454
NO
NICHT
41,7
HEAVEN.
[15IS6.
VII.
be no death,,
nor the
image
Of
it,
where the ever
-
living
God
ditiells
;and
shines with
his
kindest beams:
His
pre
-
sence
maintains
perpetual
vitality
in
every
soul,
and
keeps(the
new
éreature'inits
youth and
vigour for
ever.
The saints
shall never hávè
reason
to
mourn over their
Dithering
graces,
languid
Virtues
or
dying
comforts
;
nor
shall
they
%ever
complain
of
drowsy
faculties
or inactive
powers, where
God
and
the Lanib
are for ever
present
in
the
midst
ofthem.
Shall
I
invite
your thoughts to
dwell
a
little
upon
this'
[Here
this discourse may
be
divided.]
Shall
ive
make
a
more
particular
enquiry, whence it
comes to
-pass
that
there
is
no
night nor darkness
in
the
heavenly city
?
We are
told a
little before the
words
of
my text,
that
"
the glory
of God enlightens
it,
and the
Lamb
is the
light thereof.
There
is
no need
of
the sun
by
day,
or
of
the moon
by
night;"
there
is
no need
of
any
such change
of
seasons
as
day
and
night
in the
upper
regions,
new
any such
alternate
enlighteners of a
dark
world,
as
God
has placed in
our
firmament, or
in
this
visible
sky;
The
inheritance of
the saints, in
light,
is
sufficiently
irradiated
by
God
hiínself,
who
at
his
first
call made the light
spring
up
out of
darkness over a
wide
chaos
of
confusion, before
the
sun
and
moon
appeared;
and.the
beams
of
divine
light,
grace and
glory,
are
coin
inunicated
from' God;
the
original
fountain
of
it, by
the
Lamb
to all the
inhabitants of
the heavenly country.
It
Was
by
Jesus
his Son,
that God
made the light
at
first,
and
by
him he
conveys it to
all
the
happy
worlds.
There
is
no
doubt of
this in
the present
heaven
of
saints ,departed'
from
flesh;
who
are ascended to
"
the
spirits
of
the
just
made perfect."
It
is
one
of
their
pri-
vileges
that
they
'go
to
dwell,
not
only where
they
see
the
face
of God, but
where they
behold
the glory
of
Christ,
and converse with
"Jesus;
the
Mediator
of
the
new
co-
venant," Heb.
xii 23;
24.
and
are
"
for
ever
with the
Lord
who
redeemed them,"
2
Cor.
v.
8.
Since
his
me-
diatorial
kingdom
and
offices
are not yet finished
in
the
present
heaven
of
separate
souls,
we
may
depend
on
this
blessedness
to be
communicated through Christ,
the
Lamb
of
God,
and all
the
spiritual
enjoyments and
feli-
cities, which
are represented under
the
metaphor of
light,
are
conveyed
to them through Jesus, the Mediator.