of being perfected and exalted to higher glory. There is nothing so but the divine nature itself; and it is too much honour to any created thing to suppose it to be so perfect, that no occasion whatsoever, even the reward of the infinite merits of the infinitely beloved Son of God himself, is occasion great enough for allowing of it, or that shall render it fit and proper, that it be yet further adorned. The only heaven that is unalterable, is the state of God's own infinite and unchangeable glory; the heaven which God dwelt in from all eternity, which is absolutely of infinite height and infinite glory, and which might metaphorically be represented as the heaven that was the eternal abode of the blessed Trinity, and of the happiness and glory they have one in another; which is an heaven that is uncreated, and the heaven from whence God infinitely stoops to behold the things done in the created paradise; and of which, that which we conceive of as the infinite and unchangeable expanse of Space, that is above and beyond the whole universe, and encompasses the whole, is the shadow. This is what is meant, Isai. lvii. 15. (See Notes in loc.)

It is true the things of the highest heavens are things that cannot be shaken, but shall remain through divine grace. Heaven is God's throne, and his throne is established for ever, and therefore shall be for ever and ever, and the saints shall receive a kingdom that cannot be moved. Heb. xii. 28. Heaven is a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God; it is an house not made with hands, and so eternal. This is an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. What is reserved in heaven is represented in scripture as far above the reach of all the changes of time that should injure it, and the doors of the palace are everlasting doors. Ps. xxiv. But none of these things argue heaven to be in any other respect unchangeable, than only as being above all changes that might destroy it, or mar it, or in any respect fade its glory, or bring into any danger of those things. Heaven is no otherwise out of the reach of change than the precious jewels and treasures that are there kept are so, as the angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, and the man Christ Jesus, the most precious and brightest jewel that God has made, the first born of every creature, the crown and glory of heaven and men, the sun of that world of light; but yet all these are susceptive of change in this respect, that they will be exalted to vastly higher glory. Christ's glory after the day of judgment will be greater than before, as the devil that has managed the war against him shall then be punished for all the mischief that he has done. So Christ, God's General, the Captain that he hath sent forth in this great war against his enemies, when he shall have fully conquered and put down all authority and power, having come forth out of heaven to that end with all his hosts, and has

so gloriously finished all the work that his Father gave him a commission for, shall be exceedingly rewarded and glorified. When he shall return with the victory in every respect perfect, he shall enter the city with great triumph to receive a great reward from the Supreme authority of the city. If Christ God Man, the King of heaven, and its most bright and precious jewel, the first born of every creature, the head and crown, ornament and glory of heaven, and its bright and only luminary, the Sun of heaven, whose glory and sweetness is the fullness, and glory, and happiness of all that world who is the Alpha and Omega of all that is there, and the sum of all; I say, if he shall be exalted in glory, why not the place, the external habitation that is the lowest part of that world? The habitation has not the honour of being immutable and immoveable in a higher sense than this King and end and glory of heaven himself is. The man Christ Jesus becomes immortal and eternal at his Resurrection, but yet that was no impediment in the way of his being, as it were, further glorified, as it were, in infinitely higher degrees, as in his first and second ascension. That the highest heavens pass under such a change at the end of the world, is no argument that it is with that as it is with the visible heavens that wax old as a garment; any more than the change on the body of Christ at his ascension, or on the bodies of Enoch and Elias, and on the bodies of those that arose with Christ, is an argument of the like waxing old.

If the highest heaven might be as it were bowed and rent, (though it be the throne of God,) that the eternal Son of God might come down on the earth, to be the subject of his humiliation; doubtless it is as capable of being adorned and made higher and higher on occasion of his glorification.

The external Heavens, and the Human Nature of Christ, are the external House and Temple of God in different senses; but the Human Nature, or Body, of Christ, including both the head and the members,-including his human nature with his church,is the house and temple of God in the highest sense. This is immensely the most noble temple of God. But if this, which is the Palace of God in so much the highest sense, will pass under a glorious change; why should not the external house, which is the temple of God in a much inferior sense, and which indeed is to be but an house for this house, pass under a glorious change? If the Inner temple, the highest and most holy part of the temple, shall be so much exalted, why may we not suppose that the External temple, the outer courts, or the outermost curtains of the tabernacle be changed and made proportionally more beautiful?

Christ Mystical, or Christ and his Church, and the External Heaven, are the city of God, or the new Jerusalem, in different senses; but the former in vastly the highest and noblest manner.

But if the city of God, or the new Jerusalem, that which is called so in the highest sense, shall be so exalted and adorned with new glory at the head of the universe; why not that external new Jerusalem, that is as much inferior to the other as the body is to the soul? If the soul shall be glorified and made better, why not the body if the body, why not the garment: if the inhabitants, why not the house?

The body of Christ is the dwelling-place of his soul; and therefore when God the Father glorified the soul of Christ, he also glorified his body, because he judged it meet that the alteration in the house should be answerable to the alteration in the inhabitant. And so, for the same reason, the bodies of the saints shall be glorified as well as their souls; and there is just the same reason why heaven, the house of Christ, and the house of his saints; or in one word, the house of Christ Mystical; should be exalted to higher glory at the same time that Christ Mystical himself, the inhabitant, is exalted to higher glory.

The church is Christ's Temple: Christ is spoken of as dwelling in the saints. This temple of Christ, the new Jerusalem, shall, at the end of the world, when Christ comes to receive his full reward, be exceedingly adorned, to fit it for Christ's indwelling; as we see by Rev. xxi. 2. And why shall not the other temple of Christ, that which is so in an inferior sense, be proportionally adorned at the same time? It is not rational to suppose that the whole tabernacle shall be proportionally adorned and beautified the outer curtains proportionally with the inward curtains of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen?

The infinitely glorious and beloved Son of God's shedding his blood, and enduring those extreme sufferings in obedience to his Father's will, was a thing great enough to obtain this, even that the very heaven of heavens should be made new, with new glory for him; it was great enough to lay the foundation for an universal refreshing, renewing or new creation of all elect things, that all things both spiritual and external should be immensely exalted in perfection, beauty, and glory.

It seems impossible that it should be otherwise than that all heaven should put on new glory at the same time that Christ put on new glory; all must be allowed proportion, for Christ is the glory of heaven, the beauty and ornament, the life and soul of all; and there is no glory there, but only the reflection of his glory, and the emanation of his brightness and life, and the diffusion of his sweetness. Every manner of beauty or excellency there, is immediately dependent on him: there is no shining or lustre, no fineness or purity, no vivacity or pleasantness, in any thing there, but it is in such a manner dependent on him, as to appear to be immediately, every moment, from him, as a kind of diffusion of his

glory and sweetness on every thing, and into and through every thing; so that the most inward nature of every thing there receives all excellency, and all purity and preciousness, and sweetness from him immediately. In heaven, Christ appears and acts most visibly and sensibly as the Creator, and Life, and Soul, and Fountain of all being and perfection, and He of whom, and through whom all things are, and by whom all immediately consist. Thus the glory of the latter house will in every respect be greater than the glory of the former house, because Jehovah, the angel of the covenant, shall come into his temple, and fill the house with his glory. Christ's appearing in glory will be that which will glorify the bodies of his saints, as though it was an immediate visible communication of his glory and life to them, as from the head to the members. Nothing but his presence in so great glory effects the thing, and so will it be with respect to every thing else that is external in heaven.

Thus as the face of the earth rejoices at the return of the sun in the spring, and there is a great alteration in it, it puts on new beautiful garments of joy, and gladness, and welcomes the sun; and its renewed beauty is from the sun, from his diffused glory, and sweet vivifying influence, in which all the face of the earth rejoices; so it will be in heaven when Christ returns thither in his highest glory after the day of judgment, all heaven will rejoice, and put on new life, new beauty, and glory, to welcome him thither.

[1122] Heaven perfected. The external heaven surrounds Christ, not merely as a house surrounds an inhabitant, or as a palace surrounds a prince; but rather as plants and flowers are before the sun, that have their life and beauty and being from that luminary; or as the sun may be encompassed round with reflections of his brightness, as the cloud of glory in mount Sinai surrounded Christ there.

[1126] Heaven perfected, after the day of judgment. Solomon's temple was a great type of heaven; and the prophet Haggai, foretells that the glory of the latter temple shall be greater than that of the former, because that the Messiah, "the desire of all nations," should come into it; Hag. ii. 6, 7, 8. "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come : and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of the latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." I suppose that what was here foretold concerning that typical temple was fulfilled much more properly

and amply concerning heaven itself, when the Messiah entered into it at his first ascension, and will be fulfilled to a much more glorious degree still at his second ascension, at Christ's entrance into that heavenly temple, with his glorified and complete mystical body, as well as his natural body, after God has in a literal manner shaken the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the dry land, and shaken all nations.

The beautifying and adorning the temple of Jerusalem so exceedingly be a little before Christ came into it, seems to be some shadow of this; and I believe was intended as a type of it; though not parallel in every circumstance, as the beautifying of it not being at the very instant of Christ's first entering into the temple, and some other circumstances. This seems also to be typified by the immensely more glorious abode that the ark had in Solomon's time than that which it had in David's time. The carrying up of the ark into mount Zion in David's time, was a type of Christ's first ascension into heaven, as is evident from scripture, and the carrying of it up into mount Moriah, into Solomon's glorious temple, is a type of his second more glorious ascension into a more glorious abode at the end of the world. David's militant reign till all the enemies of Israel were subdued under them, was a type of Christ's present reign in heaven, over his church till the resurrection, which is a militant reign; for till the end of the world he goes on fighting, and will continue so to do till all enemies are made his footstool. As yet we see not all things put under him, and the last enemy that shall be conquered is death, which shall be at the end of the world. Solomon's glorious reign in perfect peace and tranquillity with all subdued under him, and settled in subjection to him, is a type of the reign of Christ after the end of the world: all enemies shall be subdued; and the place of the ark in his reign, in this glorious and most magnificent temple, was a type of the abode of Christ in heaven, in its advanced glory, at the consummation of all things. It is the same heaven, only sublimated and exalted to exceeding greater glory; which is typified by the mountain of the temple, being called by the same name after the ark was removed into it, that the place of its former abode was called by, viz. mount Zion; so that the ark is represented as never changing its place from mount Zion; and when it was carried into mount Zion, God said of it, "This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell; for I have desired it." Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14.

There is a place somewhere in the universe, (perhaps in the central parts of the earth,) that is called Hell; but hell will be made immensely more terrible after the day of judgment, when instead of that fire in the centre of the earth, all the visible universe shall be turned into a great furnace and probably heaven will be