This thought is now come into my mind—that the triumphant
state of glory is but little understood, even after all the divine
descriptions given thereof in sacred revelation. Not that God cannot
tell—but man cannot hear; for when Paul was caught up to the third heaven,
and his ear opened to hear the Hosannas of the higher house, he says, he had
heard ineffable things, which it was not fit, proper, or becoming for a man
to reveal, because the language of eternity cannot be adapted to the dialect
of time. After all the pleasing and glorious metaphors used to represent
eternal felicity, still there is a deficiency, though neither from the
fullness of that felicity, nor the divine Relater—but from us who hear. Were
the definition too refined, the relation too sublime, we would not be able
to comprehend it. Therefore, things that make up the excellences of this
lower world, on which men fix their esteem, place their delight and settle
their affections—are chosen to illustrate it.
Hence it is called a kingdom—for there the King Eternal
keeps his court; there majesty and honor, glory and renown, are before his
face; there are vast dominion, noble privileges, sweet society, and mutual
connections.
But as a kingdom is subject to concern and change,
therefore it is called a crown of glory, which fades not away—an eternal
day, where saints shine as suns; a royal palace, where there is unceasing
harmony, and divine delight; an inheritance in light, and a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens.
And as paradise, or the garden of God, was the sum of
created perfection, from whence the first Adam was driven, so the heavenly
state is called paradise, being the place where the brightest display of
uncreated glory is given, and where the second Adam, Lord of all, has
entered. Gems, pearls, and precious stones, which men wear on their hands
and heads, are but the metaphors of their streets and walls, which are far
more excellent than those things that shadow them out. What, then, must be
the liberty, the privileges, the happiness of the inhabitants! But as death
destroys all possessions, and darkens the brightest day, therefore this is a
state of the most permanent bliss, immortal life, eternal vigor, and
perpetual bloom.
But as to live alone is not consistent with complete
happiness, or congruous to the human soul, that is not made to be alone; so
in the better country there is an innumerable company of angels, the general
assembly and church of the first-born, and God the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, in whose presence is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand are
pleasures for evermore. Rivers of living water, and the tree of life bending
with fruits of paradise, set out the sufficiency, satisfaction, and
abundance of spiritual refreshment and delight that abound there.
But still, there is something in the blessed state above,
which supplies the soul with the fullest tides of serenest rapture, ecstasy,
and joy—of which all these descriptions of felicity come infinitely short;
and that is, the vision and fruition of the Lamb, participation of the
divine nature, living in and with God, and communion with Jehovah—pitched up
to the highest degree of divine intimacy, carried on through eternity in an
uninterrupted out-going of the soul towards her supreme and chief good; and
receiving the divine emanations of all his adorable perfections, breathed by
the Holy Spirit into all the panting, enlarging affections, and powers of
the sanctified soul!
But what this is, who can tell? How shall finite and
infinite meet? Will God in very deed dwell with man and in man? Shall man in
very deed dwell in and with God? Shall a finite spirit have communion with
the Father of spirits? Oh! what remains to be revealed in that exalted
state, which has not yet entered into the heart of man! Prepare, my soul,
prepare for that felicity to come, which is sufficient to satisfy with
transport and delight—ten thousand heavens of seraphim, much more my shallow
mind!