But when the soul is arrived at heaven, we shall be all warm and fervent in our divine and delightful work. As there shall be nothing painful to the senses in that blessed climate, so there shall not be one cold heart there, nor so much as one lukewarm worshipper; for we shall live under the immediate rays of God who formed the light, and under the kindest influences of Jesus the Son of righteousness.' We shall be made like his angels who are most active spirits, and his ministers' who "are flames of fire." Psal. civ. 3. Nor shall any dulness or indifferency hang upon our sanctified powers and passions: They shall be all warm and vigorous in their exercise, amidst the holy enjoyments of that country.

In the 9th and last place, as night is the season appointed for sleep, so it becomes a constant periodical emblem of death, as it returns every evening.' Sleep and midnight, as I have shewn before, are no seasons of labour or activity, nor of delight in the visible things of this world: It is a dark and stupid scene wherein we behold nothing with truth, though we are sometimes deceived and deluded by dreaming visions and vanities: Night, and the slumbers of it, are a sort of shorter death and burial, interposed between the several daily scenes and transactons of human life. But in heaven, as there is no sleeping, there is no dying, nor is there any thing there that looks like death. Sleep, the image or emblem of death, is for ever banished from that world. All is vital activity there: Every power is immor

tal, and every thing that dwells there is for ever alive. There can be no death, nor the image of it, where the ever-living God dwells and shines with his kindest beams; his presence maintains perpetual vitality in every soul, and keeps the new creature in its youth and vigour for ever. The saints shall never have reason to mourn over their withering graces, languid virtues, or dying comforts; nor shall they ever complain of drowzy faculties, or unactive powers, where God and the Lamb are for ever present in the midst of them. Shall I invite your thoughts to dwell a little upon this subject?

Shall we make a more particular 'enquiry, whence it comes to pass that there is no night nor darkness in the heavenly city? We are told a little before the words of my text, that 'the glory of God enlightens it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. There is no need of the sun by day, or of the moon by night;' there is no need of any such change of seasons as day and night in the upper regions, nor any such alternate enlightuers of a dark world, as God has placed in our firmament, or in this visible sky. The inheritance of the saints in light is sufficiently irradiated by God himself, who at his first call made the light spring up out of darkness over a wide chaos of confusion, before the sun and moon appeared; and the beams of divine light, grace and glory, are communicated from God, the original foundation of it, by the Lamb, to all the inhabitants of the heavenly country. It was by Jesus his Son that God made the light at first, and by him he conveys it to all the happy worlds.

There is no doubt of this in the present heaven of saints departed from flesh, who are ascended to the spirits of the just made perfect.' It is one of their privileges that they go to dwell, not only where they see the face of God, but where they behold the glory of Christ, and converse with Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant,' and are 'for ever present with the Lord? who redeemed them. Heb. xii. 23, 24. 2 Cor. v. 8. Since his mediatorial kingdom and offices are not yet finished in the present heaven of separate souls, we may depend on this blessedness to be communicated through Christ the Lamb of God, and all the spiritual enjoyments and felicities which are represented under the metaphor of 'light,' are conveyed to them through Jesus the Mediator.

The sun, in the natural world, is a bright emblem of divinity, or the Godhead, for it is the spring of all light, and heat, and life, to the creation. It is by the influences of the sun, that herbs, plants, and animals, are produced in their proper seasons, and in all their various beauties, and they are all refreshed and supported by it. Now if we should suppose this vast globe of fire which we call the sun,' to be inclosed in a huge hollow sphere of crystal, which should attemper its rays like a transparent vail, and give milder and gentler influences to the burning beams of it, and yet transmit every desirable and useful portion of light or heat, this would be an happy emblem of the man 'Christ Jesus, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' It is the Lamb of God who, in a mild and gracious manner, conveys the blessings

originally derived from God his Father to all the saints. We partake of them in our measure in this lower world among his churches here on earth; but it is with a nobler influence, and in a more sublime degree, the blessings of paradise are diffused through all the mansions of glory, by this illustrious medium of conveyance, Jesus the Son of God; and there can be no night nor coldness, death nor darkness, in this happy state of separate souls.

When the bodies of the saints shall be raised again, and re-united to their proper spirits, when they shall ascend to the place of their final heaven and supreme happiness, we know not what manner of bodies they shall be, what sort of senses they shall be furnished with, nor how many powers of conversing with the corporeal world shall be bestowed upon them. Whether they shall have such organs of sensation as eyes and ears, and stand in need of such light as we derive from the sun or moon, is not absolutely certain. The Scripture tells us, it shall not be a body of flesh and blood: These are not materials refined enough for the heavenly state; "that which is corruptible cannot inherit incorruption." 1 Cor. xv. 50. But this we may be assured of, that whatsoever inlets of knowledge, whatever avenues of pleasure, whatever delightful sensations are necessary to make the inhabitants of that world happy, they shall be all united in that spiritual body which God will prepare for the new-raised saints. If eyes and ears shall belong to that glorified body, those sensitive powers shall be

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nobly enlarged, and made more delightfully susceptive of richer shares of knowledge and joy.

Or what if we shall have that body furnished with such unknown mediums, or organs of sensation, as shall make light and sound, such as we here partake of, unnecessary to us? These organs shall certainly be such, as shall transcend all the advantages that we receive in this present state from sounds or sunbeams. There shall be no disconsolate darkness, nor any tiresome silence there. There shall be no

night to interrupt the business or pleasures of that everlasting day.

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Or what if the whole body shall be endued all over with the senses of seeing and hearing? What if these sort of sensations shall be diffused throughout all that immortal body, as feeling is diffused through all our present mortal flesh? What if God himself shall in a more illustrious manner irradiate all the powers of the body and spirit, and communicate the light of knowledge, holiness, and joy, in a superior manner to what we can now conceive or imagine? This is certain, that darkness in every sense, with all the inconveniencies and unhappy consequences of it, is and must be for ever banished from the heavenly state. "There is no night there.'

When our Lord Jesus Christs hall have "given up his" mediatorial kingdom to the Father, "and have" presented all his saints spotless and without blemish before his throne, it is hard for us mortals in the present state, to say how far he shall be the everlasting medium of the communication of divine bless