412 HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. C0 O blessed Saviour, that didst break the head of the serpent, though thy heel was bruised, and hast abolished the mischief that my folly and his temptation had brought into thy new created world !' Now couldwe ever suppose all this tobe doue in the upper regions,' withno new smiles upon thecountenancesof the saints, no special increase of joy among the spirits of the just made per- fect? God himself stands in no need of the magnificenceof these transactions : Christ Jesus receives the new honours, and all the eld inhabitantsof heaven taste new and unknown satisfaction in the honours they pay to their exalted Saviour. Some of the ancients were of opinion, that the souls of the fathers before the ascension of Christ were not admitted into the holy of holies, or the blissful vision of God ; but that it was our Lord Jesus, our great High -priest at his ascent to the throne, led the way thither: He rent the veil of the lower heaven, and carried,with him the armies of the patriarchal souls into some upper and brighter, and more joyful regions, whereas before they were only admitted into a state of peace and rest. Whether this be so or no, the scrip- ture does not sufficiently declare : But whatsoever region of hea- ven theywere placed in, we may be well assured from the very nature of things, that such transactions as the triumphant ascent of Christ, could never pass through any of the upper worlds, without enlarging the knowledge and the joy of the blessed in- habitants. When our Lord Jesus Christ sat down at the right-handof God, he prevailed to open the book of divine counsels and de- crees : Rev. v. 5. and to acquaint himself with all the contents And this was necessary that he might manage and govern the affairs of the church and the world in the several successive ages according to the counsels of the Father. He therefore, and he alone among creatures, knows the end from the beginning, as I hintedbefore. But as the seals of this book are opened by de- grees, and the counsels of God are executed in the lower world, doubtless the angels that are ministers of the providence of Christ, carry tidings to heaven of all the greater changes that relate to the church ; and Jesus the Son of God, the King of saints and of nations, receives the shouts and honours of the hea- venly world, as fast as the joyful tidings arrive thither. Nor is this spoken by mere conjecture, for the scripture in- forms us of the certainty of it. We have frequent accounts in the book of Revelations, of new special honours that were paid to hire that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb at certainspecial periods of time. When he first took upon him the execution of his Father's decrees, the living creatures andeldersfell down before the Lamb, and they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the
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