covery of them with superior delight, for bis eterna life is in them. John xvii. 3. “This is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and Je sus Christ whom thou hast sent." To know the Fa ther and the Son according to the revelation which they have given of themselves in the gospel, is not only the way to obtain life eternal, and consequently the business of the saints below, but the knowledge of this Son and Father in their natural glories, in their personal characters, in their sublime and mysterions relations to each other, and in their most amazing contrivances and transactions for the recovery of lost sinners, may be matter of the most pleasing inquiry and delicious contemplation to the angels themselves. 1 Pet. i. 12. "These are the things which the angels desire to look into." And the spirits of the just made perfect are employed in the same de lightful work; for which they have much more con cern, and a dearer interest in it.

We know something of God by the light of nature. The reason that is within each of us, shines like a slender candle in a private room, and gives us some twinkling and uncertain notions of our Creator. The notices that we obtain by the light of grace, or the gospel here on earth, are far brighter and surer, like the moon at midnight shining upon a dark world, or like the rise of the morning star, and the dawning of the day. But the knowledge which de parted spirits obtain of their Creator and their Re deemer in the light of glory, is far superior to that of nature and grace, as the lustre of the meridian sun exceeds the pale moon-beams, or the glimmer ing twilight of the morning.

This is what the apostle describes, 1 Cor. xiii. 912. For we know but in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a

man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." The imperfection of our knowledge in this world consists much in this, that we are lia ble to perpetual mistakes. A thousand errors stand thick around us in our inquiries after truth, and we stumble upon error often in our wisest pursuits of knowledge; "for we see but through a glass darkly, but then we shall know even as we are known, and see face to face;" that is, we shall have a more imme diate and intuitive view of God and Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, without such mediums as are now necessary for our instruction; we shall know them in a manner something akin to the way whereby God knows us, though not in the same degree of perfec tion; for that is impossible: yet in these respects our knowledge shall bear some resemblance to the knowledge of God himself, namely, that it shall be not merely a rational knowledge, by inferences drawn from his works, not merely a knowledge by narration, or report and testimony, such as we now enjoy by his word; but it shall be such a sort of knowledge as we have of a man when we see his face, and it shall also be a certain and unwavering knowledge, without remaining doubts, without error or mistake, O happy spirits that are thus divinely employed, and are entertaining themselves and their fellow-spirits with those noble truths and transporting wonders of nature and grace, of God and Christ, and things heavenly, which are all mystery, entanglement, and confusion to our thoughts in the present state !

II. This perfection consists in a glorious degree of holiness, without the mixture of the least sin; and in this sense it is perfect holiness.

All holiness is contained and summed up in the love and delightful service of God and our fellowcreatures...

When we attempt to love God here on earth, and

by the alluring discoveries of grace try to raise out affections to things of heaven, what sinful damps and coldness hang heavy upon us? What counter-allurements do we find towards sin and the creature, by the mischievous influences of the flesh and this world? What an estrangedness from God do the best of christians complain of? And when they get nearest to their Saviour in the exercises of holy love, they find perpetual reason to mourn over their distance, and they cry out often with pain at their hearts," What a cursed enemy abides still in me, and divides me from the dearest object of my desire and joy!" But the spirits of the just made perfect have the nearest views of God their Father, and their Saviour; and as they see him face to face, so (may I venture to express it) they love them with a union of heart to heart: "for he that is joined to the Lord," in the nearest union in heaven, may well be called one Spirit with him, since the apostle says the same thing of the saints on earth, 1 Cor. vi. 17. As our love of God is imperfect here, so is all our devotion and worship.

While we are in this world, sin mingles with all our religious duties: we come before God with our prayers and our songs, but our thoughts wander from him in the midst of worship, and we are gone on a sudden to the ends of the earth. We go up to his temple, and we try to serve him there an hour or two; then we return to the world, and we almost forget the delights of the sanctuary, and the God we have seen there. But the spirits of the just made perfect are "before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple," Rev. vii. 15. And though they may not be literally engaged in one everlasting act of worship, yet they are ever busy in some glorious services for him. If they should be sent on any message to other worlds, yet they never wander from the sight of their God; for if the guardian angels of children always behold the face of our heavenly

Father, Matt. xviii. 10. even when they are employ ed on their divine errands to our world; much moré may we suppose, that the spirits of just men made perfect never lose the blissful vision, whatsoever their employments shall or can be.

And as our acts of worship on earth, and converse with God, are very imperfect, so is our zeal and ac tivity for God extremely defective; but it shall be ever bright and burning in the upper world.

When we would exert our zeal for God on eartli, how many corrupt affections mix with that zeal and spoil it? Dead flies, which cause that noble ointment to send forth a stinking savour! How much of self, and pride, and vain ambition too often mingle with our desire to serve Christ and his gospel! Somé have preached Christ out of vainglory or envy; and a mixture of those vices may taint our pious minis trations. When we seem to drive furiously like Jehu to the destruction of the priests and the worship of Baal, too often the wildfire of our lusts and passions, our envy and wrath and secret revenge, join together to animate our chariot wheels. When we are ready to say with him, "Come and see my zeal for the Lord," perhaps God espies in our hearts too much of the same carnal mixture; for Jehu exalted the true God, that he might establish himself a king, 2 Kings x. 16. But the spirits of the just are perfect in zeal, and pure from all mixtures. Their very natures are like the angels, they are so many flames of sacred and unpolluted fire; the ministers of God that do his pleasure, and then hide their faces behind their wings; when they have done all for God, they fall down and confess they are nothing.

Temptation and sin have no place in those happy regións. These are the evils that belong to earth and hell; but within the gates of heaven nothing must enter that" tempteth, nothing that "defileth," Rev. xxi. 37. It is the mixture of sinful thoughts and idle words, sinful actions and irregular affections,

that makes our state of holiness so imperfect here below. We groan within ourselves, being burdened; we would be rid of these criminal weaknesses, these guilty attendants of our lives: but the spirits above are under a sweet necessity of being for ever holy; their natures have put on perfection; the image of God is so far completed in them, that nothing con trary to the divine nature remains in all their frame; for they see God in all the fairest beauties of his ho liness, and they adore and love. They behold him without a veil, and are changed into the same image from glory to glory," 2 Cor. iii. 18. If these words are applicable to the state of grace, much more to that of glory. They see "Christ as he is," and they are "made" completely" like him," 1 John iii. 2. which is true concerning the state of separate spirits, as well as the hour of resurrection.

As their love to God is perfect, so is their love to all their fellow-saints.

We try to love our fellow-creatures and fellowchristians here on earth; but we have so many cor rupt passions of our own, and so many infirmities and imperfections belong to our neighbours also, that mutual love is very imperfect. "Love is the

fulfilling of the law," Rom. xiii. 10. But we shall never fulfil that law perfectly till we are joined to the spirits of the just in glory, where there is no inhabitant without the flame of sacred love, no single spirit unlovely or unbeloved.

In those happy mansions, there is no envy raised by the perfections or the honors of our neighbour spirits; no detracting thought is known there, no reproachful word is heard in that country; and, perhaps, no word of reproach is to be found in the whole heavenly language. Malice, and slander, and the very names of infamy, are unknown in those regions; and wrath and strife are eternal strangers. No di vided opinions, no party quarrels, no seeds of discord are sown in heaven. Our little angry jars and con