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mation into the likeness of God! their love to the Lord being purged from the dross of self-love, fhall be moft pure; fo as they will love nothing but God, and in God. It fhall be no more faint and languishing, but burn like coals of juniper. It will be a light without darkness, a flaming fire without fmoak. As the live coal, when all the moisture is gone out of it, is all fire; fo will the faints be all love, when they come to the full enjoyment of God in heaven, by intuitive and experimental knowledge of him, by fight and full participation of the divine goodnefs.

Laftly, From this glorious prefence and enjoyment fhall arife an unfpeakable joy, which the faints fhall be filled with. In thy prefence is fulness of joy, Pfal. xvi. 11. The faints fometimes enjoy God in the world, when their eyes being held, that they cannot perceive it, they have not the comfort of the enjoyment; but then, all mistakes being removed, they fhall not only enjoy God, but rest in the enjoyment with inexpreffible joy and fatisfaction. The defire of earthly things breeds torment, and the enjoyment of them often ends in loathing. But though the glorified faints fhall ever defire more and more of God, their defires fhall not be mixt with the least anxiety, fince the fulness of the Godhead ftands always open to them; therefore they fhall hunger no more, they fhall not have the leaft uneafinefs, in their eternal appetite after the hidden manna: neither shall continued enjoyment breed loathing; they shall never think they have too much; therefore it is added, neither shall the fun light on them, nor any heat, Rev. vii. 16. The enjoyment of God and the Lamb will be ever freth and new to them, through the ages of eternity: for they fhall drink of living fountains of waters, where new waters are continually fpringing up in abundance, ver. 17. They fhall eat of the tree of life, which, for variety, affords twelve manner of fruits, and thefe always new and fresh, for it yields, every month, Rev. xxii. 2. Their joy thall be pure and unmixed, without any dregs of forrow: not flight and momentary, but folid and everlasting, without interruption. They will enter inte joy, Matth. xxv. 21. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. The expreffion is fomewhat unusual, and brings me in mind of that word of our fuffering Redeemer, Mark xiv. 34. My foul is exceeding forrowful unto death. His foul was befet with forrows, as the word, there used, will bear, the floods of forrow went round about him, encompaffing him on every hand; whitherfoever he turned his eyes, forrow was before him; it fprang in upon them from heaven, earth, and hell, all at once; thus was he entered into forrow, and therefore faith, Pfal. Ixix. 2. I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. Now wherefore all this, but that his own might enter into joy? Joy fometimes enters into, us now, with much ado to get acceís, while we are compaffed with forrows: but then joy fhall not only enter into us, but we ihall enter into it, and fwim for ever in an ocean of joy: where we will fee nothing but joy, whitherfoever we turn

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our eyes. The prefence and enjoyment of God and the Lamb will fatisfy us with pleasures for evermore: and the glory of our fouls and bodies, arifing from thence, will afford us everlasting delight. The fpirit of heavinefs, how clofely foever it cleaves to any of the faints now, fhall drop off then: their weeping fhall be turned into fongs of joy, and bottles of tears fhall ffe in rivers of pleafures. Happy they who now fow in tears, which shall spring up in joy, in heaven, and bow their heads there with a weight of glory upon them.

Thus far of the fociety in this kingdom of the faints.

X. In the last place, The kingdom hall endure for ever. As every thing in it is eternal, fo the faints fhall have an undoubted certainty and full affurance of the eternal duration of the fame. This is a neceffary ingredient in perfect happiness: for the leaft uncertainty, as to the continuance of any good with one, is not without fome fear, anxiety and torment ; and therefore is utterly. inconfiftent with perfect happiness. But the glorified fhall never have fear, nor caufe of fear, of any lofs: they fhall be ever with the Lord, Theff. iv. 17. They fhall all attain the full per wafion, that nothing fhall be able to feparate them from the love of God; nor from the full enjoyment of him, for ever. The inheritance referved in heaven is incorruptible; it hath no principle of corruption in itself, to make it liable to decay, but endures for evermore: It is undefiled: nothing from without can mar its beauty, nor is there any thing in itself to offend thofe who enjoy it: And therefore it fadeth not away; but ever remains in its native luftre, and primitive beauty, 1 Pet. i. 4. Hitherto of the nature of the kingdom of heaven.

SECONDLY, Proceed we now to speak of the admiffion of the faints into this their kingdom; where I fhall briefly touch upon two things, (1) The forinal admiffion, in the call unto them from the Judge, to come to their kingdom (2.) The quality in which they are admitted and introduced to it.

I. Their admiffion, the text fhews to be by a voice from the throne; the King calling to them from the throne, before angels and men, to come to their kingdon. Come and go are but short words: but they, will be fuch as will afford matter of thought to all mankind, through the ages of eternity; fiace upon the one depends everlasting happiness, and upon the other everlafting mifery. Now our Lord bids the worst of finners, who hear the gofpel, Come: but the most part will not come unto him. Some few, whofe hearts are touched by his Spirit, do embrace the call, and their fouls within them fay, Behold, we come unto thee: they give themfelves to the Lord, forfake the world and their lufts for him; they bear his yoke, and caft it not off, no not in the heat of the day, when the weight of it (perhaps) makes them fweat the blood out of their bodies. Behold the fools! faith the carnal world, whither

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are they going? But flay a little, O foolish world! From the fame mouth, whence they had the call they are now following, another call fhall come which will make amends for all, Come, ye bluffed of my Father, inherit the heaven.

The faints fhall find an expreffible fweetnefs in this call, to come. (1.) Hereby Jefus Chrift fhews his defire of their fociety in the upper houfe, that they may be ever with him there. Thus he will open his heart unto them, as fometimes he did to his Father concerning them, faying, Father, I will that they be with me, where I am, John xvii. 24. Now the travel of his foul ftands before the throne, not only the fouls, but the bodies he has redeemed: and they must come, for he must be compleatly fatisfied. (2.) Hereby they are folemnly invited to the marriage fupper of the Lamb. They were invited to the lower table, by the voice of the fervants, and the fecret workings of the Spirit within them; and they came, and did partake of the feaft of divine communications in the lower houfe: but Jefus Chrift in perfon fhall invite them, before all the world, to the higher table. (3.) By this he admits them into the manfions of glory. The keys of heaven hang at the girdle of our Royal Mediator: All power in heaven is given to him, (Mat. xxvii. 18.) and none get in thither, but whom he admits. When they were living on earth, with the rest of the world, he opened the everlasting doors of their hearts, entred into them himself, and hut them again; fo as fin could never re-enter, to reign there as formerly and now he opens heaven's doors to them, draws his doves into the ark, and fhuts them in there; fo as the law, death and hell, can never get them out again. The faints in this life were fill labouring to enter into that reft: but Satan was always pulling them back, their corruption always drawing them down; in fo much that they have fometimes been left to hang by a hair of a promife, (if I may be allowed the expreflion) not without fears of falling into the lake of fire: but now Chrift gives the word for their admiffion; they are brought in, and put beyond all hazard. Laftly, Thus he speaks to them, as the perfon introducing them into the kingdom, into the prefence-chamber of the Great King, and. unto the throne. JESUS CHRIST is the Great Secretary of heaven, whofe it is to bring the faints into the gracious prefence of God: and to whom alone it belongs to bring them into the glorious prefence of God in heaven. Truly heaven would be a ftrange place to them, if Jefus was not there: but the Son will introduce his. brethren into his Father's kingdom; they fhall go in with him to the marriage, Matth. xxv. 10.

II. Let us confider in what quality they are introduced by him. Firt, He brings them in as the bleffed of his Father: fo runs the call from the throne, Come ye bleffed of my Father, &c. It is Chrift's Father's house they are to come into: therefore he puts them in mind, that they are blessed of his Father; dear to the Father, as

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well as to himself. This is it that makes heaven home to them; namely, that it is Chrift's Father's houfe, where we may be affured of welcome, being married to the Son, and being his Father's choice for that very end. He brings them in for his Father's fake, as well as for his own: they are the blessed of his Father; who, as he is the fountain of the Deity, is also the fountain of all bleffings conferred on the children of men. They are these to whom God defigned well from eternity. They were bleffed in the eternal purpole of God, being elected to everlasting life: at the opening of the book of life, their names are found written therein. So that, bringing them to the kingdom, he doth but bring them to what the Father, from all eternity, defigned for them: being faved by the Son, they are faved according to his (i. e. the Father's) purpose, 2 Tim. i. 9. They are thefe to whom the Father has spoken well. He fpake well to them in his word, which must no receive its full accomplishment. They had his promise of the kingdom, lived and died in the faith of it: and now they come to receive the thing promifed, Unto them he has done well. A gift is often in feripture called a bleffing: and God's bleffing is ever real, like Ifaac's bleffing, by which faceb became his heir: they were all by grace juftified, fanctified, and made to perfevere unto the end; now they are raifed up in glory, and being tried, ftand in the judgment: what remains then, but that God crown his own work of grace in them, in giving them their kingdom, in the full enjoyment of himself for ever? Finally, They are thefe whom God has confecrated; the which alfo is a fcripture notion of bleffing, 1 Cor. x. 16. God let them apart for himself, to be kings and priefts unto him; and the Mediator introduceth them as fuch to their kingdom and priesthood.

Secondly, Chrift introduceth them as heirs of the kingdom to the actual poffeffion of it. Come, ye bleffed, inherit the kingdom. They are the children of God, by regeneration and adoption: And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Chrift, Rom. viii. 17. Now is the general affembly of the firit-born before the throne: their minority is overpaft, and the time appointed of the Father for their receiving of their inheritance is come. The Mediator purchased the inheritance for them with his own blood; their rights and evidences were drawn long ago, and registred in the Bible; nay, they had infeftment of their inheritance in the perfon of Jefus Chrift, as their proxy, when he afcended into heaven, whither the forerunner is, for us, entered,Heb vi.20. Nothing remain ech, but that they enter into perfonal poffeffion thereof, which begun at death, is perfected at the last day; when the faints, in their bodies as well as their fouls, go into their kingdom.

Laftly, They are introduced to it, as thefe it was prepared for from the foundation of the world. The kingdom was prepared for them in the eternal purpole of God, before they or any of them had a being, which fhews it to be a gift of free grace to them, It was

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from eternity the divine purpofe, that there fhould be fuch a kingdom for the elect; and that all impediments which might mar their access to it, fhould be removed out of the way; and withal, by the fame eternal decree, every one's place in it was determined and fet apart, to be referved for him, that each of the children coming home at length into their Father's houfe, might find his own place awaiting him and ready for him; as at Saul's table David's place was empty, when he was not there to occupy it himself, Sam. xx. 25. And now that the appointed time is come, they are brought in to take their feveral places in glory, fet apart and reserved for them, till they fhould come at them.

Use. I fhall fhut up my difcourfe on this fubject, with a word of application, (1.) To all who claim a right to this kingdom, (2.) To thefe who have indeed a right to it. (3.) To thefe who have not a right thereto.

First, Since it is evident, there is no promifcuous admiffion into the kingdom of heaven, and none do obtain it, but thefe whose claim to it is folemnly tried by the great Judge, and, after trial, fuftained as good and valid; it is neceffary that all of us impartially try and examine, whether, according to the laws of the kingdom, contained in the holy fcriptures, we can verify and make good our claim to this kingdom? The hopes of heaven, which most men have, are built on fucn fandy foundations, as can never abide the trial; having no ground in the word, but in their own deluded fancy: fuch hopes will leave thofe who entertain them, miferably difappointed at laft. Wherefore it is not only our duty, but our intereft, to put the matter to a fair trail, in time. If we find, we have no right to heaven indeed, we are yet in the way; and what we have not, we may obtain; but if we find we have a right to it, we will then have the comfort of a happy profpect into eternity; which is the greatest comfort one is capable of in the world. If ye enquire, How ye may know whither ye have a right to heaven, or not? I anfwer, ye muft know that by the State ye are now in. If ye are yet in your natural ftate, ye are children of wrath, and not children of this kingdom: for that ftare, to them who live and die in it, iffues in eternal mifery. If you be brought into the frate of grace, you have a juft claim to the state of glory; for grace will certainly iffue in glory at length. This kingdom is an inheritance, which none but the children of God can juftly claim: now we become the children of God, by regeneration and union with Chrift his Son; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Chrift, Rom. viii. 17. Thefe then are the great points, upon which one's evidences for the fate of glory do depend. And therefore I refer you to what is faid on the ftate of grace, for clearing of you as to your right ta glory.

If you be heirs of glory, the kingdom of God is within you, by virtue of your regeneration and union with Chrift. (1.) The king

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