Our affections, that are now scattered on many things, wherein some small reflections of his goodness appear, shall join in one full current in heaven, where God is all in all. We shall then understand the riches of his love, that God, who is infinitely happy in himself, should make man lor such a glory, and such a glory for man ; and that when for his rebellion he was justly expelled from paradise, and under a sentence of eternal death, God should please to restore him to his favour, and to give him a better state than was forfeited. We shall then understand our infinite obligations to the Son of God who descended from the heaven of heavens to our earth, and, which is more, from the majesty wherein he there reigned, from the glory wherein he was visible to the angelical minds, and became man for men, redemption for the lost, to purchase immortal life for those who were dead to that blessed life. In short, then God will express his love to us in the highest degrees that a finite creature is capable to receive from love itself, and we shall love him with all the strength of our glorified powers.
3. Complete satisfaction flows from union with God by knowledge and love : ' In his presence is fulness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for ever.' The causes and excellences of the heavenly life are in those words expressed. The causes are the influxive pre- sence of God, the revelation of his attractive perfections, the beholding his face, the declaration of his peculiar favour. This our blessed Lord himself had a respect to, as the complete reward of his sufferings : ' Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.' And his right hand his bounty, that dispenses, and his power that secures, that felicity. Tlie excellences of this state are fulness of joy, and that without diminution or end.
When the soul opens its eyes to the clear discoveries of the first truth, and its breast to the dear and intimate embraces of the supreme good, beyond which nothing remains to be known, nothing to be en- joyed, what a deluge of the purest pleasures will overflow it ! We
DR MANTON'S funeral SERMON. 131
cannot ascend in our tlionghts so liigli as to conceive the excess of joy that attends those operations of the glorified soul upon its proper object. But something we may conjecture.
[1.] Those who are possessed with a noble passion for knowledge, how do they despise all lower pleasures in comparison of it ! how do they forget themselves, neglect the body, and retire into the mind, the highest part of man, and nearest to God ! The bare apprehension of such things that by their internal nature have no attractive influence upon the affections is pleasant to the understanding. As the appear- ance of light, though not attended with any other visible beauties, refreshes the eye after long darkness ; so the clear discovery of truths, how abstract soever, that were before unknown, is grateful to the intel- lective faculty. Thus some have been strangely transported with the pleasures of a mathematical demonstration, when the evidence, not the importance of the thing, was so ravishing ; for what is more dry and barren of delight than the speculation of figures and numbers? Solon, when near his end, and some of his friends that visited him were speaking softly of a point of philosophy, by a sound of wisdom was awakened from the sleep of death that was just seizing on him, and opening his eyes, and raising his head to give attention, being asked the reason of it, answered, That when I understand what you are dis- coursing of, I may die.i Such was his delight in knowledge, that a little of it made his agony insensible. But here are many imperfec- tions that lessen this intellectual pleasure, which shall cease in heaven. Here the acquisition of knowledge is often with the expense of health ; the flower of the spirits, necessary for natural operations, is wasted by intense thoughts. How often are the learned sickly ! As the flint when it is struck gives not a spark without consuming itself, so know- ledge is obtained by studies that waste our faint, sensitive faculties. But then our knowledge shall be a free emanation from the spring of truth, without our labour and pains. Here we learn by circuit, and discern by comparing things; our ignorance is dispelled by a gradual succession of light ; but then universal knowledge shall be infused in a moment. Here, after all our labour and toil, how little knowledge do we gain! Every question is a labyrinth, out of which the nimblest and most searching minds cannot extricate themselves. How many specious errors impose upon our understandings ! We look on things by false lights, through deceiving spectacles. But then our knowledge shall be certain and complete. There is no forbidden tree in the celestial paradise, as no inordinate affection. But suppose that all things in the compass of the world were known, yet still there would be emptiness and anguish in the mind; for the most comprehensive knowledge of things that are insufficient to make us happy cannot afford true satisfaction. But then we shall see God in all his excel- lences, the supreme object and end, the only felicity of the soul. How will the sight of his glory, personally shining in our Eedeemer, in the first moment quench our extreme thirst, and fill us with joy and admiration ! It is not as the naked conception of treasures, that only makes rich in ideas ; but that divine sight gives a real interest in him.