about us. Therefore this present time may well be called the time of our labours: after all which there is nothing we have got but must also have an end, and we shall be forced quickly to take our leave of it.

But now, in that joyful Sabbath that is to succeed, we shall rest from all these labours, and be at no more pains to attain or keep our happiness. There will be no danger, as I have said, of our being despoiled of it. No serpent can creep into that Paradise to tempt and allure us from that great felicity: nor shall we be in any danger from our own flesh; nor find ourselves in a world where there will be any thing to excite our desires but what we may freely take the fullest satisfaction in. By which, and all the rest that hath been discoursed, you may clearly see, there can be nothing wanting to complete the happiness of that state, but only the never-ceasing duration or continuance of it. Now in this, as was said at first, the rest we expect in the other world differs from that which God promised the Hebrews in the land of Canaan. For, by virtue of Moses his law, they had a title only to a long life in that fruitful country in opposition to which, as well as to our short life here, the Christian rest is called an everlasting life, an inheritance immortal (because incorruptible) and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for usd. So our Lord himself calls it a great number of times in one discourse he had with the stupid Jews, where he exhorts them to labour not so much for the meat that perisheth, as for the meat that endureth to everlasting life, which the Son of man came to give themf. For this is the will, he tells them, of him that sent him, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting lifes. And because they were still sottishly regardless of what he said, he affirms it again with the most vehement asseverations: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life: and He that eateth of this bread shall live for everh: which is repeated again in sundry other places of the same chapter.

And I must tell you, for your more ample satisfaction, that our Saviour hath taken care to deliver this doctrine to us in such words as can have no other sense or meaning. The word g Ver. 40. h Ver. 47, 58.

di Pet. i. 4. I

e John vi.

f Ver. 27.

for ever or everlasting, in the old law, sometime signifies only the duration of several years, or a long compass of time, which at last might have an end. As the Hebrew servant, who had sold himself for six years, if, when they were at an end, he chose not to go free, he was to serve his master for ever'; that is, till the jubilee, if his master lived so long, and he were not redeemed nor released. And there are many ordinances of Moses, not now to be enumerated, which are said to be everlasting, because they were to continue till the coming of Christ. Now, lest any one should imagine that the life our Saviour speaks of shall be everlasting only in the same sense, a very long continued happiness, (several ages suppose,) which in conclusion might determine and come to an end, he hath prevented such thoughts, by using other words besides this of everlasting life, that we may be assured it signifies more in the gospel than it did under the law, that is, an endless bliss. For (1) he not only tells the Jews in the forenamed chapter, that he was the bread, of which if a man did eat he should not die; but that whosoever liveth (that is, every living man) and believeth in him shall never die1: which is as much as to say, he will give us a life without any death. And further (2) he says, that whosoever keeps his saying shall never see deathTM: which, if it signify any thing distinct from the former, must denote that he shall never be in any danger of death, or come near it; which, in the next words, is called tasting death". How can this be, say the Jews, since Abraham and the prophets are dead; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death? That is the phrase wherein our Saviour's passion is expressed, who tasted death (i. e. lay in the grave a while) for every man°: and therefore may signify here that our Saviour's faithful disciples, after he hath given them everlasting life, shall not die at all; no, not for the space of three days, though afterward they might rise again. But I have taken notice of one expression fuller than this; for he doth not only say, that they shall not die nor taste of death, but (3) that they cannot die any more. οὔτε γὰρ ἀποθανεῖν ἔτι δύνανταιΡ. There is no possibility, after

they have attained that life, that they should die again, for they are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being, by the resurrection, begotten to an immortal life. Hence it is that the apostle calls this happy state by the name of ålavaola, immortality, and ap0apoía, incorruption, and saith that our bodies shall be raised in incorruptions, and put on immortalityt, and bear the image of the heavenly Adam", i. e. of our Lord now he is in glory, who, we know, dies no more. Which all signify, the body as well as the soul shall enjoy such a solid state of happiness as cannot moulder or be dissolved, but will remain firm and durable like the Author of it, by whom death shall be swallowed up in victory*, i. e. be so perfectly conquered, that it shall never recover the least. power any more.

Innumerable ages shall never put a period to this eternal life; but after they are all passed, the whole man shall be as fresh and beautiful, without any declension or sign of decay, as if it were but newly risen, and had just then put on its purest robes of glorious light. There will be as full a good, I mean, and as great a strength to enjoy it, and as perfect a liking also of it, after millions of ages are spent in the heavenly mansions as there was at the very first entrance into them. Death being destroyed by him who is the Resurrection and the Life, and who dieth no more, an immortal soul shall inhabit an immortal body, and they shall be for ever with the Lord where they shall be for ever employed in those happy exercises before mentioned; which will for ever be to be done again. In the doing of them there will be infinite pleasure; and in the repetition of them there will be no disrelish, but an infinite increase of pleasure. As they always know, so they shall always be knowing more. For new beauties, we may well think, will discover themselves in an infinite object; and this will excite a fresh love, and that a more vigorous joy: and so for ever round again there will be knowing, loving, and rejoicing more and more without any end. It is but a little that can be said should speak of it to the end of time.

of eternity, though we Nay, in eternity itself,

we shall not be able to come to the end of it in our thoughts no more than in our being, because it hath none. We can never know it all, because it is still to come. And therefore how little of it will this leaf of paper contain? or, should we write never so much, how shall we be able now to reach the description of a thing so sublime? Thankful acclamations to the goodness of our Saviour for bringing life and immortality to light, and serious admirations at the amazing greatness of what we know of it, will be far more acceptable, as well as more easy, than a long discourse about it. And therefore I shall end this chapter with my wishes, that this blessedness I am speaking of may not seem small in our eyes because we can relate so little of it; but rather appear the greater and the more desirable, because we see it is beyond our present understanding. Though this vast circle of eternity cannot be measured by our thoughts, that makes it but so much the more excellent than our span of time. And though this life comprehend such pleasures as we cannot now enjoy, that doth but exalt it above the poor pleasures of this present life, which we can first enjoy and then contemn. We are not able, it is true, to conceive, nor can it enter into our hearts, what God hath in store for those that love him; but this should only excite our longings to conceive it, and make us sigh, and say, when we think of enjoying God himself, and of an eternal enjoyment of him,—

O the fulness of God! O the infiniteness of him that is the Life of this life! who can tell what thou art, O most blessed for ever; by whom all things were made, and who art all that can possibly be? What comforts shine from the brightness of thy face! How joyful wilt thou make us with the light of thy countenance when we shall see thee as thou art! It will put greater gladness into our hearts than if all the glory of the world should smile upon us.

But what eye can be strong enough to behold so great a splendour? what excellent creatures must they be made who shall be capable to see God! It casts us into a trance when we do but think of being eternally beloved of thee. O what will it do to feel ourselves ever, ever the objects of thy infinite love! The beauteous frame of the heavens is exceeding admirable in our eyes. O what a goodly world is this, in which

thou sufferest thine enemies to live! What a glorious torch is the sun, which thou hast lighted to shine on the unjust as well as on the just! Who then can hope to know, till he sees, what the pleasures are which thou hast prepared for thy friends? What a glorious light shall shine from thy presence upon the face of those that love thee! Their hearts now cannot hold the smallest glimpse of that which shall for ever bless and ravish them with its joys. But how can we hope to see it unless thou wilt raise us above ourselves, and make us no longer men of this world, but children of the resurrection, and equal to the holy angels? We believe, and rejoice to think, that thou wilt account us worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection of the dead. It is the greatest pleasure we have here, to hope we shall enjoy all the happiness of which we now discourse; nay, far more, infinitely more than can be conceived.

"For how great will that happiness be, where we shall neither feel any evil nor want any good, where all our work will be the praises of God, who shall be all in all, where no sloth shall make us cease to praise him, nor any necessity call us to other employment!...There will be true glory indeed, where no man shall be praised either by the error or the flattery of him that praiseth. True honour that will be, which shall be denied to no worthy person, nor given to any unworthy. Nay, the unworthy shall not so much as seek it there, where none are permitted to come but such as are worthy. True peace is there, where nothing shall fall cross to our desires, either from ourselves or any other. There he who gave virtue will be its reward; having promised that he himself, than which nothing can be greater, nothing better, will be the portion of it. What else shall we understand by those words, I will be their God, and they my people, but that, I will be their satisfaction, I will be all that every one can honestly desire, both life, and health, and sustenance, and riches, and glory, and honour, and all good? For so we read, that God will be all in all. He will be the end of our desires, who will be seen without end, and loved without loathing, and praised without weariness. This will be the office, this will be the inclination, this will be the work of all in that eternal life, which is common to all. There we shall sing the mercies of the Lord for ever." "There we shall