press the happiness of the saints in the coming world, on account of the place, the company, the services, and the enjoyments of heaven.

First, The Place. Heaven may be represented by the term "glory," because it is a glorious place.

"It is a house not made with hands, "eternal in the heavens; a city which "hath no foundations, whose builder and "maker is God." It is called the habitation of his Holiness, the throne of his Majesty," the place where his Ho"nour dwelleth." We are not to suppose, indeed, that the great and eternal God is, or can be, confined to any place. The heaven of heavens cannot contain him. He filleth heaven and earth with his presence; and is every moment with all his works, in all parts of his dominions, throughout the boundless regions of the universe, pervading, supporting, and directing the whole. But we are taught to conceive of heaven, as a place where the great Jehovah is pleased to manifest himself in a peculiar manner, and to

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display the most transcendent and visible glory. As in Solomon's temple there was the Holy of Holies, in which a visible glory appeared among the figures of the Cherubims, and into which none but the High Priest was permitted to enter, after having made atonement for the sins of the people; so, if we consider the whole creation as one vast temple, there is in it this Holy of Holies, into which the High Priest of our salvation entered, after having made a propitiation for the sins of men.

"The hea

Much of the glory of God appears even in this lower world. “vens declare his glory, and the firma"ment sheweth his handiwork. Day unto

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day uttereth speech; night unto night "teacheth knowledge of God."—" The "invisible things of God are clearly "seen, being understood by the things "that are made, even his eternal power "and godhead." But if the place termed in Scripture his "footstool" be thus glorious, how much more so must the throne of his Majesty be? If this earth which we inhabit, defiled as it is with sin, and groaning under the weight of man's cor

ruption, nay, of a curse for his sake, exhibit to a careful observer such evident marks of the most consummate wisdom and design,—what must be the majesty of that place, where the whole art of creation has been employed, and where God has chosen to shew himself in the most magnificent manner to the view of all its blessed inhabitants?

The descriptions given of it in Scripture, particularly by John in the Book of Revelation, although clothed wholly in metaphorical language, and drawn from sensible and material objects, yet are fitted to inspire the most sublime ideas of the place, which it is possible for the human mind to conceive. "I saw," says John, "the holy city, the new Jerusalem, co"ming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; having the glory of God; "and her light was like unto a stone "most precious, even like a jasper stone, "clear as crystal,-and had a wall great "and high, and had twelve gates; and "at the gates twelve angels; and names "written thereon, which are the names "of the twelve tribes of the children of

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"Israel. And the foundations of the wall "of the city were garnished with all man"ner of precious stones; and the twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several

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gate was of one pearl, and the street of "the city was pure gold, as it were trans"parent glass; and I saw no temple "therein, for the Lord God Almighty " and the Lamb are the temple of it; "and the city had no need of the sun, "neither of the moon to shine in it, "for the glory of God did lighten it, "and the Lamb is the light thereof; " and the gates of it shall not be shut at "all by day, for there shall be no night "there; and there shall in no wise en"ter into it any thing that defileth, nei"ther whatsoever worketh abomination, "or maketh a lie; but they which are "written in the Lamb's book of life."

If the place then be glorious, no less

so is

Second, The Company.-Oh! how glorious is the company that fill the mansions in our Father's house above! God himself, the glorious and all-sufficient Jehovah, is there, displaying, in the

brightest and most endearing manner, his adorable perfections to the admiring view of all its blessed inhabitants. It is here where the glorified body of our Saviour resides, and where all the celestial hierarchies, and the innumerable hosts of angels, are represented as surrounding the throne of the Eternal. The saints themselves, when introduced into that blessed world, shall become glorious beings. Though here compassed about with manifold infirmities and imperfections, with ignorance and guilt, they shall then shine as the brightness of the sun, and as the stars for ever and ever. Their souls, completely delivered from remainder of sin and corrupevery tion, shall be formed after the image of God. When he who is their life shall

appear, then shall they also appear with him in glory. They shall be like him, for they shall see him as he is. Nay, even their vile bodies, raised from the grave by virtue of his resurrection, shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.