VIEWS OF HEAVEN A TEST OF CHARACTER
John Owen
(1616-1683)
We may hereby examine both our own notions of the state
of glory and our preparations for it, and whether we are in any measure
"made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." Various are the
thoughts of men about the future state,-the things which are not seen,
which are eternal. Some rise no higher but unto hopes of escaping hell,
or everlasting miseries, when they die. Yet the heathen had their Elysian
fields, and Mohammed his sensual paradise. Others have apprehensions of
I know not what glistening glory, that will please and satisfy them, they
know not how, when they can be here no longer. But this state is quite
of another nature, and the blessedness of it is spiritual and intellectual.
Take an instance in one of the things before laid down. The glory of heaven
consists in the full manifestation of divine wisdom, goodness, grace, holiness,
- of all the properties of the nature of God in Christ. In the clear perception
and constant contemplation hereof consists no small part of eternal blessedness.
What, then, are our present thoughts of these things? What joy, what satisfaction
have we in the sight of them, which we have by faith through divine revelation?
What is our desire to come unto the perfect comprehension of them? How
do we like this heaven? What do we find in ourselves that will be eternally
satisfied hereby? According as our desires are after them, such and no
other are our desires of the true heaven, - of the residence of blessedness
and glory. Neither will God bring us unto heaven whether we will or no.
If, through the ignorance and darkness of our minds, - if, through the
earthliness and sensuality of our affections, - if, through a fulness of
the world, and the occasions of it, - if, by the love of life and our present
enjoyments, we are strangers unto these things, we are not conversant about
them, we long not after them, - we are not in the way towards their enjoyment.
The present satisfaction we receive in them by faith, is the best evidence
we have of an indefeasible interest in them. How foolish is it to lose
the first-fruits of these things in our own souls, - those entrances into
blessedness which the contemplation of them through faith would open unto
us, - and hazard our everlasting enjoyment of them by an eager pursuit
of an interest in perishing things here below! This, this is that which
ruins the souls of most, and keeps the faith of many at so low an ebb,
that it is hard to discover any genuine working of it.
