Christ will never cease to be the immediate head of the whole glorified creation. God having gathered all the elect, both angels and men, unto a head in him, and he being the knot and centre of that collective body, the whole frame of the glorified church would be dissolved, should he lose his relation of a head to it. Yea, I doubt not but he will for ever continue to be the medium of communion betwixt God and his glorified church : God will still communicate himself to us through Christ, and our adherence, love, and delight, will still be through Christ ; In a word, what- ever change shall be made, the person of Christ shall still con- tinue to be the eternal object of divine glory, praise^ and worship, Rev. xxii. 4.
But when he shall have gathered home all his elect to glory, he will resign his present dispensatory * kingdom, and become subject (as man, and as head of that body which he 'purchased) to his Fa- ther himself, " that God may be all in all," as it is 1 Cor. xv. 28.
(1.) All in all^ that is, all the saints shall be filled, and abun- dantly satisfied, in and from God alone ; there shall be no empti- ness, no want, no complaint : For, as there is water enough in one sea to fill all rivers, light enough in one sun to illuminate all the world ; so all souls shdl be eternally filled, satisfied and blessed in one God. Surely, there is enough in God for millions of souls. For if there be enough in God for all the angels. Mat. xviii. 10. yea, 'enough in God for Jesus Christ, Col. i. 19. there must be enough for all our souls. The capacity of angels is larger than ours ; the capacity of Christ is larger than that of angels : He that fills them, can, and will therefore fill us, or be all in all to us.
(2.) All in all, that is, complete satisfaction to all the saints, in the absence of all other things, out of which they were wont to
• For if this dispensatory kingdom (of Christ) had never been delivered up, then he (viz. God) would never receive the full use of bis natural kingdoni. Junius,
54? A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MA^^
suck some comfort and delight in this world. He will now be in- stead of all ; eminently all without them. We shall suck no more sweetness out of food, sleep, relations, ordinances, &c. there will be no more need or use of them, than there is of candles in the sun-shine, Rev. xxii. 5.
(3.) All in all, that is, God only shall be loved, praised, and admired by all the saints ; they shall love no creature out of God, but all in God, or rather God in them all. This is that blessed state to which all things tend, for which the angels and glorified souls in heaven long. Hence it is that ther^ is joy in heaven upon the conversion of any poor sinner on earth ; because thereby the body of Christ mystically advanceth towards its fulness and com- pleteness, Luke XV. 10. No sooner is a poor soul struck by the word to the heart, and sent home crying, O sick ! sick ! sick of sin, and sick for Christ ! but the news of it is quickly in heaven, and is matter of great joy there, because they wait as well as Christ for the time of consummation. To conclude, those that went first to heaven before Christ's ascension, were fully at rest in God, and blessed in his enjoyment, and yet upon Christ's ascension thither, their happiness was advanced : It is a new heaven, as it were, to feed their eyes upon the man Christ Jesus there. Those that now stand before the throne, ravished with the face of Christ, and ascribing glory to him for ever, are also in a most blessed state, and are filled with the joy of the Lord. And yet, two things still re- main to be farther done, before they arrive at their consummation, viz. the restitution of their bodies, which yet he in the dust, and the delivering up of the dispensatory kingdom, upon the coming in of the fullness of all their fellow saints ; and after that no more alteration for ever, but they shall be both in soul and body for ever with the Lord. What tongue of man or angel can give us the complete emphasis of that word, ever ivith the Lord ? or that, of God's being all in all ? 0 what hath God prepared for them that love him !
Prop. 19,. It pleaseth God at some times, even in this life, to give some men the foresight and foretaste of that blessedness, which holy separated souls do now enjoy, and themselves shall shortly enjoy with God in glory.
Specimens and earnests of heaven are no unknown things upon earth. As the grapes of Eshcol, so the joy of heaven may be tasted before we come thither, and these foresights and preliba- tions of heaven are either,
1. Extraordinary, for the way and manner ; when the soul is? either, (1.) Caught from the body for a short time in an ecstasy,
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 55
when in a visional way heavenly things are presented to it; or, (2.) When the bodily eye is elevated and strengthened above its natural vigour and ability, to behold the astonishing objects of the other world.
(1.) Of the first sort and rank was that famous rapture of Paul, mentioned 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3. " I knew a man in Christ fourteen " years ago, (whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of " the body I cannot tell, God knoweth) such an one caught up to *' the third heaven," &c. * It is questionable indeed, whether the soul of the apostle was really separated from his body, whilst he suffered that ecstasy, or whether his senses were only laid, as it were, asleep for that time ; he himself could not determine the question, much less can any other. But whether so or no, this seems evident, that his senses were for that time utterly useless to him. If his body was not dead, it was all one as if it had been so, for any use his soul then made of it.
" f In ecstasies, all the senses and powers are idle, except the '' understanding." His soul, for that time, seemed to be disjoint- ed from the body, much as a flame of fire, which you shall some- times see to play and hover at a distance from the wood, and then catching the fuel again. Probably, this was that trance he fell into, in the temple, when he was praying, mentioned in Acts xxi. 17.