ctive--"They serve God day and night
--in his temple," some may say. God's temple may here mean the
universe, that vast temple which he hath built in every part of which
his saints may serve him. *

* Revelation xxi. 22.

Surely the glorified spirit is not confined to a single apartment in
the house of God, and not suffered to go abroad, and see his glory,
and the exercise of his perfections in the works of creation and
providence! Were such his situation, it would differ little from that
of the delinquent who is confined to his cell, or prison. Such cannot
be the state of a glorified soul--of a soul released from a body,
which while on trial, served as a clog to restrain the servant, and
prevent him from quitting the station, in which he had been placed, or
leaving the work assigned him. It cannot be the state of one
sanctified throughout; of one raised above temptation, either to stray
into devious paths, or be slothful in the service of his God.

Much of our felicity here ariseth from a contemplation of the works of
creation and providence. In these we see divine wisdom and goodness;
learn to know God; to fear and love him. The good man carries this
disposition with him when he exchangeth worlds; his desire of
knowledge, and especially the knowledge of God, and the works and ways
of God. And is there not reason to believe that glorified saints have
power and liberty to range among the works of the all perfect
Sovereign; trace the evidences of the divine perfections, and witness
their effects, and that this is one source of their happiness?

A relish for knowledge is a quality of the mind, natural to it, and
inseparable from it. We observe it in children, who at an early period
discover a desire of information, and perpetually seek it by
questioning those more advanced. The same disposition is resident in
adults, and productive of the attainments in science which both
delight the mind and dignify the man. In heaven, the glorified spirit,
hath doubtless advantages for attaining the knowledge of God and
divine things, and opportunity to satisfy his desire after it, if it
can be satisfied; for it is itself a happiness. It gives a zest to
information, and will probably continue, and be an endless source of
enjoyment. The creature may never know so much of god as to desire no
farther knowledge of him; or so much of the works and ways of god, as
to with no increase of that knowledge. Acquisitions in knowledge and
enjoy