4. The Present Benefit, which he had by his faith and hope of this future privilege, and of his great value for it; viz. that hence he received courage, assurance, and constancy of mind; agreeably to the proper import of the word which is rendered, we are confident. He is now giving a reason of that fortitude and immoveable stability of mind, with which he went through those extreme labours, hardships, and dangers, which he mentions in this course; so that, in the midst of all, he did not faint, was not discouraged, but had constant light, and inward support, strength, and comfort in the midst of all; agreeably to the sixteenth verse of the foregoing chapter," For which cause, we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." The same is expressed more particularly in the eighth, ninth, and tenth verses of that chapter, "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed;. we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus, might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." And in the next chap. ver. 4-10," In all things, approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."

Among the many useful instructions, which might be derived from the text, I shall at this time only insist on this :

The souls of Christians, when they leave the body, go to be with Christ.

They do this in the following respects:

I. They go to dwell in the same blessed abode with the glorified Human nature of Christ.

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The Human nature of Christ is yet in being. He still continues, and will continue to all eternity, to be both God and -His whole human nature remains: not only his soul, but also his body. His body rose from the dead; and the same that was raised from the dead is exalted and glorified at God's right hand. That which was dead is now alive, and lives for

evermore.

There is therefore a certain place, a particular part of the external creation, to which Christ is gone, and where he remains. -This place is the heaven of heavens: a place beyond all the visible heavens. Eph. vi. 9. 10, "Now that he ascended, what is it, but that he also desended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended, is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens." This is the same which the Apostle calls the third heaven, 2 Cor. xii. 2; reckoning the aerial heaven as the first, the starry heaven as the second, and the highest heaven as the third. This is the abode of the holy angels; they are called" the angels of heaven," Matth. xxiv. 36. "The angels which are in heaven," Mark xiii 32." The angels of God in heaven," Matth. xxii. 30. and Mark xii. 25. They are said always to behold the face of the "Father which is in heaven," Matth. xviii. 10. They are elsewhere often represented as before the throne of God, or surrounding his throne in heaven, and sent from thence, and descending from thence, on messages to this world. Thither it is that the souls of departed saints are conducted, when they die.--They are not reserved in an abode distinct from the highest heaven; a place of rest, which they are kept in, till the day of judgment; which some call the Hades of the happy: but they go directly to heaven itself. This is the saints' home, being their Father's house. They are "pilgrims and strangers" on the earth, and this is the" other and better country" to which they are travelling. Heb. xi. 13-16. This is the city to which they belong. Phillip. iii. 20. “Our conversation, or (as the word properly signifies) citizenship, is in heaven." Therefore this undoubtedly is the place to which the Apostle refers in the text, when he says, "We are willing to forsake our former house, the body, and to dwell in the same house, city or country, wherein Christ dwells;" which is the per import of the words of the original.-What can this house, or city, or country be, but that house; which is elsewhere spoken of, as their proper home, their Father's house, the city and country to which they properly belong, whither they are travelling all the while they continue in this world, and the house, city, and country where we know the human nature of Christ is; this is the saints' rest; here their hearts are while they live; and here their treasure is: "The inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away, that is designed for them, is reserved in heaven;" 1 Pet. i. 4. Therefore they never can have their proper and full rest till they come there. So that undoubtedly their souls, when absent from the body, (when the scriptures represent them as in a state of perfect rest) arrive there-Those two saints, who left this world, to go to their rest in another world without dying, viz. Enoch and Elijah, went to heaven.-Elijah was seen ascending up to heaven, as Christ was; and to the same resting place. is there all reason to think, to which those VOL. X.

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saints go, who leave the world, to go to their rest, by death. Moses, when he died in the top of the mount, ascended to the same glorious abode with Elias, who ascended without dying. They are companions in another world; as they appeared together at Christ's transfiguration. They were together at that time, with Christ in the mount, when there was a representation of his glory in heaven. Doubtless, also, they were together afterwards, with him, when he was actually glorified in heaven. Thither undoubtedly it was, that the soul of Stephen ascended, when he expired. The circumstances of his death demonstrate it, as we have an account of it, Acts vii. 55. &c. "He being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man, (i. e. Jesus in his human nature), standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him.-And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit." Before his death he had an extraordinary view of the glory which his Saviour had received in heaven, not only for himself, but for him, and all his faithful followers; that he might be encouraged, by the hopes of this glory, cheerfully to lay down his life for his sake. Accordingly, he dies in the hope of this, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." By which doubtless he meant," receive my spirit to be with thee, in that glory wherein I have now seen thee, in heaven, at the right hand of God." Thither it was, that the soul of the penitent thief on the cross ascended. Christ said to him, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Paradise is the same with the third heaven; as appears by 2 Cor. xii. 2-4. There, that which is called the third heaven in the second verse, in the fourth verse is called paradise. The departed souls of the Apostles and Prophets are in heaven; as is manifest from Rev. xxiii. 20. “ Rejoice over her thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets." The church of God is distinguished in Scripture, from time to time, into these two parts; that part of it, which is in heaven, and that which is in earth; Eph. iii. 14, 15." Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Col. i. 20. "And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." Now what "things in heaven" are they for whom peace has been made by the blood of Christ's cross, and who have by him been reconciled to God; but the saints in heaven? In like manner we read, Eph. i. 10. of "God's gathering together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him." The "spirits of just men made perfect" are in the same "city of the

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living God," with the "innumerable company of angels," and "Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant;" as is manifest by Heb. xii. 22-24. The church of God is often in Scripture called by the name of Jerusalem: and the Apostle speaks of the Jerusalem which is above, or which is in heaven, as the mother of us all; but if no part of the church be in heaven, or none but Enoch and Elias, it is not likely that the church would be called the Jerusalem which is in heaven.

II. They go to dwell in the immediate, full, and constant, sight or view of Christ.

When we are absent from our dear friends, they are out of sight; but when we are with them, we have the opportunity and satisfaction of seeing them. While the saints are in the body, and are absent from the Lord, he is in several respects out of sight, 1 Pet. i. 8. "Whom having not seen, ye love: in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing," &c. They have indeed, in this world, a spiritual sight of Christ; but they see through a glass darkly, and with great interruption; but in heaven, they see him face to face, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. "The pure in heart are blessed; for they shall see God," Matth. v. 8. Their beatifical vision of God is in Christ; who is that brightness or effulgence of God's glory, by which his glory shines forth in heaven, to the view of saints and angels there, as well as here on earth. This is the Sun of Righteousness, which is not only the light of this world, but is also the sun which enlightens the heavenly Jerusalem; by whose bright beams the glory of God shines forth there, to the enlightening and making happy of all the glorious inhabitants. "The Lamb is the light thereof; and so the Glory of God doth lighten it," Rev. xxi. 23. No one sees God the Father immediately. He is the King eternal, immortal, invisible. Christ is the Image of that invisible God, by which he is seen by all elect creatures. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him and manifested him. No one has ever immediately seen the Father, but the Son; and no one else sees the Father in any other way, than by the Son's revealing him. In heaven the spirits of just men made perfect see him as he is. They behold his glory. They see the glory of his divine nature, consisting in all the glory of the Godhead, the beauty of all his perfections; his great majesty, and almighty power, his infinite wisdom, holiness, and grace; and they see the beauty of his glorified human nature, and the glory which the Father hath given him, as God-man and Mediator. For this end Christ desired that his saints might "be with him, that they might behold his glory," John xvii. 24. When the souls of the saints leave their bodies, to go to be with Christ, they behold the glory of the work of Redemption, "which the an

gels desire to look into." They have the clearest view of the unfathomable depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God; and the brightest displays of the purity and holiness of God, which appears in that work. They see in a far clearer manner than the saints do here," what is the breadth and length, and depth and height of the grace and love of Christ," appearing in his redemption. As they see the unspeakable riches and glory of God's grace, so they clearly understand Christ's eternal and immeasurable love to them in particular. In short, they sec every thing in Christ which tends to inflame and gratify love in the most clear and glorious manner, without any darkness or delusion, without any impediment or interruption. Now thy saints, while in the body, see somewhat of Christ's glory and love; as we, in the dawn of the morning, see somewhat of the reflected light of the sun mingled with darkness: but when scparated from the body, they see their glorious and loving Redeemer, as we see the sun when risen, above the horizon, by his direct beams, in a clear hemisphere, and with perfect day.

III. They are brought into a perfect conformity to, and union with, Christ.

Their spiritual conformity is begun while they are in the body. Here, "beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the same image; but, when they come to see him as he is, in heaven, then they become like him in another manner. That perfect sight will annihilate all remains of deformity, and sinful unlikeness; as all darkness is annihilated before the full blaze of the sun's meridian light. It is impossible that the least degree of obscurity should remain before such light; so it is impossible the least degree of sin and spiritual deformity should remain, in such a view of the spiritual beauty and glory of Christ, as the saints enjoy in heaven. When they see the Sun of Righteousness without a cloud, they themselves shine forth as the sun, and shall be themselves as suns without a spot. Then Christ presents his saints to himself, in glorious beauty; "not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing;" and having holiness without a blemish. Then their union with Christ, is perfected. This also is begun in this world. The relative union is both begun and perfected at once, when the soul first eloses with Christ by faith.-The real union; consisting in the union of heart[and affection]and in the vital union; is begun in this world and perfected in the next. The union of the heart of a believer to Christ, is begun when his heart is drawn to Christ, by the first discovery of his divine excellence at conversion. Consequent on this is established a vital union with Christ; whereby the believer becomes a living branch of the true vine, living by a communication of the sap and vital juice of the stock and root; a member of Christ's mystical body living by a communication of spiritual and vital influences from the