A. It greatly concerneth us to difference certainties from uncertainties. It is certain that the faithful have a promise of a great reward in heaven, and of being with Christ, and being conveyed into Paradise by angels, and are commanded to lay up a treasure in heaven, and there to set their hearts and affections, and to seek the things that are above, where Christ is at God's right hand; and they desire to depart and be with Christ, as far better than to be here; and to be absent from the body, and be present with the Lord; so that the inheritance of the saints in heavenly light and glory is certain. But as to the rest, whether the new earth shall be for new inhabitants, or for us; and whether the descending Hierusalem shall be only for a thousand years, before the final judgment, or after for perpetuity; or whether it shall come no lower than the air, where it is said, that we shall be taken up to meet the Lord, and so shall ever be with him; or whether earth shall be made as glorious to us as heaven, and heaven and earth be laid together in common, when separating sin is gone: these matters being to us less certain, must not be set against that which is certain. And the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, doth imply that it was first in heaven; and it is said that it is now above, and we are come to it in relation and foretaste, where are the perfected spirits of the just, as it is described, Heb. xii. 22-24.

Q. 6. But some think that souls sleep till the resurrection, or are in an unactive potentiality, for want of bodies?

A. Reason and Scripture confute this dream. The soul is essential life, naturally inclined to action, intellection, and love or volition, and it will be in the midst of objects enow on which to operate and is it not absurd to think that God will continue so noble a nature in a state of idleness, and continue all its essential faculties in vain, and never to be exercised? As if he would continue the sun without light, heat, or motion. What then is it a sun for? and why is it not annihilated? The soul cannot lose its faculties of vitality, intellection, and volition, without losing its essence, and being turned into some other thing. And why it cannot act out of a body, what reason can be given? If it could not, yet that it taketh not hence with it a body of those corporeal spirits which it acted in, or that it cannot as well have a body of light for its own action, as it can take a body (as Moses on the Mount) to appear to man, is that which we have no reason to suspect.

2. But Scripture puts all out of doubt, by telling us, that to

die is gain, and that it is better to be with Christ, and that Lazarus was comforted in Abraham's bosom, and the converted thief was with Christ in Paradise, and that the souls under the altar and in heaven pray and praise God, and that the spirits of the just are there made perfect; and this is not a state of sleep. It is a world of life, and light, and love, that we are going to, more active than this earthy, heavy world, than fire is more active than a clod. And shall we suspect any sleepy unactivity there? This is the dead and sleepy world: and heaven is the place of life itself.

Q. 7. What is the nature of that heavenly, everlasting life? A. It is the perfect activity and perfect fruition of divine communicated glory, by perfected spirits, and spiritual men, in a perfect glorious society, in a perfect place, or region, and this everlasting.

Q. 8. Here are many things set together, I pray you tell them me distinctly?

A. 1. Heaven is a perfect, glorious place, and earth to it is a dungeon. The sun which we see is a glorious place in comparison of this.

2. The whole society of angels and saints will be perfect and glorious. And our joy and glory will be as much in participation by union and communion with theirs, as the life and health of the eye or hand is, in and by union and communion with the body we must not dream of any glory to ourselves, but in a state of that union and communion with the glorious body of Christ. And Christ himself, the glorified Head, is the chief part of this society, whose glory we shall behold.

3. Angels and men are themselves there perfect. If our being and nature were not perfect, our action and fruition could not be perfect.

4. The objects of all our action are most perfect it is the blessed God, and a glorious Saviour and society, that we shall see, and love, and praise.

5. All our action will be perfect: our sight and knowledge, our love, our joy, our praise, will be all perfect there.

6. Our reception and fruition will all be perfect. We shall be perfectly loved by God, and one another, and perfectly pleasing to him, and each other; and he will communicate to us and all the society as much glorious life, light, and joyful love, as we are capable of receiving.

7. And all this will be perfect in duration, being everlasting.

Q. 9. O what manner of persons should we be, if all this were well believed! Is it possible that they should truly believe all this, who do not earnestly desire and seek it, and live in joyful, longing hope to be put into possession of it?

A. Whoever truly believeth it, will prefer it before all earthly treasure and pleasure, and make it the chief end, and motive, and comfort of his soul and life, and forsake all that stands against it, rather than forsake his hopes of this. But while our faith, hope, and love, are all imperfect, and we dwell in flesh, where present and sensible things are still diverting and affecting us, and we are so used to sight and sense that we look strangely towards that which is above them, and out of their reach, it is no wonder if we have imperfect desires and joy, abated by diversions, and by griefs and fears, and if in this darkness unseen things seem strange to us; and if a soul united to a body be loth to leave it, and be unclothed, and have somewhat dark thoughts of that state without it, which it never tried.

Q. 10. But when we cannot conceive how souls act out of the body, how can the thought of it be pleasant and satisfying to us? A. 1. We that can conceive what it is to live, and understand, and will, to love and rejoice in the body, may understand what these acts are in themselves, whether out of a body, or in a more glorious body: and we can know that nothing doth nothing, and therefore that the soul that doth these acts is a noble substance, and we find that it is invisible. But of this I spake in the beginning.

2. When we know in general all before mentioned, that we shall be in that described blessedness with Christ and the heavenly society, we must implicitly trust Christ with all the rest, who knoweth for us what we know not, and stay till possession give us that clear, distinct conception of the manner, and all the circumstances, which they that possess it not can no more have than we can conceive of the sweetness of a meat or drink which we never tasted of, and we should long the more for that possession which will give us that sweet experience.

Q. 11. Is not God the only glory and joy of the blessed? Why then do you tell us so much of angels and saints, and the city of God?

A. God is all in all things; of him, and through him, and to him are all things, and the glory of all is to him for ever. But God made not any single creature to be happy in him alone, as separate from the rest, but an universe, which hath its union

and communion. I told you, as the eye and hand have no separated life or pleasure, but only in communion with the whole body, so neither shall we in heaven. God is infinitely above us, and if you think of him alone, without mediate objects for the ascent and access of your thoughts, you may as well think to climb up without a ladder. We are not the noblest creatures next to God, nor yet the most innocent: we have no access to him but by a Mediator, and that Mediator worketh and conveyeth his grace to us by other subordinate means. He is the Saviour of his body, which is the fulness of him that filleth all. If we think not of the heavenly Jerusalem, the glorious city of God, the heavenly society and joyful choir that praise Jehovah and the Lamb, and live together in perfect knowledge, love, and concord, in whose communion only we have all our joy; to whom in this unity God communicateth his glory; and if we think not of the glorious Head of the church, who will then be our Mediator of fruition, as he was of acquisition; nay, if we think not of those loving, blessed angels that rejoiced at our conversion, and were here the servants, and will be for ever the companions of our joy; and if we think not of all our old, dear friends and companions in the flesh, and of all the faithful who, since Adam's days, are gone before us; and if we think not of the attractive love, union, and joy of that society and state, we shall not have sufficient familiarity above, but make God as inaccessible to us. Delight and desire suppose attractive suitableness: inaccessible excellency draws not up the heart. I thank God for the pleasure that I have in thinking of the blessed society, which will shortly entertain me with joyful love.

Q. 12. But may not "everlasting" signify only a long time, as it oft doth in the Scripture, and so all may be in mutable revolutions, as the Stoics and some others thought?

A. 1. What reason have we to extort a forced sense against our own interest and comfort, without any warrant from God? 2. The nature of the soul being so far immortal as to have no inclination to its own death, why should we think it strange that its felicity should be also everlasting. 3. It can hardly be conceived how that soul can possibly revolt from God and perish, who is once confirmed with that sight of his glory, and the full fruition of his love. Whether nature be so bad as to allow such a revolt. If the devils had been as near God, and as much confirmed in the sight and sense of his love and glory, as the blessed shall be, I can hardly conceive how they could possibly have fallen.

Q. 13. How may I be sure that I shall enjoy this everlasting life?

A. I told you before, 1. If you so far believe the promise of it as made by God, and purchased by Christ's righteousness and intercession, as to take this glory for your chief felicity and hope, and to prefer it before all worldly vanity, pleasure, profit, honour, or life, to the flesh, and to make it your chief care and business. to seek it, and rather let go all than lose it, and thus patiently wait and trust God's grace in Christ, and his Spirit, in the use of his appointed means unto the end, it shall undoubtedly be yours for ever.

CHAP. XXIII.

What is the true use of the Lord's Prayer.

Q. 1. WHAT is Prayer?

A. It is holy desires expressed, or actuated, to God, (with heart alone, or also with the tongue,) including our penitent confession of sin, and its deserts, and our thankful acknowledgment of his mercies, and our praising God's works and his perfections.

Q. 2. What is the use of prayer? Seeing God cannot be changed and moved by us, what good can it do to us, and how can it attain our ends?

A. You may as wisely ask, what good any thing will do towards our benefit or salvation, which we can do, seeing nothing changeth God. As God, who is one, maketh multitudes of creatures; so God, who is unchangeable, maketh changeable creatures; and the effect is wrought by changing us, and not by changing God. You must understand these great philosophical truths, that, 1. All things effect according to the capacity of the receiver. 2. Therefore, the various effects in the world proceed from the great variety of receptive capacities. The same sunbeams do cause a nettle, a thorn, a rose, a cedar, according to the seminal capacity of the various receivers. The same sun enlighteneth the eye, that doth not so by the hand or foot, or by a tree, or stone: and it shineth into the house whose windows are open, which doth not so when the windows are shut; and this without any change in itself. The boatman