II. Secondly, I am to endeavour to fhew what that Life Eternal is. But who is fufficient for this? For eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them who love him-for them who are truly righteous. But God bath revealed a degree of that glory, a few rays of those heavenly beatitudes, to us; but thofe heavenly glimpses generally run in negatives, and are contrafted with the present state of things. As the two laft Chapters of Revelations open the eternal state of things to us, I fhall confine myself chiefly to what is faid there.

1. THE topography, or place, of this glorious blifs will, very probable, be this earth, after the Grand Conflagration; for it does not appear to me that the fire will annihilate, but refine, fo that there may be a new heaven, and a new earth, according to the divine promife, wherein righteousness shall dwell for evermore *. And this feems to quadrate with what the Apoftle John beheld, in that transporting view of the heavenly itate:And I faw a new heaven, and a new earth: for the first heaven and the firft earth were passed away; and there was no more sea : † That is, the whole frame and order of things were entirely changed, fo that it bore no refemblance of its former state. The antediluvian earch is fuppofed to have had no fea on its furface, but that the defruption thereof was at the Deluge, and is affigned as one cause of the deftroying flood, which deformed the face of the earth, and left it in its prefent ruinous ftate. But the purging fire having done its office, a beautiful frame will arife, a meet habitation for the spirits of juft men made perfect; and

Ff3

2 Pet. iii. 13.---Ifa. liv. 17.---xlvi. 22. + Rev. xxi. L.

to

to which they will repair after the Refurrection. For, I apprehend, the scene of that awful event will be in the region of the air, where the bodies of the faints will be re-united to their happy fouls again; and the general audit being over, each party will repair to their own place. And that the place will be within our solar system, and probably where the earth now is, appears to me from what follows:And I John faw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband*. The term, city, may either mean the glorious inhabitants, or the heavenly vehicle which Jehovah hath ordained for their eternal residence ; in both fenfes the Apoftle's words will hold good. For when the new earth is reftored, the divine apparatus, fo largely defcribed by the Apoftle, may be fixed upon it; fo that all may be in the form of a glorious city, which hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God : and both the city and its inhabitants may be faid to be like a bride adorned for her husband.

2. Ir will then be emphatically faid, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they fhall be his people, and God himself fhall be with them; t with them, vifibly, fenfibly, and eternally, and avouch himself, in very exprefs terms, to be their God, and their all. Who can adequately explain those bleffed and com. fortable words? Here is the ever-bleffed God reftoring all things! Here is full redemption, fo that the wreck and ruin, occafioned by the defection of the angels, remains no longer a dreary wafte, but a habitation is reftored

ftored for the True God, and-a refidence for bleffed fouls. The repairer of breaches reftores all things, and harmony, order, and fweet concord fhall for ever dwell.

2. AND God fhall wipe all tears from their eyes*. What a peculiar tenderness breathes in these sweet expreffions? God fhall wipe them away! how condefcending, how kind! Here, below, was their weeping-time; here they had tears of repentance, a godly forrow, which worked repentance unto life. Many a heavy groan; many a heart-felt pang! many a fleepless hour, wearifome night, and tedious day; but it is all forgotten, every tear is dried up, and all the forrow is chafed away. Here was weeping from a fenfe of in-bred corruptions, and infidelity to God-more or less back-fliding and grieving the Holy Spirit-matter of juft lamentation. But all is healed, and the gracious Fountain of all goodness puts it out of fight; heals every malady, and supplies every want; their back-slidings being thoroughly healed, and they are freely loved, yea, with an unchangable love. Here we grieve and mourn on account of the fin which we fee in others; we behold tranfgreffors, and are grieved; because God is dishonoured, the Redeemer's intereft is ftruck at; much mischief is done in the world, and millions are rushing on to eternal ruin; matter of real grief to every generous heart.

4. THERE fhall be no more death--another unspeakable advantage. It is fin which has introduced death; for that was the penalty which was threatened-In the day thou eateft thereof, that is, in the day thou tranfgreffeft, thou

fhalt furely die. Wherefore, as by one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin; and fo death passed upon all men, for that all have finned t. There is a three-fold death which fin hath introduced into the world; and that is, a fpiritual death, which has entered into all the human race, all being dead in trefpaffes and fins, the fruits of which daily appear. There is the death of the body, which no fooner begins to live than it begins to die, and, what adds to life, takes from it; like the oil in the lamp, it is continually wafting, till at length the flame dies out. There is what is called, the fecond death, fo called in reference to the dea.h of the body; but, as one expresses, it is the death that never dies"-that is, being caft into the lake of fire, which is the fecond death. But nothing of that can enter into life eternal, neither death, nor its forerunners, can have any accefs there; no, death, the laft enemy, is deftroyed-fwallowed up in endless life.

5. THERE jhall be no forrow. Life, here, is full of forrow; in forrow we are conceived and born ; in much forrow we are nurfed and brought up; and fo life is checkered with its long train of forrows, which can only terminate in death. But, in the land of life, forrow gives way to endless joy, and is never heard of any more-but joy, uninterrupted joy, fhall fucceed for ever. For the ranfomed of the Lord shall return to Zion with fongs, and everlafting joy shall be upon their heads : they shall obtain joy and gladness, and forrow and fighing fhall flee away 1. This is a land of forrow, a vale of tears; for man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble; for, being born

* Gen. ii. 16, 17. + Rom. v. 12,

Ifa. xxxv. 10.

born in fin, he is born to trouble as the Sparks fly upward. But there forrow ceaseth-there their Lord fees them again, and they have joy-joy which is no more taken from them.

"How happy the people that dwell

"Secure in the City above;

"No pain the inhabitants feel,

"Nor fickness, nor forrow, can prove."

6. THERE is no more crying. Crying is the expreffion of forrow, and this we find founding in all our streets. Loud are the complaints of man and beast under the iron hand of oppreffion, among the Turks, the gallies of France, and in Spanish America; and, I am forry to add, English America too-let our poor negroes, in the West Indian islands, avouch for what I am faying. The marks and fears of violence, which they bear, are dreadful witneffes of the fame. Indeed, the whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain, and panteth for deliverance. The cries of pain, poverty, oppreffion, and injuftice amongst ourselves, are very great. In fhort, we are ever complaining. The weather is either too wet or too dry; too hot or too cold; fo that there is a perpetual uneafinefs. O, happy region! where complaint fhall never be heard more and where the inhabitant shall no more fay, I am fick!-Complaints are exchanged for fongs of triumph to God and the Lamb for ever.

7. THERE fhall be no more pain, either of body or mind. In our present state of ruin, life is full of pain; there are many painful disorders, even more than names are invented for, and far more than cures are yet found out for; fo that the world is a great hofpital, full of patients,