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ruption, and everlasting, or without end : text expresses it, 'there shall be no night there.' Let it be observed, that in the language of the holy writers, 'light' is often ascribed to intellectual beings, and is used as a metaphor to imply 'knowledge, and holiness, and joy.' Knowledge' as the beauty and excellency of the mind,' holiness' as the best regulation of the will,' and 'joy' as the harmony of our best affections in the possession of what we love : And in opposition to these, ignorance, iniquity and sorrow,' are represented by the metaphor of 'darkness.' Then we are in 'darkness' in a spiritual sense, when the understanding is beclouded or led into mistake, or when the will is perverted or turned away from God and holiness, or when the most uncomfortable affections prevail in the soul. I might cite particular texts of Scripture to exemplify all this. And when it is said, there shall be no night in heaven,' it may be very well applied in the spiritual sense; there shall be no errors or mistakes among the blessed, no such ignorance as to lead them astray, or to make them uneasy; the will shall never be turned aside from its pursuit of holiness, and obedience to God; nor shall the affections ever be ruffled with any thing that may administer grief and pain. Clear and unerring knowledge, unspotted holiness, and everlasting joy, shall be the portion of all the inhabitants of the upper world. These are more common subjects of discourse.

But I chuse rather at present to consider this word NIGHT, in its literal sense, and shall endeavour to

represent part of the blessedness of the heavenly state, under this special description of it. • There is no night there'.

Now, in order to pursue this design, let us take a brief survey of the several evils or inconveniences which attend the night, or the season of darkness here on earth, and shew how far the heavenly world is removed, and free from all manner of inconvenience of this kind.

1. Though night be the season of sleep for the relief of nature, and for our refreshment after the labours of the day, yet it is a certain sign of the weakness and weariness of nature, when it wants such refreshments, and such dark seasons of relief.' But there is no night in heaven. Say, O ye inhabitants of that vital world, are ye ever weary? Do your natures know any such weakness? Or are your holy labours of such a kind, as to expose you to fatigue, or to tire your spirits? The blessed above towards God as on eagles wings, they

mount up

run at the command of God and are not weary, they walk on the hills of paradise and never faint,' as the Prophet Isaiah expresses a vigorous and pleasurable state. Chap. xl. ver. last.

There are no such animal bodies in heaven, whose natural springs of action can be exhausted or weakened by the business of the day: There is no flesh and blood there, to complain of weariness, and to want rest. O blessed state, where our faculties shall be so happily suited to our work, that we shall never feel ourselves weary of it, nor fatigued by it.

state.

And, as there is no weariness, so there is no sleeping there. Sleep was not made for the heavenly Can the spirits of the just ever sleep, under the full blaze of divine glory, under the incessant communications of divine love, under the perpetual influences of the grace of God the Father, and of Jesus the Saviour, and amidst the inviting confluence of every spring of blessedness.

2. Another inconvenience of night, near akin to the former, is, that business is interrupted by it, partly for want of light to perform it, as well as for want of strength and spirits to pursue it.' This is constantly visible in the successions of labour and re. pose here on earth; and the darkness of the night is appointed to interrupt the course of labour, and the business of the day, that nature may be recruited. But the business of heaven is never interrupted; there is everlasting light and everlasting strength. Say, ye blessed spirits on high, who join in the services which are performed for God and the Lamb there, ye who unite all your powers in the worship and homage that is paid to the Father and to the Son, ye that mingle in all the joyful conversation of that divine and holy Assembly, say, is there found any useless hour there? Do your devotions, your duties and your joys, ever suffer such an entire interruption of rest and silence, as the season of darkness on earth necessarily creates amongst the inhabitants of our world.

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The living creatures* which are represented by John the Apostle, in Rev. iv. whether they signify saints or angels, yet they were full of eyes' that never slumber; 'they rest not day nor night;' this is spoken in the language of mortals, to signify, that they are never interrupted by any change of seasons, or intervening darkness in the honours they pay to God: They are described as ever saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." And the same sort of expression is used concerning the saints in heaven. Rev. vii. 15. "They who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple," i. e. they constantly serve or worship him in his holy temple in heaven. Perhaps the different orders .and ranks of them in a continual succession, are ever doing some honours to God. As there is no night there, so there is no cessation of their services, their worship, and their holy exercises, in one form or another, throughout the duration of their being.

Our pleasures here on earth are short-lived: If they are intense, nature cannot bear them long, any more than constant business and labour: And, if our labours and our pleasures should happily join and mingle here on earth, which is not always the case, yet night compels us to break off the pleasing

The word Za, which is translated beasts, signifies only animals or living creatures, and does not carry with it so mean and so disagreeable an idea as the word beaste in English.

labour, and we must rest from the most delightful business. Happy is that region on high, were business and pleasure are for ever the same among all the inhabitants of it, and there is no pause or entire cessation of the one or the other. Tell me, ye warm and lively Christians, when your hearts are sweetly and joyfully engaged in the worship of God, in holy, conversation, or in any pious services here on earth, how often you have been forced to break off these celestial entertainments by the returning night? But in the heavenly state there is everlasting active service, with everlasting delight and satisfaction.

Who can be

In that blessed world there can be no idleness, no inactivity, no trifling intervals to pass away time, no vacant or empty spaces in eternal life. idle under the immediate eye of God? Who can trifle in the presence of Christ? Who can neglect the pleasurable work of heaven, under the sweet influences of the present Deity, and under the smiles of his countenance, who approves all their work and worship?

3. As in our present world the hours of night' are unactive if we sleep, so they seem long and tedious when our eyes are wakeful, and sleep flies from us.' Perhaps we hear the clock strike one hour after another, with wearisome longings for the next succeeding hour: We wish the dark season at an end, and we long for the approach of morning, we grow impatient for the dawning of the day. But in heaven, ye spirits who have dwelt longest there, can ye remember one tiresome or tedious hour, through all

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