The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

A SERMON PREACHED AT HERTFORD Assise Time, July 16. 1665.

JOHN XIV. 2.

In my Fathers house are many mansions, &c.

THE words are the words of our Saviour, and much mistaken (if I am not much mistaken) by many as to the time when they were spoken, and by many as to their sence which they intend. The first verse of the thirteenth Chapter, and the last verse of this, state the time of their speaking, and the consideration of the case of the persons to whom they were spoken must state their meaning.

Very many conceive that the story of the foregoing Chapter was at the Passover-supper: that it was at the Passover-supper, when Christ washt his Disci∣ples feet, gave Judas the ••op, and foretold Peter of his denial: whereas the very first words in that Chapter do plainly tell it was before the Feast of the Passover came; and the nine and twentieth verse of it tells us, that when our Saviour said to Judas, what thou doest do quick, the Disciples thought he meant, Buy those things that we have need of against the Feast, which was not yet come.

Matthew and Mark resolve us both of the time and place, namely, that it was not at the Passover, but two days before; and that it was not at Jerusalem, but at Bethany, two miles off, Matth. XXVI. 2. 6. Mark XIV. 1. 3. Two days therefore before the Passover, at Bethany, at a common supper, Christs head is anointed, he washeth the Disciples feet, Judas receives the sop, and the Devil with it, goes in the night to Jerusalem, and plo•••• for the betraying of his Master against the Passover come. And after his departure Christ speaks of his own departure from them, and tells Peter, The Cock shall not crow, till thou have denied me thrice.

That very passage hath bred that mistake about the time, as if it were on the Pass∣over night, and that no Cock should crow till Peter had so denied him. Whereas it is apparent that he denied him but once before the Cock crew, Mark XIV. 68. and for∣ward; and that he denied him twice after the Cock had once crowed. But our Saviours meaning is, that he should deny him thrice in the time of Cock crowing.

This matter is the more material for consideration, because of that assertion of some, That Judas received the sop at the Passover-supper, but that he stayed not till the ad∣ministration of the Lords Supper, but went out; whereas indeed he had received the sop two nights before the Passover-supper came.

At the same place at Bethany, though not exactly at the same time with the story be∣fore, Christ utters his discourse of this Chapter: and you see how he concludes his dis∣course at the last verse of the Chapter, Arise, let us go hence, that is from Bethany to Je∣rusalem on the Pass-over day.

He begins his discourse of this Chapter with Let not your hearts be troubled, &c. and presently comes on with the words of the Text, In my Fathers house are many mansions.

About the juncture of which words there is some scruple. Some apply them thus, though I go alone, yet there is room for you also where I go. Others thus, That whereas he had said to Peter, Chap. XIII. 36. Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me after∣wards, he saith now to the rest, let not your hearts be troubled, there are many mansions in my Fathers house; There is room for you as well as for Peter. Some understand many mansions so, for much room: some for divers degrees of glory.

But we shall the better discover the bent of his words, if we observe the three stays that he gives to their troubled minds in the three first verses. We must take notice withal of the three things that might especially trouble their minds. The three stays are, Believe in me: In my Fathers house: I will come to take you. And of the discomfiture that trou∣bled their minds.

I. The first and not the least was that he had told them that he was going from them, and that could not but go very near their hearts: so loving, so divine a Master to be taken away from their heads. They had forsaken all to follow him, and he now to for∣sake them, that they can follow him no more: they no more to enjoy the sweet delight of his company, the saving and favoury flavor of his discourses, and rare example of his life and converse. Of all this they were very sensible, but most of all, that he should be taken from them in such a manner: As the Children of the Prophets said to Elisha, Knowest thou that thy Master this day will be taken from thine head? Disciples, know ye that your Master will presently be taken from you? Yes, we know it, he hath told us so. But do you apprehend that he is to be taken from you by such a shameful, cruel, horrid death? That he was to be taken away from them at all, how might it justly trouble their hearts; but overwhelm their hearts, if they knew the manner how?

Against this sadness he chears them with all the arguments and comforts that we meet with in the Text and Context: ye will not see me any more, yet believe in me: I go from you, but I go to prepare a place for you. Though I leave you, yet I do not forsake you, for I will come and take you to my self. But besides this,

There was a two fold trouble and discomforture might lie upon their hearts by look∣ing upon themselves with reflexion upon two common and received opinions and tenets of the Nation; in which they themselves had been trained up even from their infancy, till they met with their Master.

And the first was, that if a Jew forsook his Judaism he should have no part in the World to come. A sowre sauce, that no doubt the unbelieving Jews would lay in the dish of the Disciples, and all other of the Nation, that were turned Christians. Oh! ye have for∣saken your Religion, and what will become of you? The Apostles discourse seems di∣rectly to face such a reproach, in I Thes. IV. 13, 14. I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that sleep, that ye sorrow not as others that have no hope. What were they Sadducees, that denied any Resurrection? And did they account them that were dead to be dissolved into nothing, and quite lost and gone? Or acknowledging the Resurrection, did they think their fellow Christians that were dead were gone to perdi∣tion, and were in a damned estate? Or was not this old Jewish Maxim rather cast in their teeth: (for the first foundation of this Thessalonian Church was of Jews). You and your Sect have turned your back upon your Judaism, and forsaken your Religion; and where are they that are dead, and what will become of you, when you die? When as you have been taught from your child-hood, He that forsaketh his Judaism shall have no part in the World to come. You forsook to follow a certain Jesus, have forsaken the Re∣ligion of your Fathers, and what will you do in the latter end, when ye come to die? Why, saith the Apostle, Doubt not, but as many as sleep in Jesus, Jesus will bring with him, and raise them even as God raised Jesus.

Now this might trouble the minds of the Apostles. They had forsaken their Judaism, and turned their backs upon the Religion, they had been trained up in from their cradle, to follow the new doctrine, and precepts of their Master: and now their Master is going from them; and what have they to comfort themselves against that dagger-doctrine, He that forsakes his Judaism, &c. why, Let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, be not affraid to believe also in me on the terms that I have told you, even to the forsaking of your Judaism, and to the embracing of my new way of administration. For in my Fathers house are many mansions: Mansions for you that believe in me, as well as for them that under Judaism believe in the Father; mansions for them under the Gospel administra∣tion under which I have brought you, as well as for them, that are under Legal admini∣strations, which you have left. If it were not so I would have told you, and will not de∣ceive you.

III. It was a common and received doctrine and opinion of the Nation, that Messias should have a pompous Kingdom; that he should give splendid entertainment to his fol∣lowers upon earth, feasting, banqueting, great state and bravery. And the Apostles themselves, were not yet cleared of that opinion, as appears by the request of Zebedees

sons, that one of them might sit on his right hand, and the other on his left in his Kingdom: and by that question of the Disciples, Act. I. 6. &c. Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? &c.

Now these poor men took Jesus indeed for the Messias, but as yet they have seen no such entertainment at all. They poor and their Master poor too. He so far from giving any such treatment, that he had not where himself to lay his own head; and they so far from finding any such entertainment, that they had met with nothing but poverty, dan∣ger, contempt and obloquy. And now their Master is going from them, and what is be∣come now of their expectation of that bravery and Kingdom? Why, Let not your hearts be troubled, I have noble entertainment for you, but that is not to be here, but in my Fa∣thers house; and thither I am going to prepare it and a place for you: and I will come again and take you to my self to treat you there.

So that reading the words with the foil and set off of those two opinions, which help to illustrate the sence by reflexion, you may observe in them these Two things.

• I. That Christs entertainment of his people is in Heaven.
• II. That there they all meet in that blessed entertainment, though here they were under va∣rious and different administrations.

Many mansions in the Text speaks not several and divided places in Heaven, as the se∣veral Cabbins in Noahs Ark, but it reflects upon the many administrations they were seve∣rally under upon earth: though under various and different, and almost contrary ad∣ministrations on earth, yet all meet in his Fathers house, for there are many mansions, and there is the place of his entertaining them.

I shall not need to prove that by his Fathers house he meaneth Heaven, the very words following, I go to prepare, &c. make that plain enough. But I shall speak to both the Propositions before us as it were twistedly together in the method in which Christ acteth as to the things spoken of. And first this,

I. Christ saw it good to bring his Church through various administrations of the matters of Religion, and of the way of Salvation. I say not through various Religions and ways of Sal∣vations, but through various administrations of the matters of Religion and of the way of Salvation, before the Law, under the Law, and under the Gospel.

I shall not need to clear this in particulars; it is so conspicuous, and so well known to all, that it were but expence of time to insist upon the proof of it. Only let me say this upon it, that God used these various administrations to his Church according to the di∣versity of the age of that mystical body, Child-hood, nonage and consistency. And this the Apostle speaks plainly for me, Gal. IV. at the beginning, where he tells us, that as the heir in nonage differs nothing from a Servant, but is under Tutors and Governors, and subjection; so we when we were Children, that is, while Christs body was under age, were in bonduge under the rudiments of the World, till the fulness of time come. Before the Law, the Church was in its child-hood, small and little, confined within the compass of one or few families: and then God brought it up upon his own knees, documenting it, (as a mother does her child beford she send it to School) with his own lively Voice, in Visions, Revelations, or his own Words spoken from Heaven.

When it grew bigger and so very numerous in Egypt, God then set it forth to School, under the written Law, a School-Master, as the Apostle calls it, and a sharp one too: and it was no more than needed, that it should be put under the lash and ferule of so severe a discipline. For now the youth began to wax wanton, and to forsake God that had so tenderly brought it up, and to betake it self to the Idols of Egypt, as Ezekiel tells you in his twentieth Chapter. Therefore to School, child, to School, under the lash of a seveer Law to keep under that youthfulness, that was so ready to grow exor∣bitant.

And in this School the Church yet under age, was under a twofold administration, viz. under the Law with Prophets and Revelations under the first Temple, and under the Law without Prophets and Revelations under the second.

At last comes in the Gospel; and the Church is taken from School, and put to the Uni∣versity, and how it comes up to perfect manliness; the Gentiles are called in, and that makes up the compleat body. It might be an Inquiry, why the Church was to grow up towards consistency three thousand nine hundred twenty eight years, viz. ere Christ came?

That is, the perfect man and the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, which the Apostle speaks of, Ephes. IV. 13. which some conceive to mean the stature of the bodies of the Saints when they shall rise from the dead, just proportionated to the stature of Christs body when he died; which is as far from the meaning of the Apostle, as it is from hence to the Resurrection: but he means the perfect growth and full stature of Christs

mystical body, the Church, which was growing up from generation to generation, and now, when the Gentiles came in their full conflux, was come to its full consistency and manhood.

And of the same body is his meaning in that obscure and much mistaken place, Rom. VIII. 23. And not only they, i. e. the whole creation, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, every creature, which means no other thing than the Gentile or Heathen World: not only they grone to come in∣to the Evangelical liberty of the children of God, but we also of the Jewish Nation, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grone within our selves, waiting for the redemption, to wit, the adoption of our body: we wait for the redeeming and adopting of the Gentiles to make up our mystical body.

To the same sence is the meaning of the same Apostle in that also mistaken place, Heb. XI. ult. That they without us should not be perfect. He little means, that they that believed before the coming of Christ were not perfectly saved; as the Papists from thence would prove their Limbo: But his meaning is, they without us were not the perfect body of Christ; but we under the Gospel came in to make that up: nor they so perfect in the Doctrine of Salvation, as under the revealing of the Gospel at our coming in. So that this is the first thing, That Christ saw good to bring his Church through various admini∣strations.

II. Secondly, Though the manner of administration were thus various, yet the way of Salvation in them all but one and the same, viz. by Faith in Christ: as the Apostle plainly evidenceth in the Chapter just now cited, Heb. XI. As the brazen Oxen under the Laver, their faces looked several ways, but their hinder parts met in one centre under the La∣ver, so these Administrations indeed looked divers ways, without Law, with Law, with Prophets, without Prophets, without Gospel, with Gospel, yet agreed in all one and the same centre, Faith in Jesus Christ. I have a large field before me, to shew that all the holy ones, that lived and died before Christ were saved by believing in Christ. But I shall confine my self to observe this by a rule of contraries, namely thus.

It is something to be wondred at, that in our reckoning the various administrations under which Christ brought his Church to glory, we may not number the firstborn ad∣ministration that was in the World, and which one would think was the likeliest way to have brought to Heaven, and that was the state of innocency. But this we must except from the general rule, and leave it quite out. He that will observe shall find that Christ descended most of younger brothers: and answerably Salvation descended not from this elder brother in Gods administration, that state of innocency, but something else had the birth-right: Ruben lost it, and it descended to Joseph.

It was never Gods intent to bring men to Salvation by the way of innocence, in which Adam was created. This appears plain enough by the Issue. Nay, did God bring the holy Angels to Salvation by the way of the perfection of their nature, in which they were created? Meerly being in Heaven doth not denominate Salvation. The Angels that fell were there, and it proved but little Heaven to them. And merely beholding God face to face doth not denominate Salvation: for we have no cause to think, but the Angels that fell, had beheld his face, as well as they that stood: but this is Salvation to behold him as he is, and to be like unto him, I Joh. III. 2. Like him, not in infinity, omnipotency, ubiquity, but like him in holiness, holy as he is holy. Now though Adam was like unto him by Creation, being formed in his Image, and the Angels like unto him by Creation, as emi∣nently also carrying the same Image; yet herein both come short, of that Image that doth consummate the Saints and Angels in glory, viz. that though they were perfectly holy by Creation, yet they were not unchangeably holy: for unchangeableness was not to be found in created nature. And what the holy Man in the book of Job saith concerning Wisdom, we may say concerning immutability: Where is unchangeableness to be found, and where is the place of immutability? The Sea saith it is not in me, and the Earth saith it is not in me. Men say it is not in us, the Angels say it is not in us, but the Truth saith it is only in God.

Therefore to bring Men and Angels into the Estate of Glory, that, set Infinity aside, they should be like unto God, perfectly holy and unchangeably holy as God is holy, eternally holy as God is holy; it was needful not to leave them bottomed only upon the excellency of their created natures, be that never so excellent, but to ingraff, and as I may say, incorporate them even into the unchangeable God himself, the Lord Christ. The Saints in glory are unchangeable, how? Both in nature and affection, their estate unchangeable, yea their very thoughts which were so unfixed and fluid, become un∣changeable. They are so infinitely ravished with the beauty and love of God in behold∣ing him as he is, that they cannot turn the least thought away or aside from him. And they are so ingraffed and united into Christ, that the corruptibleness of them being now laid aside, they are become unchangeable, as Christ himself is unchangeable. The Angels that fell wanted this uniting, so that though they beheld the face of God, yet their

hearts turned away from him: because they had no other uniting to God, then what lay in their own created holiness, which was changeable and soon changed.

So that, I say, God never intended to bring man to Salvation by the way of crea∣ted innocency, because he intends to glorifie grace and not nature, and to bottom all that were to be saved upon Christ, and not on themselves. It may seem strange, that Adam, when his wife had brought in sin and death into the World, should name her Eve, life, whereas before he had only named her Woman. Call me not Naomi, but call me Marah, might she very well have said unto him; Call me not life, but call me death and misery, for I have been the unhappy introducer of both. But Adam had now heard of Christ, he had received his promise, and laid hold on it, and found a better life now by him than before.

And to this refers that in Joh. 1. 4. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. In the verse next before he had said, All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made that was. Then had all living things that were created their life from him. What need he then to add, in him was life? Namely because he intends that life in Christ, that we are speaking of. Which life, he saith, was the light of men. And the light shone in dark∣ness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Life in Christ held out in the promise to Adam, was the light that all holy men from Adam forward looked after and walked by. And that light shone in the darkness of mans now sinful and undone condition. That light shone in the darkness before the Law, when their was no light of a Law, but what was written in the heart of man. That light shone in the darkness of the Types and Figures that were in the Law, when the Law was given. And that light shone in the darkness and ob∣scurities of the cloudy Prophesies of the Prophets. And at last it shone out fully with∣out any darkness at his coming in the Gospel, and that, at verse the ninth, was the true light that inlightneth every man that came into the world, that inlightneth the Gentiles, even all the World.

So that all along even from the first day of Adam, under the various administrations, in which it pleased God to carry on this Light, this was the life and light of men, None but Christ, none but Christ. They that went before him, before the Law, and under the Law; and they that come after, under the Gospel, crying Hosanna to him, expecting and finding Salvation from him.

III. And this leads me to the third thing we are to speak of, viz. Christs entertaining all his, that thus under these several Administrations believed in him, in his Fathers house, in Sal∣vation and Eternity.

I, at the last he did so, will the Romanist say, but first, by your leave, were all the be∣lievers before Christ came entertained in Limbo? Truly very course entertainment, when the good men had served God all the day, and at night should have received their wages, there was yet none for them, but they must to Limbo, and wait yet (it may be) two or three thousand years, and then they shall be paid. Poor Abel served his Master faithfully and truly all his time, dies in his Masters service, and for his Masters sake, and when he comes to expect his reward in Heaven; no, Abel, thou must to Limbo, and there stay till Christ come and fetch thee out, about three thousand five hundred years after thou comest thither. Very hard payment. And a strange business, that Abraham whilst he lived should converse with God as a friend, and walk and talk with him, and entertain God at his Table; and when he is dead, he is become a mere stranger to God, thrust in∣to a hole in Limbo, where no light of God, no communion with him at all, but God and Abraham are now mere strangers.

Such mad absurdities doth the limiting of the Spirit and operation of Christ to the bodily presence of Christ produce and bring into the World. Such is the Doctrine of Transubstantiation, and such this of Limbo. Transubstantiation that maintains that there is no receiving Christ virtually in the Sacrament, unless we receive him bodily, his very flesh and blood. And this of Limbo, that none went to Heaven, till Christ went in his real presence to Limbo, after his Death, to fetch them thence, and bring them to Glory.

I had thought Abraham had been in glory before. For when Christ before his death doth propose that parable of Abraham in joys, and Lazarus in his bosom, certainly he is proposed not as being in Limbo, but in Heaven. And when Moses appears to Christ in Glory, Luke IX. 31. do you think he came out of Limbo in that glory? But what need I trouble you with the confutation of such absurdities? If it be the Spirit and Power of Christ, that operates for mans Salvation, and not his bodily presence: if it be the fruit and effect of Faith to unite to Christ, and to bring into the enjoyment of all the benefits of Christ, grace and glory: and if all the holy ones under those various administrations, before the Law, under the Law, and under the Gospel, had such faith in Christ, what doubt can be made of their Salvation, when they died, and that they were received and entertained by Christ in the Mansions of his Fathers house?

The last word You in the Text, I suppose, is that where the Emphasis especially lies. I go to prepare a place for you, as I have prepared place for others before you: for Enoch, Abraham, &c. before the Law; for Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, &c. under the Law; I am now going also to prepare a place for you; and there is place for you, that are come under an administration, clean different from all theirs. For in my Fathers house are many mansions.

Being then to speak of Christs entertaining all his in Heaven, let me begin my dis∣course with sursum Corda, Christians, lift up your hearts; that that you have to look af∣ter is above. It is the Voice of my beloved, I am going to prepare for you in my Fathers house. O my soul, look not after any lower preparation. The husks and draff of this World is not the provision, that Christ makes for his. And why should I feed upon Onyions and Garlick, when if I will seek after it, there is Manna enough for me, the food of Angels. I am going to prepare a place for you in my Fathers house, is a word that might make a Soul never to be quiet till it come there, and that might make it to scorn and slight all this trash here below, in reaching out and breathing after the provisions that are there.

Lift up your heads and hearts, ye afflicted and dejected, and despised servants of the Lord Jesus; though your bread here be bread of affliction, and you mingle your drink with weeping, though ye walk in hunger and poverty, under derision and persecution and trouble, though oppressed, afflicted, tormented, yet here is enough to make amends in the end for all. I go to prepare for you. Be content with your dinner of bitter herbs, and sower sauce, apud superos coenaturi, there is a supper provided for you in eternal mansions.

What entertainment Jew and Millenary look for in Christs personal reign upon Earth, let them enjoy when they can meet with it, but if you be risen with Christ seek those things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, preparing for you. Let us begin at the lowest step of Jacobs ladder, and climb up gradatim to the top of it, where it is lodged in Heaven.

First, This World is not a place for Christs entertaining of His; as it proved but a course Entertainment of Christ, when he was here. My Kingdom, saith he, is not of this World, nor indeed can it be, let Jew and Millenary conceit what they please. For observe that passage in III. Gen. 17. where as soon as Adam is fallen, the Earth is cursed, Cursed be the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it. Did I say, as soon as he was fallen, the Earth is cursed, I should rather say, as soon as Christ is promised, the Earth is cursed: for there is as proper a connexion between those two as between his fall and that curse. Christ is promised and the Earth is cursed, that Adam and all the Saints of God might not look for blessedness upon the Earth but in Christ; nor for Christ nor his Kingdom upon this cursed Earth, but in Heaven.

O Jew the Earth is cursed, where canst thou find a place upon it for Messias blessed Kingdom? All is but as Meshek and the Tents of Kedar to him, he finds not a place here to lay his head. I may say the title over Christs head was and is a stumbling block under the Jews feet; where it was written Jesus of Nazareth, and they looked for Messias of Bethlehem; King of the Jews, and they saw nothing in him but poverty and con∣tempt.

In Joh. XVII. 24. Father I will, that those whom thou hast given me, be with me, where I am. Where I am, where is that? Not here, wherein is poverty, contempt and disho∣nor, as he experienced when he was here, but to see my glory: there where he is glorifi∣ed. Alas! What treatment can he provide for them here? Can he spread a table for their full satisfaction in this Wilderness; where he found none for himself? The dish he sets before them is, In this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good chear, there is better chear provided for you in my Fathers house. This is but a Wilderness, you are passing through, Canaan is the land provided for the flowing with milk and hony. In my Fathers house there are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 many abiding places, here you are flitting from place to place and no abiding; but I have prepared a Rest for the people of God.

An unfit place here, where there is nothing but changes and vicissitudes, and where in a moment Amnons mirth and feasting may be turned into mourning and misery. All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change cometh, saith Job. Why he met with changes enough; but he means his great change, when he should be changed no more, than that that he looks for and trusts in. An unfit place this, when the house may be blown down, whilst we are feasting in it, as it happened to Jobs children. This World then is no fit place for Christ to entertain his people in.

Secondly, A believer in this World is not yet capable of the Entertainment that Christ has to give him; therfore that is reserved for him in his Fathers house. As Christ tells his Disciples, I have many things to speak to you, but you cannot bear them. So I say in our present case, Christ hath many excellent treatments to entertain them withal, but here

they are not fit for them; while we are in this corruptible flesh, we want the wedding garment. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. So corruptible bodies are not garments fit for these divine entertainments.

1. The Soul in these bodies does not act to the utmost extent its nature is capable of. It is like a bird, that let out injoys a whole World of liberty, but not before. There is a kind of immensity in the Soul, and this is one part of Gods image. Any one Soul among us could hold as much wisdom, goodness, &c. as God in its degree and capacity, but it is straitned in these bodies, that it cannot act to such an extensiveness. As the River is straitned within its banks till it fall into the Ocean; so the Soul here is straitned by ignorance, infirmities, pressures, but at death it slips into the Ocean of Eternity, where there is no more straitness.

2. How impossible is it in these mortal bodies to see God, as he is? How hard through the fogs of flesh to see the things of God? How impossible to behold God in his essence? In the mount will the Lord be seen, and not in the low vallies of mortality and corruption. Oh! I cannot but with rapture consider of the strange and blessed change, that blessed Souls find, as soon as ever departed. Here we are groping after him, and much ado we have to discern a little of him; here one cloud or other is interposing twixt our contemp∣lation, and that Sun. But as soon as we are got out of the body we behold that incom∣prehensible light, as he is. Oh! what rapture of Soul will it be, to see all clouds dis∣pelled, and to look with open full eye upon the Sun. Oh! this is our God, we have groped, we have waited for him. What the Apostle saith II Cor. III. ult. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory: This is of transcendent comfort for believers, it being their happi∣ness here to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and to be changed into the same image. What ravishment of Joy will it be to find it effected to the utmost in Eter∣nity?

3. How impossible is it to keep the heart fixed on God here? While flesh hangs on it, that will be making it to flag aside.