0A.19. Chapter II.

Chapter II. Whatever is Requisite to our Complete Blessedness, is Present in Heaven. In Heaven, there is an exemption from all evils.

Sin and all its penal consequences are abolished there. The concurrence of all positive excellencies is enjoyed there. The body is revived to a glorious life. The soul lives in communion with God. The excellence of the object, and vigor of the actings upon it, the principal ingredients of happiness. This will appear by considering that whatever is requisite to constitute the complete blessedness of man, is fully enjoyed in the divine presence.

A. An exemption from all evils is the first condition of perfect blessedness. No man can be called happy while in this valley of tears. There are so many natural calamities, so many accidents, which no human mind can foresee or prevent. On earth, one may be less miserable than another, but none perfectly happy here. But upon the entrance into Heaven, all those evils, that by their number, variety or weight, disquiet and oppress us here, are at an end.

Sin, the worst and most hateful of all evils, shall be abolished, and all temptations that surround us and endanger our innocence, shall cease. Here the best men lament the weakness of the flesh, and sometimes the violent assaults of spiritual enemies. Paul himself breaks forth into a mournful complaint, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death!" And when harassed by the buffets of Satan, he renews his most earnest addresses to God to be freed from them.

Here on earth our purity is not absolute, we must be always cleansing ourselves from the relics of that deep defilement that cleaves to our nature.

Here on earth our peace is preserved with the sword in our hand, by a continual warfare against Satan and the world. But in Heaven no ignorance darkens the mind, no passions rebel against the sanctified will, no inherent pollution remains. "The church is without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing," and all temptations shall then cease. The tempter was cast out of Heaven, and none of his poisoned arrows can reach that purified company!

Glorious Liberty! here on earth ardently desired, but fully enjoyed by the saints above. And as sin, so all the penal consequences of it are quite taken away. The present life is a continual disease, and sometimes attended with acute pain, that death is desired as a remedy, and accepted as a benefit. And though the saints have reviving cordials—yet their joys are mixed with sorrows, nay caused by sorrows. The tears of repentance are their sweetest refreshment. Here the living stones are cut and wounded, and made fit by sufferings for God’s temple in the New Jerusalem. But as in building of Solomon’s temple, the noise of a hammer was not heard, for all the parts were framed before with that exact design and correspondence, that they firmly combined together; they were hewn in another place, and nothing remained but the putting them one upon another, and then as sacred they became inviolable. So God the wise architect, having prepared the saints here by many cutting afflictions, places them in the eternal building, where no voice of sorrow is heard. Of the innumerable assembly above, there is no eye that weeps, nor any breast that sighs, nor any tongue that complains, nor any appearance of grief! The heavenly state is called life, as alone worthy of that title. There is no infirmity of body, no poverty, no disgrace, no treachery of friends, no persecution of enemies. "There is no more death, nor sorrow; nor shall there be any more pain; for former things are passed away. God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his people." Their salvation is complete in the utmost degree. Pure joy is the privilege of Heaven—unmixed sorrow is the punishment of Hell.

B. A concurrence of all positive excellencies is requisite to blessedness. And these are to be considered with respect to the entire man.

1. The BODY shall be awaked out of its dead sleep, and quickened into a glorious immortal life. The soul and body are the essential parts of man; and though the inequality is great in their holy operations—yet their concourse is necessary. Good actions are designed by the counsel and resolution of the soul, but performed by the ministry of the flesh. Every grace expresses itself in visible actions by the body. In the sorrows of repentance, the body supplies tears; in religious fasts, the body’s appetites are restrained; in thanksgivings the tongue breaks forth into the joyful praises of God. All our victories over sensible pleasure and pain are obtained by the soul in conjunction with the body. Now it is most befitting the divine goodness, not to deal so differently, that the soul should be everlastingly happy, and the body lost in forgetfulness; the one glorified in Heaven, the other remain in the dust. From their first setting out into the world to the grave, they ran the same race, and shall enjoy the same reward. Here the body is the consort of the soul in obedience and sufferings—and hereafter in fruition. When the crown of purity, or palm of martyrdom shall be given by the great Judge in the view of all, they shall both partake in the honor. The apostle assures us, the bodies of the saints shall be revived and refined to a spiritual and glorious perfection. "Flesh and blood," the body with its physical qualities, is mutable and mortal, and "cannot inherit the kingdom of Heaven;" it cannot breathe in so pure an air. God tells Moses, "No man can see my face and live:" the sight of the divine glory is not consistent with such frail tabernacles of flesh. Nay, the body must be freed from the innocent infirmities that were inseparable from Adam in paradise; for "he was made a living soul," that is, the soul united to the body was the fountain of the natural sensitive life, which was in a perpetual flux, the vital heat wasting the radical moisture, from whence there was a necessity of food and sleep to repair the substance and spirits, and preserve his life in vigor. But in the divine world, the body shall be spiritual in its qualities and the principle of its life; it shall be supported by the supernatural power of the Spirit, without the supplies of outward nourishment, and exempted from all the low operations of nature; therefore our Savior tells us, "the children of the resurrection shall be equal to the angels," prepared for the employment and enjoyments of those blessed spirits. And a substantial unfading glory will shine in them infinitely above the perishing vanities of this world. Of this we have a sure pledge in the glorified body of Christ, who is the "first fruits of those who sleep; he shall change our vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like to his glorious body, according to the working of his power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself."

What can be more glorious, than to be conformed to the humanity of the Son of God? This conformity shall be the work of his own hands; and when omnipotence interposes, nothing is difficult. The raising the body to an immortal state of glory, is as easy to the divine power, as the forming it first in the womb. As the sun labors no more in the mines, in the forming gold and silver, the most precious and durable metals, than in the production of a short-lived flower.

2. The supreme happiness of man is in the soul’s communion with God. This will appear by considering the principal ingredients of happiness; they are the excellence of the object, and the vigor of the actings upon it. The life and blessedness of God is to know and love himself according to his infinite perfections. And it is the highest happiness of the reasonable creature, to know and love God; for he is a spiritual, infinite, unchangeable good, and can fully communicate all that is requisite to entire blessedness, supply all the wants, and satisfy all the wishes of the immortal soul. The understanding and will are our most comprehensive faculties, the principles of our most eminent operations. To know and to love, are essential to the reasonable soul; and in directing those acts upon God—the rectitude, the perfection and felicity of man consists. As the intellectual creature by setting its mind and heart upon earthly things, is degraded into a lower order—the thoughts and desires that are spiritual with respect to the principle from whence they proceed, are sensual and perishing with respect to their objects; so when our noble faculties are exercised in their most lively and vigorous perceptions upon the Supreme Good, man is advanced to an equality of joy and perfection with the angels.

Now in Heaven, God by his most evident and effectual presence, excites and draws forth all the active powers of the soul in their highest degrees; and, such is the immensity of his perfections the he fills their utmost capacity, from whence a divine pleasure, a perpetual satisfaction springs, a joy that is as unspeakable as it is eternal.