tribe in heaven." They had both been directors of the forms of worship below, under divine inspiration; this might fit them to become "leaders of some celestial assembly, when a multitude of the sons of God come at stated seasons to present themselves before the throne." David had been the chief mortal man in the harmonious work of celebrating the Creator's praise: "may we not then imagine that he is or shall be a master of heavenly music, before or after the resurrection, and teach some of the chosen above to tune their harps to the Lamb that was slain?" Boyle and Ray, pursuing the philosophy in which they delighted on earth, contemplate there the wisdom of God in his works. Henry More and Howe continue their metaphysical researches with heightened and refined powers of mind. Thomas Goodwin and Owen are becoming more and more enlightened in their theological perceptions. Eusebius, and Usher, and Bishop Burnet there have the whole history of the church and the ways of providence open to them. But for Tillotson and Baxter, the first having devoted himself to the cultivation of holiness, and peace, and love, and the second having worked hard for the end of controversies and for the conversion of souls, no occupation would seem by this scheme to have been provided, if Dr. Watts had not conceived that lectures of divine wisdom and grace are given to the younger spirits there by those of a more exalted

-no

station: "for not only is there the service of thanksgiving here, and of prayer, but such entertainments as lectures and sermons also; and there all the worship that is paid is the established worship of the whole country." If some of his conceptions in these discourses are of the earth, earthy, there are parts in which he approaches too near the Holy of Holies.

Dr. Watts was aware

fail to perceive

66

he could not indeed

that he exposed himself to some reproach for supposing that the distinctions of human society were, in a certain sense, continued beyond this world. Some," said he, "will reprove me here, and say-what, must none but ministers, and authors, and learned men have their distinguished rewards and glories in the world of spirits? May not artificers, and traders, and pious women be fitted by their character and conduct on earth for peculiar stations and employment in heaven? Yes, doubtless," he answers. But he asks, whether Deborah, who animated the armies of Israel, and sung their victories, is not engaged in some more illustrious employment among the heavenly tribes, than Dorcas, whose highest character is that she was full of alms-deeds, and made coats and garments for the poor? and whether Dorcas is not "prepared for some greater enjoyments, some sweeter relish of mercy, or some special taste of the divine goodness above Rahab, the harlot?" Different, however, as may be the

degrees of good in heaven, all may be perfect there, and free from every defect.

It has been affirmed (I know not with what truth) that Baxter, in the first edition of his Saint's Rest, spoke of the Parliament of Heaven, because he would not call it a Kingdom. Watts invests his saints with regal dignity and regal powers. "Some part of the happiness of heaven,” he says, "is described in Scripture by crowns and thrones, by royalty and kingly honours: why may we not then suppose that such souls, whose sublimer graces have prepared them for such dignity and office, may rule the nations, even in a literal sense? Why may not those spirits that have passed their trials in flesh and blood, and come off conquerors, why may they not sometimes be appointed visitors and superintendents over whole provinces of intelligent beings in lower regions, who are yet labouring in their state of probation? Or perhaps they may be exalted to a presidency over inferior ranks of happy spirits, may shine bright amongst them as the morning star, and lead on their holy armies to celestial work, or worship. The Scripture itself gives me a hint of such employments in the angelic world, and such presidencies over some parts of our world, or of their own. Do we not read of Gabriel and Michael, and their management of the affairs of Persia and Greece and Judah, in the book of Daniel? And it is an intimation of the same hierarchy, when some

superior angel led on a multitude of the heavenly host to sing an hymn of praise at Bethlehem, when the Son of God was born there. Now, if angels are thus dignified, may not human spirits unbodied have the same office? Our Saviour when he rewards the faithful servant that had gained ten pounds, bids him take authority over ten cities; and he that had gained five, had five cities under his government. So that this is not a mere random thought, or a wild invention of fancy, but patronized by the word of God." If he had followed up these views he might have found himself nearer Rome than Geneva.

As might be expected, from the gentleness of his disposition, he dwells far less upon the terrors of a future state than upon the hopes which are held out to the righteous. "The mercy-seat in heaven," he said, "is our surest and sweetest refuge in every hour of distress and darkness on earth."- "How little is death to be dreaded by a believer, since it will bring the soul to the full possession of its hidden life in heaven! It is a dark valley that divides between this world and the next; but it is all a region of light and blessedness beyond it. We are now borderers on the eternal world, and we know but little of that invisible country. Approaching death opens the gates to us, and begins to give our holy curiosity some secret satisfaction; and yet how we shrink backward, and are ready to beg and pray that

lift up,

they might be closed again! But it is better to have our Christian courage wrought up to a divine height, and to say 'Open, ye everlasting gates, and be ye ye immortal doors, that we may enter into the place where the King of glory is !'" Upon the passage of the soul from the visible to the invisible world, we have some curious speculations. After bewildering himself in space which (agreeable to the lovers' well-known wish) he endeavoured to annihilate, and after in like manner abolishing substance, and saying that we may content ourselves with the notion and description of it given by the schools, substantia est

ens per se subsistens et substans accidentibus, he argues, that as disembodied spirits cannot exist everywhere, and do not properly exist anywhere, they may philosophically be said to exist nowhere. Whether then does the soul depart when it is separated from the body? and if it depart, whither? Perhaps it may be furnished with some new vehicle of more refined matter; perhaps it may abide where death finds it,-in anywhereness, or nowhereness, not changing its place, but only its manner of thinking and acting, and its mode of existence, and without removal finding itself in heaven or hell, according to its consciousness of its own deserts.

"I might illustrate this," he says, "by two similes, and especially apply them to the case of holy souls departing.