■* Et totum se dedit universis et totum singulis. Ac pei- hoc quicquid passioue sua Salvator prtestitit, sicut totum ei debent universi, sic singuli ; nisi quod prope hoc plus singuli quam universi, quod totum acceperunt singuli quantum universi. — Salvian.
" Si audiat multitudo silens, non inter se particulatim comminunt sonos, tauquam cibos : sed omne quod sonat et omnibus totum est et singulis totum. — August, in Epist. ad Volusian.
134 DR MANTON'S funeral SER3I0N-.
I may so express it) the only-begotten of the Only-begotten himself, ihe sole heir of all the merits of his Son. Every saint may, with the iuflamed spouse, break forth in that triumph of love, ' My beloved is mine, and I am his.' Nay, the great number of the glorified saints is so far from lessening their joy, that it unspeakably increases it: 'The innumerable company of angels, and the general assembly of the church of the First-born,' next to the happiness of enjoying God, are u chief part of heaven. An unfeigned ardent affection unites that pure society. Our love is now kindled, either from a relation in nature, or isome visible excellences that render a person worthy of our choice and friendship ; but in heaven the reasons are greater, and the degrees of love incomparably more fervent. All carnal alliances and respects cease in that su})ernatural state. The apostle tells us, ' If I have known Christ after the flesh, I kuow him so no more.' By the resur- rection and ascension of Christ he was transported into another world, and had communion with him as an heavenly king, without low regards to the temporal privilege of conversing with him on earth. The spiritual relation is more near and permanent than the strictest band of nature. The saints have all relation to the same heavenly Father, and to Jesus Christ the Prince of peace, and head of that happy fraternity. The principal motive of love here is for the inherent excellences of a person. Wisdom, goodness, holiness, are mighty attractives, and produce a more worthy affection, a more intimate con- federacy of souls, than propinquity in nature. David declares that 'ail his delight was in the excellent.' But there are allays of this noble love here. For —
[1.] There are relics of frailty in the best men on earth, some blemishes that render them less amiable when discovered. Here their graces are mixed infirmities, and but ascending to glory. Accordingly our love to them must be regular and serene ; not clouded with error, mistaking defects for amiable qualities. But in heaven the image of God is complete, by the union of all the glorious virtues requisite to its perfection. Every saint there exactly agrees with the first exemplar, is transformed according to the primitive beauty of holiness. No spot or wrinkle remains, or any such thing, that may cast the least aspect of deformity upon them.
[2.] In the present state, the least part of the saint's worth is visible ; as the earth is fruitful in plants and flowers, but its riches are in the mines of precious metals, the veins of marble hidden in its bosom. True grace appears in sensible actions, but its glory is within. The sincerity of aims, the purity of affections, the impresses of the Spirit on the heart, the interior beauties of holiness, are only seen by God. Besides, such is the humility of eminent saints, that the more they abound in spiritual treasures, the less they show; as the heavenly bodies, when in nearest conjunction with the sun, and fullest of light, make the least appearauce to our sight. But all their excellences shall then be in view : ' The glory of God shall be revealed in them.' And how attractive is the divine likeness to an holy eye ! How will it ravish the saints to behold an immortal loveliness shining in one another ! Their love is mutual and reflexive, proportionable to the cause of it. An equal, constant flame is preserved by pure materials.
DR MANTON's funeral SERMON. 135
Every one is perfectly amiable, and perfectly enamoured witli all. Is^ow can we frame a fuller conception of happiness than such a state of love, wherein whatever is pleasant in friendship is in perfection, and whatever is distasteful by men's folly and weakness is abolished. The psalmist breaks out in a rapture, ' Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ! ' Love is the beauty and strength of societies, the pleasure of life. How excellent is the joy of the blessed, when the prayer of Christ shall be accomplished, that they all may be one ! ' As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.' God is absolutely one in his glorious nature and will, and therefore unalterably happy ; and their inviolable union in love is a ray of the essential unity between the sacred persons. There are no divisions of heart and tongues, as in this Babel, but the most perfect and sweetest concord, an eternal agreement in tempers and inclinations. There are no envious comparisons; for love, that affectively transforms one into another, causes the glory of every saint to redound to the joy of all. Every one takes his share in the felicity of all, and adds to it. Such is the power of that celestial fire wherein they all burn, that it melts, and mixes souls in such an entire union, that, by complaisance and an intimate joy, the blessedness of all is, as it were, proper to every one ; as if every one were placed in the hearts of all, and all in the heart of every one. If in the church of the first- born christians, in the earthly Jerusalem, the band of charity was so strict that it is said, ' the multitude of believers were of one heart and one soul ; ' how much more intimate and inseparable is the union of the saints in Jerusalem above, where every one loves another as himself !