I. The faints future ftate of happiness, as defcribed by a country, a better country, a heavenly one, and by a city prepared for them.

II. Their particular regard unto it, they defire it, seek after it, and look for it; all which are expreffed in the text and context.

III. The notice God takes of fuch perfons, and what is faid of him with respect to them; he is not ashamed to be called their God; and that for this reafon, because he has prepared for them a city.

I. The faints future happiness, is defcribed by a country, a better country, an heavenly one, and by a city prepared. And on this I fhall chiefly dwell, only fay fome few things to the other two obfervations.

1. The faints future happiness is described by a country, for fo it is expreffed without an epithet, in ver. 14. they that fay fuch things, declare plainly, that they feek a country. And fo it may be called, both with respect to a country in general, and to the country and land of Canaan in particular.

ver. 14.

(1.) To a country in general, which is large, ample, and fpacious. It is indeed fometimes only called an houfe, which is eternal in the heavens, 2 Cor. v. 1. But then it is fuch an house, which confifts of divers apartments, of many manfions, or dwelling-places, John xiv. 2. Enow, for the many that are ordained to eternal life; for the many Chrift came to give his life a ranfom for; for the many for the remiffion of whofe fins his blood was fhed; for the many that are juftified by his righteousness; and for the many fons that are adopted into the family of God, and are brought to glory. It is alfo called a city, as in the text, and in ver. 10. which is an affemblage of houses, and which are fit for men of bufinefs, and of figure, and of fashion, and worth and dignity to dwell in; and fuch the faints are. And at other times, it is called a country, as here and in And frequently a kingdom, as being large and capacious, fufficient to contain all the faints that have been from the beginning of the world, and will be to the end of it. It is fometimes reprefented as a far country; a certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and return, Luke xix. 12. the nobleman is Chrift, the far country he went into, is heaven; his going thither refpects his afcenfion to heaven; his end in going, was to receive his mediatorial kingdom, more visibly and gloriously; for at his afcenfion he was made and declared Lord and Chrift. And his return, defigns his fecond coming, when he will call his fervants to an account for the talents he has entrusted them with in his abfence. Now heaven is called a far country; not only with respect to wicked men, to whom indeed, it is, and ever will be a far country; the rich man lift up his eyes in hell, and faw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in bis bofom, Luke xvi. 23 but it is fo, with respect to the faints, in their present state, which is a state of distance, and abfence, and with refpect to the views and prof

pects,

pects, which they have of this country here, and which are very distant ones: thine eyes fhall fee the king in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off, Ifai. xxxiii. 17. But they will not always be in a state of diftance from it, they will be brought nearer it, and it is what they defire to be led into. Thy Spirit is good, fays David; good in his nature, person and offices, and a good guide; and therefore he adds, lead me into the land of uprightness, Pfal. cxliii. 10. So called because none but upright perfons dwell there, fuch who are upright in heart and life, and have the uprightness of Christ, even his righteousness imputed to them. So in the new heavens and in the new earth, dwelleth righteousness, or righteous perfons; and none but they; as no defiled perfons fhall enter into the new Jerusalem: so neither fhall the unrighteous inherit the kingdom of God, the ultimate glory fee 2 Peter iii. 13. Rev. xxi. 27. 1 Cor. vi. 9.

(2.) The future happiness of the faints, may be called a country, with respect to the land of Canaan, which was a type of it, that was a land of promise, as in ver. 9. being promised to Abraham, and to his feed. And fo eternal life is the promife of God; and it is spoken of as if it was the only promife, being the grand and principal one; this is the promise that he bath promised us, eternal life, ■ John ii. 25. see James i. 12. And a very antient promise it is; it was very early on the heart of God to bestow it, and he made promise of it as early, in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised, before the world began, Titus i. 2. The land of Canaan, was a land of rest, it is sometimes called, the Lord's rest, because he gave it; and sometimes the rest of the children of Ifrael, because they enjoyed it, Heb. iii. 11, 18. Deut. xii. 11. A reft from their travels in the wilderness, and from all their enemies about them, when entered into, and poffeffed by them; and there remains a reft for the people of God; a fabbatism, a spiritual rest here, and an eternal one hereafter; a rest from all toil and labours, fin and forrow, difeafes, diftreffes, afflictions and troubles of whatfoever fort. The land of Canaan, is faid to be a good land, abounding with good things; a land flowing with milk and honey, a pleasant and defirable one, Exod. iii. 8. Deut. iii. 25. Pfalm cvi. 4. Heaven is a country where great goodnefs is laid up, not to be expreffed; fuch good things that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor bath it entered into the heart of man to conceive of; where there is p'enty and fatiety, no hunger nor thirst, neither in a literal or fpiritual sense; where there are fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore. The land of Canaan was ready prepared for the Ifraelites, was furnished with the accommodations and conveniences of life, without any pains, labour, or industry of theirs; cities they built not, boufes they filled not, wells they dug not, and vineyards and olive trees they planted not, Deut. vi. 10, 11. Heaven is replete with all good things, and ready prepared for the faints, without any toil and labour of theirs; it is

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not obtained and poffeffed, by any works of righteoufnefs done by them; not they that are of the law are heirs of this heavenly country: It is by promise and of grace; eternal life, is the free gift of God through Christ.

Once more, the land of Canaan, was divided by lot to the children of Ifrael, which was done by Jobu, when subdued by him, according to the commandment of God; and fo is the heavenly inheritance; in whom, that is, in Chrift, fays the apoftle, we have obtained an inheritance by lot, as the word ufed fignifies, Ephes. i. 11. Not that the heavenly inheritance is cafual, uncertain and precarious, who shall enjoy it; for the elect of God, are most certainly predeftinated to it, and fhall poffefs it: nor that it is divided into certain parts and portions; for the whole inheritance lies among the faints in light, and is enjoyed by them all, but the fenfe is, that it is not at their option, or according to any merit of theirs, but according to the election of God, and his free, rich, fovereign grace in Chrift.

2dly, The faints ftate of future happiness, is defcribed, by a better country; better than Mefopotamia, or Chaldea, from whence Abraham came; better than the land of Canaan, promised to him and his feed; and better than any country on the globe of the earth, or than the whole world itself.

(1.) The goodness of a country lies much in its falubrious air, and temperate climate; in heaven, the better country, no noxious peftilentious vapours arife to infect the air; no hurtful lufts, that indanger and destroy the fouls of men; no evil communications which corrupt good manners; no filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor any corrupt communications, proceed out of the mouths of the inhabitants of this better country; no filthy converfation of the wicked, to vex the fouls of the righteous; every thing here breathes unspotted purity, and perfect holiness. No mifts, nor fogs, nor clouds darkening the air, to interrupt the fight of pleasing objects, are here. Saints in their prefent state, it is sometimes with them a dark and cloudy day, the evidences of the truth of grace in them, and of their hope of eternal life and happiness, are much obfcured; fuch mifts arife, which intercept the fight of their beloved; he is withdrawn and is gone; they can neither fee his face, nor hear his voice; clouds. of fin interpofe, and separate between God and them with respect to fenfible communion, they walk in darkness, and fee no light: but fo it is not in the better country; it is all pure æther, an unbeclouded fky, it is as the morning, when the fun rifeth; a morning without clouds; as clear fhining after rain; the fun goes no more down by day, nor does the moon withdraw itself; the Lord is their everlasting light, and the days of their mourning are ended; no more darkness, but one bright, clear, perfect and everlasting day: no storms, no blustering winds, no hurricanes are heard or known in this better country: In the prefent life, Saints are toffed with tempefts, and not comforted. Chrift is

indeed an biding-place from the wind, and a covert from the ftorm of divine wrath and vengeance; he is a rock, on which their fouls are built; fo that when rains descend, floods come, and winds blow, and beat upon them, they stand safe and secure, because built upon the rock of ages; but though they are fafe, yet those beating waves, and bellowing winds, of fin's rage, and Satan's temptations, and the world's perfecutions, with other afflictions, give them great disturbance and diftrefs: but in the better country all is smooth, ferene and calm; no exceffive heat, or pinching cold, are here, as in fome climates, where the air is extremely hot, or feverely cold; but here no pain is felt from the influence of a fiery law, working wrath, nor from the fiery darts of Satan, nor from the flaming fword of juftice. The fun of perfecution looks not on the faints here, they serve the Lord day and night without moleftation, and neither fun nor heat fmite them; but they are led continually by the pure cooling fprings of grace, and purling streams of love, and all tears are wiped from their eyes. Here no damps arife, from the prevalence of fin, nor from the cares of life, nor from too great a regard to earthly and worldly things, to chill their affections and devotions; no fuch thing is known here as coldness, lukewarmness and indifference in religious worship. Love, that abiding and permanent grace, glows with a divine warmth in every breast, and is at its height, in its vigour and full perfection.

(2.) The goodness of a country lies, as in the falubrity of its air, fo in the fruitfulness of its foil: the better country is all a garden, a perfect paradise, it is called fo 2 Cor. xii. 4. and vaftly exceeds the earthly paradife, or Eden's garden, that was undoubtedly a moft fertile and delightful fpot, fet all around with fruit-trees, and odoriferous plants; there were no thorns nor briars in it; these are the fruit of fin, and the effect of the curfe pronounced on the earth for Adam's tranfgreffion; curfed is the ground for thy fake, thorns and thistles fhall it bring forth unto thee, Gen. iii. 17, 18. Nor are there any thorns and briars, in a figurative fenfe, in the heavenly paradife, in the better country; there is no pricking briar, nor grieving thorn to the faints, in all that land of glory, Ezek. xxviii. 24. whether by these are meant, profane finners, children of Belial, who are like thorns and briars, ufelefs and unprofitable, noxious and hurtful, and only fit fuel for everlafting burnings: or carnal profeffors, hypocrites in Zion; neither the one nor the other of these shall ftand in judgment, nor have a place in the congregation of the righteous, to give them any annoyance; or whether internal corruptions, which are like the Canaanites, left in the land to be pricks in the eyes and thorns in the fides of the Ifraelites, these are not in that land'; or the temptations of Satan, fince the thorn in the flesh, and a messenger of Satan, are put together. Neither he, nor these, have any place in the heavenly country; that,

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that, as before obferved, is all a paradife, where nothing grows that is hurtful. and pernicious; if the church below is an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits, camphire with Spikenard, Spikenard and faffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincenfe; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief fpices, Cant. iv. 13, 14. with what fruit-bearing trees, and aromatic plants, muft the heavenly paradife be filled, in the midst of which, we are affured, ftands the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, and yielding its fruit every month? Rev. ii. 7. and. chap.. xxii. 2.

(3.) The goodness of a country lies in its riches, and, generally speaking, when a country is fruitful, it is rich; the fruitfulness of its foil makes the inhabitants of it rich; as we read of riches of Grace, fo of riches of Glory; which far furpaffes all earthly riches; the riches of this world are uncertain riches, here to-day, and gone to-morrow, they make themselves wings and flee away; but the riches of the better country are certain and fure, folid and fubftantial, lasting and durable; a treasure which moth.cannot corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal away; they are unfearchable riches, it cannot be faid how much and how great they are; however, faints know in themselves that they have in heaven a better, and a more enduring fubftance than what can be enjoyed on earth, Heb. x. 34.

(4.) What gives the heavenly country the preference to all others is, the peaceableness of it; God makes peace in his high places, in the highest heavens, where his faints and angels dwell, John xxv. 2. which may, with great propriety, be called the land of peace, as the phrase is in Jer. xii. 5. In this world there is feldom peace long, war is commonly in one part of it or another; and as soon as peace is made, we quickly hear of rumours of war again; and with respect to the state of men on earth, in a moral and spiritual sense, this life is a warfare: Is there not a warfare to man on earth? as the words may be rendered in Job vii. 1. There is, and especially to the faints, and people of God; they have many enemies to war with, the world, the flesh and the devil: without are fightings and within are fears, 2 Cor. vii. 5. yea, they have fightings both within and without; without, with the world and the devil; and within with the cor ruptions of their nature, their worst enemies; there is nothing to be seen in the Shulamite, the most perfect, and the most peaceable believer, as the word may fignify, but as it were the company of two armies, fet in battle array, and combating each other, Cant. vi. 13. even the flesh lufting against the Spirit, and the fpirit against the flesh; the law in the members, warring against the law in the mind; but when this life is ended, the warfare is accomplished; no more war, all peace; the end of the perfect and upright man is peace; he enters in, to peace, eternal peace, which will never be interrupted..

(5.) Another