with the sight of those objects, which were
made to affect him by that being who knows the inward frame of a soul,
and how to please and ravish it in all its most secret powers and
faculties.

8. It is to this majestic presence of God we may apply those beautiful
expressions in holy writ: _Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not;
yea, the stars are not pure in his sight_. The light of the sun, and all
the glories of the world in which we live, are but as weak and sickly
glimmerings, or rather darkness itself, in comparison of those splendors
which encompass the throne of God.

9. As the glory of this place is transcendent beyond imagination, so
probably is the extent of it. There is light behind light, and glory
within glory. How far that space may reach, in which God thus appears in
perfect majesty, we cannot possibly conceive. Though it is not infinite,
it may be indefinite; and though not immeasurable in itself, it may be
so with regard to any created eye or imagination. If he has made these
lower regions of matter so inconceivably wide and magnificent for the
habitation of mortal and perishable beings, how great may we suppose the
courts of his house to be, where he makes his residence in a more
especial manner, and displays himself in the fulness of his glory, among
an innumerable company of angels, and spirits of just men made perfect!

10. This is certain, that our imaginations cannot be raised too high,
when we think on a place where omnipotence and omniscience have so
signally exerted themselves, because that they are able to produce a
scene infinitely more great and glorious than what we are able to
imagine.

11. It is not impossible but at the consummation of all things, these
outward apartments of nature, which are now suited to those beings who
inhabit them, may be taken in and added to that glorious place of which
I am here speaking; and by that means made a proper habitation for
beings who are exempt from mortality, and cleared of their
imperfections: for so the scripture seems to intimate, when it speaks of
new heavens and of a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

12. I have only considered this glorious place with regard to the sight
and imagination, though it is highly probable, that our other senses may
here likewise enjoy then highest gratifications. There is nothing which
more ravishes and transports the soul, than harmony; and we have great
reason to believe, from the description o