to do otherwise than as God would have us, but shall entirely please ourselves in accomplishing his good will and pleasure.

For the more faithfully and eminently any persons serve the Lord Christ, out of pure love to him and to his Christian brethren, the greater marks of his favour will he set upon them. Their very bodies, it is probable, will shine in a greater glory, and be made so much the more illustrious, according as their light here shone brighter before men, and moved them to glorify their heavenly Father. For St. Paul seems to teach, not only that the bodies we shall have after the resurrection will differ as vastly from those we have now as earth does from heaven, but that those heavenly bodies which we shall put on will differ very much among themselves in brightness and glory. As the glory of the celestial bodies is one, and the glory of the terrestrial another, so, he tells us, (among the celestial,) there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the deadm That is, some will have bodies more bright than others, and shine as stars of a greater magnitude, to note them to be persons of eminent rank, who have done very glorious service to their Lord.

The martyrs, for instance, whose bodies were slain or burnt to ashes for Christ's sake, we may well suppose will be more splendid than those who were laid in their graves in peace. Nay, the church in St. Austin's time, out of their great affection to them, wished to behold the scars of those glorious wounds which they received for Christ's sake, shining with a peculiar glory in their immortal bodies. "And perhaps," saith he", "we shall see them: for it will not be a deformity in them, but a dignity, and in the body will shine the beauty of their virtue more than of their body."

This the writers whom we call the Schoolmen imagine is the aureola, or little golden crown which the Judge will give to rare virtues. By which they mean some accidental reward superadded to the essential blessedness: like the little crown of gold wherewith the other crown upon the table of show

m 1 Cor. xv. 40-42.

n L. xxii. de Civ. Dei, cap. 19. [tom. vii. col. 682 E.]

bread was finished, as the Vulg. Lat. renders Exod. xxv. 25, from whence this expression seems to be borrowed. But that the overplus of reward which Christ will give to some shall consist only in a peculiar brightness of their body, I see no ground to determine; because God hath so many other ways to crown the faith, and love, and hope of those whom he delights to honour. It is better to conclude all this discourse with the words of the same father, which follow a little after:-" What and how great the spiritual grace of the body will be, because the time is not come to make experiment, I am afraid lest all that we say of it be rashly spoken." And therefore I shall only add, of which we may be certain, that, as Macarius observes, whether it be a greater or a lesser glory that we attain, we shall all shine together in one most blessed and glorious place. His words are thesep:

"As birds produce feathers of a different kind, and some fly nearer to the earth, others further off, but all fly in one common air; or, as there is one heaven, which hath many stars in it, some greater than others, but all fixed in heaven; so the saints shall be differently planted ἐν ἑνὶ οὐρανῷ τῆς θεότητος, ‘in one heaven of the Divinity,' and in one invisible country." Thither let us all direct our paths, thither let us continually aspire, saying, as he does in another place 9, (to which I shall add the words of another great man :)

"O how ineffable are the promises of Christians, who have such glorious expectations, that the faith and riches of one single soul cannot be equalled by the glory and beauty of heaven and earth; though we take in all their furniture, and treasures, and variety, and goodliness, and bravery!" (And yet how fairly do these things shine in our eyes, and with what pleasure do we behold their beauty!) "If then the created life be so good, how good is that life which creates! If the salvation we receive be so pleasant, how sweet is that salvation which gives all salvation! If that wisdom be so lovely which understands the works of God, how lovely is that wisdom which of nothing contrived them all! Finally, if there be so

o L. xxii. de Civ. Dei, cap. 21.

[col. 684 D.]

P Homil. 32. [§ 3. Galland. tom.

vii. p. 121 A.]

a Macarius, Homil. 4. [§ 17. p. 18 C.]

many and so great delights in delectable things, what and how great is that delight which is in him that made all things delectable! He that shall enjoy this good, what shall he have? what shall he not have? He shall have what he will, and what he would not he shall not have. . . . If honour and riches be desired, God will make his good and faithful servants rulers over many things. Nay, they shall be called sons of God, and gods; and where his Son is, there they shall be heirs of God and coheirs with Christ. If they desire true security, there is none like that: for, certainly, they shall be as certain that these, or rather this good, shall never by any means be wanting to them, as they are certain they shall never leave it of themselves, nor God their lover ever take it away against the will of those he loves; nor any thing stronger than he be able to separate them and God. They shall rejoice therefore perpetually. And they shall rejoice as much as they love, and love as much as they know. And how much, O Lord, shall they know thee then? how much shall they love thee? Certainly, neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man in this life, how much they shall know thee, and how much they shall love thee in that. I beseech thee, O God, let me know thee, let me love thee, that I may rejoice in thee. And if I cannot do it to the full in this life, O that I may profit every day until it come to the full! Let thy knowledge grow in me here, and there be made full: let thy love increase, and there also be full: that here my joy may in hope be great, and there in possession full. Amen."

CHAP. IV.

Of the eternity of this life.

FROM this larger (than was at first designed) consideration of the nature of this LIFE, pass we now to a short meditation of the ETERNITY of it; which indeed is the crown that God sets upon its head, the circle, if I may so speak, which wreathing

r Anselm. in Proslog. [capp. 24, 25. tom. i. p. 48.]

itself about this happiness, makes it to be our sovereign good. And it may not be unworthy our observation, that this Eternity of life is as far above the continuance of all other blessings heretofore promised as the life itself is. Life among the Jews, according to the letter of their law, signifying only all earthly good things; there was only a long life, not an eternal, in the land of Canaan, promised to them that kept that law. But quite otherwise the life promised by Christ consisting only in the enjoyment of spiritual and heavenly blessings; it is not a long, but an eternal, never-ending life, in the possession of these good things which he hath assured to us. It being but fit that as the life exceeds that which Moses promised; so the duration of it also should as much outrun his, as for ever extends itself beyond an age.

Now the word ETERNAL may be conceived to comprehend in it these three things.

I.

First, that there is nothing but life in this state of blessedness; which shall not be interrupted by any doleful accident. Life and death, I told you, in the holy language signify the same with blessedness and misery: and therefore the eternity of life must include in its notion a state of pure happiness, of mere and unmixed pleasure; without any thing that deserves the name of death to give it the least annoyance. There we may hope to be so happy as to know without mistake, and to be wise without folly, and to increase in knowledge without our present toil to acquire it. Love is there without hatred, jealousy or envy, joy without any sighing or sorrow, praises without complaints, obedience without reluctance, speed and alacrity without dulness and heaviness; in one word, perfect purity and holiness, without spot or blemish to sully the glory of it. As this lower region of the air we see is the place of clouds and darkness, thunder and lightning, storm and tempest; but to the dwellings of the sun and fixed stars none of these pitchy vapours ascend to obscure their brightness, or trouble their peace; just so is this world the scene of misery and vexation, confusion and disorder, our bodies are tossed with several storms, and our souls many times hurried with more violent tempests, the fierce gusts of their own passions; but when we

ascend to the region of light, and are clothed with the sun, we shall be out of the reach of these troubles, and find ourselves in a state of perfect rest and joy, without the least disgust to abate our contentment.

And what will make us despise this valley of tears, if this blessed hope have not force enough to lift our hearts above it? Who would not desire to come to the mount of vision and transfiguration, where we shall see the Lord, and be so changed thereby as to be made impassible as he is? Let the readers pardon me, if I so far digress as to ask them, What is this wilderness wherein you live, that you should love it better than that heavenly Canaan? What is forty years, or perhaps seventy, of toil and labour, to that eternal rest which Christ hath promised? Are not these husks contemptible in respect of the manna, the bread of life, of which if a man eat he shall live for ever? Is not our life here a dream, a shadow of life, in comparison with this life that is everlasting? Why then are you so hardly persuaded to take off your thoughts and affections from things beneath, and not so much to handle the thorns and prickles that are in all mortal things? Why should we be at so much pains to draw you into this paradise, where, as there is a perpetual spring, so all joy flourishes without the least sense of grief to spoil its pleasures? If you would have us to account you men, we cannot but expect you should entertain this happiness; unless you can either disbelieve it, or prove it falls so short of this description that it is not worth the price you must give for it. But how unable you will be to do the former shall appear presently, when I have told you further, how far short this description is of the incomparable excellency

of this life.

II.

For this word ETERNAL added to it may well denote the LIFE we speak of to be without any intermission, as well as without any intermixture. intermixture. As there is no contrary sense of grief in that happy state, so there is no insensibleness of joy. The blessed soul will never cease to feel its own pleasures, because, as there is no night in that heavenly country, so there is no sleep; in which we can scarce be said to live. The life we shall lead there will be one continued act of knowing, loving,