18 THE NATURE Olj showed him, which should be his own possession ! The things contained in heavenly rest are such as these ; a ceasing from means of grace ; a perfect freedom from all evils ; the highest degree of the saints' personal perfection, both of body and soul ; the nearest enjoyment of God the chief good ; --and, a sweet and constant action of all the powers of body and soul in this enjoyment of God. 5. (1) One thing contained in heavenly rest, is, the ceasing from means of grace. When we have Ob- tained the haven, we have done sailing. When the workman receives his wages, it is implied he has done his work. When we are at our journey's end, we have done with the way. " Whether prophesies, they shall fail ; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it also, so far as it had the nature of means, shall vanish away. "(i) There shall be no more prayer, because no more necessity, but the full enjoyment of what we prayed for : neither shall we need to fast and weep, and watch any more, being out of the reach of sin and temptations. Preaching is done; the ministry of man ceaseth ; sacraments become useless ; the labourers are called in, because the har- vest is gathered, the tares burned, and the work finished ; the unregenerate past hope, and the saints past fear, for ever. 6. ( .2) There is in heavenly rest a perfect free - dorn from all evils ; all the evils that accompanied us through our course, and which necessarily follow our absence from the chief good : besides our freedom from those eternal flames, and restless miseries, which the neglectors of Christ and grace must remedilessly endure ; a woeful" inheritance, which, both by birth and actual merit, was due to us as well as to them 1 In heaven there is nothing that defileth, or is unclean : all that remains without.(rn) And doubtless there is not such a thing as grief and sorrow known there nor is there such a thing as a pale face, a languid body, feeble joints, unable infancy, decrepit age, (l) 1 Cor. xiii. 8. (m) Rev. xxi. 27. xxii. 15.
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