[2.] We shall serve him perfectly, and without weakness, weariness, and distraction.
(1.) Here is weakness. What dull and low conceptions have we of God ! What heartless, irreverent, and poor expressions of his glorious excellency whenever we come to worship before him ! such as should make us ashamed to open our lips before the liord : Isa. vi. 5, ' Woe is me, for I am undone,' saith the prophet Isaiah, 'for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips ; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' Or as Job, chap, xl. 4, ' Behold I am vile ; what shall I answer thee ? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.' The best of God's servants, when their eyes are but a little opened to see the glory of that God they speak to, how sensible would they be of the shortness of their apprehension and expressions of that God they speak to ! Alas ! how can such narrow hearts frame an apprehension, or receive an impression of such an infinite greatness and eternal goodness as there is in God ! But when we shall see him as he is, then we shall better praise him, and conceive more suitably of him.
(2.) Here is weariness, and we cannot endure long under our weak duties, neither as to the frame of body nor mind ; but there God in communion is always new and fresh to us every moment. And the more we look upon the object, the more is the faculty fortified and strengthened in conversing with God : Mat. xviii. 10, ' In heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.' The blessed spirits are never weary of beholding God, and enjoying his glorious presence.
(3.) Here is distraction. We pretend, when we worship God, to leave the world, and turn the back upon all things else, and to set our- selves before the throne of God ; but alas ! we bring the flesh along with us, and that will have its excursions, and so our hearts are stolen away from under Christ's own arm. We mingle sulphur with our incense, groan under divers infirmities : ' We cannot do what we would do,' Gal. V. 17. But there is nothing to divert us from thinking of God ; there is no blemish in priest or sacrifice ; nothing will appear in us displeasing unto God, which is a comfort in our present weaknesses.
[3.] We shall then serve God uninterruptedly ; for tliere shall be no impediment of business, nor need of sleep. Here earthly occasions straiten Christ, and crowd up his interest in the soul, and we spend
102 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
almost half our time in sleep, not showing one act of thankfulness to God ; but then ' we shall he ever with the Lord,' 1 Thes. iv. 17. We shall always stand before his throne of glory, and abide in his blessed presence. Our labour shall not need repose, nor shall the night ever draw a curtain upon that day. There will be no miseries, wants, and necessities to distract us, and take off our minds. The whole strength of our souls is carried out to God, and our time is spent wholly and only in worshipping and serving God. Constant and perpetual solemn service is a celestial privilege, and they that serve God most uninter- ruptedly come nearest heaven, for there Christ is ever with us, and we ever with him : 2 Cor. v. 8, ' We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.' When absent from the body, we are present with the Lord, and shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
[4.] There we are admitted into a nearer communion with God than now in this mortal estate. We draw nigh to him now, but we are not so nigh but there is some distance ; but in the palace of glory our approach will be so near as to take away all distance, and we shall have immediate and full communion with God. Now God is in heaven and we upon earth, we receive no more of God than an ordinance can convey to us. Hei'e and there he droppeth in a little comfort and quickening into the soul ; the pipe cannot convey much, and the vessel can hold less ; the means are narrow, and the person is not capacitated to be filled up with all the fulness of God ; but then the Lord will do his work by himself, the means shall not straiten him ; God will communicate himself without means, and be instead of all means ; he will be all in all, and therefore will communicate his grace in full per- fection. The more we draw nigh to God here, the more like him. Moses, while he conversed with God in the mount, his face shone. Christ was transformed in his prayers : Luke ix. 29, ' And as he prayed, the ftishion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.' So by proportion in heaven ; the nearer we draw to God, the more we enjoy of him : 1 John iii. 2, ' When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' Per- fection of holiness is the glory and happiness of the saints in heaven ; as iron by lying in the fire seemeth to be all fire ; when it is red-hot the qualities of fire are imprinted on it; so we, by being ever with the Lord, and ministering in his presence, have more of the divine nature communicated unto us.