SERM. will not only be moft pure, but fo various V. that the Novelty will be continually adding to the pleasure of the Enjoyment. The new fcenes of Knowledge which will be then opening to our Minds, I have before obferved, will be unspeakably astonishing to our Souls; and I may add, the new scenes of Pleasure that will be continually opening to our View will unmeasurably enhance our Felicity. New and unthought of Objects of Delight; new and strengthened Faculties to enjoy them! For the Faculties will not then be languid and feeble as they are now; nor Pleasures run in the fame perpetual Round they do now; but the one will be ever fresh, and the other ever new. For the infinite Fulness of the Deity will fupply the Soul that enjoys him with pleasures of everlafting Novelty. And it will not only enjoy what it never did here on Earth, but what it never once imagined itfelf capable of enjoying. 5. The Happiness of the Saints in Heaven will be an unenvied Happiness. A fmall degree of Eminence in this World, nay, a fancied Superiority may fometimes make a Man the object of Envy, Detraction, and V. and Obloquy. Not that Envy itself at all hurts SERM, the Person that is the Object of it; unless it break out (as indeed it too often does) into ill Words and ill Actions. For it is a Viper, which, though it may hifs at others, yet always turns it's Sting in upon itself. However, when it rises to a great degree, it may occafion Inconveniences, to the confiderable Diminution of the Comfort of those against whom it is directed. But there fhall be no fuch Abatements to the Felicity of the heavenly Saints; who fhall ever fhine with unenvied Luftre. Envy, Malice, and Malignity, the Brood of Hell, fhall hereafter be confined to those Regions of Darknefs and Horror, from whence they sprung, and can have no Entrance into that Land of Light and Glad nefs, where perfect Love and Joy, and Peace, for ever reign. That there will be degrees of Happiness in Heaven, is a point, I think, that cannot reasonably be difputed. But the higher degrees of Glory which fome will then enjoy above others will be fo far from raifing a Spirit of Envy in the latter, that it will rather be an Augmentation of their Felicity. They SERM. They will rejoice in the fuperior Happiness V. of their Fellow-faints, and partake of it ~ themselves. This, perhaps, may feem ftrange to us now, because we fee fo little of it here on Earth. But it will, it must be the Case hereafter; and we shall be fully fatisfied of it if we confider-How perfectly every one will then be brought to acquiefce in the righteous Awards of the final Judgment; when every one fhall receive according to his Works How impoffible it will be for even the mean→ eft Saint in Heaven to be obscured or eclipfed by the fuperior Luftre of another How fafe he is from being trampled upon, or defpifed by those of fuperior Rank; as the mean ones often are by the great ones of this World: which is often the chief cause of Envy-How infinitely small the Dif proportion will be between the meanest and the highest Saint, nay, the highest Angel, in Heaven, in comparison of the ineffable Glo ries of the great Redeemer and the ever bleffed GOD, which will be always before their Eyes, and infinitely eclipse and tran fcend them all--and, laftly, how fincere and ardent will be the Love, Friendship, and Bene Benevolence which they will all have for SERM. These things considered, I V. one another. fay, it will appear impoffible that the fuperioritity of the highest Saint in Heaven should excite the leaft degree of Jealousy or Envy in the lowest; but will rather be an Addition to his Happiness. And, bleffed be GOD! degenerate as our World is, we have fomething of this lovely Spirit ftill left amongst us; nor are there wanting Inftances of fuch entire Friendship, as difpofes a Man to be as well pleased with the Happiness that befals his Friend, as if it fell to his own Share; and he enjoys himself the better for it. Laftly, To crown all, this Joy will be everlafting. It will never know a Period, because it will be the Joy of the Lord (c); and therefore will be as perpetual as the Fountain from whence it flows, that is, everlasting. There will be no fear either of an Interruption, or a Period of it. The Death of all our earthly Joys is, that we must foon part with them. This blasts the Mifer's Hope; throws a Damp on VOL. II. I (c) Mat. xxv. 21. all SERM. V. be all the ambitious Man's Wishes; and chills the ardent Defires of the Voluptuary. That Thought, that this Night their Souls may required of them, ftrikes Thunder into their Hearts; and would make them cry out Vanity of Vanities! were they not themselves infatuated with that Vanity. But no fuch Worm lies at the root of the Tree of Life, which bloffoms in eternal Spring. Indeed the Thought itself would be intolerable. The very Poffibility of being ever brought down from fuch a Height of Happiness, or the very Apprehenfion of it's ever coming to an end, would be a Thought they could not bear (d). But their Happiness is made fure for ever by an immutable Decree ftampt with the Seal of Heaven. And O, what Gladness will ever fpring from this Thought! fo full of Rapture! which can only be heightened by this additional Confideration," that this Happiness "which the bleffed Saint is poffeffed of, " will (d) O, ye blefs'd Realms of permanent Delight! Young. |