SECT. iv.] THE HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. 413 actual footstool : But we know that all things are not yet put under him ;" lieb. ii. 8. that is, all the nations are not yet subject to his spiritual kingdom, nor become obe- dient to his gospel. As fast as his kingdom grows on earth, so fast his honours and his joys arise ; and he waits still for the complete union of all his members to himself the sacred head : he waits for the morning of the resur- rection, when he shall be glorified in the bright and ge- neral assembly of " his saints, and admired in all them that believe ;" 2 Thess. i. 10. O that illustrious and magnificent appearance ! That shining hour of jubilee, when the bodies of millions of saints shall awake out of the dust, and be released from their long dark prison ! When they shall encompass and adore Jesus their Saviour and their God, and acknow- ledge their new life and immortal state to be owing to his painful and shameful death : When Noah, Abraham, and David, and all his pious progenitors shall bow and wor- ship Jesus their Son and their Lord : When the holy army of martyrs, springing from the dust with palms of victory in their hands, shall ascribe their conquest and their triumph to the Lamb that was slain : When he shall presen this whole church before the presence of his own- and his Father's glory, without spot, and faultless, with ex ceeding joy ! Can we imagine that Christ himself, even the man Jesus, in the midst of all this magnificence and these honours, shall feel no new satisfaction, and have no relish of all this joy, above what he possessed while his church lay bleeding on earth, and this illustrious com- pany were buried under ground in the chains of death ? And yet youwill say Christ in heaven is made perfect in. knowledge and in joy, but his perfection admits of im- provement. Now if the head be not above the capacity of all growth and addition, surely the members cannot pretend to it. But I shall propose several more arguments for this truth in the following section. SECT. IV. Of the increase of the saints above in knowledge, holiness, and joy. That there is, and bath been, and will be continual progress and improvement in the knowledge and joy of
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