VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. 197
joyful meeting will thei-e be between us and our Eedeemer ! it will be much sweeter than the interview between Jacob and Joseph. Christ longeth for the blessed hour as you do. The wise men came from far to see him in a manger ; Zaccheus climbed up the tree to see him riding to Jerusalem. There will be another manner of sight of Christ in heaven than there was of him in the days of his flesh. When Joseph discovered himself to his brethren, and said, Gen. slv. 4, ' I am Joseph, your brother,' what rejoicing was there ? Much more will there be joy in heaven when Christ shall say, I am Jesus, your brother, your Saviour, your Eedeemer ; when he shall lead us to God in a full troop and goodly company, and say, ' Behold, I and the children which thou hast given me,' Heb. ii. 13. What a blessed sight will that be ! Then as to the angels, what welcome will there be between you and them ! "When Christ entered into heaven, they entertained him with their applauses and acclamations: Ps. xxiv. 11, 'Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates ; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in ; ' so will they welcome the saints to heaven with acclama- tions. They delight in the good of men, in their creation, redemption, conversion, so surely will they delight in the glorification of a sinner. And as to the saints your acquaintance, with whom ye have prayed, suffered, and familiarly conversed, memory is not abolished in heaven, but perfected ; those whom we knew here, we shall know again. A minister shall see his crown, and the fruit of his labours: 1 Thes. ii. 19, ' You are our crown and our joy.' And those which have been relieved by us shall welcome us into heaven, who therefore are said to ' receive us into everlasting habitations,' Luke xvi. 9. Yea, we shall know those that we never saw ; why else is it made a part of our privilege ' to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaA-en? ' Mat. viii. 11. As Adam knew Eve as soon as he saw her, and in the transfiguration Peter knew Moses and Elias, who were dead many hundred years before, so shall we know one another ; certainly we shall not go to a strange people where we know nobody. As men at a feast are free and famihar with one another, we shall be discoursing of God's wisdom, mercy, and justice in the work of redemption. ISo did Moses and Elias talk with Christ : Luke ix. 30, 31, 'Behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.' Of the wonderful providence of God in conducting us to glory, as travellers in their inn take pleasure in discoursing with one another of the dirtiness and dangers of the way. The saints are clothed with majesty and glory, more lovely object than ever they were upon earth; and here is an innumerable company of them. With what joy were the disciples rapt when they saw but these two prophets, Moses and Elias ! Mat. xvii. 4. Heaven is called not only a palace, but a city, a world to come, where there is a multitude which no man can number. This for the parts of this happiness.
2. For the manner and degree of enjoying, it is full. We are filled with the fulness of God, and shall eternally lose ourselves in an ocean of sweetness ; the soul is more capable, stretched out to the greatest capacity of a creature, yet God filleth it. Here we have but a few
198' SERMONS UPON TITUS 11. 11-14. [SeR. XV.
drops, there we shall be filled up to the brim, and have as much as we can hold : Ps. xvii, 15, ' I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.' There shall be complete joy and satisfaction ; all want, sorrow, and sin shall be done away ; we shall enter into our master's joy. We do not say the sea entereth into a bucket or cup, or a river into a man. In heaven the soul is so full of joy and glory as is inex- pressible.
3. For the duration of it, it is eternal. Our happiness is immortal, we can never lose it, which doubleth the joy and contentment of that state. God's love is everlasting, and so shall our happiness be ; there will be no fear of losing it : Rev. xxii. 5, 'They shall reign for ever and ever.' We shall never lay aside our diadem of glory, it is a garland that shall not wither. It is not only a certain and eternal state, but a state of actual delights. Christ's manifestations are not lessened by enjoyment, but they are like the widow's barrel of meal and cruse of oil, never spent ; but we shall always have the actual comfort of his presence.
SERMON XY.
TJwit blessed hope, &c. — Titus ii. 13.
Use 1. For information in seven particulars —
1. That the children of God are not so miserable as they appear ; they have other hopes and enjoyments than are seen, a large estate that lies in an invisible country ; it is not terra incognita, a land unknown, but it is a land unseen. Pearls and precious things lie out of sight, so doth the glory and blessedness of a christian. Our happiness is a mystery to a carnal heart ; it lieth in another world : 1 John iii. 2, ' It doth not yet appear what we shall be.' Here we have a right, but the children of God are subject to the chances and accidents of the present world as well as others. Our happiness is only to be seen with a spiritual eye and with spiritual light : Eph. i. 18, ' The eyes of your understand- ing being opened, that ye may know what is the hope of your calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.' However christians seem in the eye of the world, mean, afilicted, despicable, yet they are blessed creatures. Look, as beasts know not the excellency of a man, so carnal men know not the excellency of the saints. The whore of Babylon, the corrupt church, is set out in her glorious outside with a golden cup, so carnal men, saith the apostle, 'make a fair show in the flesh,' Gal. vi. 12 ; that is, excel in pomp and worldly splendour ; but a christian's glory and blessedness is under a veil and disguise, which shall not be fully taken off till the day of judgment: Col. iii. 3, 4, ' Your life is hid with Christ in God : when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.' Look, as in a dark lantern the light is hid, till the cover be removed little of the brightness of the light is seen, so there is an eclipse upon