Jonathan Edwards Collection: Edwards, Jonathan - Rational Biblical Theology: Chapt 37 Heaven

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Jonathan Edwards Collection: Edwards, Jonathan - Rational Biblical Theology: Chapt 37 Heaven



TOPIC: Edwards, Jonathan - Rational Biblical Theology (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: Chapt 37 Heaven

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Chapter XXXVIII

Heaven



“When I think how great this happiness is sometimes it seems about incredible.”

Someone has written of Edwards that he cared nothing for this world, spoke little of heaven, but certainly knew his hell. Edwards did know his hell, but he knew his heaven even better. Anyone who could say that he spoke little of heaven would surely have amused the people of Northampton who heard hundreds of sermons referring to this celestial theme, a number of them exclusively. If he spoke more of hell, it was only because he feared more people were going there and he desired to set them on their way to heaven. If he spoke more of hell, it was supremely because the Bible speaks more of hell than of heaven.

In comparison with heaven, earth is insignificant; but its relation to heaven is utterly crucial. Our fleeting moments here determine where our eternity will be spent. “If men would go to heaven, they must first be made fit for it.” *1*

To be made fit for heaven is to have one’s heart in heaven. It has often been said that heaven is in the saint before the saint is in heaven. This is virtually the theme of the Mat_6:21 and Isa_35:8 sermons. “’Tis a thing of great consequence to men that their hearts should be in heaven.” *2* Men’s hearts being in heaven implies four things: that “their thoughts - their choices, their affections and their dependence is there.” *3* This way of communicating with God and Jesus is “sweet conversation within view of heaven.” *4* This sweet conversation makes “the difficult duties of Christianity easy.” Otherwise, the “way uphill” is hard. *5* Not only so, but “hearts not in heaven tis a sign they belong to hell.” *6*

For Edwards, “those only that are holy are in the way to heaven.” *7* Everyone, he preached, hopes to go to heaven but will not because holiness is “absolutely necessary.” Otherwise, “if everyone that hoped for heaven ever got there, heaven by this time would have been full of murderers, adulterers, common swearers, drunkards, thieves, robbers and licentious debauchers.” *8* No, he insists, holiness is absolutely necessary “in order to escape hell.” *9* But holiness is not the morose, melancholy practice we are often led to think from childhood, but, on the contrary, “the amiable and excellent nature of it is enough to make it worthy the most earnest seeking after.” *10* Holiness is “sweet,” he concludes, “indeed ravishingly lovely.”

It was appropriate that Edwards conclude his funeral sermon for David Brainerd exhorting the congregation that “in the way of such an holy life, we may at last come to so blessed an end.” *11* The homily is a full description of what is commonly called today the “intermediate state.” Many entries in Edwards’ Miscellanies deal with “separated saints” - the term with which he designated the intermediate state. Here five points are mentioned: first, the separated saints are in “the same blessed abode with the glorified human nature of Christ;” second, they have an “immediate view of Christ;” and third, a “most perfect conformity to” Christ; fourth, they enjoy “sweet converse with Christ;” and, fifth, a “glorious communion” with Him as well.

For the saint, this world is but a pilgrimage to heaven. “This life ought so to be spent by us as to be only a journey towards heaven.” *12* Consequently, “we ought not to rest in the world and its enjoyments, but should desire heaven.” Temporal enjoyments only “serve a present turn.” Our journey is “uphill” all the way, so we must “begin early” *13* and travel hard and long, every day, preparing for death. Growing in holiness is “coming nearer and nearer to heaven.” And Christians should do this together, helping “one another up the hill.” Twenty-two years later, as he was approaching the summit himself, Edwards was still saying the same thing to the Indians - it is an uphill climb to heaven. *14*



The Nature of Heaven

“[T]he eternal embraces and the eternal joys . . . .”

Heaven is the place of unmixed and unending happiness as incapable of exaggeration as are the miseries of the damned. “There is scarce any thing that can be conceived or expressed about the degree of the happiness of the saints in heaven. . . .” *15* The intimacy is based on the incarnation, which admits man “to the inmost fellowship with the Deity.” “It seems,” Edwards continues, “to be God’s design to admit the church into the divine family as his Son’s wife.” The atonement is the supreme bond of intimacy for “Christ will surely give himself as much to his saints as he has given himself for them. He whose arms were opened to suffer to be nailed to the cross will doubtless be opened as wide to embrace those for whom he suffered.”

Edwards had laid the foundation for a definition of heaven in one of his earliest Miscellanies written when he was about twenty years of age: “contrary to the opinion of Hobbes (that nothing is substantial but matter) no matter is substance but only God who is a spirit.” Other spirits also are substantial but matter is no substance at all. *16* Consequently it followed in all his preaching that heaven, where the saints “enjoy God as their portion,” is the place of real, substantial happiness. *17*

Sometimes heaven seems supersubstantial:



Thus they shall eat and drink abundantly, and swim in the ocean of love, and be eternally swallowed up in the infinitely bright, and infinitely mild and sweet, beams of divine love; eternally receiving that light, eternally full of it, and eternally compassed round with it, and everlastingly reflecting it back again to its fountain. *18*



This a description of Brainerd’s present heaven.

Basing an address on the fact that the Revelation metaphor of “transparent gold” speaks of something beyond reality or imagination Edwards nevertheless gives us eight figures of this truth before pointing out the insufficiency of all of them and then lines up seven arguments from reason and seven more from Scripture for the truth of this transcendental. Whereupon he considers four respects in which this truth is unknown and ends with an extensive and searching application. We will settle for the doctrine taken from Rev_21:18, “There is nothing upon earth that will suffice to represent to us the glory of heaven.” *19*

Interestingly, teenage Edwards had written in his very first extant sermon, that on Isa_3:10 :



to pretend to describe the excellence, the greatness or duration of the happiness of heaven by the most artful composition of words would be but to darken and cloud it, to talk of raptures and ecstacies, joy and singing, is but to set forth very low shadows of the reality, and all we can say by our best rhetoric is really and truly, vastly below what is but the bare and naked truth, and if St. Paul who had seen them, thought it but in vain to endeavor to utter it much less shall we pretend to do it, and the Scriptures have gone as high in the descriptions of it as we are able to keep pace with it in our imaginations and conception. . . . *20*



Another of the means of grace, the Lord’s Supper, is given here below as a foretaste of the ineffably sublime heavenly communion. *21*

Much of the perfect happiness of heaven is the fellowship of the saints there. It is sweet here but perfect there; anticipation here, fulfillment there. “They shall have great delight in the society and enjoyment of one another. . . . The saints in heaven shall all be one society, they shall be united together without any schism, there shall be sweet harmony, and a perfect union.” *22*

A special pleasure (“peculiar comfort”) of the communion of saints in heaven is that they will recognize their former Christian friends from earth. It is true that in our present condition natural affection is a duty, and the absence of it is the sign of a very vicious disposition, “[b]ut natural affection is no virtue in the saints in glory.” *23* Nevertheless, “[t]here is no reason to think, that the friendship contracted here on earth between saints will be rooted out in another world.” *24* So, saints will recognize fellow saints in heaven and the love for them will be perfected.

This is wonderful for friends. But what about enemies? Disputes also will be settled at the day of judgement as some parties are vindicated and rewarded with heaven while others are condemned and punished. This was the poignant anticipation which Edwards expressed to his Northampton congregation in the “Farewell Sermon” after the grueling controversy that dissolved the pastoral relationship.



How highly therefore does it now become us, to consider of that time when we must meet one another before the chief Shepherd! When I must give an account of my stewardship, of the service I have done, and the reception and treatment I have had among the people to whom he sent me. And you must give an account of your own conduct towards me, and the improvement you have made of these three and twenty years of my ministry. For then both you and I must appear together, and we both must give an account, in order to an infallible righteous and eternal sentence to be passed upon us, by him who will judge us with respect to all that we have said or done in our meetings here. . . . There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed, nor hid, which shall not be known; all will be examined in the searching penetrating light of God’s omniscience and glory. . . . our hearts will be turned inside out. . . . *25*



At that time, says Edwards,



He will declare what is right between them, approving him that has been just and faithful, and condemning the unjust; and perfect truth and equity shall take place in the sentence which he passes, in the rewards he bestows, and the punishments which he inflicts. *26*



The very episode in Northampton is characteristic of the present world. There is no perfect happiness here. One person flourishes while another is cast down and then the reverse follows. These vicissitudes are meant to prepare us for heaven where we will experience unfluctuating joy. *27*

But permanent happiness does come in heaven because God is there. However joyous the company of the redeemed, friends old and new, the real life of the heavenly party is God himself. The love of Christian family and friends are but the drops; God is the ocean. *28* “They shall enter into the king’s palace.” *29*

It is especially by union with Christ that this perfect enjoyment which makes heaven heaven comes about. The saints possess “all things,” but this is in Jesus Christ. Edwards explained this in detail in an early Miscellany.



Union with Christ. By virtue of the believer’s union with Christ, he doth really possess all things. . . . I'll tell you what I mean by possessing all things. I mean that God, three in one, all that he is, and all that he has, and all that he does, all that he has made or done, the whole universe, bodies and spirits, light, heaven, angels, men and devils, sun, moon, stars, land, sea, fish and fowls, all the silver and gold, kings and potentates, as well as mere men, are as much the Christian’s as the money in his pocket, the clothes he wears, or the house he dwells in, as the victuals he eats; yea, more properly his, more advantageously, more his than if he commands all those things mentioned to be just in all respects as he pleased, at any time, by virtue of the union with Christ, because Christ who certainly doth thus possess all things is entirely his, so that he possesses it all. . . . only he has not the trouble of managing of it but Christ to whom it is no trouble, manages it for him, a thousand times as much to his advantage as he could himself, if he had the managing of all. . . . And who would desire to possess all things more than to have all things managed just according to his will. . . .



Is it any wonder that at times Edwards finds heaven itself almost too good to be true? But he argues himself down. *30* This matter is spelled out in fulness by showing that the denial of the perfection of heaven is implicit denial of the perfection of the work of Christ. *31* In other words, if Christ is true, heaven must be true also. There is, to be sure, an infinite distance between God and the saints, but the blood of Christ, the God-man, removes all such hindrances to intimacy. The distance between the two natures - divine and human - is overcome by the one who combines both in his one person.

Consequently, the saints are emboldened to go directly to Christ and to God and far more than they would ever freely approach angels or intercessors. It is Christ who unites men and angels to each other. One could say, in the spirit of Edwards, that Christ is our intercessor with men (including Mary) and angels, rather than the other way around. He ends this lengthy theological discussion by depicting the intimacy of Christ and the saints in terms of the Song of Songs. Christ took human nature for the purpose of being closer to men. This closeness is realized fully only in heaven. *32*

In fact, it is because of Christ’s work of redemption that men are brought nearer to God than the angels are. The latter have only their own righteousness while Christians possess the righteousness of Christ. *33* In a late Miscellany Edwards gives one of his most exquisite descriptions of heaven in terms of Jesus Christ. *34*



The external heaven surrounds Christ not merely as an house surrounds an inhabitant or as a palace surrounds a prince or as stones and timber encompass a land. 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 Mt. Sinai surrounded Christ there.



All of this, wonderful as it sounds, is but the wedding rehearsal. The grand event of heaven, which goes on forever, is the wedding feast of Christ and his bride, the church, where we will enjoy “the eternal embraces and the eternal joys.” *35*



The Locality of Heaven

“[P]art of the universe . . . the highest or outermost part of it. . . .”

As we have seen, heaven is a state of incredible happiness. Is it also a state like Michigan or Pennsylvania? There can be no doubt that, for Jonathan Edwards, the state of bliss is also a place in space (too far out for the astronauts). This is the place to which the soul of the penitent went - “Paradise.” *36* There could be some question of the locality of heaven during the intermediate state but hardly in the post-resurrection period. One doctrine that makes it immediately evident that heaven is in some particular locality is the resurrection of the body. Bodies occupy space and can be in but one place at a time. Of course, Edwards had no doubt about the resurrection of the bodies of the saints nor the place to which they go - heaven.



4. The dead in Christ shall arise at the sound of the last trumpet with glorified bodies, and the living saints shall see them. The holy and blessed souls of saints that descended from heaven with Christ, shall then be re-united to those bodies that shall be prepared by infinite wisdom and skill to be fit organs for a holy and happy soul. *37*



Although heaven is the place where gloriously visible saints go, it is essentially the place where God’s glorious manifestation abides. “Heaven is every where in Scripture represented as the throne of God, and that part of the universe that is God’s fixed abode, and dwelling-place, and that is everlastingly appropriated to that use.” *38* There are many places where God has manifested himself from time to time, but his fixed abode of manifestation is called heaven, and it remains. *39*

What about the “new heavens”? What Scripture calls the “new heavens and the new earth” is a reference to the renovation of the world here below. Heaven above never changes. The heaven of God is not a temple made with hands.



Heaven is the place whence Christ descended, and it is the place whither he ascended. It was the place whence the Holy Ghost descended on Christ, and whence the voice came, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; and is the place whence the Holy Ghost was poured out at Pentecost: and whatever is from God is said to be from heaven. . . . **



Another argument which is offered against this renovated world being heaven is earth’s mobility. It is now constantly in motion and would seem to have to continue to be so if its nature were not fundamentally altered. That is beneath the dignity of the throne of God; not to mention the fact that heaven is said to be unshakable and God’s kingdom one that cannot be moved. *41*

Nevertheless, heaven permanently fixed as it is, is capable of further glory. Explaining this, Edwards is at his mystical and hermeneutical best. Just as the body of Christ was glorified and his human soul as well, it is fitting that the outer dwelling of God should undergo a change for the better:



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 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 . . . be changed and made proportionally more beautiful. . . .

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? *42*



Later, Edwards raises the question whether this glorification of the highest heaven will be done by the Father or the Son. He gives a seven-point answer that this must be the work of the Son when he brings his bride to her new and everlasting dwelling. *43*

That heaven is a glorious and fixed location Edwards feels certain, and its location is the third or outermost heaven. But, what is the significance of it and particularly of Paul’s ascending there? In answer to that question Edwards gives a superb explanation in a note in his Blank Bible which we must quote in full:



When the Old Testament saints and prophets have been admitted to so great a privilege, ’tis not unreasonable to suppose that New Testament saints and apostles should be admitted to as great and greater of the like kind, considering how much more glorious the dispensation is that the latter are ministers of than the other, and how much more honourable the minister. John the Baptist that was only the forerunner of Christ was greater than the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, and Christ tells us the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. But Paul was the greatest minister in the Kingdom of Heaven. The glory of the dispensation that Moses was minister of and that shining of his face was a signification of, was no glory in comparison of the glory of that dispensation that Paul was minister of as he himself particularly declares in the third chapter of this epistle magnifying his office. Paul was the principal minister of the New Testament as Moses was the principal minister of the Old. Paul was the great apostle of the Gentiles and revealer of the gospel to them and founder of the Gentile Church as Moses was the greatest prophet of the Jews and revealer of the law to them and founder of the Jewish Church. It is probable that when Paul ascended into heaven that he there received his gospel that he preached to the Gentiles that he so often speaks of, of Jesus Christ, and it was suitable there should be such a difference that Paul should receive his Gospel in heaven as Moses did the law on Mount Sinai - that that dispensation which was earthly and contained only an image of the heavenly should be communicated on earth only on a mountain where was an image of heaven, but that the heavenly things themselves should be communicated in heaven itself. As the glory of Moses’ dispensation was no glory in comparison of Paul’s so the glory of Mount Sinai was no glory in comparison of the glory of the third heaven. *44*



The Degrees of Blessedness

“The saints are like so many vessels of different sizes cast into a sea of happiness where every vessel is full.”

There is first, second, and third class in heaven as well as on earth and in hell. The published sermon on Joh_14:2, “Many Mansions” *45* describes the different accommodations and their respective costs. To change the metaphor drastically: saints are vessels all filled with joy but differing in size. *46* All receive a crown but of different luster. *47* Again, they are all in the mystical body of Christ in various positions. “He makes whom he pleases the feet and whom he pleases the hand and whom he pleases the lungs, etc.” *48*

Before we raise the question whether the differing prestige among saints could “raise hell” in heaven, as it did on earth, as it did in the Garden, and before that in the original heaven, we must first find out how an uncompromising solafidean such as Paul made room for “rewards” in the first place. If all is of grace and there is no merit whatsoever in believers, how can there be status symbols in a Christian heaven? Is this a return to Roman Catholicism? Has Edwards forgotten all about mere grace and introduced sheer works?

Needless to say, Edwards would not sell himself out consciously. He is fully aware of the appearances and is quite ready to prove that these appearances are deceiving. Not only does he call these “free” rewards, but he spells the whole matter out with evangelical thoroughness. “And however mean and polluted that which the saints do is in itself,” he asserts,



yet all the pollution that attends it is hid, and everything they do for God that has the least sincerity in it is precious in God’s eyes, through his infinite grace, and shall in no case lose its reward, neither shall it in any wise lose its honour. At the day of judgment they shall receive praise and glory in reward for it. *49*



If this sounds like teacher’s-pet-ism, as if God were blind to the faults of “saints” and able to see only their infinitesimal virtues while proceeding quite in the reverse manner with the “sinners,” the reader must remember the Edwardsian salvific context. When men fell they became sinners only and always until the elect (their guilt being expiated by Christ), were converted and justified by him. Subsequently, all their remaining “pollution” is “hid” from God only in the sense that he sees it as expiated guilt. Meanwhile the true virtue which springs from their redeemed and regenerated souls, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is accepted as having the root of virtue as it does. Thus God is dealing justly with the saints and not unjustly with the sinners.

Nevertheless, we may ask, will it not be extremely embarrassing for the saints at the day of judgment? No, because



if the sins of the saints shall be rehearsed, it shall not be for their shame, but for the glory of divine grace, to give opportunity for them to plead the atonement of that Saviour who will be the Judge, to give occasion to them to produce Christ’s righteousness, which will surely be accepted by himself. *50*



Imperfect “good works” are not only accepted in Christ but they are the rule according to which “free rewards” are given. They are not the basis of rewards (only Christ is that, and, furthermore, even perfect human works would not deserve any reward) *51* but they are the rule according to which unmerited rewards are distributed. Augustine inferred this, but it took Edwards to explicate. “Rewards of grace” or “free rewards” articulate both concepts - grace and reward. “Grace” Edwards honors by insisting that the rewards are pure gifts utterly unearned and “rewards” he honors by showing that these unearned gifts are distributed according to a rule or proportion of works, thus putting body into the term reward without sacrificing its gracious character. *52*

Edwards carefully accounts for the rewards of saints saved by grace. First, he clears the apparent inconsistency between the pure grace of God and a role for the works of saints. Christ, he argued, purchased perfect happiness but this did not prevent differing degrees of it.



The saints are like so many vessels of different sizes cast into a sea of happiness where every vessel is full: this is eternal life, for a man ever to have his capacity filled. But after all ’tis left to God’s sovereign pleasure, ’tis his prerogative to determine the largeness of the vessel. . . . Christ’s death and righteousness meddled not with this but left it in God’s prerogative. . . . *53*



The covenant of works would not have “meddled with it” either. “If Adam’s perfect obedience would not have been concerned in it, then Christ’s perfect obedience. . . .” *54* would not either. The bottom line is that Christ’s obedience only merited perfect happiness - no more, no less. The saints can claim no “rewards” from Christ’s work. Even Christ himself is subject to the sovereignty of God in the matter of rewards.

As one would anticipate, Edwards would not let matters rest at this point but sooner or later would attempt to define “capacity” in the saints. This concept he discusses in M 817. *55* Here he finds four factors that determine degrees of reward: 1. “degrees of grace and holiness here” (in this world); 2. “degree of the good that is done;” 3. “self-denial and suffering;” and 4. “eminency in humility.” *56*

Thus it becomes clear that the degree of glory will not be precisely equal to the degree of grace in this world. Edwards later adds something to capacity by including the “enjoying faculty” or openness to receive grace. He then lists three qualities of this faculty: extent and strength; knowledge; and degree and manner of the views. *57* These cravings which are now frustrated will then be filled.

But does this not make heaven the reward of self-seekers? The desire for rewards is based, Edwards acknowledges, on the principle of self-love. Self-love, however, is in itself a good, or, at least, neutral principle. *58* Only inordinate self-concern is a sin. Even Christ prayed for his own happiness, according to Joh_17:5. It will be our love of God which will influence us to do the good works for which we know we must be rewarded. *59*

So Edwards revels in appeals to abound in reward-winning good works. “We ought to seek high degrees of glory in heaven.” *60* Nothing could be gained by good works if there were no reward, and it seems preposterous that nothing could be gained by good works. In fact, we ministers do not have to apologize for the appeal to rewards but may use them freely. These appetites for reward cannot be overindulged. “Persons need not and ought not to set any bounds to their spiritual and gracious appetites.” *61* Do not, he pleads, sow sparingly. Seek the most ample rooms in the heavenly kingdom. An aristocrat in all his ways, Edwards intended to go first class in heaven and urged his people to do so as well.

The sky is literally the limit. All degrees notwithstanding it is well to recall that, for Edwards, in the very last analysis, there is “scarce anything that can be conceived or expressed about the degree of happiness of the saints in heaven.” *62* The blood of Christ removes all hindrance to joy.



Growth in Blessedness

“The most perfect rest is consistent with being continually employed.”

If there are differing degrees of glory among heaven’s inhabitants, there are also different stages in heaven by which they reach their zenith in glory. But before that, comes the preparation for heaven in this world.

“The saints growing ripe for heaven” is the theme of the Rev_14:15 sermon. *63* Edwards finds four elements involved in the greening of the saints. First, he notes that “grace at its first infusion into the soul is usually very imperfect.” *64* “Our vines have tender grapes,” (Son_2:15) and these tender grapes are not so sweet nor as useful as they are to become. Saints in this world are, second, in a preparatory state; *65* third, in a progressive state, *66* and, most important, becoming “more and more fit for their heavenly state.” *67* “The saints in the progress they make in grace and holiness are brought more and more to an actual preparedness forever to leave this world.” *68* Referring especially to young people or new converts the preacher astutely observes, alluding to “much false zeal,” *69* that “many kinds of fruit while they are green have a great deal of bitterness and sourness, are very sweet when they are fully ripe and fit to be gathered.” *70* He concludes with this image or shadow of divine things: “The sweetness of ripe fruit is a fit emblem of the holy sweetness of his disposition that is ripe for heaven.” *71* A fifth evidence of ripening is purity without mixture. *72* Solidity of the fruit is the sixth evidence *73* and finally, surprisingly, is assurance, because “in order to an actual fitness for heaven a person should know that he belongs there.” *74*

While the proper time for rewards is not until the end of the world, the saints will “have glorious rewards in heaven immediately after death.” *75* But after that the rewards continue in the form of ever-new discoveries of one another, in contrast to this life. “How soon do earthly lovers come to an end of their discoveries of each other’s beauty; how soon do they see all that is to be seen!” *76* But in heaven there is “eternal progress” with new beauties always being discovered.

The resurrection is a period of special growth in heavenly felicity. *77* It will exceed the saints’ present state of glory, just as the gospel state excels the Mosaic dispensation. When saints now go to glory they see Christ directly. Being absent from the body they are present with the Lord. Nevertheless, though there is no darkness there, because sin is gone, the glory is “dim.” Edwards compares this heavenly state before the resurrection of the body to the quiet before the wedding. “The saints now in heaven see God or the divine nature by a reflex light comparatively with the manner in which they will see it after the resurrection; seeing now through the glass of the glorified human nature of Christ and in the glass of his works especially relating to redemption. . . .” *78*

Many refinements of growth in “bodily” pleasures take place at the resurrection. The saints will then have “refined bodies” which put minds in a “sprightly frame.” Minds in turn, “shall cause a sweet sensation throughout the body, infinitely excelling any sensual pleasure here.” *79* They will continue to see and hear but the medium “will be infinitely finer” and more receptive. “So the eye may be so much more sensible and the medium, the rays, so much more exquisite that for aught we know they may distinctly see the beauty of one another’s countenances and smiles, and hold a delightful and most intimate conversation at a thousand miles distance.” *80* Their bodies will be more effulgent than the sun. Indeed it will be a different (Rev_21:11), and finer light than the sun, *81* with new and more wonderful colors. Every faculty will be “an inlet of delight.”

Eternality and fixity of a state usually suggest the absence of any possible growth. Growth means change which seems to preclude fixity. Difference from time to time appears inconsistent with a thing’s eternal. But there is both change and growth in heaven since the growth is only within. The state of eternal blessedness is one in which there is no change ever - for that activity is in rest. Though they enjoy perfect rest, yet they are a great deal more active than they were when in this world. After describing how the saints will be brought to their “last perfection” *82* in heaven after the day of judgment, Edwards hastily adds, “not that I determine that there will be no gradual increase of happiness in the saints and angels after.” *83*

How did he know, however desirable it may be to contemplate that the saints will be active and growing eternally? We find several reasons scattered throughout his writings and preachments. First, man is rational and must, to be happy, be rationally active. Second, the saints will see the damned and ever increasingly appreciate their own good fortune. Third, the remembrance of their own sins will cause them to grow in their gratitude. Fourth, the knowledge of the unfolding of the work of redemption has the same effect.

The reason that heaven means rest from trouble and not toil is that perfection of happiness does not consist in idleness, but on the contrary, it very much consists in action. To the Indians Edwards stated it cryptically: “Rest and ease without labour.” *84* The happiness of rational creatures very much consists in action. *85* “The most perfect rest is consistent with being continually employed.” *86* Six ways in which the joy of heaven is partly in the active serving of God are pointed out. *87* Elsewhere he observes, “In heaven ’tis the directly reverse of what ’tis on earth; for there, by length of time things become more and more youthful, that is, more vigorous, active, tender, and beautiful.” *88*

Edwards is naturally quite concerned about intellectual activity in heaven and devotes a number of Miscellanies to pursuing this interest. Possibly no one in history devoted more intellectual energy in this world contemplating intellectual activity in the world to come. We can anticipate here that the beatific vision is going to be the amor intellectualis Dei. But returning to the lesser perfections of heaven for the moment, we are told that “I argue from this foundation, that their [the saints’] number of ideas shall increase to eternity.” *89* They will, from the very beginning, remember this world and the growth of the church and go on remembering for millions of millions of ages. If there were only one idea in such vast periods, even that would spell infinite growth. So the saints will increase in knowledge (and holiness) to eternity.

Edwards stops to face the objection that according to his reasoning the damned would grow in perfection also since they too would be learning more. True, they will be learning more, but they only grow in odiousness as they increase in knowledge because of their incorrigible disposition, allowing knowledge only to puff up. “The more knowing, caeteris paribus, capable of more [wickedness].” *90*

Second, although the wicked in hell will improve their knowledge to more odiousness, heaven’s contemplation of those in hell will be only a further increase in wholesome knowledge.



It is the nature of pleasure and pain, of happiness and misery, greatly to heighten the sense of each other. . . .

When the saints in glory, therefore, shall see the doleful state of the damned, how will this heighten their sense of the blessedness of their own state, so exceedingly different from it! *91*



Third, the remembrance of their own sins will cause them to grow in appreciation of grace. Even though the righteous in heaven can contemplate hell and thereby increase in edifying knowledge, one wonders whether the remembrance of their own sins and folly in this world may not cast a shadow of gloom over their perfect happiness. No, explains Edwards, for though they will see



a thousand times as much of the evil and folly of sin as they do now; yet they will not experience any proper sorrow or grief for it, for this reason, because they will so perfectly see at the same time, how that ’tis turned to the best to the glory of God . . . and particularly they will have so much the more admiring and joyful sense of God’s grace in pardoning them, that the remembrance of their sins will rather be an indirect occasion of joy. *92*



Returning to the direct consideration of the increase in knowledge we find Edwards exulting in the anticipation of being able to intuit what is not possible now.



’Tis only for want of sufficient accurateness, strength, and comprehension of mind that from the motion of one particular atom we can’t tell [all] that ever has been that now is in the whole extent of the creation, as to quantity of matter figure bulk and motion, distance and every thing that ever shall be. Coroll. What room for improvement of reason is there for angels and glorified minds! *93*



The fullest and most penetrating reflection on this point is found in M 777:



Happiness of heaven is progressive and has various periods in which it has a new and glorious advancement and consists very much in beholding the manifestations that God makes of himself in the work of redemption. There can be no view or knowledge that one spiritual being can have of another, but it must be either immediate and intuitive or mediate or some manifestations or signs. An immediate and intuitive view of any mind, if it be consequent and dependent on the prior existence of what is viewed in that mind, is the very same with consciousness, for to have an immediate view of the idea and exercises of any mind consequent on their existence is the same as to have an immediate perception, sense, or feeling of them as they pass or exist in that mind. For there is no difference between immediate seeing ideas and immediate having them; neither is there any difference between a created mind’s immediate view of the sense or feelings of a mind either of pleasure or pain and feeling the same; therefore a mind without some union of personality. If two spirits were so made of God that the one evermore necessarily saw all that passed in the other’s mind fully and perceived it as in that mind so that all the ideas & all the sense of things that was in one was fully viewed by the other, or a full idea of all was necessarily constantly excited in the one consequent on its being in the other and beheld as in the other those two would to all intents & purposes be the same individual person, & if it were not constantly but only for a season there would be for a season an union of personality, and if those seasons were determined by the will of one of them, viz. of him whose ideas were consequent on those of the other when he pleased to turn the attention of his mind to the other, still the effect is the same - there is for a season an union of personality. If the ideas and sense that pass in one, tho immediately perceived, yet are not fully perceived but only in some degree, still this don’t hinder the effects being the same, viz. an union of personality in some degree.

Therefore there is no creature can thus have an immediate sight of God but only Jesus Christ who is in the bosom of God. For no creature can have such an immediate view of another created spirit, for if they could they could search the heart and try the reins, but to see and search the heart is often spoken of as God’s prerogative, and as one thing God’s divinity and infinite exaltation above all creatures appears and God who is called the invisible God, Col_1:15; and the King eternal, immortal, invisible, 1Ti_1:17; and he that is invisible, Heb_11:27; and of whom it is said 1Jn_4:12, “No man (in the original no one) hath seen God at any time,” and 1Ti_6:16 who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man (or no one) hath seen or can see. I say this being is doubtless as invisible as created spirits & ’tis not to be thought that gives no mere creature to an immediate sight or knowledge of any created spirit but reserves it to himself and his Son as their great prerogative properly belonging to them as God would admit ’em to an immediate sight or knowledge of himself whom to know is an infinitely higher prerogative of the only begotten Son of God, who is in the bosom of the Father.

Jesus Christ is admitted to know God immediately but the knowledge of all other creatures in heaven & earth is by means or by manifestations or signs held forth and Jesus Christ who alone sees immediately, the grand medium of the knowledge of all others they know no otherwise than by the exhibitions held forth in any by him as the Scripture is express, Mat_11:27. No man (in the Hebrew, no one) knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any one the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him and Joh_1:18, No one hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him, Joh_6:46. Not that any one hath seen the Father save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. . . .



Fourth, the knowledge of the unfolding work of redemption increases the saints’ growth in happiness - just as it did in this world.



It seems to be quite a wrong notion of the happiness of heaven that . . . it admits not of new joys upon new occasions. . . . It seems to me evident that the church in heaven have received new joys from time to time upon new occasions. . . . The coming of Christ I believe made an exceeding great addition. . . . *94*



And so Edwards continues listing the raising of bodies when Christ rose, Christ’s own session in heaven, and the successes of the gospel after the ascension. *95* He concludes, maintaining “that their joy is increasing and will be increasing as God gradually in his providence unveils his glory till the last day.” *96* Of course, not only at these major events in the history of redemption does heaven itself advance but at the conversion of each sinner also. *97*

Finally, when Christ submits his kingdom to the Father there will be a climactic implement of glory. God will then manifest his favor to his Son, the bridegroom, and the church, his bride, and the “eternal wedding” *98* will begin. Edwards is uncertain whether there will be a greater glorification at that time of the human or the divine nature of Christ as he pursues the discussion of this fine point of ecstasy for several pages.