. • the most ancient of the Greek writers, you see the supreme powers feated in the heavens, and incompaffed with inferior Deities, among whom the Mufes are represented as finging inceffantly • about his throne. Who does not here • fee the main strokes and outlines of this 'great truth we are fpeaking of? The fame doctrine is fhadowed out in many • other heathen authors, tho' at the fame time, like feveral other revealed truths, dafhed and adulterated with a mixture of fables and humán inventions. But to pafs over the notions of the Greeks • and Romans, thofe more enlightened parts of the Pagan world, we find there is fcarce a people among the late dif• covered nations who are not trained up • in an opinion, that heaven is the habitation of the divinity whom they worfhip. As in Solomon's temple there was the Sanctum San&torum, in which a vifible glory appeared among the figures of the Cherubims, and into which none but the high-prieft himfelf was' permitted to enter, after having made an atonement for the fins of the people; fo if we confider the whole creation as one great temple, there is in it this Holy F 5 Holy of Holies, into which the high-prieft of our falvation entered, and took his place among Angels and Archangels, after having made a propitiation for the 'fins of mankind. With how much skill muft the throne of God be erected? With what glorious defigns is that habitation beauti'fied, which is contrived and built by him who infpired Hiram with wisdom? How great must be the majesty of that place, where the whole art of creation has been employed, and where God ⚫ has chosen to fhew himself in the most magnificent manner? What must be ⚫ the architecture of infinite power under 'the direction of infinite wifdom? A fpirit cannot but be tranfported after an ⚫ ineffable manner, with the fight of those objects, which were made to affect him by that Being who knows the inward frame of a foul, and how to please and ravifh it in all its moft fecret powers and faculties. It is to this majestic prefence of God we may apply those ⚫ beautiful expreffions in holy writ. Be⚫ bold even to the moon, and it fbineth not; yea the stars are not pure in his fight. The fight of the fun, and all the glories of the world in which we live, are but as as weak and fickly glimmerings, or rather darkness itself, in comparison of ⚫ thofe fplendors which incompass the • throne of God. As the glory of this place is tranfcen• dent beyond imagination, fo probably is the extent of it. There is light behind light, and glory within glory. How far that space may reach, in which • God thus appears in perfect majesty, we cannot poffibly conceive. Tho' it is not infinite, it may be indefinite; and though not immeasurable in itself, it may be fo with regard to any created eye or imagination. If he has made thefe lower regions of matter fo inconceiveably wide and magnificent for the habitation of mortal and perishable Beings, how great may we fuppofe the courts of his houfe to be, where he • makes his refidence in a more especial manner, and difplays himself in the fulnefs of his glory, among an innumerable company of Angels, and Spirits of juft men made perfect? This is certain, that our imagina'tions cannot be raised too high, when we think on a place where Omnipotence and Omniscience have fo fignally exerted themselves, because that they " are are able to produce a Scené infinitely more great and glorious than what we are able to imagine. It is not impof'fible but at the confummation of all things, thefe outward apartments of nature, which are now fuited to thofe Beings who inhabit them, may be ta•ken in and added to that glorious place of which I am here fpeaking, and by that means made a proper habitation. for Beings who are exempt from mortality, and cleared of their imperfections: For fo the fcripturé feems to intimate when it fpeaks of new heavens. and of a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteoufnefs. I have only confidered this glorious place, with regard to the fight and imagination, though it is highly probable that our other fenfes may here likewife: enjoy their higheft gratifications. There is nothing which more ravishes and transports the foul, than harmony; and we have great reafon to believe, from the defcriptions of this place in Holy Scripture, that this is one of the entertainments of it. And if the foul of man can be fo wonderfully affected with. thofe ftrains of mufic, which human art is capable of producing, how much more more will it be raised and elevated by thofe, in which is exerted the whole power of harmony! The fenfes are faculties of the human foul, though they cannot be employed, during this our vital union, without proper inftruments in the body. Why therefore should we exclude the fatisfaction of thefe faculties, which we find by experience are inlets of great pleasure to the foul, from among thofe entertainments which are to make up our happinefs hereaf ter? Why fhould we fuppofe that our hearing and feeing will not be gratified with thofe objects which are most a greeable to them, and which they cannot meet with in thefe lower regions. of nature; objects, which neither eye bath feen nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive? I knew a man in Chrift (fays St. Paul, fpeaking. • of himself) above fourteen years ago (whe•ther in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) fuch a one caught up to the third beaC ven. And I knew fuch a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot • tell: God knoweth) how that he was caught up into paradife, and heard unspeakable • words, which it is not poffible for a man to 6 utter, 6 |