2dly, For the blessedness of the soul, which is the heaven of heaven. Our happiness is called 'The inheritance of the saints in light.' Col. i. 12, for which we must be prepared. It is not for them that know no other heaven but to eat, drink, and sleep, and wallow in filthy and gross pleasures ; it is an inheritance in light, and for saints that know how to value intellectual and spiritual delights. Wherein, you will say, lies the happiness of the soul? in knowledge or love? Ans. Divines are divided ; certainly in both. Our happiness consists in the love of God, and knowledge of God, from whence results union with God, and fruition of God. It is hard to say which is to be preferred, to know God, or love God. In one place the scripture tells us, ' this is life eternal, to know the only true God,' John xvii. 3 ; so that it seems to be the heaven of heaven to have the understanding satisfied with the knowledge of God : Ps. xvii. 15, ' When I awake I shall be satisfied with thine image and likeness.' On the other side : 1 John iv. 16, ' He that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.' The embrace of the soul is by love, the possession of God is by acts of love. One saith (it may be not modestly enough), Libentius sine aspectu, et te diligerem, quam te videndo non amarem ^ — that he had rather not see God than not love him. Here in the world the hatred of God is worse than ignorance of him ; and therefore, it should seem, love should have the pre-eminence. But we need not make a faction between the graces ; by knowing we come to love, and by loving we come to know. As light is, so is love, and so is enjoyment. Here we love little because we know little : ' If thou knewest the gift,' &c., John iv. 10 ; and the more we love, the more we know. This is a fire that casts light. But to speak more distinctly : —
(1.) There is the perfection of knowledge. All the faculties must be satisfied before we can be happy ; especially so noble a faculty as the mind is. There is a natural inclination to knowledge; the soul takes a great deal of contentment in the contemplation of any truth. The knowledge of wisdom to thy soul (saith Solomon) shall be as the honeycomb when thou hast found it, Prov. xxiv. 13, 14 ; Eight and clear thoughts of God breed a rejoicing, Ps. xix. 10. Well, then, this is no small part of our ha])piness, to have more light and knowledge of God and of his ways. We shall know many mysteries of salvation that we are now ignorant of ; as the nature of God : Ps. xvii. 15, ' I shall be satisfied with thy image and likeness ;' the union of the two natures in the person of Christ : John xvii. 24, ' They shall behold my glory ;' our union with Christ and by Christ with God : John xiv. 20, ' In that day they shall know that I am in the Father,' &c. ; the course of God's decrees and ])rovidence8 for our good : 1 Cor. xiii. 12, ' We shall know as we are known ;' that is, we shall be able to see how the unchangeable counsels of God for our salvation have been
* Stella de Amore Dei.
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carried on through all the passages of the present life, to bring us safe to the heavenly state. These are the deeps of God, and now there is darkness upon the face of these deeps. The church is but a grammar- school ; heaven is the university. We shall have other eyes, and other light. Prophecy is but in part now, our intuition shall be then im- mediate : 1 John iii. 2, ' We shall see him as he is ;' now we see him not as he is, but as he is pleased to reveal himself ; now we see what he is not — not corruptible, not mortal, not changeable — rather than what he is. Now we see him as he is in us, and as he is in other creatures. We track him by the effects of his power and wisdom and goodness ; but then we shall see him as he is in himself, we shall see him face to face, 1 Cor, xiii. 12. In the creatures there is vesticjium, the track and footprint of God ; in the law there is umhra, a shadow ; in the gospel, imago, an image, a fair draught of God as in a picture ; but in heaven, face to face. We have excellent books ta study the large manifestations of his glory, the majesty of Christ's person ; we sliall always sit about the throne, and behold God in the face of the Lamb ; there God makes out himself in the highest manifestation that we are capable of.
(2.) Complete love. There is a constant cleaving of heart to God, without change and weariness ; a love that never ceaseth working, and yet God in communion is ever new and fresh to us. If we delight in anything here, we soon grow weary and have a change of objects. Here are distractions and startings aside to the creature ; but there is an eternal solace and complacency in God, a continual sabbath that never grows burdensome ; all the heart and bowels run out after Christ ; we never want the actual breathings of the Spirit. The Spirit came upon Samson at times ; so it doth upon us here. Motions are fleeting and vanishing ; but there Christ is a more lovely object, and the delights of the soul are carried out to him without any satiety. They are outward things that cloy the appetite ; as soon as we have them we despise them ; we sip, as the bee doth of the flower, and then goeth to a new flower. But there is an eternal complacency in Christ. Here we are troubled when we want outward comforts, and cloyed when we have them ; because curiosity is soon satisfied, and fruition discovers the imperfections of the creature, so that the more enjoyed they are, the less beloved ; as Amnon hated Tamar, &c. Imperfections that before lay hid, are then laid open to view, and so our affections are confuted by experience. But there the more we enjoy God, the more his infinite perfections are manifested, and the pleasure is aug- mented by enjoyment.