(1.) In its types. The types of the heavenly Canaan were manifold. I fhall name a few of them." 1. The earthly Canaan was a type of the heavenly and celestial Canaan. How magnificently does the Lord fpeak of Canaan! It is called a goodly land, a boly land, a land flowing with milk and honey; yet this land was but a type and shadow of the heavenly. 2. Paradife was a type of this heavenly Canaan. Tho' all the pleasant orchards and comely things in the world were united in one, they could not come that length as to compete with the earthly paradife, for pleasure and comeliness, when God placed our firft parents there in their innocent state. Yet what was it but a faint refemblance of the heavenly paradife? nothing but a fhadow of it. 3. The Sabbath was a type of this heavenly, happy, and eternal fabbath of reft. Indeed it is but a reftless rest the Lord's people have here; when they reft in the Lord at any time, their reft is foon difturbed: even tho' they can fay at times, Return to thy reft, O my foul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee; How foon does the devil and the ill heart, and the world, difquiet them again? But there remains a reft, a fabbatism, for the people of God, when they shall reft from their labour, rest from fin and forrow. 4. The tabernacle was a type of the heavenly Canaan; the Lord's prefence filled the tabernacle: O how does his glorious prefence fill heaven, and fill all the hearts of the heavenly inhabitants! Glorious things are fpoken of the earthly Zion; how much more glorious things, may be fpoken of the new ferufalem above! But then,

(2.) We may confider this heavenly Canaan in its epithets; as, 1. It is called a boufe, John xiv. 2. A manfion houfe, a prepared place. In my father's

boufe

boufe are many manfions; I go to prepare a place for you. O what a noble houfe is it, where glory dwells! What a brave houfe will it be, when the Father of the family will be in the midst of the house, and all his children about him, all his elect gathered together from all corners of the earth; where the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, Chrift himself the elder brother, and all the younger brethren will dwell together! 2. It is called the joy of the Lord. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Joy here enters into the believer, but there the believer enters into joy; he enters as it were into an ocean of joy, and it is the joy of his Lord Jefus. How great is the joy that our Lord entered into, as the reward of his obedience unto death? Of which it is faid, Heb. xii. 2. that, for the joy, that was fet before him, he endured the cross, &c. That fame joy the faints are to enter into; In thy prefence there is fulness of joy, &c. 3. It is called life, eternal life, Rom. vi. laft. The gift of God is eternal life through Jefus Christ our Lord. Life is fweet; and the more excellent the life is, the more fweet. A living flie is more happy, by reason of life, than the glorious fun in the firmament. The rational life is yet more fweet; the life of grace is yet fweeter than any of thefe: But the life of glory is fweetest of all, and this life is eternal, it is life for evermore. 4. It is called a kingdom, a heavenly kingdom, 2 Tim. iv. 18. The Lord fhall preferve me to his heavenly kingdom. Yea, fuch a kingdom, that here all the subjects are kings. One faid of Rome once, that it was Ref publica Regum, a commonwealth of kings; it is true of heaven, it is a commonwealth of kings, they are all kings and priests unto their God: And there all the kings have their crowns, a crown of glory,

glory, righteoufnefs and joy: They will have their thrones; To him that overcomes will I give to fit with me on my throne, &c. They will have their royal robes, their robes of glory and palms of victory. But again,

(3.) We may confider this heavenly Canaan in its parts. There are especially these four parts of heaven and glory mentioned in scripture, namely, vifion, likeness, love, fatisfaction. The first part of it, is the vifion of God, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Now we fee through a glafs darkly, but then face to face. Father, I will that thefe whom thou haft given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory. New cabinets of rich treasure will be opened up to them every moment to eternity. 2d part of it is likeness, which follows upon the former, John iii. 2. We shall be like bim, for we shall fee him as he is. This is the native fruit of beholding Chrift, to be thereby brought to conformity to him, 2 Cor. iii. laft. 3d part of it is love. This follows upon the former. Likeness breeds love, even upon earth; then will the faints be made perfect in love, 1 John iv. 18. O what flames of love will burn in heaven! Every faint will be a flame. 4th part of it is fatisfaction, which proceeds from the reft, Pfal. xvii. laft. I will behold thy face in righteousness; when I awake, I fhall be fatisfied with thy likeness. All this is begun on earth in the heirs of glory. The brighter view a believer gets of Chrift, the more likeness; the more likeness, the more love; and the more love, the more fatisfaction. But O when there fhall be perfect feeing, there will be perfect likeness; when perfect likeness, perfect love; and when perfect love, perfect fatisfaction and joy: Then the ranfomed of the

Lord fhall return, and come unto Zion with fongs, and everlasting joy upon their heads, &c. Ifa. xxv. 10.

(4.) We might confider this heavenly Canaan in its properties. It is another fort of inheritance than the earthly Canaan, 1. It is a glorious inheritance: It is glory itfelf; yea, an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. iv. 17. God, who is every where prefent, is there glorioufly. To make a weak allufion, the fun in the firmament is in this or that place, by his rays and beams; but in the firmament in a glorious manner: So God is here on earth in his grace, and the rays of his countenance; but in heaven in a glorious way, O there the faints are indeed all glorious within and without both; their bodies glorious like unto Chrift's glorious body, when once they are raised; their fouls glorious, becaufe perfect in holinefs. 2. It is a beavenly inheritance, therefore called a heavenly kingdom (as I faid) in oppofition to earthly kingdoms. There the great King is heavenly, the fubjects are heavenly, the work is heavenly, the reward heavenly, the company heavenly, the converse heavenly, all heavenly. 3. It is a purchased and promifed inheritance; called a purchafed poffeffion, Éph. j. 14. The crown is purchafed, the throne purchased, the robes purchased, and all purchased by the blood of the Lamb; which makes them fing that melodious fong, worthy is the Lamb that was flain. And as it is purchased so it is promised in Chrift before the world began, 2 Tim. i. 9. and Tit. i. 2. The earthly Canaan was a promised land; they had it by promife made to Abraham firft, and in him to them: So is heaven promised to Christ, and in him to all the fpiritual Ifrael. 4. It is an eternal inheritance, 1 Pet. i. 4. An inheritance incorruptible, undefiled,

defiled, and that fadeth not away. The earthly Canaan was but temporary, fubject to be laid defolate for the fins of the inhabitants thereof; and accordingly it was laid wafte, and remains so to this day: But the heavenly Canaan is an inheritance, that is not liable to corruption nor defilement, and therefore it fades not away. It cannot, like the former. be infested with enemies, or ill neighbours, nor with any plague or malady. The inhabitants of the land Shall not fay, I am fick. It is a place of perfect health, without any fickness; and a and a happy immortality, without any death, or fear of death: A bleft eternity; for when thousands, thousands, thousands of years are gone, their happiness is but beginning. Earthly kingdoms fade, and this world's monarchs die; but, in that everlafting kingdom, death is fwallowed up in victory. If it were to have an end after millions of years, it were enough to make them live in perplexity and trouble; but it is eternal and everlasting. There is a fhort description, from the word, of that heavenly Canaan.

THIRD H E A D.

The third thing is to fhow what nations of enemies and oppofitions are in the way to this heavenly Zion. See how many and mighty nations stood in the way of Ifrael's poffeffing the earthly Canaan, ver 1. of this chapter where our text lies. Seven nations greater and mightier than they: And, after they came to that land of promise, some of these, nations were suffered to dwell among them, particularly the Jebusites, that were like prickles in their eyes, and thorns in their fides. And, in process of time, God stirred up other nations against

them,