(2dly.) The next evil is the evil of affliction. Whatever is painful and burdensome to nature is a fruit of the fall, a brand and mark of our rebellion against God ; therefore affliction must be done away as well as sin if we be completely happy. As in hell there is an evil, an only evil ; a cup of wrath unmixed, without the least temperament of mercy ; so in heaven there is happiness, and only happiness, sorrow is done away as well as sin ; it is said he will wipe all tears from their eyes. The afflictions of the soul are gone ; there are no more doubtings of God's love, nor sense of his displeasure ; here, though we are par- doned, and the wound be cured, yet the scars remain. As Absalom could not see the king's face when he was restored, in wise dispensation God sometimes hides his face from us ; we need to be dieted and to taste the vinegar and the gall sometimes, as well as the honey and sweetness. The world is a middle place, standing between heaven and hell, and therefore hath something of both, a mixture of pleasures and sorrows, both good and evil are to be received from the hand of God ; but there there is fulness of joy for evermore, Ps. xvi. 11. Here we complain that the candle of the Lord doth not shine over us with a like brightness, but there our sun remains in an eternal high noon, without clouds and the shadows of this night. The afflictions of the body are done away ; heaven is a happy air, where none are sick ; there is no such thing there as gouts and agues, and the grinding pains of the stone. The body here is called a vile body, Phil. iii. 21, as it is the instrument of sin and the subject of diseases. AVe have the root of diseases in the soul, and the matter and fuel of diseases in the body, peccant humours and principles of corruption. As wood is eaten out with worms that breed within itself, so are there in our bodies principles of corruption that do at length destroy them ; but there we are wholly incorruptible. Yea, because deformity in the body is a monument of God's displeasure, one of the inconveniences intro- duced by Adam's fall, it is done away. The bodies rise in due proportion ;
4G4 THE BLESSED ESTATE OF THEM [PiEV. XIV. 13.
whatever was monstrous or misshapen in the first edition is corrected in the second. And for violence without, lieaven is a quiet place. When there are tumults in the world, God is introduced, Ps. ii. 4, as f^iltinj:: in the heavens ; a quiet posture. There is nothing to discompose those blessed spirits. The company of wicked men is a burthen ; Lot's righteous soul was vexed with it, 2 Peter ii. 7 ; but there they are bound hand and foot and cast into utter darkness ; as when men will not be ruled, they are sent to pri.son. Here the children of God are subject to a number of infirmities, hunger, thirst, nakedness, cold, want ; but there we have a rich inheritance, as well as a glorious, Eph. i. 18. The distinctions of poor and rich, as understood in the world, do not outlive time ; we have enough of true riches, which is eternal glory, and the full fruition of God ; labour ceaseth, though there be a continual exercise of grace. All things rest when they come to their proper place ; so do those which die in the Lord. We still serve God, but without weariness ; yea, we are freed from the necessities of nature, eating, drinking, and sleeping, to which the greatest potentates are subject; though they are exempted from hard bodily labour, they are not exempted from the necessities of nature. ' Meat is for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them,' 1 Cor. vi. 12. The use of meats, and of the stomach, and of the belly is abolished. It is a piece of our misery that our life is patched up of so many creatures, as a toi-n garment is pieced and patched up with supplies from abroad. Here the sheep or the silkworm affords us clothing, the beasts of the earth and fish of the sea serve for food ; and all to support a ruinous fabric, ever ready to drop about our ears. But then we are above meat, and drink, and apparel ; nakedness will be no shame, for glory will serve instead of a robe, and it will be meat and drink enough to do our Father's will ; the body will not be a clog to tlie soul, but a help. That mass of flesh we carry about us is but the prison of the soul, where it looks out by the win- dows of the senses ; but then it is no longer the prison of the soul, but the temple. In short, all that I have said upon this branch is com- l)rised in Rev. xxi. 4, ' And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there is no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; for former things are passed away.' There is quite another change ; new dispensations ; no distraction of business ; our whole employment will be to think of God, and study God, but without weariness, satiety, or distraction.