DR MANTON's funeral SERMON-, 13T
is better than life, so his displeasure is worse than death. How do they wrestle with God by prayers and tears, and offer, as it were, a holy violence to the king of heaven, to recover their first serenity of mind, the lost peace of heart ! How passionately do they cry out, with Job in the book of his patience, Job xxix. 2-4 ' Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me : when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness : as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle.' And sometimes God delays the revealing himself even to his dearest children ; not that he does not see their necessities and hear their prayers, or is so hard that till their extremities he is not moted with compassion, but for wise and holy reasons ; either that they may not return to folly, if by any presumptuous sin they for- feited their peace ; or if they have been careful to please him, yet he may deprive them of spiritual comforts for a time, to keep them humble, and that with an obedient resignation to his sovereign pleasure they may wait for his reviving presence. And then joy returns greater than before. For thus God usually renders with interest what he suspended only for trial. But the saints above are for ever enlightened witli the vital splendour and dear regards of his countenance, always enjoy hi.s beamy smiles. A continual effusion of glory illustrates heaven and all its blessed inhabitants.
And their contemplation of God is fixed. If the object, though extraordinary glorious, were transient, or the eye so weak that it could only see it but by glances, the height of joy would not be perpetual ; but the mind is prepared with supernatural vigour to see the brightness of God's face, and by the most attentive application always converses with that blessed object, so that the joy of heaven is never intermitted for a moment. They always see, and love, and rejoice, and praise him.
It is possible a carnal suspicion may arise in some, as if the uniform perpetual vision of the same glory might lose its perfect delightfulness ; for those who seek for happiness in the vanity of the creatures are always desirous of change, and have their judgments so corrupted, that while they languish with a secret desire after an unchangeable good, yet they conceive no good as desirable that is not changed.
But to correct this gross error of fancy, let us a little inquire into the causes of dissatisfaction, that make the constant fruition of the same thing here to be tedious.
(1.) Sensible things are of such a limited goodness, that not any of them can supply all our present wants, so that it is necessary to leave one for another. And the most of them are remedies of our diseased appetites, and, if not temperately used, are destructive evils. Eating and drinking are to extinguish hunger and thirst, but continued beyond just measure become nauseous.
Besides the insufficiency of their objects, the senses themselves can- not be satisfied all at once. The ear cannot attend to delightful sounds, and the eye cannot be intent on beautiful colours at the same time. The satisfaction of one sense defeats another of enjoying its proper good ; therefore the same object is not constantly pleasant, but the heart is distempered from as many causes as there are desires unaccomplished^
138 DR manton's funeral sermon.
Add further, all things under the sun afford only a superficial delight, and misei-ahly deceive the expectations raised of them ; and many times there is a mixture of some evil in them that is more offensive than the good is delightful. The honey is attended with a sting, so 1 hat of ten those things we sigh after through vehement desire, when Ihey are obtained, we sigh for grief. Now all these causes of dissatisfac- tion cease iu heaven; fori God is an infinite good, and whatever is truly desirable and precious is in him in all degrees of perfection. And in his presence all the powers of the soul are drawn out in their most plea- sant exercise, and always enjoy their entire happiness. The fi'uition of him exceeds our most raised hopes, as much as he is more glorious in himself than in any borrowed representations. God will be to us incomparably above what we can ask or think. The compass of our thoughts, the depth of our desires, are imperfect measures of his per- fections. As he is a pure good in himself, so he is prevalent over all evil. It is evident, therefore, that nothing can allay the joys of saints when they are in God's presence.
(2.) Novelty is not requisite to ingratiate every good, and make it perfectly delightful. 2(|od is infinitely happy, to whom no good was ever new. It is indeed the sauce that gives a delicious taste to inferior things ; for men relish only what is eminent, and the good things of this world are so truly mean, that they are fain to borrow a show of greatness by comparison with a worse estate preceding. But an iufinito good produces always the same pure, equal, complete joy, because it iirises from its intrinsic perfection, that wants no foil to commend it. The psalmist breaks forth, ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? ' This is no vanishing rapture, but a constant joyful height of affection. God, the essential ljap[)iuess of the saints, is always perfectly lovely and de- lightly to them,