original here in the text, when the Apostle saith it is the riches of the glory of his inheritance, is τῆς δόξης κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ. He meaneth God the Father, or God the Son; I think God the Father. I will give you my reason why because he prayeth to God as the Father of glory, that he would open their eyes to see what are the riches of his inheritance. Now mark the expression there in that Rev. xxi. 23; he saith, God is the light of it, but the Lamb, he saith, is the lamp of it, and in Rev. ii. 28, you shall find him called the morning star; Christ is but the lamp, he is but the morning star. Who is the chiefest happiness in heaven now? God; a happiness beyond what Jesus Christ as God-man affordeth; he is but the lamp, but the morning star; God is all in all, when he hath given up the kingdom to his Father. It is his inheritance, it is not the inheriting of Christ only, as possessing him. I will convince you by this. Who is it that makes Christ as God-man happy? It is God; it is God immediately participated; God is all in all to the Lord Christ. Now he that is the happiness of Christ shall immediately be our happiness too; for Christ hath received us to the glory of God,'that is the expression, Rom. xv. 7,-into the glory that himself hath. So that now there is abundance in this, that it is the inheritance of him, of the Father of glory; what are the riches of the glory of the inheritance in him,' so the word will likewise signify.

I will give you but one meaning more, my brethren, and, I take it, it is the most proper here, and it is as great as any of the former, and it is this; 'what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.' The meaning is this: that the glory that the saints shall have, God reckoneth it to be his inheritance; his inheritance, saith he, in the saints. The meaning is plainly this, that that glory that shall arise to God, which he shall for ever live upon, as upon his inheritance, shall arise out of theirs; it is not said to be their inheritance, but his inheritance in them. My brethren, there is much in this; not only are the people of God called God's inheritance, but the glory of the people of God in heaven is called God's inheritance too. In 2 Thess. i. 10, it is said that he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all that believe.' Mark his expression, the saints shall be glorified, but how? So as Jesus shall be admired in them and glorified in them. And, Rom. ix. 23, What if God, willing, saith he, to make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared unto glory? Bringing vessels of mercy unto glory is but to make known the riches of his glory; his glory shall arise out of theirs; therefore it is said to be 'his inheritance in the saints.'

Now think with yourselves this: it is not a small deal of glory that will content God as his inheritance; for if he mean to manifest himself, he will do it like God. Ahasuerus, when he made a feast, would do it like a king, to shew forth the riches of his glorious kingdom, and the honour of his excellent majesty, as Esther i. 4. Now therefore, when God shall set himself to glorify himself to the uttermost, and all that glory that he meaneth to glorify himself in shall be in the saints, and their glory shall be his inheritance, what will this rise to?

To explain this to you in a word; there is an essential happiness and glory in God, which none can see. 'Thou canst not see my glory,' saith he, Exod. xxxiii. 20. And there is a manifestative glory that ariseth out of his works. Now this manifestative glory he counteth his inheritance, as well as the other. My glory I will not give to another.' He hath formed all for his glory, that is, for the manifestation of his glory; he counteth it his, his incommunicable; it is his inheritance.

Now then, if God will shew how glorious a God he is, by shewing how glorious a creature he can make, how glorious must those creatures be! Especially when their glory must come up to be an inheritance to God, that he may say, Lo, I have a goodly heritage. He that is the great God, and hath such vast desires of glory, shall say, I am satisfied, here I will rest; this is mine inheritance that I will live upon for ever, even the glory that I have bestowed upon these souls in heaven. Think with yourselves what these things are—' what the riches of the glory of his inheritance are in the saints.'

My brethren, it is the last of his works. He takes this world here for none of his inheritance, he will burn it to ashes, consume it, turn it to its old chaos. He takes devils and wicked men, and flingeth them to hell; they are lost, they are cut off from his hand, they are none of his inheritance. He takes Christ and the saints up to heaven and glorifieth them. Here is mine inheritance, saith he, here is my rest. As when he had made this world, which was to be but a type of this which is to come, he looks over all that he made, and the text saith he was refreshed,' Exod. xxxi. 17.

Now God will fling this world away; he flings wicked angels and men away; they are lost, they are gone from him, he hath no more to do with them; he reckons not of them, he reckons them as refuse things, as lumber which he only layeth by for the fire. Then he takes the saints up to heaven, and there he resteth, keepeth an eternal Sabbath; therefore it is called 'entering into his rest,' that is the phrase, Ps. xcv. 11. Oh, my brethren, what is that, think you, what glory must that be that must come up to be an inheritance for God to rest in for ever! In all these senses this particle here, his inheritance,' or 'inheritance of him,' what doth it arise to? The Lord open the eyes of our understanding, that we may know what the riches of the glory of his inheritance are.

I have but one thing more to handle, and that is, 'in the saints.' He meaneth, as Camero hath well observed, saints perfect, for they are the subjects of this glory. It is plain he meaneth so by what followeth in the next verse; for when he speaks of saints below on earth, he changeth his phrase; 'that you may know,' that is, here below, 'the greatness of his power to usward that believe.' So that here may be this cast in likewise to make heaven a glorious condition, that men's spirits, to possess all this, shall be made perfectly holy. The spirits of just men,' saith he, 'made perfect.' It is an inheritance in the saints. I shall behold,' saith he, thy face in righteousness, when I awake,' at the resurrection, Ps. xvii. 15. There is nothing but perfect holiness there.

But that is not the thing I aim at. But let us consider heaven from hence too, what the riches of his glory must needs be that God hath provided for saints; take an argument from them. I will give you an instance of it. You heard before that the earth God hath given to the children of men, but the heaven of heavens he hath reserved for his saints. Well, raise up your thoughts now; this earth here hath many good things in it, there is abundance of glory and riches in it, so much as, the truth is, it draweth all the hearts of the sons of men after it. To whom hath he given this earth? To the wickedest of men, to the ungodliest of men. 'He giveth kingdoms,' saith he, 'to the basest of men ;' so it is, Dan. iv. 17. Nay, and the devil himself is the king of this world, and he hath all the things here. He undertook to give the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them to Christ. He is the prince that ruleth in the air, the god of the world; carrieth all before him.

Now raise up your thoughts; hath God given such a world as this is, and all the glory of it, to his worst enemies, to the very devils themselves, that were worshipped for about four thousand years by all the world, and had all the glory and riches of it? What hath he reserved then for the saints? What must be the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, whom God loveth, whom he loveth from everlasting, when they shall be made perfectly glorious without spot and wrinkle; glorious so as God can fully delight in them, and they delight in him? What will be the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints?

And so now I have done with opening this, to shew you from all the arguments the text affordeth, what the riches of the glory of heaven are. I have kept merely to what the text saith; and I have made this vow with myself, if I meet with heaven in a scripture, I will speak of it so far as that scripture shall give me scope to do; for no subject will quicken the heart more than to lay open the riches of God's mercy, and the riches themselves, glory, and the unsearchable riches of Christ.

SERMON XXII

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of the might of his power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.-VER. 19, 20.

THIS is one of Paul's prayers, and, as I take it, at this 20th verse doth this prayer of his end; for the rest is but a doctrinal enlargement of what he said last concerning Christ's exaltation.

I have divided this prayer into two parts :

First, The Person that he prayeth to: 'That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.' When he would pray for all these glorious things, he thus styleth God, representeth God under these considerations to his faith, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.

Secondly, Here are the things he prayeth for. He prayeth first, that in a way of intimate knowledge and communion with God, they might have the Spirit both of wisdom and revelation whereby to obtain it, to obtain intimate knowledge and communion with God: 'That he may give to you Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.' I have opened this at large.

the

In the second place he prayeth, that he would give them eyes of their understanding enlightened, for so I read the words, to know three things.

The first is, 'to know what is the hope of his calling,' (so at ver. 18;) that is, what grounds from the calling of God they had to hope for eternal life, and to see their interest by them. That this was the meaning of it, I have likewise handled, and shewed at large.

The second thing he prays for is, after he had prayed that they might know their interest, and the grounds of it, that they might know the glory, and the greatness of that glory which they had interest in; and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance are in the saints.

And then, thirdly, that they might know that almighty power, which both had begun the work in them, and would go on to bring them unto all this glory; And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of the might of his power,'-instancing in the power that raised up Christ from death to life, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.'

The last thing I did was to open these words, 'what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,' which the Apostle prayeth they migh know. In the handling of these words I propounded two things.

The FIRST is, How great and glorious the happiness of the saints in heaven is, so far as the Apostle here representeth it, while he calleth it 'the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.' It is an inheritance, a rich inheritance, a glorious inheritance, and the riches of it consist in glory; and it is an inheritance of God's bestowing, and the inheritance of himself indeed,

for so the words will bear; and, last of all, in the saints.

How the glory of

heaven is set forth to us by all these things I shewed the last time.

The SECOND is, That the knowledge of this is useful to believers, to have enlarged thoughts of the glory of heaven, experimental working thoughts in their minds about it. Therefore you see, as he setteth forth heaven to them, it is in a way of prayer, 'that they may know it; and to help them to know it, he describeth it thus largely, and under so many words. So that now the second thing that I am to handle and speak to is this, The knowledge of the riches of the glory of this inheritance, what this is to the saints; for as he setteth out the thing itself, so he prayeth for their knowledge of it.

Concerning the knowledge of it, which here he prayeth for, I shall but speak these few things:

The first is this, that it is proper to the saints to have genuine and true thoughts of what the glory of heaven is. There is a peculiar knowledge that the saints have of heaven's glory, which wicked men have not. The Apostle, you see here, prayeth for these converted Ephesians, that they may know what are the exceeding riches of his glory, &c.

I shall name but one scripture; it is Heb. x. 34, 'You took,' saith he, 'joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.' Other men may know it by way of notion, but the saints know it in themselves: they have a prelibation by faith of heaven's glory. When their goods were taken away, God sealeth them bills of exchange in their own hearts to receive a better substance in heaven. They know it in themselves, so as no carnal heart in the world doth. 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man,' saith the Apostle-that is, of a natural man, for so he expoundeth himself in the following verses-'to know the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; but,' saith he, 'God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit,' 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10.

Therefore, brethren, it is a great mistake for men to say now, I seek God for heaven's sake, and therefore I am a hypocrite. No; if thou knowest what heaven is; if thou hast such a knowledge of it as Paul here prayeth for, that lieth in communion with God, and in fellowship with him; and that he is the happiness, and that thou findest a spirit suited to find happiness in him alone; the more thou desirest heaven, the more holy thy heart is. It is so far from being a sign that thou art a hypocrite, that there is no greater sign that thy heart is holy. 'Whom have I in heaven but thee?' saith David, and whom in earth in comparison of thee?'

You will only make this objection: Do the saints know what heaven is? Why, heaven, it passeth knowledge!

I answer. Herein lieth their uttermost knowledge of it, by that little they feel and believe, for they see it passeth their knowledge, and that is it which takes their heart so much. The very objection doth prompt matter to my answer. I answer that objection with that which the Apostle saith, Eph. iii. 18, 19. He prayeth that they may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, the length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ; but he addeth, which passeth knowledge.' So that now, to say that heaven passeth knowledge, that it is the hidden manna, the manna in the pot,-for that is meant by the hidden manna, the manna that was hid in the ark, which no man ever saw after it was put there,―to say that it is within the vail, unto which no man entered, as the Apostle's allusion is in the Hebrews; their knowledge lieth in this, that it passeth knowledge, and yet they are said to know it; 'we know in part,' saith he, but