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Happiness of Heaven
272. Happiness of Heaven.
(See also M 95) It is not only for want of sufficient accurateness,
strength, and comprehension of mind, that from the motion of any one
particular atom we cannot tell whether that ever has been that now is,
in the whole extent of the creation, as to quantity of matter, figure,
bulk, motion, distance, and everything that ever shall be.
477. Happiness of Heaven,
vide Notes on John 4:14.
576. Heaven’s Happiness.
If nothing be too much to be given to man, and to be done for man in the
means of procuring his happiness, nothing will be too much to be given
to him as the end, no degree of happiness is too great for him to enjoy.
When I think how great this happiness is, sometimes it is ready to seem
almost incredible. But the death and sufferings of Christ make
everything credible that belongs to this blessedness. For if God would
so contrive to show his love in the manner and means of procuring our
happiness, nothing can be incredible in the degree of happiness itself.
If all that God does about it be of a piece, he will also set infinite
wisdom on work to make their happiness and glory great in the degree of
it. If God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how
shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Nothing could have
been such a confirmation of their blessedness as this.
585. Heaven’s Happiness.
It has sometimes looked strange to me that men should be ever brought to
such exceeding happiness as that of heaven seems to be, because we find
that here providence will not suffer any great degree of happiness: when
men have something in which they hope to find very great joy, there will
be something to spoil it. Providence seems watchfully to take care they
should have no exceeding joy and satisfaction in this world. But indeed
this, instead of being one argument against the greatness of heaven’s
happiness, seems to argue for it. For we cannot suppose that the reason
why providence will not suffer men to enjoy great happiness here is that
he is averse to the creature’s happiness, but because this is not a time
for it. To everything there is an appointed season and time, and this
agreeable to God’s method of dispensation, that a thing should be sought
in vain out of its appointed time. God reserves happiness to be bestowed
hereafter, that is the appointed time for it, and that is the reason he
does not give it now. No man, let him be never so strong or wise, shall
alter this divine establishment by anticipating happiness before his
appointed time. It is so in all things. Sometimes there is an appointed
time for man’s prosperity upon earth, and then nothing can hinder his
prosperity; and then when that time is past, then comes an appointed
time for his adversity, and then all things conspire for his ruin, and
all his strength and skill shall not help him. History verifies this
with respect to many kings, generals, and great men: one while they
conquer all and nothing can stand before them (all things conspire for
their advancement, and all that oppose it are confounded), and after a
while it is right the reverse. So has it been with respect to the
kingdoms and monarchies of the world: one while is their time to
flourish, and then God will give all into their hands and will destroy
those that oppose their flourishing, and then after that comes the time
of their decay and ruin and then everything runs backward, and all
helpers are vain. Jer. 27.
701. Happiness of Heaven
Increasing. It is certain that the inhabitants of heaven do increase in
their knowledge, “the angels know more than they did before Christ’s
incarnation, for they are said to know by the church, i.e. by the
dealings of God with the church, the manifold wisdom of God: and to
desire to look into the account the gospel gives of the sufferings of
Christ, and the glory that should follow.” Ridgley’s Body of Divinity,
p. 61, 62. vol. 1.
721. Happiness of Heaven
after the Resurrection — Their External Blessedness and Delight. As the
saints after the resurrection will have an external part, or an outward
man, distinct from their souls, so it necessarily follows that they
shall have external perception, or sense, and doubtless then all their
sense and all the perception that they have will be delighted and filled
with happiness — every perceptive faculty shall be an inlet of delight.
Particularly then, doubtless, they will have the seeing, which is the
noblest of all the external senses, and then, without doubt, the most
noble sense will receive most pleasure and delight. This sense will be
immensely more perfect than now it is, and the external light of the
heavenly world will be a perfectly different kind of light from the
light of the sun, or any light in this world, exciting sensations or
ideas in the beholders perfectly different, of which we can no more
conceive than we can conceive of a color we never saw, or than a blind
man can conceive of light and colors, a sort of light immensely more
pleasant and glorious, in comparison of which the sun is a shade and his
light but darkness. And this world, full of the light of the sun, is a
world under the darkness of night, but heaven is a world of light
affording inexpressible pleasure and delight to the beholders, immensely
exceeding all sensitive delights in this world. That the light of
heaven, which will be the light of the brightness of Christ’s glorious
body, shall be a perfectly different sort of light from that of this
world, seems evident from Rev. 21:11, and that it will be so, and will
also be ravishingly sweet to the eye, is evident from the circumstances
of Christ’s transfiguration; (see Note on 2 Pet. 1:11, to the end); and
also from the circumstances of Moses’s vision of God in the mount. (See
Note on Exo. 33:18 to the end, No. 266.)
But yet this pleasure from external perception will, in a sense, have
God for its object, it will be in a sight of Christ’s external glory,
and it will be so ordered in its degree and circumstances as to be
wholly and absolutely subservient to a spiritual sight of that divine
spiritual glory, of which this will be a semblance, as eternal
representation, and subservient to the superior spiritual delights of
the saints. This is as the body will in all respects be a spiritual
body, and subservient to the happiness of the spirit, and there will be
no tendency to, or danger of, inordinacy, or predominance. This visible
glory will be subservient to a sense of spiritual glory, as the music of
God’s praises is to the holy sense and pleasure of the mind, and more
immediately so, because this that will be seen by the bodily eye will be
God’s glory, but that music will not be so immediately God’s harmony.
741. Happiness of Heaven.
There is scarce anything that can be conceived of or expressed, about
the degree of the happiness of the saints in heaven, the degree of
intimacy, of union and communion with Christ, and fullness of enjoyment
of God, for which the consideration of the nature and circumstances of
our redemption by Christ do not allow us and encourage us to hope. This
redemption leaves nothing to hinder our highest exaltation, and the
utmost intimacy, and fullness of enjoyment of God. Our being such guilty
creatures would be no hindrance, because the blood of Christ has
perfectly removed that, and by his obedience he has procured the
contrary for us in the highest perfection and glory. The meanness of our
nature need be no hindrance, for Christ is in our nature. There is an
infinite distance between the human nature and the divine. The divine
nature has that infinite majesty and greatness, whereby it is impossible
that we should immediately approach to that, and converse with that,
with that intimacy with which we might do to one who is in our own
nature. Job wished for a near approach to God, but his complaint was
that his mean nature did not allow of so near an approach to God as he
desired: God’s majesty was too great for him. Job 9:32, etc. But now we
have not this to keep us from the utmost nearness of access and intimacy
of communion with Christ. For to remove this obstacle wholly out of the
way, Christ has to come down, and taken upon him our nature. He is as
Elihu tells Job he was according to his wish. He is a man as we are, and
he also was formed out of the clay. This the church anciently wished
for, before it came to pass, to that end that she might have greater
opportunity of near access and intimacy of communion. Song 8:1, “O that
thou wert my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother, when I
should find thee without I would kiss thee, yea, I should not be
despised.” Christ descending so low in uniting himself to our nature,
tends to invite and encourage us to ascend to the most intimate converse
with him, and encourages us that we shall be accepted and not despised
therein. For we have this to consider of, that let us be never so bold
in this kind of ascending, for Christ to allow us and accept us in it
will not be a greater humbling himself than to take upon him our nature.
Christ was made flesh and dwelt among us in a nature infinitely below
his original nature, for this end, that we might have, as it were, the
full possession and enjoyment of him. Again, it shows how much God
designed to communicate himself to men, that he so communicated himself
to the first and chief of elect men, the elder brother, and the head and
representative of the rest, even so that this man should be the same
person with one of the persons of the Trinity. It seems by this to have
been God’s design to admit man as it were to the inmost fellowship with
the Deity. There was, as it were, an eternal society in the Godhead in
the Trinity of persons, and it seems to be God’s design to admit the
church into the divine family, so that which Satan made use of as a
temptation to our first parents, “Ye shall be as gods,” shall be
fulfilled contrary to his design. The saints’ enjoyment of Christ shall
be like the Son’s intimate enjoyment of the Father, John 17:21-24, “That
they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast
sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me have I given them, that they
may be one even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may
be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
and hast loved them, even as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou loved me before the
foundation of the world.” John 17:26, “That the love wherewith thou hast
loved me, may be in them, and I in them.” The Son’s intimate enjoyment
of the Father is expressed by this, that he is in the bosom of the
Father. So we read that one of Christ’s disciples leaned on his bosom,
John 13:23. These things imply not only that the saints shall have such
an intimate enjoyment of the Son, but that they, through the Son, shall
have a most intimate enjoyment of the Father. This may be argued from
this: that the way which God has contrived to bring them to their
happiness, is to unite them to the Son as members, which doubtless is
that they may partake with the head, to whom they are so united, in his
good. And so “our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus
Christ.” 1 John 1:3.
We have all reason to
conclude that no degree of intimacy will be too much for the manhood of
Christ, seeing that the divine Logos has been pleased to assume him into
his very person. And therefore we may conclude that no degree of
intimacy will be too great for others to be admitted to, of whom Christ
is the head or chief, according to their capacity. For this is in some
sort an example of God’s love to manhood, that he has so advanced
manhood. He has done this to the head of manhood, to show forth what
honor and happiness God designs for manhood, for the end of God’s
assuming this particular manhood was the honor and happiness of the
rest. Surely, therefore, we may well argue the greatness of the
happiness of the rest from it. The assumption of the particular manhood
of Christ was but as a means of the honor and advancement of the rest,
and we may well argue the end from the means, and the excellency of the
one from the excellency of the other.
Christ took on him our
nature, that he might become our brother, and our companion. The saints
are called Christ’s brethren, Heb. 2, and his followers. Heb. 1:9, “God
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Psa.
45:8. The Hebrew word properly signifies a companion and comes from a
root that properly signifies to consecrate, or to be joined with. This
teaches both the saints’ intimate converse with, and enjoyment of,
Christ, and their fellowship with him, or being joined with him in
partaking with him in his glory and happiness.
But nothing so much
confirms these things as the death and sufferings of Christ. “He that
hath not withheld his own Son, but hath freely delivered him up for us
all in death, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
If the consideration of the greatness of Christ’s condescension, in
taking on him our nature, invites us to ascend high in our intimacy with
him, and encourages us that he will condescend to allow us and accept us
in it, then much more does his so condescending and humbling himself as
he did in his last sufferings. No degree of the enjoyment of God that we
can suppose, can require grace and condescension that exceeds what was
requisite in order to God’s giving Christ to die, or will be a greater
expression of love. Christ will not descend lower, nor shall we ascend
higher, in having Christ for us, and giving himself to us in such a high
degree of enjoyment, than to give himself to us to be our sacrifice, and
to be for us in such a degree of suffering. It is certainly as much for
God to give his Son to bear his wrath towards us, as it is to admit us
to partake of his love towards him.
The latter in no respect
seems no more too much to do for a creature, and for a mean worthless
creature, than the former. Surely the majesty of God that did not hinder
the one will not hinder the other, especially considering that one is
the end of the other. We may more easily conceive that God would go far
in bestowing happiness on an inferior nature, than that he would go far
in bringing sufferings on an infinitely superior divine person, for the
former is in itself agreeable to his nature, to the attribute of his
goodness. But bringing suffering and evil on an innocent and glorious
person, is in itself, in some respect, against his nature. If,
therefore, God has done the latter in such a degree for those that are
inferior, how shall he not freely do the former? It will not be in any
respect a greater gift for Christ thus to give himself in enjoyment,
than it was for him to give himself in suffering.
The sufferings of Christ for believers, also argue the greatness of
intimacy with Christ, and fullness of enjoyment of him, that believers
shall have, as it shows the fullness of propriety they shall have in
him, or right that they have to him. Propriety in any person is just
ground of boldness of access and freedom in enjoyment.
The beloved disciple John
would not have made so free with Jesus Christ as to lean on his bosom,
had not he looked upon him as his own. Christ did in effect give himself
to the elect, to be theirs from eternity in the same covenant with the
Father, in which the Father gave them to him to be his. And therefore
Christ ever looked on himself to be theirs and they his; and Christ
looked on himself to be so much theirs that he as it were spent himself
for them. When he was on the earth, he had, in the eternal covenant of
redemption, given his life to them, and so looked upon it as theirs, and
laid it down for them when their good required it. He looked on his
blood as theirs, and so spilt it for them when it was needed for their
happiness. He looked on his flesh as theirs, and so gave it for their
life. John 6:51, “The bread I will give is my flesh.” his heart was
theirs; he had given it to them in the eternal covenant, and therefore
he yielded it up to be broken for them, and to spill out his heart’s
blood for them, being pierced by the wrath of God for their sins. He
looked on his soul to be theirs, and therefore he poured out his soul
unto death, and made his soul an offering for their sins. Thus he from
eternity gave himself to them, and looked on them as having so great a
propriety in him as amounted to his thus spending and being spent for
them. And as he gave himself to them from eternity, so he is theirs to
eternity. The right they have to him is an everlasting right: he is
theirs and will be forever theirs. Now what greater ground can there be
for believers to come boldly to Christ, and use the utmost liberty in
access to him, and enjoyment of him? Will it argue Christ to be theirs
in a higher degree, and for them to be admitted to the most perfectly
intimate, free, and full enjoyment of Christ, than for him so to be as
it were perfectly spent for them and utterly consumed in such extreme
sufferings, and in the furnace of God’s wrath.
Again: If his enemies were admitted to be so free with Christ in
persecuting and afflicting, and if Christ, as it were, yielded himself
wholly into their hands to be mocked and spit upon, and that they might
be as bold as they would in deriding and trampling on him and might
execute their utmost malice and cruelty to make way for his friends’
enjoyment of him: — then doubtless his friends, for whom this was done,
will be allowed to be as free with him in enjoying of him. He will yield
himself as freely up to his friends to enjoy him, as he did to be abused
by his enemies, seeing the former was the end of the latter. Christ will
surely give himself as much to his saints as he has given himself for
them.
He whose arms were
expanded to suffer, to be nailed to the cross, will doubtless be opened
as wide to embrace those for whom he suffered. He whose side, whose
vitals, whose heart was opened to the spear of his enemies, to give
access to their malice and cruelty, and to let out his blood, will
doubtless be opened to admit the love of his saints. They may freely
come even ad intima Christi, whence the blood has issued for them, the
blood has made way for them.
God and Christ, who have
begrudged nothing as too great to be done, too good to be given, as the
means of the saints’ enjoyment of happiness, will not begrudge anything
in the enjoyment itself.
The awful majesty of God
now will not be in the way to hinder perfect freedom and intimacy in the
enjoyment of God, any more than if God were our equal because that
majesty has already been fully displayed, vindicated, and glorified in
Christ’s blood. All that the honor of God’s awful majesty requires is
abundantly answered already, by so great sufferings of so great a
person. A sense of those wonderful sufferings of Christ for their sins
will be ever fixed in their minds, and a sense of their dependence on
those sufferings as the means of their obtaining that happiness.
Sufficient care is taken in the method of salvation, that all that have
the benefit of Christ’s salvation and the comforts and joys of it should
have them sensibly on the foundation, that with their joys and comforts
they should have a sense of their dependence on those sufferings and
their validity, and that comforts should arise on the foundation of such
a sense. And as God began to bestow comforts in this way here, so he
will go on in heaven, for the joy and glory of heaven shall be enjoyed
as in Christ, as the members of the Lamb slain, and the divine love and
glory shall be manifested through him. And the sense they will have of
this, together with a continued sight of the punishment of affronting
this majesty in those who were of the same nature and circumstances with
themselves, will be sufficient to keep up a due sense of the infinite
awful majesty of God, without their being kept at a distance, even
though all possible nearness and liberty should be allowed. All the ends
of divine majesty are already answered fully and perfectly, so as to
prepare the way for the most perfect union and communion without the
least injury to the honor of that majesty.
Though it might seem that
an admission to such a kind of fellowship with God perhaps could not be,
without God’s own suffering, yet when Jesus Christ, a divine person,
united to our nature, has been slain, way is made for it, seeing that he
has been dead. The veil is rent from the top to the bottom by the death
of Christ. Nothing of awful distance towards the believer can now be of
any use, the way is all open to the boldest and nearest access, and he
that was dead and alive again is ours fully and freely to enjoy.
Again: We may further
argue from the misery of the damned, as God will have no manner of
regard to the welfare of the damned, will have no pity, no merciful
care, lest they should be too miserable. They will be perfectly lost and
thrown away by God as to any manner of care for their good, or defense
from any degree of misery. There will be no merciful restraint to God’s
wrath. So on the contrary with respect to the saints: there will be no
happiness too much for them, and God will not begrudge anything as too
good for them. There will be no restraint to his love, and no restraint
to their enjoyment of himself. Nothing will be too full, too inward and
intimate for them to be admitted to, but Christ will say to his saints,
as in Song 5:1, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundance, O
beloved.”
Corollary 1. Humiliation.
Hence we may see a reason why humiliation should be required, in order
to a title to those benefits, and why such abundant love has been
exercised in all God’s dispensations with fallen man to make provision
for man’s humiliation and self-diffidence, and self-emptiness. Why it is
so ordered and contrived that it should not be by our own righteousness,
but altogether by the righteousness of another, viz. that there might be
the more effectual provision to keep the creature humble and in the
place of a creature in such exceeding exaltation; and that the honor of
God’s majesty and exaltation above the creature might in all be
maintained; and how needful it is to believe those truths; and how far
those doctrines are fundamental or important that tend to this; and how
much they militate against the design and drift of God in the
contrivance for our redemption, that maintain contrary doctrines.
Corollary 2. Hence we may
learn that a believer has more to be free and bold in his access to
Christ than to any other person in heaven or earth. The papists worship
angels and saints as intercessors between Christ and them, because they
say it is too much boldness to go to Christ, without some one to
intercede for them. But we have far more to embolden and encourage us to
go freely and immediately to Christ, than we can have to any of the
angels. The angels are none of them so near to us as Christ is: we have
not that propriety in them. Yea, we have a great deal more to encourage
and invite us to freedom of access to, and communion with, Christ, than
with a fellow worm. There is not the thousandth part of that to draw us
to freedom and nearness towards them, as there is towards Christ. Yea,
though Christ is so much above us, yet he is nearer to us than the
saints themselves, for our nearness to them is by him; our relation to
them is through him.
775. Happiness of Separate Saints. The proper time of Christ’s reward is
not till after the end of the world, for he will not have finished the
work of Mediator till then, but yet he has glorious rewards in heaven
before. The proper time of the angels’ reward is not till the end of the
world, and their work of attending on, and ministering to, Christ in his
humbled militant state, both in himself and members, or body mystical,
is not finished till them. But yet they are confirmed before, and have
an exceeding reward before. The proper time of the saints’ reward is not
in this world, nor is their work, their hard labor, trial, and
sufferings, finished till death. But yet they are confirmed as soon as
they believe, and have an earnest of their future inheritance, the
first-fruits of the Spirit, now. And so, though the proper time of
judgment and reward of all elect creatures is not till the end of the
world, yet the saints have glorious rewards in heaven immediately after
death.
777. Happiness of heaven
is progressive and has various periods in which it has a new and
glorious advancement and consists very much in beholding the
manifestations that God makes of himself in the work of redemption.
There can be no view or knowledge that one spiritual being can have of
another, but it must be either immediate and intuitive or mediate or
some manifestations or signs. An immediate and intuitive view of any
mind, if it be consequent and dependent on the prior existence of what
is viewed in that mind, is the very same with consciousness. For to have
an immediate view of the idea and exercises of any mind, consequent on
their existence, is the same as to have an immediate perception, sense,
or feeling of them as they pass or exist in that mind. For there is no
difference between immediate seeing ideas and immediate having them.
Neither is there any difference between a created mind’s immediate view
of the sense or feelings of a mind, either of pleasure or pain, and
feeling the same: therefore a mind without some union of personality. If
two spirits were so made of God, that the one evermore necessarily saw
all that passed in the other’s mind fully and perceived it as in that
mind, so that all the ideas and all the sense of things that was in one
was fully viewed by the other, or a full idea of all was necessarily
constantly excited in the one consequent on its being in the other and
beheld as in the other, those two would to all intents and purposes be
the same individual person. And if it were not constantly but only for a
season, there would be for a season an union of personality, and if
those seasons were determined by the will of one of them, viz. of him
whose ideas were consequent on those of the other, when he pleased to
turn the attention of his mind to the other, still the effect is the
same — there is for a season an union of personality. If the ideas and
sense that pass in one, though immediately perceived, yet are not fully
perceived, but only in some degree, still this does not hinder the
effects being the same, viz. an union of personality in some degree.
Therefore, there is no creature can thus have an immediate sight of God,
but only Jesus Christ, who is in the bosom of God. For no creature can
have such an immediate view of another created spirit. For if they
could, they could search the heart and try the reins, but to see and
search the heart is often spoken of as God’s prerogative, and as one
thing God’s divinity and infinite exaltation above all creatures appears
as God is called the invisible God, Col. 1:15; and the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, 1 Tim 1:17; and he that is invisible, Heb. 11:27;
and of whom it is said 1 John 4:12, “No man (in the original no one)
hath seen God at any time,” and 1 Tim. 6:16, “who only hath immortality
dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man (or no
one) hath seen or can see.” I say this being is doubtless as invisible
as created spirits, and it is not to be thought that gives no mere
creature to an immediate sight or knowledge of any created spirit, but
reserves it to himself and his Son as their great prerogative properly
belonging to them, as God would admit them to an immediate sight or
knowledge of himself, whom to know is an infinitely higher prerogative
of the only begotten Son of God, who is in the bosom of the Father.
Jesus Christ is admitted
to know God immediately, but the knowledge of all other creatures in
heaven and earth is by means or by manifestations or signs held forth.
And Jesus Christ who alone sees immediately, the grand medium of the
knowledge of all others, they know no otherwise than by the exhibitions
held forth in any by him as the Scripture is express, Mat. 11:27. “No
man (in the Hebrew, no one) knoweth the Son but the Father neither
knoweth any one the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him,” and John 1:18, “No one hath seen God at any time, the
only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared
him,” John 6:46. “Not that any one hath seen the Father save he which is
of God, he hath seen the Father,”.
That beatifical vision
that the saints have of God in heaven is in beholding the manifestations
that he makes of himself in the work of redemption. For that arguing of
the being and perfections of God that may be a priori do not seem to be
called seeing God in Scripture, but only that which is by manifestations
God makes of himself in his Son. All other ways of knowing God are by
seeing him in Christ the Redeemer, the image of the invisible God, and
in his works, or the effects of his perfections in his redemption and
the fruits of it (which effects are the principal manifestation or
shining forth of his perfections). And in conversing with them, by
Christ, which conversation is chiefly about those things done and
manifested in this work, if we may judge by the subject of God’s
conversation with his church by his Word in this world. And so we may
infer that business and employment of the saints so far as it consists
in contemplation, praise and conversation is mainly in contemplating the
wonders of this work, in praising God for the displays of his glory and
love therein, and in conversing about things appertaining to it.
934. Happiness of Heaven.
God doubtless will entertain his saints according to the state of the
King of heaven, when he comes to entertain them at the feast that he has
provided with such great contrivance and wonderful amazing exercises of
infinite and mysterious wisdom, showing the bottomless depths and
infinite riches of his wisdom, and with such great and mighty ado, and
innumerable and wonderful exercises of his power. In order to provide
this feast, he has created heaven and earth, and done all in all ages,
bringing such great revolutions in such an amazing wonderful series. And
besides that, he has come down himself from his infinite height and
become man, and also provided the feast at such infinite expense as that
of his own blood. We read of Ahasuerus, a great king, when he made a
feast unto all his princes and servants, he showed the riches of his
glorious kingdom, and the power of his excellent majesty, and gave drink
in vessels of gold, and royal wine in abundance, according to the state
of the king, Est. 1. So doubtless the happiness of the saints in heaven
shall be so great, that the very majesty of God shall be exceedingly
shown in the greatness, and magnificence, and fullness of their
enjoyments and delights.
1059. Happiness of Heaven.
That the happiness of the saints in heaven consists much in beholding
the displays of God’s mercy towards his church on earth, may be strongly
argued from those texts that speak of the just and the meek inheriting
the earth, and their having in the present time much more given of this
world, houses and lands, etc. than they parted with in the suffering
state of the church. It also may be argued from Christ’s comforting his
disciples, when about to leave them, that they should weep and lament
and the world rejoice, yet their sorrow should be turned into joy, as a
woman has sorrow in her travail, but much more than joy enough to
balance it when she is delivered; from its being promised to the good
man, Psa. 128, that he should see the prosperity of Jerusalem and peace
in Israel; from the manner in which the promises of the future
prosperity of the church were made of old to the church then in being;
and from the manner in which the saints received them as all their
salvation and all their desire, and are said to hope and wait for the
fulfillment from time to time.
1061. Happiness of Heaven
consisting much in beholding God’s works to wards his church on earth.
God says to David, 2 Sam. 7, “Thine house and thy kingdom shall be
established for ever before thee. Thy throne shall be established for
ever.” And a promise is made in the context concerning Solomon, that
must be understood in the same sense, 2 Sam. 7:12-13, “And when thy days
be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy
seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will
establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will
establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.”
This promise concerning his kingdom and the kingdom of his Son, its
being established forever after he was dead, is what David takes
principal notice of, and is most affected with, as implying this
greatest benefit, and speaks of other things conferred on him in his
lifetime as a small thing, in comparison of it, 2 Sam. 7:19-20, “And
this was yet a small thing, in thy sight, O Lord God; but thou hast
spoken also of thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is
this the manner of man, O Lord God? And what can David say more unto
thee? for thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant.” And this he insists upon
chiefly in his prayer, and in the following verses. and this he
elsewhere says is all his salvation and all his desire, or what he sets
his heart upon more than anything whatsoever. And the promise is renewed
to Solomon, 1 Kin. 9:5, “I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon
Israel for ever, as I promised unto David thy father; there shall not
fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.” And yet this same Solomon
was thoroughly aware how little a man is benefited by the thought and
hopes of what should be in the world after he is dead, which he shall
never see or enjoy anything of. And he speaks of it as a great instance
of men’s folly and vanity to set their hearts upon it and deprive
themselves of present good for it. Ecc. 2:24, “There is nothing better
for a man than to eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy
good in his labours;” and Ecc. 3:12-13, “I know that there is no good in
them but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. And also that
every man should eat, and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labours;
it is the gift of God.” Verse 22, “Wherefore I perceive that there is
nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for
that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after
him?” Ecc. 9:4-7, “A living dog is better than a dead lion — for the
dead — have no more a reward — neither have they any more a portion for
ever in anything that is done under the sun. Go thy way.”
The saints in heaven will
be under advantages to see much more of it than the saints on earth, and
to be every way more directly, fully, and perfectly acquainted with all
that appertains to it, and that manifests the glory of it: the glory of
God’s wisdom and other perfections in it. The blessed fruit and end of
it, in the eternal glory and blessedness of the subjects of the work of
God at that day, will be daily in their view, in those that come out of
dying bodies to heaven. And the church in heaven will be much more
concerned in it than one part of the church on earth shall be in the
prosperity of another.
The blessedness of the
church triumphant in heaven, and their joy and glory, will as much
consist in beholding the success of Christ’s redemption on earth, and in
as great proportion, as the joy that was set before Christ consists in
it, or as the glory and reward of Christ as God-man and Mediator
consists in it.
1072. Happiness of Heaven. The saints in heaven will enjoy God as their
portion, and possess all things in the most excellent manner possible,
in that they will have all in Christ their head. Christ their head is as
it were their organ of enjoyment, but the capacity of enjoyment that
this organ has, is of infinitely greater extent than the capacity of any
of Christ’s members taken separately or by themselves, as the head of
the natural body, by reason of its extensive and noble senses, has such
a much greater capacity of enjoyment than the inferior members of the
body by themselves. Were not the saints united to Christ, they could
never enjoy God the Father in so excellent a manner as now they will in
heaven, partaking with Christ in his enjoyment of him. And so they never
could possess all the works of God in so excellent and glorious a manner
as they do in their head, who has the absolute possession of all, and
rules over all, and disposes all things according to his will. For by
virtue of their union with Christ, they also shall rule over all. They
shall sit with him in his throne, and reign over the same kingdom, as
his body, and shall see all things disposed according to their will, for
the will of the head will be the will of the whole body. Christ being
their head, the gratifying of his will shall be as much for their
happiness, as if it were their own will separately that was gratified.
For they shall have no other will, as the natural body, head, and
members have but one will, and on the other hand, the holy desires of
the saints (as they will have no other desires) will be evermore
Christ’s will. The appetite of the members will ever be the will of the
head. If the whole universe were given to a saint separately, he could
not fully possess it, his capacity would be too narrow. He would not
know how to dispose of it for his own good, as the inferior members of
the natural body would not know how to dispose of things that the body
has possession of for their good, without the eyes or the head. And if
the saints did know, they would not have strength sufficient, but in
Christ their head they have perfect knowledge and infinite strength.
1137. Happiness of Heaven.
When God had finished the work of creation, he is represented as
resting, and being refreshed and rejoicing in his works. The apostle
compares the happiness Christ entered into, after he had finished his
labors and sufferings in the work of redemption, to this, Heb. 4:4, 10.
Therefore we may well
suppose that very much of Christ’s happiness in heaven consists in
beholding the glory of God appearing in the work of redemption, and so
in rejoicing in his own work and reaping the sweet fruit of it, the
glorious success of it, which was the joy that was set before him. And
as the apostle represents the future happiness of the saints by a
participation of God’s rest and Christ’s rest from their works, Heb.
4:4-11. This seems to argue two things, viz.
1. That the way that the
saints will be happy in beholding the glory of God, will be very much in
beholding the glory of his perfections in his works.
2. That the happiness of
the saints in heaven, especially since Christ’s ascension, consisting in
beholding God’s glory, will consist very much in seeing his glory in the
work of redemption. The happiness of departed saints under the old
Testament, consisted much in beholding the glory of God in the works of
creation, and in beholding which, “the morning stars sang together, and
all the sons of God shouted for joy.” But their happiness, since
Christ’s ascension, consists much more in beholding the glory of God in
the work of redemption, since the old creation, in comparison of this,
is no more mentioned, nor comes into mind. But they will be glad and
rejoice forever in this work.
The beatific vision of God
in heaven consists mostly in beholding the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ, either in his work, or in his person as appearing in the
glorified human nature.
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