DISCOURSE VII. 149 of flesh and blood : These are not materials refined enough for the heavenly state ; that which is corruptible cannot inherit in- corruption ; 1 Cor. xv. 50. But this we may be assured of, that whatsoever inlets of knowledge, whatever avenues of pleasure, whatever delightful sensations are necessary to make the inhabi- tants of that world happy, they shall be all united in that spiri- tual body, which God will prepare for the new- raised saints: It eyes and ears shall belong to that glorified body, those sensitive powers shall be nobly enlarged and made more delightfully sus- ceptive of richer shares of knowledge and joy. Or what if we shall have that body furnished with such un- known mediums or organs of sensation, as shall make light and sound such as we here partake of, unnecessary to us ? These organs shall certainly be such as shall transcend all the advan- tages that we receive, in this present state, from sounds or sun- beams. There shall be no disconsolate darkness, nor any tire- some silence there. There shall be no night to interrupt the bu- siness, or the pleasures of that everlasting clay. Or what if the whole body shall be endued all over with the senses of seeing and hearing ? What if these sort of sensations shall be diffused throughout all that iinmortal body, as feeling is diffused through all our present mortal flesh ? What if God himself shall, in a snore illustrious manner, irradiate all the powers of the body and spirit, and communicate the light of knowledge, holiness and joy in a superior manner to what we can now conceive or imagine ? This is certain, that darkness in every sense, with all the inconveniences and unhappy consequences of it, is and must be for ever banished from the heavenly state. There is no night there. When our Lord Jesus Christ shall have given up his medi- atorial kingdom to the Father, and have presented all his saints spotless and without blemish before his throne, it is hard for us mortals in the present state to say, how far he shall be the ever- lasting medium of the communication of divine blessings to the happy inhabitants on high. Yet when we consider that the saints and angels and the whole happy creation are gathered together in him, as their head,* it is certain they shall all be accounted in some sense his members ; and it is highly probable he as their head, shall be for ever active in communicating and diffusing the unknown blessings of that world, amongst all the inhabitants of it, who are gathered and united in him. I come in the last place to make a few remarks upon the foregoing discourse, and in order to render them more effectual for our spiritual advantage, I shall consider the words of my text, there shall be no night there, in their metaphorical or spiri- * The Greek word ro rextpaTroiow, used io Èph. i. 10. favours this meaning, and perhaps Col. i. 20, includes the same thing. 11 3
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