[4.] All believers are, or should be, conversant in their minds about these things, with longings, expectations, and desires after nearer approaches unto them, and enjoyments of them. And if we are not so, we are earthly, carnal, and unspiritual ; yea, the want of this frame — ^the neglect of this duty — is the sole cause why many professors are so carnal in their minds, and so worldly in their con- versations. But this is the state of them who live in the due exercise of faith, — this they pant and breathe after, — namely, that they may be delivered from all darkness, unstable thoughts, and imperfect ap- prehensions of the glory of God in Christ. After these things do those who have received the " first-fruits of the Spirit," groan within themselves. This glory they would behold " with open face ;" not, as at present, " in a glass," but in its own beauty. What do we want ? what would we be at ? what do our souls desire ? Is it not that we might have a more full, clear, stable comprehension of the "wisdom,
244 THE PEESON OF CHRIST.
love, gi^ace, goodness, holiness, righteousness, and power of God, as declared and exalted in Christ unto our redemption and eternal sal- vation ? To see the glory of God in Christ, to understand his love unto him and valuation of him, to comprehend his nearness unto God, — all evidenced in his mediation, — is that which he hath promised unto us, and which we are pressing after. See John xvii. 23, 24.
[5.] Heaven will satisfy all those desires and expectations. To have them fully satisfied, is heaven and eternal blessedness. This fills the souls of them who are already departed in the faith, with admiration, joy, and praises. See Rev. v. 9, 10. Herein is the glory of Christ absolutely of another kind and nature than that of any other creature whatever. And from hence it is that our glory shall principally consist in beholding his glory, because the whole glory of God is manifested in him.
And, by the way, we may see hence the vanity as well as the idolati'y of them who would represent Christ in glory as the object of our adoration in pictures and images. They fashion wood or stone into the likeness of a man. They adorn it with colours and flourishes of art, to set it forth unto the senses and fancies of superstitious per- sons as having a resemblance of glory. And when they have done, " they lavish gold out of the bag," as the prophet speaks, in various sorts of supposed ornaments, — such as are so only to the vainest sort of mankind, — and so propose it as an image or resemblance of Christ in glory. But what is there in it that hath the least respect there- unto,— the least hkeness of it ? nay, is it not the most effectual means that can be devised to divert the minds of men from true and real apprehensions of it ? Doth it teach an5rthing of the subsistence of the human nature of Christ in the person of the Son of God ? nay, doth it not obliterate all thoughts of it ! What is represented thereby of the union of it unto God, and the immediate communica- tions of God unto it ? Doth it declare the manifestation of all the glorious properties of the divine nature in hun ? One thing, indeed, they ascribe unto it that is proper unto Christ, — namely, that it is to be adored and worshipped; whereby they add idolatry unto their folly. Persons who know not what it is to live by faith — whose minds are never raised by spiritual, heavenly contemplations, who have no design in religion but to gratify their inward superstition by theii- outward senses — may be pleased for a time, and ruined for ever, by these delusions. Those who have real faith in Christ, and love unto him, have a more glorious object for their exercise.
And we may hereby examine both our own notions of the state of glory and our preparations for it, and whether we are in any measure " made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." More grounds of this trial will be afterward suggested ; these laid down may not
VIEWS OF HEAVEN A TEST OF CHARACTER. 245
be passed by. Various are the thoughts of men about the future state, — the things which are not seen, which are eternal. Some rise no higher but unto hopes of escaping hell, or everlasting miseries, when they die. Yet the heathen had their Elysian fields, and Mo- hammed his sensual paradise. Others have apprehensions of I know not what glistering glory, that will please and satisfy them, they know not how, when they can be here no longer. But this state is quite of another nature, and the blessedness of it is spiritual and intellec- tual. Take an instance in one of the things before laid down. The glory of heaven consists in the full manifestation of divine wisdom, goodness, grace, holiness, — of all the properties of the nature of God in Christ. In the clear perception and constant contemplation hereof consists no small part of eternal blessedness. What, then, are our pre- sent thoughts of these things ? What joy, what satisfaction have we in the sight of them, which we have by faith through divine revela- tion ? What is our desire to come unto the perfect comprehension of them ? How do we like this heaven ? What do we find in our- selves that will be eternally satisfied hereby ? According as our de- sires are after them, such and no other are our desires of the true heaven,— of the residence of blessedness and glory. Neither will God bring us unto heaven whether we will or no. If, through the ignorance and darkness of our minds, — if, through the earthliness and sensuality of our affections, — if, through a fulness of the world, and the occasions of it, — if, by the love of life and our present enjoyments, we are strangers unto these things, we are not conversant about them, we long not after them, — we are not in the way towards their enjoyment. The present satisfaction we receive in them by faith, is the best evidence we have of an indefeasible interest in them. How foolish is it to lose the first-fruits of these things in our own souls, — those entrances into blessedness which the contemplation of them through faith would open unto us, — and hazard our everlasting en- joyment of them by an eager pursuit of an interest in perishing things here below ! This, this is that which ruins the souls of most, and keeps the faith of many at so low an ebb, that it is hard to discover any genuine working of it.