This is the last conversation we are to hear, and the last discourse we are to be favored with between Junior and Senior, who, being again met together, the senior friend began thus: Mr. Junior, I am really glad to see you once. more, I, am advancing in age, therefore my time will be short; let us try to make the present interview with each other as useful as we can; propose your own subject; let us both look- to the Lord for a blessing on it, and on our discussion of it.

Junior. I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude for all the past freedom you have indulged me with. I think your kindness for the continuation of the same, is very great. If you please, I, could wish the present discourse might be on Heaven, Glory, and Eternal Life.

Senior. These are subjects most assuredly connected with former ones; and, as my time must be engaged in other services, so as for me not to attend on you after the present, I will very gladly do my best, to communicate my views, as clearly as I may be enabled, on these sublime verities.

Junior. I have received into my mind from you, the clearest apprehensions of death, and of the entrance into the invisible state, I ever yet had; heaven,. glory, and eternal life, being closely connected with them, I should think it would be keeping up the subject,' if we were, therefore to confer on these. Pray, Sir, what am I to apprehend of heaven, is it a state, or is it a place?

Senior. It is both a state and place., It must be the latter, because our Lord is there. He went thither when he left our world. He is now there. 'Angels and glorified saints are there with him. He speaking, of it as a place, saying, In my Father's house are many mansions if it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John, 14: 2, 3. It is also a state. The saints in it are in a state of glory. Hence the Apostle says, Our light affliction; which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Cor. 4: 17. He also entitles it an house: an house not made with hands, an house eternal in the heavens. 2 Cor. 5:1. This is expressive of its being a place. It is said of Christ, that he ascended up far above all heavens. Ephes. 4: 10. That he is gone into heaven. I Peter, 3: 22. That he is set down an the right hand of the Majesty on high. Heb. I: 3 That he liveth in the presence of God. Heb. 9: 24. That he is received up into glory. I Tim. 3: 16.; which last is expressive of the state of glory our Lord is entered upon.

Junior. What ideas ought I to entertain concerning heaven? I have often heard where Christ is there is heaven; that he is as truly with saints on earth, as with saints in heaven; that they as truly enjoy fellowship with him here below, as they ever will above. Yet I read in scripture of heaven; of the heaven of heavens; of the third heaven; also of the heaven of heaven of heavens. What am I to conceive concerning these assertions, and various terms and modes of expression?

Senior. It is a real truth, that where Christ is there is heaven; but it is only in this sense, that where the king is there is the court: so Christ being spiritually present with his saints, they have real communion with him, they have the real enjoyment of him, which, as it respects the truth and reality of it, is as really so, as that the saints have fellowship with him in heaven, It is in nature and kind the same with theirs, yet not in the same degree. We have the word heaven for the first time, in Genesis, I: 1. This is the expansion or firmament, of which you read, verse 8, And God called the firmament Heaven. "This expansion, or firmament," says Mr. Julius Bate, " is the heavenly fluid or air; including what is in the condition of fire in and round (lie orb of the sun, As well as the streams of light from that fire; and the spirit, or grosser air, that continually flows into the sun, to keep up the action, supplies the waste of melted air, and extends the fire from the center to the circumference of the heavens. This is the heaven, considered as expanding. It reaches from the sun, in the center, to the stars. God set the stars in the firmament, to rule the day and the night, in conjunction with the sun and other orbs. The scriptures ascribe the natural causes of every thing to the expansive power of the heavens. The cause and continuance of motion must be looked for here." Jehovah is called the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth. Gen. 14: 19. To express his supreme and uncontrollable power over all things in heaven and on earth. He is styled the God of heaven, to express that lie made them, that they are his creatures, the work of his hands. Moses says, Behold, the Heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God. Dent. 10:14. Heaven of , heaven of , heavens, may be expressive of the heavens every where: all the heavens, as divided to all the nations and people throughout the universe. The word heaven is applied to the place where Jehovah dwelleth in light inaccessible. Hence the prophet prays thus, Look clown from. heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory, &c. Isaiah, 63: 15. Thus Solomon, in a parenthesis of wonder, breaks out before the Divine Majesty, But will God indeed dwell on the earth! behold, the heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee. I Kings, 8: 27. Our Lord directs us to pray thus, Our Father, which art in heaven. We heard before, that Paul was caught up into the third heaven ; it is therefore consistent with the word of truth, to conceive heaven to be a place in the material heavens, where God is pleased to manifest himself in his glory and majesty, as more peculiarly and "personally present to Christ, angels, and saints; that here God dwelleth in that light to which no mortal eye can approach, whom no man hath seen or 'can see; that here he displays his uttermost manifestative glory in Christ, to the blessed in this tabernacle and dwelling place of his; that here Christ, elect angels, and glorified saints are. This is all I conceive, or can express to you, concerning heaven. Christ may be said to be the heaven of heaven of heavens, as it is a sight of him in his glory, is the beatific vision in which eternal glory consists, and immutable and endless blessings and blessedness are for ever enjoyed. What think you of all this?

Junior. I conceive thus of it: heaven, the airy heaven, the starry heaven, the heaven of heavens, the heaven of heaven of heavens, are all expressive of the majesty, the glory, the existence, the power, the immensity, the sovereignty of Jehovah; that heaven, as the habitation of his holiness, is where he manifests himself to the uttermost in the person of Christ. I conceive it is his royal residence some where in the heavens, and being seated there, is called an house eternal in the heavens. These are my ideas, which amount to what you have spoken of it, at least as I conceive, do they not?

Senior. Yes; they do so. Into this most glorious place elect souls are received and admitted, as soon as they are dismissed from their bodies by death. Here they see God in  Christ, are glorified together with Christ, and live for ever.

Junior. But as you have told me what I mayappr6bendof heaven, I want you to tell me also how saints will be employed in heaven. Will it not be in worshipping God? What will that worship consist in ?

Senior. Christ is the ordinance of glory. The saints are styled the church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. Elect angels, and glorified saints, are, I conceive, formed into one glorious church state, worshipping Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit, who liveth for ever and ever, and ascribing Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, unto hint that sitteth on the throne, and unto the lamb, for ever and ever.

Junior. Wherein do the peculiar acts of worship in the elect angels, differ from elect men?

Senior. If there be any, it must be in praising the Eternal Three, in, appointing Christ to be their, head, by whom they were kept from falling; and when admitted to see him, the first-born of all Jehovah's thoughts, will, purposes, councils, and designs, were, by the vision of him, confirmed in a state of blessedness, and rendered impeccable for ever.

Junior. What does the worship of all the elect of Adam's posterity now in glory, consist in.?

Senior. In giving glory to each of the Three in the one self-existing Essence, for all their will, thoughts, love, and vast designs in Christ Jesus concerning them, and also for their salvation by the incarnation, life, and death,. of the holy and immaculate Lamb.

Junior. What does glory, or the glorification of the saints in heaven, consist in?

Senior. In the glorious forms, they appear in. They have the very image of Christ so completely in stamped on their minds, and they conceive of him so fully, by the sight which they have of him, that his glory will not only be reflected on them, but it will also be revealed in them. Hence the Apostle says, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Rom. 8:18. Christ lives in his saints on earth, as their everlasting life. He lives in his saints in heaven, as their everlasting glory. He is to them the Lord of glory: the fountain and spring of glory. They, are glorified in him, and together with him. The rays of his glory reflected on them, put a shine of glory on them which will last for ever. It is out of the inexhaustible fullness of his glory, they will receive glory answerable to his glory. It is from him it will be communicated to them. They will be receiving from him for ever.

Junior. Then his fullness must be immense indeed!.

This is what I like your conversation for, it casts such light on my mind, that I really conceive more than I can express.

Senior. The fullness of Christ’s grace cannot be exhausted in time, nor the riches of his glory to eternity. How should they? For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead. 0, my friend, we have now a glorious subject, and we have a vast prospect before us. , The God of all grace hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. We are called to glory, unto his eternal glory, which is all in Christ Jesus. As sure as we are called into the kingdom of God's dear Son, we were, together with it, called to be partakers-of eternal glory.

Junior. Pray, say out what eternal glory is: and in what it consists?

Senior. In the vision of Christ. In a real sight of his personas God-Man, as the Man in God, who, as such, is the Lord of Glory . In him the Incomprehensible Three shine forth, to the uttermost display of their manifestative glory, before all the angels and saints in glory. It is this is the glory of heaven. It is the glory and. blessedness of each saint there. . What they behold, of the glory of, God in Christ, fills them with such conceptions of glory, as they can never express. It fixes them on Christ their center. It excludes the possibility of their sinning for ever. They hereby partake of an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which will so poise their minds, as will. exclude, every wandering thought from Christ. He will be their object,, their canter,, their circumference their glory, their portion, their inheritance, their everlasting light, and their everlasting glory their all. And God, in his divine Persons, in the Person of Christ, will be their all in all. In communion with whom, saints will be filled with all the fullness of God.

Junior. If I understand you, it is the vision of Christ that will be the perfection of glory.

Senior. It will indeed; and it is this will make us in our souls and bodies perfectly like him: so says the Apostle, Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. I John, 3: 2. It is the, sight of his person is heaven, it will complete our knowledge of him, and continue the life of glory in our minds for ever and ever. We shall see him as he is. This will contain the very essence of our blessedness.

Junior. You lay a vast stress on seeing Christ as he is; why so? Pray explain this. Will not all the assembled world see Christ when he comes to judge the quick and the dead?

Senior. Yes, they will; but they will not have an intuitive sight of Christ; they will not have a supernatural sight of him. His appearance will fill them with the utmost confusion. It will strike them with terror. Saints will see him to their everlasting joy and satisfaction. He will come to be glorified in them, and to be admired in all them, that believe. It is now by a supernatural faculty and light, we behold Christ as revealed and set forth in the glass of the gospel. By the same faculty, elevated by the Holy Ghost, when we are raised up and admitted to be where Christ is, we shall see him as he is, we shall see him face to face.

Junior. You have set heaven before me. I think you cannot at present say more concerning it. The Lamb in the midst of the throne, I consider as the great ordinance of heaven. Saints and angels in their glorious forms worship him. They are glorified in him; they are glorified together with him. I want you now to say what eternal life is, then I will consent that you shall close the subject; for, whilst I am fully persuaded, that what you have delivered falls far short of the subject as it really is, yet I am sure you have said more than I ,shall ever fully enter into and live over, until I am admitted into heaven, there to behold my Lord. Tell me, therefore, what eternal life is, and in what it consists. I know, in a measure, what spiritual life is; and I want to have a glimpse of what eternal life consists in.

Senior. I know when on subjects like those we have discoursed on, it is, and perhaps it cannot be avoided, that we run one subject into another; most assuredly we have touched on this, and said what eternal life consists in; not that I am unwilling, so far as I can, to give you a further account of what it is, and in what it consists. We have spoken of heaven as the seat of the church of the glorified; of Christ as living there, the Lord of Life and Glory. We have spoken of the glory of the saints in the house eternal in the heavens: of their perfection of blessedness in the sight and vision of the God-Man, which is the perfection of their eternal life. Spiritual, everlasting, and eternal life, are one and the same, only with these following distinctions. We have spiritual life imparted to us with our new-birth into Christ. This is expressed in and by our living a life of faith on the Son of God. Hence our Lord says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Our Lord says, This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John, 17: 3. The Apostle John says" And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son-hath life. I John, 5:11, 12. So that we understand eternal life consists in the knowledge of Christ, and of the Father in him; and such as know Christ have eternal life in their souls. Whilst they are out of heaven, the acts and exercises of this eternal life, are comprised in living a life of faith on the Son of God, and in living in real communion with him. When they are removed to heaven, their eternal life will consist in their knowledge of Christ by sense and open vision: it will be perfected by seeing him as he is, and in perpetual communion with him.

Junior. Then you make eternal life in glory, to be the exercise of the mind continually on Christ, do you not?

Senior. Most assuredly I do. Life is activity. It is a blessing added to being. We had a being in Christ from everlasting, and we had life in Christ from everlasting. We must be with Christ in him: we must live with Christ. He is our eternal life. He communicates the same to us. He says because I live, ye shall live also. It must be eternal life to behold him in his glory: and views of his glory received into the mind, will be its life, its spring, its strength, its vigor; which will engage every act and thought of it for ever and ever.

Junior. Do you not think the soul will live on the, enjoyments it hath of Christ in glory?

Senior. No; I do not. A believer in Christ lives not on its own acts now; he will not, most assuredly, then. Eternal life must be the fountain of eternal acts. The life of glory can be no other than the knowledge of Christ consummated. The acts flowing from it, must have God-Man for their object and subject. A sight of him by vision, seeing him as be is, and to behold his glory, must swallow up the mind, and fix it so immutably on him, as to make it entirely passive in receiving his glory. Its activity must consist in admiring his glory, in rejoicing in his glory, and in having communion with him in it, so as to give him glorious praise.

Junior. Surely, if this is eternal life, to behold Christ face to face, to see him as he is, the subject may be far more easily conceived by a spiritual mind, than it can ever be expressed.

Senior. It is so. When Christ was transfigured on the holy mount, he shone forth in his glory. John says of it, We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the rather. Peter says, We were eye-witness& Of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came stick a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 2 Peter, I: 16, 17. Christ shines forth now in heaven, in a brighter display of his glory, before his saints and angels, than he then did before his three favorite apostles. I conceive eternal life in heaven, will consist in the intellectual mind being swallowed up and absorbed in intuitive views and apprehensions of the glory of the Lord. As here below, it is sometimes the case with believers in Christ Jesus, to be favored with such intuitive apprehensions of Christ, as to be lost entirely to all enjoyments of him, the mind being entirely swallowed up in spiritual contemplations of him: so I conceive it will be in heaven. It will there be acknowledged by the whole election of grace, that what Christ is in his person, glory, blessedness, love, salvation, fullness, and immensity of perfections, can never be fully known: he will for ever be exalted above all blessing and praise. In this, and the glorifying him for it, I apprehend eternal life consists. Are you contented with what I have delivered? If so, I will conclude with a short prayer.

Junior. I am.

Senior. 0, holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, look down upon us in infinite grace: bless the conversation we have had concerning heaven, glory, and eternal life. Give us, Holy Father, to know the Son: give us, Holy Son, to know the Father: give us, Holy Ghost, to know thee as the Spirit of the Father and the Son, that we may worship thee with the same equal worship and glory. Glorify Christ in our heart. Give us an heart-warming sense of the Father's love in him. Let us worship the Three in Jehovah, as the Lord our God, now and for ever. Amen.

THE END.

W. Chatfield, Printer, Bell Court, Cannon Street, London.