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SERM. tants a brave, and generous, and wealthy people, under the government of a wife and great king, ruling by excellent laws; and that the particular delights and advantages of it were not to be imagined. by any thing he knew in our own country, and should fay no more of it: if we gave credit to the person that brought this relation, it would create in us a great admiration of the country defcribed to us, and a mighty concern to fee it and live in it: but it would be a vain curiofity to reafon and conjecture about the particular conveniencies of it; because it would be impoffible, by any difcourfe, to ar rive at the certain knowledge of any more, than he who only knew it was pleased to tell us. This is the cafe as to our heavenly country. Our blessed SAVIOUR, who "came down from heaven, from "the bofom of his FATHER," hath revealed to us a state of happiness and glory in general, that there is fuch" a kingdom prepared for us;" and when he was leaving the world he told us, that he was going thither by the way of the grave; and when he was rifen again from the dead, and was afcended into heaven, he promised to come again at the end of the world, and to raise us out of the grave, and to carry us into those celeftial manfions, where " we shall be for ever with "the LORD." And beyond this he hath made no particular discovery to us of the felicity of that place, he hath given us no punctual representation of the glory of it; he hath not declared to us in a special manner, what our work and employment fhall be, in what way GOD will communicate himself to us, nor what kind of converfation we fhall have with the blessed angels, and with one another, and

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how far we shall know, or be known to one ano- SERM. ther; or whether we shall stand affected in any peculiar manner to thofe who were our friends and relations, and acquaintance in this world. Thefe, and perhaps a thousand things more which may concern the glories of that state, and the happiness and employment of" the spirits of just men made perfect," our SAVIOUR hath told us nothing of, but only in general; and it is impoffible for us with any certainty to make out the reft, any more than children can make a conjecture of the defigns and reasonings of a wife man; not only because it would be of no great use to us, but because the imperfection of human nature, and of our faculties in this ftate of mortality, is not able to bear a full and clear representation of fo great a glory.

When our SAVIOUR was transfigured upon the mount, and a little image of heaven was fhewn to men, the disciples were ftrangely amazed, and knew not what they faid. And St. Paul tells us, that when he was "taken up into the third heaven," the things which he faw and heard there, were "not "to be utter'd." So that well might the apostle say here in the text, "it doth not yet appear what we "fhall be." Our future ftate is very obfcure to us while we are in this world, as to any distinct and particular knowledge of it.

There are a fort of idle men in the world, I mean the schoolmen, who have been very bufy and bold in their enquiries, very peremptory in their determinations of feveral things relating to it: but after all our fearch and study, it is impoffible for us to advance one step farther in the knowledge of it, than Gop hath been pleased in his holy word to reveal it to us.

And

SER M, And how much God hath revealed, I fhall in difCLXXXV. courfing of the

Second particular confider; namely, that thus much we know of it in general, that it fhall confift in the bleffed vifion of God. "It doth not yet

appear what we shall be; but when he shall ap66 pear, we fhall fee him as he is." Thus much all christians knew, because our SAVIOUR hath plainly revealed it to them, that the bleffedness of the faints fhould confift in the vifion of GOD. Matth. v. 8. "Bleffed are the pure in heart for they fhall fee "GOD." Which the apoftle expreffeth with a little variation, Heb. xii. 14, " Without holinefs no 66 man fhall fee the LORD." Here is a great thing expreft to us in a few words, "we fhall fee him as "he is;" for the better understanding of which, it will be convenient to enquire into these three things, I. What is meant here by " feeing GOD." II. What by "feeing him as he is."

III. The fitnefs of this metaphor to exprefs to us the happiness of our future ftate.

I. What is meant by " feeing GOD." The fchoolmen have spun out abundance of fine cobwebs about this, which in their language they call "the beati"fick vifion of GoD," and they generally defcribe and explain it fo as to render it a very dry and faplefs thing. They make it to confift in a perpetual gazing upon GOD, and contemplating the divine eflence and perfections, in which as in a clearer mirrour, they fuppofe men to fee and know all other things. But this is a very jejune and infipid notion of happiness, but yet fuitable enough to the guft and inclination of thofe that devifed it. And indeed men are naturally apt to form fuch notions of GOD

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and heaven to themselves, as are moft agreeable to SERM. their own appetites and inclinations. So the heathen world framed to themselves gods after their own image and likeness, of like paffions and inclinations, and lufts with themselves; and fuch a heaven as pleas'd themselves. and was most suitable to their own grofs imaginations of pleasure and happiness; and therefore they defcribed it by pleafant fields, and clear rivers, and shady walks. So likewife Mahomet framed fuch a paradife, as is most agreeable to our fenfual appetites and lufts. In like manner the schoolmen, who addicted themselves wholly to contemplation, would have the happiness of heaven to confift in that which they themselves took most delight in. But furely the fcripture understands fomething more "by the fight of GoD," than a bare contemplation of him. It is a known rule given by divines for the understanding of scripture; "the words that fignify fenfe and knowledge, are very often in scripture to be fo understood, as to comprehend in them thofe affections and effects, "which fenfe and knowledge are apt to produce in So our knowledge of GoD doth in fcripture many times import the fum of all religion, the whole duty of man," he that faith I know him, and keep"eth not his commandments, is a liar:" and GOD's knowing of us, fignifies the whole happiness "The LORD knoweth them that are his." So tafting and fight are in fcripture put for experience and enjoyment, Pfal. xxxiv. 8. "Taste and "fee that the LORD is gracious." Lament. iii. 1. "I am the man that have seen affliction," that is, "that have fuffered it." 1 Pet. iii. 10. "He that "will love life, and fee good days," that is, "en

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us."

of man.

"joy

SERM." joy them." And fo we use the word in common CLXXXV. fpeech. To fee a friend, is to enjoy the pleasure of

his company, and all the advantages of his converfation. So here "the fight of GoD" doth comprehend and take in all the happiness of a future ftate. And to fee the king, includes the court, and all the glorious circumstances of his attendance; fo "to fee GOD," does take in all that glory and joy and happiness which flows from his presence.

I grant indeed, that this expreffion primarily and immediately denotes our perfect knowledge of GoD in the other life, in oppofition to those obscure and more imperfect difcoveries and apprehenfions which we have of him in these earthly bodies: for I think we need make no doubt, but that fight is here taken in a spiritual and intellectual fenfe. We are not to dream that we fhall fee GoD with our bodily eyes; for being a pure fpirit, he cannot be the object of any corporeal fenfe. But we fhall have fuch a fight of him, as a pure fpirit is capable of; we fhall fee him with the eyes of our minds and understanding. And in this fenfe, we do in fome degree "fee "GOD" in this life, by faith and knowledge: but it is but "darkly" and as it were "through a "glass" that we fee him, as the apoftle expreffeth it. But when we come to heaven, our understandings fhall be raised and cleared to fuch a degree of ftrength and perfection, that we shall know GoD after a far more perfect manner, than we are capable of in this state of mortality. And this perfect knowledge of him, together with the happy effects of it, those affections which it fhall raife in us, and that bleffed enjoyment of the chief good which we are not able to exprefs, is that which is call'd the fight of God."

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II. What