same proposition as in the text.

In this kind it is not at all cau

sal of this blessedness, but it is that which the free, and wise, and holy Law-giver thought meet, by his settled constitution (besides what necessity there is of it upon another account) to make requisite thereto. The conformity of our Lord Jesus Christ to that severer law, under which he is said to have been made, is that which alone causes, merits, purchases this blessedness; which yet is to be enjoyed, not by all indiscriminatim, or without distinction, but by such alone, as come up to the terms of the gospel; as he did fully satisfy the strict exactions of that other rigid law, by doing and suffering for their sakes.

2. Naturally, or in genere Physico. In this kind it may be said to be some way causal, that is, to be causa materialis dispositiva, by a proper positive influence, disposing the subject unto this blessedness, which that it shall, yet, enjoy, is wholly to be resolved into the divine good pleasure, but it is put by this holy rectitude in that temper and posture that it may enjoy it through the Lord's gracious vouchsafement; when without it, it were naturully impossible that any should. An unrighteous impure soul, is in a natural indisposition to see God, or be blessed in him. That depraved temper averts it from him, the steady bent of its will is set another way, and it is a contradiction that any (in sensu composito) should be happy against their wills, that is while that aversion of will yet remains. The unrighteous banish themselves from God, they shun and hate his presence. Light and darkness cannot have communion. The sun doth but shine, continue to be itself, and the darkness vanishes, and is fled away. When God hath so determined, that only the pure in heart shall see him; that without holiness none shall; he lays no other law upon holy souls, than what their own impure natures lay upon themselves. If therefore it should be inquired, Why may not the unrighteous be subjects of this blessedness, see God, and be satisfied with his likeness, as well as the righteous? the question must be so answered, as if it were inquired, Why doth the wood admit the fire to pass upon it, suffer its flames to insinuate themselves till they have introduced its proper form, and turned it into their own likeness: but we see water doth not so, but violently resists its first approaches, and declines all commerce with it? The natures of these agree not. And is not the contrariety here as great. We have then the qualified subjects of this blessedness, and are next to consider this blessedness itself.

CHAPTER III.

I. The next thing proposed in the preceding chapter which was Secondly, to show the nature of this blessedness, which is considered, in the three ingredients (here mentioned) whereof it consists. 1. Vision of God's face. 2. Assimilation to him. 3. The satisfaction resulting thence. II. These propounded to be considered, First. Absolutely and singly each by itself. Secondly. Relatively, in their mutual respects to each other. The first of these, Vision of God's face, discoursed of. 1. The Object. 2. The Act.

I. Now for the nature of this blessedness, or the inquiry wherein it lies, so far as the text gives us any account of it, we are here invited to turn our thoughts and discourse to it. And we have it here represented to us in all the particulars that can be supposed to have any nearer interest in the business of blessedness, or to be more intimate and intrinsical thereunto. For (the beatific object supposed) what more can be necessary to actual, complete, formal blessedness, than the sight of it, an adaption or assimilation to it, (which is nothing else but its being actually communicated and imparted to the soul, its being united and made as it were one with it) and the complacential fruition the soul hath of it so communicated, or having so transformed it into itself?

And these three are manifestly contained in the text (the beatific object being involved with them) the first in the former clause; "I shall behold thy face;" the second and third in the latter, "I shall be satisfied with thy likeness;" where, being made like to God hath been discovered to be supposed; and the satisfaction, the pleasant contentful relishes consequent thereto, plainly expressed. We shall therefore have stated the entire nature of this blessedness in the handling of these three things; -vision of the face of God:-participation of his likeness, and -satisfaction therein.

II. And I shall choose to consider them absolutely, and singly, each by itself, and relatively, in the mutual respects (by way of influence and dependance) they may be found to have towards each other. Therefore,

First, in the absolute consideration of them severally we begin with

1. The vision of God's face, where-the object; The face of God, and, the act of seeing and beholding it, are distinctly to be spoken to.

(1.) The object of this vision, the face of God which is his glory represented, offered to view. And this objected or exhibited glory is twofold:-sensible, such as shall incur and gratify (after the resurrection) the bodily eye, and-intellectual, or intelligible; that spiritual glory that only comes under the view and contemplation of the glorified mind.

[1.] A sensible glory (to begin with what is lower) is fitly in our way to be taken notice of, and may well be comprehended (as its less principal intendment) within the significancy of the expression; the face of God. So indeed it doth evidently signify, Exod. 33. 11. And if we look to the notation of the word, and its frequent use as applied to God, it may commodiously enough, and will often be found to signify, in a larger and more extended sense, any aspect or appearance of God. And though it may be understood (ver. 23.) of that chapter, to signify an over-coming spiritual glory, as the principal thing there intended, such as no soul dwelling in flesh could behold, without rending the vail, and breaking all to pieces; yet, even there also, may such a degree of sensible glory be secondarily intended, as it was not consistent with a state of mortality to be able to bear. And supposing the other expression "Thy likeness;" to signify, in any part, the objective glory saints are to behold; it is very capable of being extended so far, as to take in a sensible appearance of glory also, which it doth in these words, "The similitude of the Lord shall he behold:" (Numb. 12. 8.) yet even that glory also was transformative and impressive of itself: Moses so long conversed with it, till he became uncapable, for the present, of conversing with men, as you know the story relates. Ezek. 1. 28. Exod. 34, 35, &c.

Such a glory as this, though it belong not to the being of God, yet it may be some umbrage of him, a more shadowy representation, as a man's garments are of the man, which is the allusion in that of the Psalmist, That art clothed with majesty and honor: Thou coverest thyself with light as with a garment. Psal. 104. 1, 2. And inasmuch as that spiritual body (the house not made with hands, 2, Cor. 5. 1.) wherewith the blessed are to be clothed upon, must then be understood to have its proper sensitive powers and organs *refined to that degree, as may be agreeable to a state of glory; so must these have their suitable objects to converse with. A faculty without an object, is not possible in nature, and is altogether inconsistent with a state of blessedness. The bodies of saints will be raised in glory, fashioned like Christ's glorious body; must bear the image of the heavenly; (1. Cor. 14. 43. Phil. 3. 21.) and this will connaturalize them to a region of glory, render a surrounding, sensible glory necessary

* Cuilibet potentiæ activæ respondet passiva, sive objectiva: To every active faculty, there corresponds a passive or objective one.

and natural to them, their own element: they will, as it were, not be able to live but amidst such a glory. Place is conservative of the body placed in it, by its suitableness there. Indeed every created being (inasmuch as it is not self-sufficient, and is obliged to fetch in continual refreshings from without) must always have somewhat suitable to itself to converse with, or it presently languishes. By such a harmony of actives and passives, the world consists and holds together. The least defect thereof then, is least of all supposable in the state of blessedness. The rays of such a glory have often shone down into this lower world. Such a glory we know shewed itself upon the Mount Sinai afterwards often about the tabernacle, and in the temple; such a glory appeared at our Saviour's birth, baptism, and transfiguration; and will do at his expected appearance; which leaves it no unimaginable thing to us, and shews, how facile it is to God to (do that which will then be, in some sort necessary) create a glory meet for the entertainment and gratification of any such faculty, as he shall then continue in being. But,

[2.] The intellectual glory, That which perfected spirits shall eternally please themselves to behold, calls for our more especial consideration. This is the glory that excelleth, hyperbolical glory, as that expression isgaλλons dóns (2. Cor. 3. 10.) imports; such, as in comparison whereof, the other is said to be no glory: as the apostle speaks, comparing the glory of the legal with that of the evangelical dispensation, where the former was, we must remember, chiefly a sensible glory, the glory that shone upon Mount Sinai; the latter a purely spiritual glory; and surely, if the mere preludes of this glory, the primordia, the beginnings of it, the glory-yet shining but through a glass, (as he there also speaks of his glory) were so hyperbolically glorious, what will it be in its highest exultation, in its perfected state? The apostle cannot speak of that, but with hyperbole upon hyperbole in the next chapter. Kat' ispov sis repßoλýv. (2. Cor. 4. 17.) as though he would heap up words as high as heaven to reach it, and give a just account of it. Things are as their next originals. This glory, more immediately rays forth from God, and more nearly represents him. It is his more genuine production. He is styled the Father of Glory: (Eph. 1. 17.) every thing that is glorious is some way like him, and bears his image. But he is as well the Father of Spirits, (Heb. 12. 9.) as the Father of Glory; and that glory, which is purely spiritual, hath most in it of his nature and image as beams but in the next descent from the body of the sun. This is his unveiled face, and emphatically, the divine likeness. Again, things are as the faculties which they are to exercise and satisfy; this glory must exercise and satisfy the noblest faculty, of the most noble and excellent creature. Intellectual nature, in the highest improvement it is capable of in a creature, must here be gratified to the uttermost; the most

enlarged contemplative power of an immortal spirit find that wherein it terminates here, with a most contentful acquiescence. It is true it must be understood not totally to exceed the capacity of a creature, but it must fully come up to it. Should it quite transcend the sphere of created nature, and surpass the model of a human understanding (as the divine glory undoubtedly would, did not God consider us in the manner of exhibiting it to our view) it would confound, not satisfy. A creature even in glory is still a' creature, and must be treated as such. After the blessed God hath elevated it to the highest pitch, he must infinitely condescend: it cannot otherwise know or converse with him. He must accommodate his glory to the weaker eye, the fainter and more languid apprehensions of a poor finite thing. I had almost said nothing, for what is any creature, yea, the whole creation in its best state, compared with the I AM, the being (as he justly appropriates to himself that name) the Ail in All. We must be careful then to settle in our own thoughts such a state of this glory (in forming that indeterminate notion we have now of it) as may remier it (though confessedly above the measure of our present understandings as to a distinct knowledge of it) not manifestly incompetent to any created understanding whatsoever, and as may speak us duly shy of ascribing deity to a worm, of affixing any thing to the creature, which shall be found agreeing to the blessed God himself alone. Their expressions therefore who over-magnify (even deify) the creature assumed into glory, must be heard and read with caution and abhorrency, as the high-swelling words of blasphemous vanity. Is it not enough that perishing wretches, that were within one hand's breadth of hell, are saved, except they be also deified too? that they become happy, unless they also become gods? The distance even of a glorified creature from the glorious God, is still infinitely greater, than between it and the silliest worm, the minutest attom of dust.

And by how much more we shall then know of his glory, so much more shall we understand that distance. Yet as he shall then enlarge the capacity of the soul he glorifies, to a very vast comprehension, so shall the exhibition of his glory to it, be fully adequate to its most enlarged capacity. They are as yet but obscure glimmerings, we can have of this glory; but so far as, without too bold curiosity, we may, and wherein Scripture-light will give us any pre-apprehension of it, let us consider a while, the nature and the excellency of it. We cannot indeed consider these separately; for we can no sooner understand it to be glory, than we conceive it excellent; glory, in the proper notion of it, being nothing else but resplendent excellency, the lustre of excellency, or real worth made conspicuous. Yet as there is an excellency conceivable in the nature of it, that excellency whereof it is the splendor and brightness; so we must conceive