CHAP. VI. The communion of angels aud saints in heaven affords the purest pleasure-Love unites them, and their love is greatly enlarged―The joy of heaven is without defect or end-The face of God always shines there, and the contemplation of it is fixed -The constant enjoyment of God in heaven does not lessen the delight of the saints—All causes of dissatisfaction cease-They have as lively a perception of their happiness for ever as in the begining of it. N heaven the innumerable company of angels, and the general assembly of the church of the First-born, as they receive happiness from the sight of God, so they communicate the purest pleasure to one another. An unfeigned ardent affection unites that pure society. Our love is now kindled, either from a relation in nature, or some visible excellencies that render a person worthy of our choice and friendship; but in heaven the reasons are greater, and the degrees of love incomparably more fervent. All carna. alliances and respects cease in that supernatural state. The apostle says of himself, If I have known Christ after the flesh, I know him so no more.' the resurrection and ascension of Christ he was transported into another world, and had communion By HEAVEN.] Angels and saints united. [CHAP. VI. with him as a heavenly King, without any regard to the temporal privilege of conversing with him on earth. The spiritual relation is more near and permanent than the strictest band of nature. The saints have all relation to the same heavenly Fa ther, and to Jesus Christ the Prince of peace, and head of that happy fraternity. The principal motives of love here, are the inherent excellencies of a person. Wisdom, holiness, goodness, fidelity are mighty attractives, and produce a more worthy affection, a more intimate confederacy of souls, than nearness in nature, or any other consideration whatever. Virtue is amiable in an old person, though wrinkled and deformed. Vice is hateful in a young person, though beautiful. There are clearer eyes than those of flesh, a purer light than what is sensible, a diviner beauty than what is corporeal, and a nobler love than what is seusual. David declares that all his delight was in the excellent. But there are alloys in this spiritual love here, for there are remains of frailty in the best men on earth, some blemishes that render them less amiable when discovered. Here their graces are mixed with infirmities, and but acsending to glory. Accordingly our love to them must be regular and serene, not clouded with error, mistaking defects for amiable qualities. But in heaven the image of God is complete, by the union of all the glorious virtues requisite to its perfection. Every saint there exactly agrees with the first exemplar; a divine beauty shines in them ever น CHAP. VI.] Angels and saints united. [HEAVEN. durable, a beauty that darts no contagious fire, but is inviolable and can suffer no injury. The apostle tells us, The church shall be glorious in holiness, without spot or wrinkle,' or any thing that may cast an aspect of deformity upon it. In the present state, the least part of the saints' worth is visible. As the earth is fruitful in plants and flowers, but its riches are in mines of precious metals, and the veins of marble bidden in its bosom. True grace appears in sensible actions, but its glory is within. The sincerity of aims, the purity of affections, the impresses of the Spirit on the heart, the interior beauties of holiness, are only seen of God. Besides, such is the humility of eminent saints, that the more they abound in spiritual treasures, the less they show. As the heavenly bodies when in nearest conjunction with the sun, and fullest of light, make the least appearence to our sight. But all their excellencies shall then be in view. The glory of God shall be revealed in them; and how attractive is the divine likeness to a holy eye. How will it ravish the saints to behold an immortal loveliness shining in one another? Their love is reciprocal, propor tionable to its cause. An equal constant flame is preserved by pure materials. Every one is perfectly amiable, and perfectly enamoured with all. How happy is that state of love. The Psalmist breaks out in a rapture. 'Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!' Love is the beauty and strength of societies, the pleasure HEAVEN.] Angels and saints united. [CHAP. VL of life. How excellent is the joy of the blessed, when the prayer of Christ shall be accomplished, that they all may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in, thee; that they also may be one in us.' God is absolutely One in his glorious nature and will, and therefore unalterably happy; and their inviolable union in love, is a ray of the essential unity between the Sacred Persons. There are no divisions of heart and tongue, as in this Babel, but the most perfect and sweetest concord, an eternal agreement in tempers and inclinations. There are no en vious comparisons; for love which effectually transforms one into another, causes the glory of every saint to redound to the joy of all. Every one takes his share in the felicity of all, and adds to it. Such is the power of that celestial fire in which they all burn, that it melts and nixes souls in such an entire union, that by complacence and an intimate joy, the blessedness of all is as it were proper to every one, as if every one were placed in the hearts of all, and all in the heart of every one. If in the church of the First-born among christians in the earthly Jerusalem, the band of charity was so strict that the multitude of believers were of one heart and of one soul; how much more intimate and inseparable is the union of the saints in Jerusalem above, where every one loves another as himself. It is recorded of Alexander that on entering with his favourite into the pavilion of the mother of Darius, then his prisoner, she bowed to the favourite, as having a greater appearance ot CHAP. VI.] Angels and saints united. [HEAVEN. najesty, and thinking him to be Alexander; but eing advised of her error, she humbly begged his pardon. The generous king replied, You do not err, mother; this is also Alexander.' Such was their affection that which ever of them attracted attention, the other was equally gratified; the less ascending in the greater, without degrading the greater in the less. This is a copy of the holy love of the blessed; but with the same difference as between the description of a star drawn with a coal, and its beauty in its proper aspect. And where all is love, all is delight; the act itself is its own reward. As that benign and pleasant affection is enlarged with respect to the object and its degrees, such is the complacence and delight that results from it. In that blessed society there is a constant receiving and returning of love and joy. This double exercise of the saints in the perfect circle of love, is like the pleasant labour of the bees, who all the day are flying to the gardens and returning to their hives, and all their art is in extracting the purest spirits from fragrant flowers, and making sweet honey. Oh how do they rejoice and triumph in the happiness of one another; and with what an unimaginable tenderness do they embrace! What reciprocations of endearment are between them. Oh their ravishing conversation and sweet intercourse! Their presence together in heaven is not a silent show. In the transfiguration, Moses and Elias talked with Christ: we may understand a little of it by the sensible complacency that |