Their weeping to weep and to break my heart?" breaks his heart; but especially, saith the text, they sorrowed most of all, for the words that he spake, "that they should see his face no more.”* And this is the case of many christian friends, but the relief is, they shall see each other's faces again in the mansions above; their faces will then shine as the sun, and their enjoyment will exceed the bounds of any capacity in this lower world. They parted but for a season, that they should" receive each other for ever,"† when the gracious God hath received them into everlasting habitations. 10. The saints that divided and could not agree to walk together in one church upon earth, shall be perfectly reconciled above, and then shall mutually embrace each other; they shall all speak the same thing, and never have the least reflecting speech or thought against one another. Possibly in this world the contention or paroxym between a "Paul and Barnabas may be so sharp, that they may depart asunder one from another." As all God's people are necessarily scattered into distinct societies; though uniting in spirit in the bonds of peace, yet good persons of various persuasions, some being for greater latitude, others for stricter bonds, or being of different principles in smaller matters, or through prejudice, may in some cases refuse to hold communion occasionally one with another; but in heaven they shall be all of one mind and one heart, and all dissensions and divisions will be laid aside; O what perfect love, sweet harmony, and joyful delight will there be in the persons and graces of each other! there will be no saying then, I am of this opinion, or of this party, or a member of this church and not of another; but they shall attain the unity of *Acts xxi. 11, 13. xx. 38. + Philemon, 15. + Acts xv. 39. the faith, and be cordially associated, members of the church triumphant. 11. Christians that had their natural infirmities, shall leave them behind them, and their united spirits shall be made perfect. What rough-hewn natures have some pious souls? How unsociable are some which proves a great affliction to themselves and all about them, still quarrelsome and discontented, nothing pleaseth them, and sometimes they cannot help it, though they strive and fight and pray against it, it still recurs and returns, and creates much vexation; but upon this blessed gathering together, "the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, when the glory of the Lord shall be revealed."* 0 happy day, when there will be no envy or discontent, but the saints shall rejoice in each others' graces and comfort as their own, and be accordant with each other's spirits. Though some stars shall outshine others in lustre and glory, yet every vessel shall be full both of grace and comfort, and not an angry look or peevish word shall be found there to all eternity. 12. The saints that here consoled themselves and one another in their personal afflictions, shall leave their sorrows behind them, and all the occasions and grounds thereof, and unanimously thank God for complete immunity from all; some are sick, some are pained, some are pinched with poverty, others are tormented with wicked children and bad relations; some have troubles of conscience under darkness, and hidings of God's face, some assaulted with hellish suggestions, and satanical temptations, some are deeply melancholy, and making sad complaints. Now we are required "to bear one another's burdens ;" and Paul saith, "Who is weak and I am not weak? who is offended and I *Isaiah xl. 4, 5. burn not?"* Grace in the heart commands sympathy with others; but that perfect state dischargeth all compassion. They that mourned together shall rejoice together, not a sigh or groan shall ever proceed from a glorified spirit. 13. The saints shall have no more to do with difficult and self-denying duties. There are many personal duties that occasion some cost, and it becomes a Christian before hand "to sit down and count the cost,"+ to mortify some particular lusts, to maintain a strict watch over heart and life, to worship God in the spirit, exercise every grace, maintain constant communion with God; these will cause a soul much attention and industry, and though these are sweet when practised, "for wisdom's ways are pleasantness," ‡ yet because of the corruption of our hearts, and averseness to any thing that is good, they become difficult; then the duties of relations are difficult, of parents to children, of masters to servants, and of Christians one to another, mutual inspection, admonition, giving and taking reproofs faithfully and humbly. Christians find these duties hard and grievous to flesh and blood. But the more spiritual any man grows, the more easy they grow; the more love is in our hearts to God, the less are his commandments grievous. || Now in heaven love will be perfected; and holy souls will be in their element while they are serving God and doing the work of that place; but the more "you can sing in the ways of the Lord," the more loudly will you sing in the height of Zion. § 14. The saints that have attended ordinances with many defects and imperfections will leave them all behind them, and attend the Lord without the least de* Gal. vi. 2. 2 Cor. xi. 29. + Luke xiv. 28. Prov. iii. 17. || 1 John v. 3. § Psal. cxxxviii. 5. Jer. xxxi. 12. fect, distraction or imperfection. The best of God's children have a weight hanging on them, and a "sin that too easily besets them,"* and impedes their motion and obstructs their ascent upwards; but these shackles shall be removed with the body, never a wandering thought more to all eternity. Here we not unfrequently weaken, rather than strengthen the hands one of another; bodily infirmities often render the best services wearisome, because the holiest believers have but a measure of affection; hence it was that three of Christ's choicest disciples slept while he was in his agony, for though the "spirit was willing, yet the flesh was weak." Alas, Aaron and Hur must hold up Moses's hands here, the best at some seasons may be out of frame for duty; but in heaven the saints shall join hearts and hands without weariness or distraction in singing the high praises of God in that heavenly choir, and none shall fail his brother, or fall short of duty. 15. Saints of the meanest stature and standing here, shall be complete, and commence the highest degree of grace in glory. I say not, that all the saints shall have equal degrees of glory; the scripture saith, at the resurrection, "one star differeth from another star in glory."|| It is true, all these heavenly luminaries shall be perfectly arranged in one constellation. But good divines think, that as there will be degrees of torment in hell, so also of joys in heaven: as the vessels are larger to contain more, or as men have honoured God more here below, yet the humblest saints will be completely happy; "For they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many unto righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever," Dan. xii. 3. Weak Christians shall no more complain of defects, Matt. xxvi. 36, 40, 41. *Heb. xii. 1. + Heb. xii. 12. 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42. but "he that is feeble in that day shall be as David, and the house of David as God, as the angel of the Lord before them;" there will no more be thence an infant of days. The meanest Christian will in some respects be equal with the angels in heaven. Children in grace shall be grown up to be perfect men, "to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."* 16. Saints at that day shall be raised above the revilings, calumnies, and slanders of a malicious world, and be advanced to the highest honour. In this world every one can throw dirt on God's children, and account them the vilest of men, not worthy to live upon earth, and cry as the Jews against Paul, "away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live;" but what saith God of such; "Of whom the world was not worthy." No nicknames shall follow them to heaven, they shall not be there called puritans, fanatics, schismatics, or fools, possibly they may even be honoured among men when dead and raised to glory; "The memory of the just is blessed."‡ The inhabitants of the world above shall honour them, though sometimes they thought and spoke slightly of them, even the wicked who are shut up in hell shall think honourably of them, as the rich man who considered once poor Lazarus a fit ambassador to send to his rich brethren on earth; it may also be that wretched hypocrites on earth will build "the tombs of deceased prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,”|| in honour of those whom they, or such as they were, did once abuse and revile on earth; they will call the dead, saints and canonize them. Thus God often turns the scales and rolls away the reproach of his servants. * Zech. xii. 8. Isa. lxv. 20. Matt. xxii. 30. Eph. iv. 13. + Acts xxii. 22. || Luke xvi. 27, 28. Heb. xi. 38. Prov. x. 7, 14. |