First, Let's confider the Greatnefs and Vaftnefs of Understanding that a glorious God communicates to the Inhabitants of his Palace; there our Souls fhall be no longer like Angels, imprifoned in a Cage, as they are here; for here our Sight is limited, our Spirits be clogged with Duft our Quickness incompaffed with Flesh and Blood; but in thofe calmer Regions, our Souls will be delivered and freed from that dull Matter that now annoys them here, and be perfectly united to those brighter Bodies that fhall be bestowed upon them; no Impediments, no Clouds, no Mifts, no Darkness will there flop their Profpect; there our Souls will be all perfectly naked and perfectly pure; and all the Vails that cloud and darken them here, will there be done away; there they will be all Eye, all Ear, all Sagacity, all Intelligence, all Understanding; and what is Mystery now, will be Noon-Day then; there will be no Perplexity about God's Providence, no Doubts about his Difpenfations, no Scruples, no Dumpifhnefs, no Dulness nor Deadnefs will there difcompose them, but an everlasting, perpetual, vivacious Alacrity will attend them: And from hence,

Secondly, Will neceffarily arife a vaft ftupendous and prodigious Knowledge: Here we know but in part, and have but flender Notices of things; we converfe with Shadows and Appearance more than Realities; and not only our Senfes, but the very Objects we meet with all ferve to deceive and delude us; the Sciences we commonly boast of, are for the most part meer Conjecture; and here we content our felves with a meer Surface of things, and feldom pentrate into the Bottom; we grope in the dark,

and

and fearch after Truth, even then when we pretend we have discovered, it; but in Heaven, in the Manfions of Glory, we fhall truly be wife Philofophers; we shall fearch no more after Wisdom, but fhall there find what we here did feek; there God will unvail all the Mysteries of Grace and Nature; there the Gates of God's Secrets will be guarded no more with Nights and Gloominefs, but we fhall enter into the Benqueting-Houfe, and all the privy Doors of God's Chamber fhall fly open to us of their own, Accord, and what's beyond all this, we fhall know and fee God as he is. God will no longer dwell in Light which is inacceffible. Ask me not of what Nature that seeing of God, will be, and how our Souls, that at beft are but finite, fhall be able to comprehend him that is infinite? For there, I tell you, we shall not fo much comprehend God, as God will comprehend us; we shall be wrapped up in his Beams, and we shall not fo much penetrate his Effence as his Effence will penetrate us. And from hence, in the

3d Place, will neceffarily arise a vaft, prodigious and wonderful Satisfaction in the feeing of God. God is the best and greatest of Beings inthe World; to fee God, and to enjoy him, is one and the fame thing; and the Reafon is, because God is Light, and in him is no Darkness at all, as St. John informs us, 1 John L. Now to fee the Light, and to enjoy it, is one and the fame thing; there is a reflex Light, and there is direct Light: I behold Cities, Towns and Villages, Palaces, Mountains, Hills and Trees, by a reflex Light: But that doth not give me the Injoyment or Poffeffion, of them. But the Sun the Moon, and the Stars, I behold by a direct Light, A 4

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and at the fame time I fee them, I enjoy them here while on Earth in this Valley of Tears, we fee God by a reflex Light, a Light directed by the Creator or the Creature's Understanding; and that is the Reason why all that do fee God here enjoy him not, nor poffefs him. But in Heaven we shall fee God by a direct Light, and confequently enjoy him; the Light then will directly be on us, and the Iffue of it will be a Sweetness unconceiable. Have you not feen and taken Notice of a dark, black, ftinking and dismal Den, which by fome Accident or other the Sun hath found a way to pierce through and difplay its glorious Beams in it, how on a fudden a fweet and gentle Breeze of Air hath fill'd the hollow Places, and the Odoriferous Herbs that grew about it, diffusing their Sweetnefs into it, the Loathfomness of the Cave comes to be perfumed: By this Similitude and Refemblance you may in fome measure guess how God, in the Manfions of Glory, will vifit and enlighten our our Souls, and fill them with Light and Life: which I can exprefs by no better Light, than an Inundation of Light. Our Souls here are infatiable things, and do never say they have enough. But in the other World, they will be fo replenished, and fo fatisfied, as to be forced to confefs that they enjoy true Fulness and Plentitude. This perfect Enjoyment of God is nothing but an immediate Application of the Divine Nature and Effence to all the Faculties of the Soul, an Application wonderful fweet and ravishing, as you may have seen in a rich Compofition of Rofes, and Violets, and Odoriferous Herbs and Effences, or Harmonious Voices, or ra

vishing

vilhing Objects, or in things that have a delicious Taste and Relish how on a fudden it ftrikes the whole Soul, and diffufes its charming Sweetness through all the Senses; by this, I fay, you may be able to guess what that immediate Application of the Divine Nature to our Faculties will be. But this is not all: Therefore,

Fourthly, Imuft not forget to tell you here the Greatness of Virtues that there will be in those celestial Religions; all the Virtues that we see here practifed by good Men on Earth, will not be found to be in Heaven; for there they will rather be swallowed up of fomething greater and more excellent; or elfe, be refined into fomething morefublime; I fay, all Virtues that we fee here practifed by good Men on Earth, will not be found in Heaven: Faith can have no place there, for there we shall walk by Sight; nor hath Hope any thing to do there, for Hope is an embracing of Objects diftant and a far off; but there we fhall enjoy and poffefs what here we hope for: Humility, as it is a Sense of our own Unworthiness and spiritual Misery, can have no Admittance there; why? because we being in God, the most perfect Being, we can have no Sense of our Uuworthiness; and being perfectly happy, we cannot poffibly be fenfible of any fpiritual Mifer; Repentance is no Virtue in Heaven, why? because it confifts in a practical Sorrow for Sin; and how can Sorrow for Sin be where there is no Sin to bewail? Nor can Mortification of Sin be fuppos'd to have any Place there; for Mortification of Sin is a fubduing the unruly Defires of the Flesh, and there is no Flesh to rebel: Christian Fortitude, as it doth import a gene

generous Refiftance of Affaults, whether from the Devil or the World, must needs be useless there, where there is no Temptation, no wrestling no fighting,nor no combatting; nor can Patience be required of the Inhabitants in those Manfions of Glory; for there will be no Injuries offered to any one, therefore no need of bearing with or pardoning of them. Temperance cannot be expected there; for Temperance is a uifing of the things of this World with Moderation, which is there injoyed with Perfection. Nor will there be any need of Justice, which here we know is giving every Man their own, and diftributing of Rewards and Punishments; but in those Manfions, there is no need of exercising this Virtue, because every Man will be quietly contented with what he doth enjoy. Chriftian Prudence, must needs be useless there, because there will be no contriving, nor knowing how to escape the Danger we are in there; for all our Way there will be ftrew'd with Flowers. Nor can we think that Compaffion will be a Virtue there, because there will be no miferable Objects there; neither will there be need of Liberali, ty; because there will be no indigent Perfons. But one thing more I must tell you, all our Virtues here on Earth are grounded on our own or others Miferies; as upon our own Miferies, fo Faith is grounded on our Ignorance; Hope is grounded on our Neceffities, Repentance grounded, on our Sins, and Humility is grounded on our own Vilenefs; fo they are alfo grounded on the Mifery of others, as our Compaffi on is grounded on the Neceffities of our Neighbour; and Liberality on the want of others: But having thus run through the Circle of our Virtues in Heaven,

yet