Watts - Houston-Packer Collection BX5207.W3 S4x 1805 v.2

DISC. VII. NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN. 452 is sunk below the earth, and its beams are hidden from us, its kindly and vital heat as well as its light, are re- moved from one side of the globe ; and thisgives a sen- sible uneasiness in the hours of midnight to those, who are not well provided with warm accommodations. And, I might add also, it is too often night with us in a spiritual sense, while we dwell here on earth : Our hearts are cold as well as dark : How seldom do we feel that fervency of spirit in religious duties which God requires? How cool is our love to the greatest and the best of be- ings? How languid and indiffèrent are our affections to theSon of God, " the chiefest of ten thousand and alto- gether lovely?" And how much doth the devotion of our souls want its proper ardour and vivacity. But, when the soul is arrived at heaven, we shall be all warm and fervent in our divine and delightful work. As there shall be nothing painful to the senses in that blessed climate, so there shall not be one cold heart there, nor so much as one Juke-warm worshipper; for we shall live under the immediate rays of God, who formed the light, and under the kindest influences of Jesus, the sun of righteousness. We shall be made like his angels, who are most active spirits, and his ministers, who are flames of fire, Ps. civ. 4. Nor shall any dullness or indifferency hang upon our sanctified powers and passions : They shall be all warm and vigorous in their exercise, amidst the holy enjoyments of that country. In the ninth and last place, as night is the season ap- pointed for sleep, so it becomes a constant periodical emblem of death, as it returns every evening. Sleep and midnight, as I have shewn before, are no seasons of labour or activity, nor of delight in the visible things of this world: It is a dark and stupid scene, wherein we behold nothing with truth, though we are sometimes de- ceived and deluded by dreaming visions and vanities: Night and the slumbers of it are a sort of shorter death and burial, interposed between the several daily scenes and transactions of human life. But, in heaven, as there is no sleeping, there is no dying, nor is there any thing there, that looks like death. Sleep, the image or emblem of death, is for ever banished from that world. All is vital activity there: Every power is immortal, and every thing that dwells there isfor ever alive. There can 2 G 3

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