The habitation has not the honour of being immutable and immovable in a higher sense than this King and end and glory of heaven himself is. The man Christ Jesus becomes immortal and eternal at his resurrection, but yet that was no impediment in the way of his being, as it were, further glorified, as it were, in infinitely higher degrees, as in his first and second ascension. That the highest heavens pass under such a change at the end of the world, is no argument that it is with that as it is with the visible heavens that wax old as a garment; any more than the change on the body of Christ at his ascension, or on the bodies of Enoch and Ehias, and on the bodies of those that arose with Christ, is an argument of the like waxing old.

If the highest heaven might be as it were bowed and rent, (though it be the throne of God,) that the eternal Son of God might come down on the earth, to be the subject of his humiliation; doubtless it is as capable of being adorned and made higher and higher on occasion of his glorification.

The external heavens, and the human nature of Christ, are the external house and temple of God in different senses; but the human nature, or body, of Christ, including both the head and the members, — including his human nature with his church,-is the house and temple of God in the highest sense. This is immensely the most noble temple of God. But if this, which is the palace of God in so much the highest sense, will pass under a glorious change; why should not the external house, which is the temple of God in a much inferior sense, and which indeed is to be but a house for this house, pass under a glorious change? If the inner temple, the highest and most holy part of the temple, shall be so much exalted, why may we not suppose that the external temple, the outer courts, or the outermost curtains of the tabernacle, be changed and made proportionally more beautiful?

Christ mystical, or Christ and his church, and the external heaven, are the city of God, or the new Jerusalem, in different senses: but the former in vastly the highest and noblest manner. But if the city of God, or the new Jerusalem, that which is called so in the highest sense, shall be so exalted and adorned with new glory at the head of the universe; why not that external new Jerusalem, that is as much inferior to the other as the body is to the soul? If the soul shall be glorified and made better, why not the body? if the body, why not the garment? if the inhabitants, why not the house?

The body of Christ is the dwelling-place of his soul; and therefore when God the Father glorified the soul of Christ, he also glorified his body, because he judged it meet that the alteration in the house should be answerable to the alteration in the inhabitant. And so, for the same reason, the bodies of the saints shall be glorified as well as their souls; and there is just the same reason why heaven, the house of Christ, and the house of his saints, or in one word, the house of Christ mystical, should be exalted to higher glory at the same time that Christ mystical himself, the inhabitant, is exalted to higher glory.

The church is Christ’s temple: Christ is spoken of as dwelling in the saints.

This temple of Christ, the new Jerusalem, shall, at the end of the world, when Christ comes to receive his full reward, be exceedingly adorned, to fit it for Christ’s indwelling; as we see by Revelation 21:2. And why shall not the other temple of Christ, that which is so in an inferior sense, be proportionally adorned at the same time? Is it not rational to suppose that the whole tabernacle shall be proportionally adorned and beautified; the outer curtains proportionally with the inward curtains of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen?

The infinitely glorious and beloved Son of God’s shedding his blood, and enduring those extreme sufferings in obedience to his Father’s will, was a thing great enough to obtain this, even that the very heaven of heavens should be made new, with new glory for him; it was great enough to lay the foundation for an universal refreshing, renewing, or new creation, of all elect things, that all things both spiritual and external should be immensely exalted in perfection, beauty, and glory.

It seems impossible that it should be otherwise than that all heaven should put on new glory at the same time that Christ put on new glory; all must be allowed proportion, for Christ is the glory of heaven, the beauty and ornament, the life and soul, of all; and there is no glory there, but only the reflection of his glory, and the emanation of his brightness and life, and the diffusion of his sweetness. Every manner of beauty or excellency there, is immediately dependent on him: there is no shining or lustre, no fineness or purity, no vivacity or pleasantness, in any thing there, but it is in such a manner dependent on him, as appear to be immediately, every moment, from him, as a kind of diffusion of his glory and sweetness on every thing, and into and through every thing; so that the most inward nature of every thing there receives all excellency, and all purity, and preciousness, and sweetness from him immediately. In heaven, Christ appears and acts most visibly and sensibly as the Creator, and Life, and Soul, and Fountain of all being and perfection, and he of whom and through whom all things are, and by whom all immediately consist. Thus the glory of the latter house will in every respect be greater than the glory of the former house, because Jehovah, the angel of the covenant, shall come into his temple, and fill the house with his glory. Christ’s appearing in glory will be that which will glorify the bodies of his saints, as though it was an immediate visible communication of his glory and life to them, as from the head to the members. Nothing but his presence in so great glory effects the thing; and so will it be with respect to every thing else that is external in heaven.

Thus as the face of the earth rejoices at the return of the sun in the spring, and there is a great alteration in it, it puts on new beautiful garments of joy, and gladness, and welcomes the sun; and its renewed beauty is from the sun, from his diffused glory, and sweet vivifying influence, in which all the face of the earth rejoices; so it will be in heaven when Christ returns thither in his highest glory after the day of judgment, all heaven will rejoice, and put on new life, new beauty, and glory, to welcome him thither. [1122] Heaven perfected. The external heaven surrounds Christ, not merely as a house surrounds an inhabitant, or as a palace surrounds a prince; but rather as plants and flowers are before the sun, that have their life and beauty and being from that luminary; or as the sun may be encompassed round with reflections of his brightness, as the cloud of glory in mount Sinai surrounded Christ there. [11261 Heaven perfected, after the day of judgment. Solomon’s temple was a great type of heaven; and the prophet Haggai foretells that the glory of the latter temple shall be greater than that of the former, because that the Messiah, “the desire of all nations,” should come into it; Haggai 2:6,7,8. “For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of the latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.” I suppose that what was here foretold concerning that typical temple, was fulfilled much more properly and am ply concerning heaven itself, when the Messiah entered into it at his first ascension; and will be fulfilled to a much more glorious degree still at his second ascension, at Christ’s entrance into that heavenly temple, with his glorified and complete mystical body, as well as his natural body, after God has in a literal manner shaken the heavens, and the earth, the sea, and the dry land, and shaken all nations.

The beautifying and adorning the temple of Jerusalem so exceedingly but a little before Christ came into it, seems to be some shadow of this; and I believe was intended as a type of it; though not parallel in every circumstance, as the beautifying of it not being at the very instant of Christ’s first entering into the temple, and some other circumstances. This seems also to be typified by the immensely more glorious abode that the ark had in Solomon’s time than that which it had in David’s time. The carrying up of the ark into mount Zion in David’s time, was a type of Christ’s first ascension into heaven, as is evident from Scripture; and the carrying of it up into mount Moriah, into Solomon’s glorious temple, is a type of his second more glorious ascension into a more glorious is abode at the end of the world. David’s militant reign till all the enemies of Israel were subdued under them, was a type of Christ’s present reign in heaven, over his church till the resurrection, which is a militant reign; for till the end of the world he goes on fighting, and will continue so to do till all enemies are made is footstool. As yet we see not all things put under him, and the last enemy that shall be conquered is death, which shall be at the end of the world. Solomon’s glorious reign in perfect peace and tranquillity, with all subdued under him, and settled in subjection to him, is a type of the reign of Christ after the end of the world: all enemies shall be subdued: and the place of the ark in his reign, in this glorious and most magnificent temple, was a type of the abode of Christ in heaven, in its advanced glory, at the consummation of all things. It is the same heaven, only sublimated and exalted to exceeding greater glory; which is typified by the mountain of the temple, being called by the same name after the ark was removed into it, that the place of its former abode was called by, viz, mount Zion; so that the ark is represented as never changing its place from mount Zion; and when it was carried into mount Zion, God said of it, “This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” Psalm 132:13,14.

There is a place somewhere in the universe, (perhaps in the central parts of the earth,) that is called hell but hell will be made immensely more terrible after the day of judgment, when instead of that fire in the centre of the earth, all the visible universe shall be turned into a great furnace: and probably heaven will be made as much more glorious, after the day of judgment, as hell will be made more terrible.

Thus the external new Jerusalem, or the glorious and eternal abode of the church of God; (which cannot be excluded from the description in the two last chapters in Revelations, because there is in the description often a distinction made between the city and the saints that are the inhabitants;) I say, thus the external new Jerusalem will come down from God out of heaven; i.e. heaven, in this new creation of it, shall come down from the infinitely high and uncreated heaven, in which God had dwelt from all eternity, from which God stoops and humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven.

Thus that will be fulfilled that is proclaimed in Revelation 21:5. “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.”

The whole creation, external and spiritual, shall be altered, and new formed; and thus the new creation will be parallel with the first creation that Moses gives us an account of, to which it is spoken of as parallel in Scripture; and all the elect creation, which is composed of all elect things in heaven and in earth, shall be gotten together in Christ, and all made new, both spiritual and external; all that appertains to the elect, not only elect spirits, but their external habitations: their bodies, that are the microcosm or their particular habitations; and the microcosm, that is, the general habitation. There shall be collected all that is elect in heaven or earth, being all perfectly purified by fire, and not mixed with the reprobate part of the world, and all shall be made new, and so is justly called “the new heaven and new earth.” There will be new angels and new men, new bodies and new spirits: things that are originally of the earth made new, and things originally of heaven also made new. Though the place of the church of Christ (for whose sake chiefly all heaven and earth is made) be different from what it was before; she dwells in another place, instead of that heaven and earth that was her habitation before; yet it is called by the same name, but only new, as the ark when it moved from Zion to mount Moriah carried the name with it, only it was a New Zion.

When God has obtained his end of the universe that he created in the beginning, when all things are brought to issue into their end at the consummation of all things, and God in the final event appears to be the\parOMEGA, as he was theALPHA; then God will show his mighty power a second time towards the whole: towards the reprobate part of the creation, in terribly destroying it; and towards the elect part, in bringing it to its highest perfection. The elect creatures, who are the eye and mouth of the creation, who are made to behold God’s works, and to give him the glory of them, did not behold the first creation. The angels did not behold the first creation of heaven, that most glorious part of the creation, nor did they see the creation of themselves; and men beheld no part of God’s work in producing the creation; but the time will come when God will make all things new by a new creation, wherein his power towards the whole will be much more displayed than in the first creation. When God shall effect this creation, men and angels shall see God perform it, they shall see God produce the new heaven and new earth by his mighty power. Men, who saw the creation of nothing in the first creation, shall see the creation of all, and even their own new creation; and angels shall see the creation of heaven and of themselves: all shall see that creation that shall be a work so much more wonderful, and so much greater than the former, that the former shall not be mentioned, nor come into mind.

Conflagration. Many suppose the fire of the conflagration will be a purifying fire, by which the heavens and the earth will be refined in order to their standing forth in new perfection and beauty. This is very true, yet not in the manner in which many seem to understand. It will indeed be the fire by which the whole universe shall be purified, i.e. by which it shall be purged from its reprobate parts; all the filthiness of the whole universe shall be gathered into it, there to be consumed. The reprobate part of heaven was removed out of it to be cast into this fire; the filthiness that once was there is consumed here, and so is all that is reprobate and filthy in the earth.

It is a purifying fire, as it is the fire of God’s justice and holiness; but the justice and holiness of God shall perfectly purify heaven and earth, and purge all the elect creation from all manner of defilement or mixture of that which is reprobate; whereby it will be fitted to be exalted to its highest beauty and glory, And not only so, but such a wonderful and terrible display of the holiness and justice of God, will be a great means of further sanctifying all the elect universe, setting them at a vastly greater distance from sin against this holy God, and’ a means of vastly exalting the purity and sanctity of their minds.

Many have supposed that the place of the residence of the saints after the day of judgment, would be different from what it is before; that the paradise in which the departed souls of saints are now, is different from the heaven into which they shall be admitted after the day of judgment; and that paradise is only a place of rest in which the saints are reserved till the judgment, when they shall be admitted into heaven, Here is a mixture of truth with error. It is true that the habitation of the saints, after the day of judgment, will be new and different, exceeding different, from what it was before, but not in that manner that has been supposed: not that the place or situation will be different, there is no need of that; but the habitation will be new created, and shall appear with quite new and transcendently more excellent glory.

It may be objected against what has been here supposed, that Christ, at the day of judgment, will invite his saints to “inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world;” as though it were the same heaven, that was made and prepared for them at the first creation, which they were now going to inherit.

Answer. It is the same house then built, not taken down, never shaken or removed, but only made more glorious; as they are the same angels of heaven that were made for the saints, from the foundation of the world, though they shall be so much more glorified that they will be as it were new creatures. As it will be with the angels of heaven, who are the principal part of the kingdom spoken of, so it will be with the external habitation: it was at the foundation of the world-the foundation of it was laid then, and has been preparing from the foundation of the world; from that time that the foundation of the world was laid, it has been preparing ever since, in all that has been done to it, and in it, and about it. And not only the kingdom is prepared from the foundation of the world in creating heaven, and in what has been done there from that time; but the creation of the whole universe was made to prepare a kingdom for them, to lay a foundation for their kingdom and dominion, and all that has been done in providence, ever since, has been to prepare a kingdom for them. And these words of Christ are a good argument, that the work of redemption is the end and sum of all God’s works. It was the end of the creation of the whole universe, and of all God’s works of providence in it.

Quest. By whom and at what time will this glorious work of God, in making the highest heavens new, be accomplished. Will it be done by God the Father in the absence of his Son, while he is here in this lower world taken up in the concerns of the last judgment, to garnish heaven or prepare it for his Son with his blessed bride against their coming? or will it be accomplished by the Son at his return into heaven with his church?

Answer. Not by the former, but by the latter; for the following reasons. 1 . All communicated glory to the creature must be by the Son of God, who is the brightness or shining forth of his Father’s glory: and therefore when the eternal world comes to receive its greatest brightness and glory, it will doubtless be by him, and it will be by him as God man; for all that God doth by Christ, or the medium of communication between himself and the creature since Christ became God man, or at least since as God man he has been glorified and enthroned as Lord of the universe; he doth by Christ as God man, in whom it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell, and that in all things he should have the pre-eminence. As he glorifies the angels and saints who are the inhabitants, so doubtless it will be he who will glorify the habitation. 2. The old creation was by him, the highest heavens were created by him; for without him was not any thing made that was made; it was said concerning him, “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hand,” Hebrews 1:10.; and not only the visible but the invisible heavens were created by him; for he is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature, and the beginning of the creation of God; for’ by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. So likewise the new creation will be by him, for by him God makes the worlds; not only the visible but the invisible world, not only the present world, but the world to come, that new world, the new heavens and new earth; for God hath given him a name above every name that is named, not only in this world but in that which is to come, Ephesians 1:21. By the world to come in that place, the apostle seems to mean the new world that shall follow when the age of this shall be at an end, for the word is [liwn ], Age; this age, and that which is to come; and unto Christ hath God put in subjection the world to come. If God committed to him the creation of the old world, much more would he commit to him the creation of the new, for it is his business to renew all things. The creation of the new heavens and the new earth is by the work of redemption, which is his work; and it is a work that he works out as God man, and therefore as God man he will make the heavens new. All new things are by Christ: the new creature, the new name, the new covenant, the new song, the new Jerusalem, and the new heavens and new earth, are all by Christ, God man. 3. The destroying the lower world, the reprobate part of the creation, is committed to him; and therefore much more will the glorifying of the elect part of it be his work, for this is his most proper business; the other is his business more indirectly, and in subordination to this. 4. The creation is certainly by him, as to the principal parts of it, viz. the glorifying the saints and angels. He shall build the inner temple, and doubtless, therefore, he will build the outer temple. The glorifying of that, which is his temple and city in the highest sense, is committed to him; and therefore, doubtless, the glorifying of that which is the temple and city in an inferior sense will be committed to him. 5. If Christ us God man shall be the author of this work, he will doubtless be so visibly; for the work is committed to him for his honour. It is an honour that the Father commits to him in reward of what he has done and suffered; it shall therefore be visibly done bv Christ, as God man and therefore will not be effected in his absence here in this lower world; but he shall be present when it is done, and shall visibly put forth his power and communicate his influence and glory in order to it. 6. If this work were wrought while Christ is here in this lower world judging the world, then this new creation would not be seen by men and angels, which is not to be supposed. 7. If this work be wrought in Christ’s absence, then that world will not be glorified by the presence of the Sun of righteousness, as the face of the earth is renewed and glorified by the return of the sun in the spring.

The Lamb is the light, and glory, and sun of the new Jerusalem, and therefore the new brightness and life, vigour, bloom, and beauty, and fragrancy, and joy, of this world, will be from him and from his presence.

After the curse is executed on the universe of the ungodly, and all the angels and saints have beheld the dreadful execution; then Christ, with all his elect church, now perfect, shall ascend to heaven, and Christ shall come and present his church, now perfectly redeemed, to the Father, saying, “Here am I, and the children whom thou hast given me;” and having thus finished all the work that the Father had given him to do, he shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father. Then shall the Father, with infinite manifestations of endearment and delight, testify his acceptance of Christ, and of his church thus presented to him, his infinite acquiescence in what his Son has done, and his complacency in him, and in his church; and in reward shall now give them the joy of their eternal marriage feast, and he himself will dress his Son in his wedding robes. The human nature of Christ, or Christ as God man, shall be the subject of a new glorification then, when he shall be the subject of those smiles of the Father, and those infinitely sweet manifestations of his acceptance and complacency, when he shall present his redeemed church, and deliver up the kingdom; and from the manifestations of complacency, the Son shall be changed into the same image of complacency and love, and shall put on that divine glory, the glory of the infinitely sweet divine love, grace, gentleness, and joy, and shall shine with this special light far more brightly than ever he did before, shall be clothed with those sweet robes in a far more glorious manner than ever before: then shall that be fulfilled in the highest degree; Psalm 21:6. “For thou hast made him most blessed for ever; thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance;” and also the foregoing verses. Thus God the Father will give the Son his heart’s desire, as it is said in the 2nd verse of that psalm: his heart’s desire was, that he might express his infinite love to his elect church, fully and freely; to this end God the Father will now crown him with a crown of love, and array him in the brightest robes of love and grace, as his wedding garments, as the robe in which he should embrace his redeemed church, now brought home to her everlasting rest, in the house of her spiritual husband. As before he came into this accursed world in the glory of the Father, and God the Father arrayed him with his own glory, chiefly of his majesty, power, justice, omnipotence, and holiness, attributes that are terrible to God’s enemies, because his errand into this reprobate part of the universe was to destroy it; so now he is returned and entered into the elect and blessed world, to receive the joy that was set before him with his church. Now he shall more especially have conferred on him the glory of his Father, in his gentle and sweet attributes, shining forth in the infinitely bright robes of his love, and grace, and holiness, his sweet ravishing beauty and delight, that he may bless and glorify that elect world with the beams of this light. The Son being thus glorified with infinite sweetness, by the light of the countenance of the Father, the glory will be communicated from him to his church, and she shall be transformed into his image by beholding him, and by the light of his glory and love, shining and smiling upon her. And at that time will be the transformation of all heaven, and it will become a new heaven; the beams of the Son’s new glory of grace and love shall advance that whole world to new glory and sweetness. Thus Christ and his saints shall both receive their consummate felicity and full reward, and shall begin that eternal feast of love, and the eternal joys of that marriage supper of the Lamb. The saints shall not receive their full happiness till then; though they shall be glorified on earth when they shall be raised and changed at the first sight of their glorious Redeemer coming in the clouds, and shall be further glorified when they shall be made to sit with Christ on his throne of judgment; yet Christ speaks of their greatest happiness as then future, when he says, at the close of the judgment, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you,” etc. Now they shall inherit it; now they shall be put in possession of it.

Thus, though the new glory of heaven shall be, as it were, from the communicated influence and glory of the Sun of righteousness returning to heaven from the judgment; yet it will not be at once, as soon as the beams of the returning Jesus shine on that world; but Christ, with all his saints and angels, shall first enter into the world, and they shall have opportunity to see its glory in its former state; and then the presentation shall be made to the Father, and his acceptance manifested, and the purchased glory then given by his hands; so that the saints and angels shall have opportunity fully to see this work of the new creation: first fully beholding the world before its renovation, and then seeing the change as it is, with the destruction of the reprobate world. That world, as it were, sinks of itself, flies away, and breaks in pieces, by beholding the manifestation of his awful majesty and wrath. The shining forth of the infinitely pure and powerful holiness, justice, and wrath, does, as it were of itself, set all on fire; yet this destruction will not actually be at Christ’s first appearing in terrible majesty in the lower world, but at the greatest manifestation of it when he pronounces the curse on the ungodly.

How immensely will it heighten, in the eyes of the saints, the value of that love and gentleness with which they now shall see Christ clothed, that they just before have seen such great manifestations of his infinite majesty, and the terribleness of his wrath! And how will it heighten their admiration and joy in his love, when Christ himself, that glorious King, shall resien up the kingdom to the Father! Though he shall receive now his reward, and new glory from the Father, it will not be to act henceforward as the Supreme Head of dominion, to whom the government of the world is left, but rather as a head or grand medium of enjoyment of the Father. Christ himself shall be admitted to a higher enjoyment of the Father than ever he was admitted to before; and in Christ the saints shall enjoy the Father. The Son himself, as God man, shall now be subject to the Father. After the saints have seen him in infinite majesty in the .judgment wherein his glorious and divine dignity appeared, and now come to see him in his ineffable mildness and love; they shall also see his transcendent humility in his adoration of the Father. And what a sense will this give them of the honour of the Father, to behold Jesus Christ, God man, a person of such dignity as they saw in the judgment, thus humbly adoring the Father! And how will this example influence their adoration of God, and keep up their reverence in that infinite nearness and freedom to which they are admitted; as the sight they have had of the terrible majesty of Christ in the judgment will keep up their reverence towards him in the midst of their most intimate communion with him, and while they dwell, as it were, in his arms, and on his lips! See concerning the new occasion of glory to the highest heavens at Christ’s first ascension, Note on these words, John 14:2. “1 go to prepare a place for you.” [934] Happiness of heaven. God doubtless will entertain his saints according to the state of the King of’ heaven, when he comes to entertain them at the feast that he has provided with such great contrivance and wonderful amazing exercises of infinite and mysterious wisdom, showing the bottomless depths and infinite riches of his wisdom, and with such great and mighty ado, and innumerable and wonderful exercises of his power; having, in order to provide this feast, created heaven and earth, and done all in all ages, bringing such great revolutions in such an amazing wonderful series, and besides that, having come down himself from his infinite height and become man, and also provided the feast at such infinite expense as that of his own blood, We read of Ahasuerus, a great king, when he made a feast unto all his princes and servants, he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom, and the power of his excellent majesty, and gave drink in vessels of gold, and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king, Esth. 1:So doubtless the happiness of the saints in heaven shall be so great, that the very majesty of God shall be exceedingly shown in the greatness, and magnificence, and fulness of their enjoyments and delights. [1059] That the happiness of the saints in heaven consists much in beholding the displays of God’s mercy towards his church on earth, may be strongly argued from those texts that speak of the just and the meek inheriting the earth, and their having in the present time much more given of this world, houses and lands, etc. than they parted with in the suffering state of the church; from Christ’s comforting his disciples, when about to leave them, that they should weep and lament, and the world rejoice, yet their sorrow should be turned into joy, as a woman has sorrow in her travail, but much more than joy enough to balance it when she is delivered; from its being promised to the good man, Psalm 128, that he should see the prosperity of Jerusalem, and peace in Israel; from the manner in which the promises of the future prosperity of the church were made of old to the church then in being; and from the manner in which the saints received them as all their salvation, and all their desire, and are said to ho pe and wait for the fulfilment from time to time. [1061] Happiness of heaven consisting much in beholding God’s works towards his church on earth. God says to David, 2 Samuel 7:”Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for everBEFORE THEE. Thy throne shall be established for ever.” And a promise is made in the context concerning Solomon, that must he understood in the same sense; ver. 12, 13. “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.”

This promise concerning his kingdom and the kingdom of his Son, its being established for ever after he was dead, is what David takes principal notice of, and is most affected with, as implying this greatest benefit, and speaks of other things conferred on him in his lifetime as a small thing, in comparison of it, ver. 19, 20. “And this was yet a small thing, in thy sight, O Lord God; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? And what can David say more unto thee? for thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant.” And this he insists upon chiefly in his prayer, and in the following verses; and this, he elsewhere says, is all his salvation, and all his desire, or what he sets his heart upon more than any thing whatsoever. And the promise is renewed to Solomon, 1 Kings 9:5. “I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised unto David thy father; there shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.” And yet this same Solomon was thoroughly aware how little a man is benefited by the thought and hopes of what should be in the world after he is dead, which he shall never see or enjoy any thing of; and speaks of it as a great instance of men’s folly and vanity to set their hearts upon it, and deprive themselves of present good for it. Ecclesiastes 2:24. “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labours;” and 3:12, 13. “I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. And also that every man should eat, and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labours; it is the gift of God.” Ver. 22. “Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?” Ecclesiastes 9:4,5,6,7. “A living dog is better than a dead lion-for the dead have no more a reward-neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

Go thy way.”

The saints in heaven will be under advantages to see much more of it than the saints on earth, and to be every way more directly, fully, and perfectly acquainted with all that appertains to it, and that manifests the glory of it; the glory of God’s wisdom and other perfections in it. The blessed fruit and end of it, in the eternal glory and blessedness of the subjects of the work of God at that day, will be daily in their view, in those that come out of dying bodies to heaven, And the church in heaven will be much more concerned in it than one part of the church on earth shall be in the prosperity of another.

The blessedness of the church triumphant in heaven, and their joy and glory, will as much consist in beholding the success of Christ’s redemption on earth, and in as great proportion, as the joy that was set before Christ consists in it, or as the glory and reward of Christ as God man and Mediator consists in it. [1072] Happiness of heaven. The saints in heaven will enjoy God as their portion, and possess all things in the most excellent manner possible; in that they will have all in Christ their head. Christ their head is as it were their organ of enjoyment; but the capacity of enjoyment that this organ hath, is of infinitely greater extent than the capacity of any of Christ’s members taken separately, or by themselves; as the head of the natural body, by reason of its, extensive and noble senses, has such a much greater capacity of enjoyment than the inferior members of the body by themselves.

Were not the saints united to Christ, they could never enjoy God the Father in so excellent a manner as now they will in heaven, partaking with Christ in his enjoyment of him. And so they never could possess all the works of God in so excellent and glorious a manner as they do in their head, who has the absolute possession of all, and rules over all, and disposes all things according to his will; for by virtue of their union with Christ, they also shall rule over all. They shall sit with him in his throne, and reign over the same kingdom, as his body, and shall see all things disposed according to their will; for the will of the head will be the will of the whole body. Christ being their head, the gratifying of his will shall be as much for their happiness, as if it were their own will separately that was gratified or they shall have no other will, as the natural body, head, and members have but one will; and on the other hand, the holy desires of the saints (as they will have no other desires) will be evermore Christ’s will. The appetite of the members will ever be the will of the head. If the whole universe were given to a saint separately, he could not fully possess it, his capacity would be too narrow.

He would not know how to dispose of it for his own good; as the inferior members of the natural body would not know how to dispose of things that the body has possession of for their good, without the eyes or the head.

And if the saints did know, they would not have strength sufficient; but in Christ their head they have perfect knowledge and infinite strength. [1089] The saints in heaven acquainted with the state of. the church an earth, The man Christ Jesus is the head of the glorified saints in heaven, He is the head of the glorious assembly, who leads them in all their worship and praise, and is their vital head. They are in some sense the glorified body of Christ; they are with him as it were in all things, being partakers with him in all, all his exaltation and glory, all his reward, all his enjoyment of God the Father, all his reward by obtaining the joy set before him, his reign here on earth, the glory of his reign in his kingdom of grace, the bestowment of the promised reward in what is done to the elect here, his enjoyment of the success of his redemption, his seeing his seed, the pleasure of the Lord prospering in his hands, his justifying many by his righteousness, his conquering his enemies, his subduing and triumphing over Satan, and antichrist, and all other enemies. What he sees of God, they in their measure see; what he sees of the church of God on earth, and of the flourishing of religion here, they see according to their capacity; what he sees of the punishment of his enemies in hell, they see in him; and therefore this damnation of the enemies of Christ, and its being in the presence of the inhabitants of heaven, consisting of Christ, and saints, and angels, is expressed thus, Revelation 14:10.

They shall be tormented wit fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:” saying nothing of the glorified saints, including them in the name of the Lamb. Christ, with his glorified mystical body, being but one mystical person, for he is the head of the glorified body, as the sight of the eyes that are in the head are for the information of the whole body, and what he enjoys they enjoy; they are with him in his honour and advancement; they are with him in his pleasures; they are with him in his enjoyment of the Father’s love; the love wherewith the Father loves him is in them, and he in them; they are with him in the joy of his success on earth; they are with him in his joy at the conversion of one sinner. The good shepherd, when he has found the sheep that was lost, calls together his friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost,” Luke 15:5,6. And they are with him in his joy at the conversion of nations, and the world. The day of Christ’s espousals is the day of thin gladness of his heart, Song of Solomon 3:11.

The day of the marriage of the Lamb is the day of Christ’s rejoicing. Isaiah 62:5. Zephaniah 3:17. So it is the day of the gladness and rejoicing of the hearts of the saints in heaven, Revelation 19:1-9. When he rides forth in this world, girding his sword on his thigh in his glory and majesty, to battle against antichrist and other enemies, they are represented as riding forth in glory with him, Revelation 19:and in his triumph they triumph. They appear on mount Zion with him with palms in their hands; and as Satan is bruised under his feet, so he is bruised under their feet also. The saints, therefore, have no more done with the state of the church and kingdom on earth, because they have left this world, and have ascended into heaven; than Christ himself had, when he left the earth and ascended into heaven, who was so far from having done with the prosperity of his church and kingdom here, as to any immediate concern in those things, by reason of his ascension, that he ascended to that very end, that he might be more concerned, that he might receive the glory and reward of the enlargement and prosperity of his church, and the conquest of his enemies here, that he might reign in this kingdom, and be under the best advantages for it, and might have the fullest enjoyment of the glory of it, as much as a king ascends a throne in order to reign over his people, and receive the honour and glory of his dominion over them. Christ came with clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and was brought near before him to that very end, that he might receive dominion and glory, an a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him, Daniel 7:13,14. God the Father bade him sit at his right hand, that his enemies might be made his footstool, and rule in the midst of his enemies, and that he might enjoy that glorious reward that is called receiving the dew of his youth, and judging among the heathen, and wounding the heads over many countries, Psalm 110. God the Father set Christ on his holy hill of Zion, to that end that he might have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. And when the saints leave this lower world by death, and ascend to heaven, they do but follow their forerunner; they ascend as it were with him, they are made to sit together in heavenly places in him, they are exalted to partake of his exaltation, they have written upon them the name of the city of his God, and his own new name, to sit with him in his throne, as he, when he ascended, sat down with the Father in his throne, to rule with him over the same kingdom, to partake with him in his reward, his honour, his victory, and triumph over his enemies, his joy that was set before him, viz. the joy of the success of his redemption, the joy of seeing his seed, of finding his lost sheep, the satisfaction of seeing of the travail of his soul, etc, They in this world travail with him for the same thing, they are crucified with Christ, they deny themselves to promote and advance his kingdom and glory in the world: they many of them suffer with him, and die with him, in the very same cause, and their sufferings are called a filling up of the sufferings of Christ; and as they suffer with him on earth in this cause, so they shall reign with him, they shall enjoy with him the prosperity of that cause, that interest which they sought by their labours and sufferings, as he did by his labours and sufferings when he was on the earth. They shall be as much with Christ in partaking with him of the glory of his reigning over the world in his kingdom of grace, as they shall partake with him in the glory of his judging the world. Indeed they now are not visibly to the inhabitants of the earth reigning with Christ over his kingdom of grace here; as they will hereafter be seen judging the world with Christ. No more is Christ himself now seen by the inhabitants of the earth visibly reigning here, as he will be seen judging at the day of judgment; but yet this does not hinder, but that he does now as truly reign here, and possess and enjoy the glory of this dominion, as he will truly judge at the end of the world.

The saints in going out of this world and ascending into heaven, do not go out of sight of the affairs that am pertain to Christ’s kingdom and church here, and things appertaining to that great work of redemption that is carrying on here; but on the contrary, go out of a state of obscurity, and ascend above the mists and clouds into the bright light, and ascend a pinnacle in the very centre of light, where every thing appears in clear view. The saints that are ascended to heaven have advantage to view the state of Christ’s kingdom in this world, and the works of the new creation here, as much greater than they had before, as a man that ascends to the top of a high mountain has greater advantage to view the face of the earth than he had while he was below in a deep valley or forest, surrounded on every side with those things that impeded and limited his sight.

On this account, as well as others, both Christ and his saints are beautifully represented as ascending and reigning on a mountain, mount Zion, God’s holy mountain, the mountain of the height of Israel, etc. On this mountain, they have their kingdom in view; as David, who dwelled and reigned in mount Zion, had Jerusalem in view; and as the saints in heaven have greater advantage to see those things, so also to enjoy them, to see the glory of them, and receive comfort and joy by them. They are under great advantage to possess them as theirs, being with Christ who does possess, in communion with whom they enjoy and possess their infinite portion, their whole heavenly inheritance and kingdom; as much as the whole body has all the pleasure of music by the ear, and all the pleasure of its food by the mouth and stomach, and all the benefit and refreshment of the air breathed in by the lungs; and thus it is the saints in heaven sing to the lamb, Revelation 5:9,10. “Thou art worthy, etc., for thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, and hast made us kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.” Thus it is, “The meek shall inherit the earth;” for Christ is the heir of the world, he has purchased the kingdom; the kingdom is promised him by the Father, and at last shall be given him when other kingdoms are destroyed, Daniel 7:14. and the saints are heirs with Christ, and shall inherit with him the same kingdom, and reign in the same kingdom, and so they shall enjoy the victory with him: he binds kings in chains; and all the saints shall have that honour with him, Psalm 149:5, to the end. And thus it is that, when the time comes that Christ shall break his enemies with a rod of iron, they also shall have power over the nations, and shall rule them with a rod of iron, etc. Revelation 2:26,27,28. And thus it is the souls of the martyrs of Jesus shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years.

Revelation 20:They shall be most nearly interested in this revival or spiritual resurrection of the church that shall be then; that shall be in some sense the resurrection of Christ himself, in the same manner as the setting up the kingdom of Christ in the world, is represented as Christ’s being born. Revelation xii, They shall possess the joy and happiness of that revival of the church; it will be as much their own, and much more in some respects, than of the saints on earth; see Revelation 19:the former part of the chapter. Thus Abraham, who is spoken of as the heir of the world, inherits it, possesses his inheritance, and shall enjoy the great promise of old made to him.

As the saints in heaven shall be under much greater advantage in heaven to see and enjoy God than when on earth, so they shall be proportionally under much greater advantage to see and enjoy the works of God, and especially those works of God which appertain to the work of redemption; which is that work y which God chiefly manifests himself to the inhabitants of the heavenly world, and especially the redeemed there. The saints and angels see God by beholding the displays of his perfections, but the perfections of God are displayed and manifested chiefly by their effects.

The chief way wherein the wisdom of God is to be seen, is in the wise acts and operations of God, and so of his power, and mercy, and justice, and other perfections. But these are seen, even by the angels themselves, chiefly by what God does in the work of redemption. Ephesians 3:10. “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”

Corol. Hence we learn one reason, why the promises of the future glory of the church in this world are so much insisted on in the word of God, delivered to his church ages before the accomplishment.

Objection . In Ecclesiastes 9:5,6. it is said of the dead, that they know not any thing; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

Ans. 1. Their having no more a portion, etc. implies no more, than that they shall no more be interested in sublunary things, or in any worldly concern. But not that they are not interested in the spiritual and heavenly affairs of that family of God, that is not of the world, that are chosen and called out of the world, and redeemed from the earth; and, as is represented by the apostle, do not live in the world, but have their conversation and citizenship in heaven. 2. It is manifest that, by the context, the wise man speaks of temporal death as it is in itself, and not as it is by redemption, an inlet into a more happy state, in those that are redeemed from death, from the power of the grave; for the dead are here said to have no more a reward, and as being in a far worse state than when living. Ver. 4. The wise man’s design and drift leads him to speak of temporal death, or death as it is in itself, with regard to things temporal and visible, without any respect to a future state of existence; and therefore, all that is implied is, that the dead body knows not any thing; they that are in their graves know not any thing; not but that the immortal soul that never dies knows something, knows as well that the dead body shall rise again, as the living know that they must die. It is in this sense, and no other, that all things come alike to all, and there is one event to the righteous and the wicked, ver. 3. and preceding verses. The event is the same in the death of both, only as temporal death is the same in all. In this sense, as dieth the wise man, so the fool. Chap. 2:16.

Texts of Scripture that show that the saints in heaven see, and are concerned and interested in, the prosperity of the church on earth.

Matthew 19:27, to the end. Proverbs 10:30. Psalm 25:13. [1095] Saints in heaven reign on earth. It is evident, when Christ promises a kingdom to his true followers, as he does especially in Luke 22:29,30. that one thing especially intended, is their rejoicing with him in his kingdom of grace on earth; by Christ’s words in that place: “And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. By this it also appears, that by that expression, used here and elsewhere, of sitting on thrones, fudging the twelve tribes of Israel, is not intended merely judging the world with Christ at the day of judgment; (as indeed it will be unreasonable on other accounts to suppose this chiefly intended, for the saints’ judging the world, at the day of judgment, will not consist in their judging the church of God; for they shall all have the blessed sentence pronounced on them together, and sit down on Christ’s right hand together, to be assessors with him in judging others: after this they shall not judge one another ever again;) but their judging the world will consist in their judging angels and wicked men. [1119] The saints in heaven acquainted with what is done on earth. It is an argument of this that God so often calls the heavens to be witness of his dealings with men on earth, Deuteronomy 31:28. 32:1. 4:26. 30:19. Psalm 1:4. Isa.i.2. [1121] Saints and angels in heaven acquainted with what is done on earth.

The psalmist, in Psalm 89. speaking of the work of redemption, the covenant God had made with his chosen, God’s prosecuting the designs of his mercy and covenant faithfulness in his dealings with his church from age to age, and gradually bringing the designs of his mercy to their consummation, as an architect gradually erects and completes a building, ver. 1, 5. says, ver. 5. “The heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the congregation of thy saints,” or holy ones. Now this cannot be merely such a figure of speech as when sometimes the earth, seas, rocks, mountains, and trees, are called upon to praise the Lord. This is rather a prediction of an event that shall come to pass, of the notice the heavens shall take of those particular wonders of God’s mercy and faithfulness, and their celebrating them in their praises, and doing it in the assembly of God’s holy ones. And what assembly can that he but that which we read of, Hebrews 12:22,23.? Such a praising of the heavens seems here to be spoken of, as is described in Revelation 5:8, to the end; 7:9-11, 15-17. 12:10- 12. 14:3. 18:20. 19:1-7. [1134] Heaven, the everlasting abode of the church. That the saints shall enter into heaven after the day of judgment, and not continue with Christ here below, is evident; John 14:2,3. “ In my Father’s house are many mansions: I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Doubtless these words, “I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am.” etc. will be most eminently fulfilled at Christ’s second coming at the end of the world, that second coming spoken of, Hebrews 9:last verse, And when it is said he will receive them to himself to be where he is, he must be understood, to the place to which I am now to go, to that house of my Father to which I am ascending, in which I am going to prepare a place for you. At my second coming I will receive you to those mansions which 1 now go to prepare in my Father’s house.

It is also evident that Christ went to the highest heavens, the third heaven, far above all heavens, at his first ascension, as the forerunner of his people; implying that they shall all go there in their turn, or after him; and doubtless in this he was the forerunner of them, with respect to their reception of their proper reward, or their complete happiness, which will not be till the last day; and their forerunner as to a bodily ascension or translation, wherein the saints’ bodies shall be made like to Christ’s glorious body, and shall ascend as that did; but they will not have glorified bodies till then.

And he is doubtless the Forerunner of the whole church in going to heaven; which he would not be, if after the day of judgment the saints were to stay here below; for those, who shall then be found alive, in such a case never would ascend into heaven at all. And then it is most reasonable to suppose, that Christ will be the first-fruits in his ascension, in like manner as in his resurrection; but Christ is the first-fruits in his resurrection with regard to what the saints shall be the subjects of at the second coming of Christ: “Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming.” (1 Corinthians 15:23.) [1137] Happiness of heaven. When God bad finished the work of creation, he is represented as resting, and being refreshed and rejoicing in his works.

The apostle compares the happiness Christ entered into, after he had finished his labours and sufferings in the work of redemption, to this, Hebrews 4:4,10.

Therefore we may well suppose, that very much of Christ’s happiness in heaven consists in beholding the glory of God appearing in the work of redemption; and so in rejoicing in his own work, and reaping the sweet fruit of it, the glorious success of it, which was the joy that was set before him. And as the apostle represents the future happiness of the saints by a participation of God’s rest and Christ’s rest from their works, Hebrews 4:4-11. This seems to argue two things, viz. 1. That the way that the saints will be happy in beholding the glory of God, will be very much in beholding the glory of his perfections in his works. 2. That the happiness of the saints in heaven, especially since Christ’s ascension, consisting in beholding God s glory, will consist very much in seeing his glory in the work of redemption. The happiness of departed saints under the Old Testament, consisted much in beholding the glory of God in the works of creation; in beholding which, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” But their happiness, since Christ’s ascension, consists much more in beholding the glory of God in the work of redemption, since the old creation, in comparison of this, is no more mentioned, nor comes into mind, But they will be glad and rejoice for ever in this work.

The beatific vision of God in heaven consists mostly in beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, either in his work, or in his person as appearing in the glorified human nature. [1246] The saints higher in glory than the angels It is evident that the four and twenty elders in the Revelation do represent the church or company of glorified saints by there song. Chap. 5:9, 10. “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloo~l out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” But these are represented from time to time as sitting in a state of honour, with white raiment and crowns of gold, and in seats of dignity, in thrones of glory, next to the throne of God and the Lamb, being nextly the most observable and conspicuous sight to God, and Christ, and the four living ones. Chap. 4:4. “And round about the throne were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” So chap. 5:6. “ And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four living ones, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain.” And the angels are represented as further off from the throne than they, being round about them, as they are round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. So chap. 7:11. “And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders, and fell down before the throne on their faces and worshipped God.” These things make the matter of the superiority of the privilege of the saints in heaven very plain. [1281] Hades — Saints before the resurrection-Saints in heaven have communion in the prosperity of the church on earth. There are three things very manifest from Hebrews 6:12. “That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 1. That the souls of the saints do go to a state of rewards and glorious happiness before the resurrection. That although the resurrection be indeed the p roper time of their reward, and their happiness before be small in comparison of what it will be afterwards, yet that they are received to such a degree of happiness before, that they may be said to be in possession of the promises of the covenant of grace. Those whom the apostle has reference to, when he speaks of them that now inherit the promises, are the Old-Testament saints, and particularly the patriarchs, as appears by the next words, where the apostle instances in Abraham, and the promise made to him, and of his patiently enduring, and then obtaining the promise.

Again: It is manifest the things promised to Abraham which the apostle speaks of, were things which were not fulfilled till after his death; and it is manifest by what the apostle expressly declares in this epistle, that he supposed that Abraham and the other patriarchs did not obtain the promises while in this life, chap. 11:13. Speaking there of these patriarchs in particular, he says, “Those all died in faith, not having received the promises.” But here he speaks of them as now inheriting the promises. This word, as it is used every where iii the New Testament, implies actual possession of the inheritance; and so as it is used in the Septuagint. It generally signifies the actual possessing of an inheritance, lot, estate, or portion, and that being now in actual possession of the promised happiness, is what the apostle means in this place, is beyond dispute, by what he says, as further explaining himself in the words immediately following; where he says that Abraham, after he had patiently endured, obtained the promise.

He not only has the right of an heir to the promise, which he had while he lived, but he actually obtained it, though he died, not having received the promise. And that we should suppose this to be the meaning of the apostle, is agreeable to what he says, chap. 10:36. “ For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” And that the apostle, when he speaks here of Abraham’s having obtained the promise after patiently enduring, does not mean merely in a figurative sense, viz, that the promise of multiplying his natural posterity was fulfilled after his death, though he was dead, and his soul asleep, knowing nothing of the matter, for the word is in the present tense, inherit the promises, not only did obtain them, but continues still to possess and enjoy them, though Abraham’s natural seed had been greatly diminished, and the promised land at that time under the dominion of the heathen, and the greater part of the people at that time broken off by unbelief, and rejected from being God’s people, and their city, and land, and the bulk of the nation on the borders of the most dreadful destruction and desolation that ever befell any people. 2. If we compare this with what the apostle says elsewhere in this epistle, it is manifest that the saints he speaks of inherit the promises in heaven, and not in any other place in the bowels of the earth, or elsewhere called Hades or it is evident that the promised inheritance which they looked for and sought after, and the promises of which they by faith were persuaded of and embraced, and the promise of which drew their hearts off from this world, was in heaven; this is manifest by chap. 11:13, 14, 15, 16. “ These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.” And the heavenly inheritance in the heavenly Canaan, or land of rest, which Christ has entered into, is that which the apostle all along in this epistle speaks of as the great subject matter of God’s promises which the saints obtain through faith and patience. Chap. 3:11,14. and chap. 4:1, 3, 9, 10, 11. 8:6. and 9:15. and 10:34. and 12:1, 2, 16, to the end. 3. Another thing, which may be strongly argued from this, is, that the happiness of the separate souls of saints in heaven consists very much in beholding the works of God relating to man’s redemption wrought here below, and the stages of infinite grace, wisdom, holiness, and power in establishing and building up the church of God on earth. For what was that promise which the apostle here has special reference to, and expressly speaks of, that Abraham obtained after he had patiently endured, which promise God confirmed with an oath, and in which we Christians and all the heirs of the promise partake with Abraham, and in the promises of which to be greatly confirmed, we have strong consolation and great hope?

The apostle tells us, verses 13, 14. “For, when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself; saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. This promise is chiefly fulfilled in the great increase of the church of God by the Messiah, and particularly in the calling of the Gentiles, pursuant to the promise made to Abraham, that in his seed the families of the earth should be blessed, Romans 4:11,13, 16,17. Hebrews 11:12.