Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 3

Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 3

But oh, when we take a survey of INVISIBLE things - we find them all great and majestic, not only equal, but infinitely superior to the most enlarged powers of the human and even of the angelic nature. In His eternal worlds - the great Invisible dwells, and there He acts with His own direct hand. It is He who directly and personally communicates happiness through the heavenly regions. And it is His direct and personal breath that, like a stream of brimstone, kindles the flames of hell. Whereas, in the present world, He rarely communicates happiness, and inflicts punishment - but by the instrumentality of creatures; and it is impossible that the extremity of either happiness or misery - should be communicated through the instrumentality of creatures. 

This the infinite God alone can do, and, though in the future worlds He will use His creatures to heighten the happiness or misery of each other - yet He will have a more direct and personal agency in them Himself. He will communicate happiness directly and personally from Himself, the infinite fountain of it - into the vessels of mercy! And He will directly and personally show His wrath, and make His power known upon the vessels of wrath.

I may add, that those BEINGS, angels and devils, which will be the instruments of happiness or misery to the human soul in the invisible world - are incomparably more powerful than any in this present world - and consequently capable of contributing more to our pleasure or pain.

And let me also observe, that all OBJECTS about which our faculties will be employed then - will be great and majestic; whereas, at present, we grovel among little sordid things. The objects of our contemplation, will then be either the unveiled glories of the divine nature, and the unveiled wonders of creation, providence, and redemption; OR the unveiled terrors of divine justice, the dreadful nature and aggravations of our sin, the horrors of everlasting punishment, etc.

And since this is the case, how little should we regard the things that are seen - in comparison of those which are unseen? But though visible things were adequate to our present capacities - yet they are not to be compared with the things that are unseen, because:

B. The soul is at present in a state of infancy, and incapable of such degrees of pleasure or pain - as it can bear in the future world. The enjoyments of this present life are like the playthings of children, and none but childish souls would trifle with them, or fret and vex themselves or one another about them!

But the invisible realities awaiting us are manly and great, and such as an adult soul ought to concern itself with. The soul in the eternal world, can no more be happy or miserable from such earthly toys - than men can be happy or wretched in the possession or loss of the baubles of children! In the eternal world, the soul will then necessitate great things to give it pleasure or pain. The apostle illustrates this matter in this manner: "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child - I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man - I put childish ways behind me." (1 Cor. 13:9-11). How foolish is it then, to be chiefly governed by these childish earthly toys - while we neglect the great and many concerns of eternity - which alone can make our souls perfectly happy or miserable, when their powers are come to perfection!

C. And lastly, All that pleasure and pain which we receive from things that are seen, are intermingled with some ingredients of a contrary nature. In this present world, our good and evil are blended. Our happiness has some bitter ingredients, and our miseries have some agreeable mitigations. But the pleasure and pain which we receive from things that are unseen, are pure and unmingled.

We are never so HAPPY in this world - as to have no uneasiness! In the greatest affluence - we languish for lack of some absent good, or grieve under some incumbent evil.

On the other hand, we are never so MISERABLE in this world as to have no ingredient of happiness. When we labor under a thousand calamities, we may still see ourselves surrounded with, perhaps, an equal number of blessings. And where now is there a wretch so miserable as to endure unmingled misery, without one comfortable ingredient?

But in the invisible world, there is an eternal separation made between good and evil, pleasure and pain; and they shall never more mingle. In heaven - the rivers of pleasure flow untroubled with a drop of sorrow. In hell, there is not a drop of water to mitigate the fury of the eternal flame! And who then would not prefer the things that are unseen - to those that are unseen?

~Samuel Davies~

(continued with # 4)