$1G A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY. and approach the dying-bed of a christian, whose religion had been the business ofhis heart and life : see the holy man lying cheerful, under the pains of dying nature, rejoicing in the hope of the pardon of sin, and a reconciled God, keeping fast his hold of the promises of mercy, andof Jesus the Saviour, by re- peated exercises of faith and love, sheeting the last enemydeath, with a serene joy in his countenance, and with triumph in his soul, quitting flesh and blood, and all the scenes of mortality with a sacred delight, and entering into a newworld of perfect holiness and perfect peace, to dwell for ever with his God and his Saviour. Upon such a comparison ofthings, such a survey and prospect as this, where is the man that would not say, Let me die thedeath of achristian, and nay last end be like his? Come, let us dwell a little on the glorious dicoveries of the heavenly world, which the gospel has made, till our desires are warmed, and our zeal kindled to pursue and enjoy these sacred and sublime felicities, which infinitely transcend all the fancies of a heathen paradise, and rise high above our own present ideas. It is the happiness provided for saints in a future state, to dwell with God; to see, know and converse with him, even with that glorious infinite Spirit who- made them; to receive everlasting impressions of his love, and to love him again with most intense delight and satisfaction of soul; to be for ever present with Jesus the Son of God, the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person ; lieb. i. 3. to survey all his wondrous glories, and to learn the amazingtransactions of his grace, his early counsels, his condescending labour and sufferings for the salvation of man ; to be swallowed up in holy pleasure in the midst of those transportingwonders ; to dwell in the midst of angels and archangels, blessed spirits of high rankand digni- ty, creatures of penetrating intellectual powers, and of unsullied purity ; to converse with fellow-saints, freed from all the infir- mities of fleshly nature ; and to maintain a holy intercourse of knowledge upon all things divine and human, upon every theme that is worthy of the noticeof a blessed and immortal spirit. This is part of the business of that heaven which separate souls enjoy ` But the resurrection 4' the bodymakes a large ad- dition to these scenes of felicity, when the soul shall be again furnished with corporeal powers, and shall be entertained with a rich variety of objects suited to those powers, all conspiring toward the more complete satisfaction of the indwelling spirit. There our whole nature shall take in such objects as ease has not seen, as ear has not heard, nor the heart of man conceived; 1 Cor. ii. 9. and all with an intense relish of sacred pleasure. And above and beyond all this, the eternal duration of this holy and happy state, spreads a new satisfaction through all the in- habitants of that happy world : This 'completes our heaven
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