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(1.) In its types. The types of the heavenly Canaan were manifold. I shall name a few of them. 1. The earthly Canaan was a type of the heavenly and celestial Canaan. How magnificently does the Lord speak of Canaan! It is called a goodly land, a boly land, a land flowing with milk and honey; yet this land was but a type and shadow of the heavenly. 2. Paradife was a type of this heavenly Canaan. Tho' all the pleasant orchards and comely things in the world were united in one, they could not come that length as to compete with the earthly paradise, for pleasure and comeliness, when God placed our first parents there in their innocent state. Yet what was it but a faint resemblance of the heavenly paradise? nothing but a shadow of it. 3. The fabbath was a type of this heavenly, happy, and eternal fabbath of rest. Indeed it is but a restless rest the Lord's people have here; when they rest in the Lord at any time, their rest is soon disturbed : even tho they can say at times, Return to thy rest, O my foul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee; How foon does the devil and the ill heart, and the world, disquiet them again? But there remains a reft, a sabbatism, for the people of God, when they shall reft from their labour, rest from fin and forrow. 4. The tabernacle was a type of the heavenly Canaan; the Lord's prefence filled the tabernacle: O how does his glorious prefence fill heaven, and fill all the hearts of the heavenly inhabitants! Glorious things are spoken of the earthly Zion; how much more glorious things, may be spoken of the new Jerufalem above! But then,

(2.) We may confider this heavenly Canaan in its epithets; as, 1. It is called a house, John xiv. 2. A manfion boufe, a prepared place. In my father's boufe bouse are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you. O what a noble house is it, where glory dwells! What a brave house will it be, when the Father of the family will be in the midst of the house, and all his children about him, all his elect gathered together from all corners of the earth; where the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Chrift himself the elder brother, and all the younger brethren will dwell together! 2. It is called the joy of the Lord. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Joy here enters into the believer, but there the believer enters into joy; he enters as it were into an ocean of joy, and it is the joy of his Lord Jesus. How great is the joy that our Lord entered into, as the reward of his obedience unto death? Of which it is said, Heb. xii. 2. that, for the joy, that was set before him, he endured the cross, &c. That same joy the faints are to enter into; In thy prefence there is fulness of joy, &c. 3. It is called life, eternal life, Rom. vi. last. The gift of God is eternal life through Jefus Christ our Lord. Life is sweet; and the more excellent the life is, the more sweet. A living flie is more happy, by reason of life, than the glorious fun in the firmament. The rational life is yet more sweet; the life of grace is yet sweeter than any of these: But the life of glory is sweetest of all, and this life is eternal, it is life for evermore. 4. It is called a kingdom, a heavenly kingdom, 2 Tim. iv. 18. The Lord shall preserve me to his heavenly kingdom. Yea, such a kingdom, that here all the subjects are kings. One said of Rome once, that it was Refpublica Regum, a commonwealth of kings; it is true of heaven, it is a commonwealth of kings, they are all kings and priests unto their God: And there all the kings have their crowns, a crown of glory,

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glory, righteousness and joy: They will have their thrones; To him that overcomes will I give to fit with me on my throne, &c. They will have their royal robes, their robes of glory and palms of victory. But again,

(3.) We may confider this heavenly Canaan in its parts. There are especially these four parts of heaven and glory mentioned in scripture, namely, vifion, likeness, love, fatisfaction. The first part of it, is the vision of God, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Now we fee through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Father, I will that these whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory. New cabinets of rich treasure will be opened up to them every moment to eternity. 2d part of it is likeness, which follows upon the former, I John iii. 2. We shall be like bim, for we shall fee him as he is. This is the native fruit of beholding Christ, to be thereby brought to conformity to him, 2 Cor. iii. last. 3d part of it is love. This follows upon the former. Likeness breeds love, even upon earth; then will the faints be made perfect in love, 1 Jobn iv. 18. O what flames of love will burn in heaven! Every saint will be a flame. 4th part of it is fatisfaction, which proceeds from the reft, Pfal. xvii. last. I will behold thy face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be fatisfied with thy likeness. All this is begun on earth in the heirs of glory. The brighter view a believer gets of Christ, the more likeness; the more likeness, the more love; and the more love, the more fatisfaction. But O when there shall be perfect seeing, there will be perfect likeness; when perfect likeness, perfect love; and when perfect love, perfect fatisfaction and joy: Then the ranfomed of the

Lord Jhall return, and come unto Zion with fongs, and everlasting joy upon their heads, &c. Ifa. xxv. 10.

(4.) We might confider this heavenly Canaan in its properties. It is another fort of inheritance than the earthly Canaan. 1. It is a glorious inheritance : It is glory itself; yea, an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. iv. 17. God, who is every where present, is there gloriously. To make a weak allufion, the fun in the firmament is in this or that place, by his rays and beams; but in the firmament in a glorious manner: So God is here on earth in his grace, and the rays of his countenance; but in heaven in a glorious way, O there the faints are indeed all glorious within and without both; their bodies glorious like unto Chrift's glorious body, when once they are raised; their fouls glorious, because perfect in holiness. 2. It is a beavenly inheritance, therefore called a heavenly kingdom (as I faid) in opposition to earthly kingdoms. There the great King is heavenly, the fubjects are heavenly, the work is heavenly, the reward heavenly, the company heavenly, the converse heavenly, all heavenly. 3. It is a purchased and promised inheritance; called a purchased poffeffion, Eph. i. 14. The crown is purchased, the throne purchased, the robes purchased, and all purchased by the blood of the Lambs; which makes them fing that melodious song, worthy is the Lamb that was flain. And as it is purchased so it is promised in Chrift before the world began, 2 Tim. i. 9. and Tit. i. 2. The earthly Canaan was a promised land; they had it by promise made to Abraham first, and in him to them: So is heaven promised to Christ, and in him to all the spiritual Ifrael. 4. It is an eternal inheritance, I Pet. i. 4. An inheritance incorruptible, undefiled,

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defiled, and that fadeth not away. The earthly Canaan was but temporary, subject to be laid defolate for the fins of the inhabitants thereof; and accordingly it was laid waste, and remains so to this day : But the heavenly Canaan is an inheritance, that is not liable to corruption nor defilement, and therefore it fades not away. It cannot, like the former. be infested with enemies, or ill neighbours, nor with any plague or malady. The inhabitants of the land Shall not fay, I am fick. It is a place of perfect health, without any fickness; and a happy immortality, without any death, or fear of death: A blest eternity; for when thousands, thousands, thousands of years are gone, their happiness is but beginning. Earthly kingdoms fade, and this world's monarchs die; but, in that everlasting kingdom, death is swallowed up in victory. If it were to have an end after millions of years, it were enough to make them live in perplexity and trouble; but it is eternal and everlasting. There is a short description, from the word, of that heavenly Canaan.

THIRD HEA D.

The third thing is to show what nations of enemies and oppofitions are in the way to this heavenly Zion. See how many and mighty nations stood in the way of Ifrael's poffeffing the earthly Canaan, ver 1. of this chapter where our text lies. Seven nations greater and mightier than they: And, after they came to that land of promise, some of these nations were suffered to dwell among them, particularly the Jebufites, that were like prickles in their eyes, and thorns in their fides. And, in process of time, God stirred up other nations against them,