The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…

4. In Heaven the innumerable Company of Angels, and the General Assembly of the Church of the First-born, as they receive Happiness from the sight of God, so they communicate the purest Pleasure to one another. An unfeigned ardent Affection unites that pure Society. Our Love is now kindled, either from a relation in Nature, or a civil Account, or some visible Excellencies that render a Person worthy of our Choice and Friendship: but in Heaven the Reasons are greater, and the degrees of Love incomparably more fervent. All Carnal Alliances and Respects cease in that supernatural State. The Apostle tells us, If I have known Christ after the Flesh, I know him so no more. By the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ he was transported into another World, and had communion ⟨p. 320⟩with him as an Heavenly King, without low regards to the temporal Privilege of conversing with him on Earth. The spiritual Relation is more near and permanent than the strictest Band of Nature. The Saints have all relation to the same Heavenly Father, and to Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace, and Head of that happy Fraternity. The principal Motives of Love here are the inherent Excellencies of a Person. Wisdom, Holiness, Goodness, Fidelity are mighty Attractives, and produce a more worthy Affection, a more intimate confederacy of Souls, than propinquity in Nature, or any carnal respects. Virtue is amiable in an old Person, tho wrinkled and deformed: Vice is hateful in a young Person, tho beautiful. There are clearer Eyes than those of Flesh, a purer Light than what is sensible, a diviner Beauty than what is Corporeal, and a nobler Love than what is sensual. David declares that all his delight was in the Excellent. But there are allays of this Spiritual Love here. For,

4. In Heaven the innumerable Company of Angels, and the General Assembly of the Church of the First-born, as they receive Happiness from the sight of God, so they communicate the purest Pleasure to one another. An unfeigned ardent Affection unites that pure Society. Our Love is now kindled, either from a relation in Nature, or a civil Account, or some visible Excellencies that render a Person worthy of our Choice and Friendship: but in Heaven the Reasons are greater, and the degrees of Love incomparably more fervent. All Carnal Alliances and Respects cease in that supernatural State. The Apostle tells us, If I have known Christ after the Flesh, I know him so no more. By the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ he was transported into another World, and had communion