§ 16. (11.) Should not our interest in heaven, and our relation to it, continually keep our hearts upon it? There our Father keeps his court. We call him, _Our Father which art in heaven_. Unworthy children! that can be so taken up in their play, as to be mindless of such a Father. There also is Christ, our _Head_, our _Husband_, our _Life_; and shall we not look towards him, and send to him, as oft as we can, till we come to see him face to face? Since _the heavens must receive him, until the times of restitution of all things_; let them also receive our hearts with him. There also is _New Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all_.[310] And there are multitudes of our elder brethren. There are our friends and old acquaintance, whose society, in the flesh, we so much delighted in, and whose departure hence we so much lamented; and is this no attractive to thy thoughts? If they were within thy reach on earth, thou wouldst go and visit them, and why not oftener visit them in spirit, and rejoice beforehand to think of meeting them there? "Socrates rejoiced that he should die, because he believed he should see Homer, Hesiod, and other eminent persons. How much more do I rejoice, said a pious old minister, who am sure to see Christ my Savior, the eternal Son of God, in his assumed flesh; besides so many wise, holy, and renowned patriarchs, prophets, apostles," &c. A believer should look to heaven, and contemplate the blessed state of the saints, and think with himself, "Though I am not yet so happy as to be with you, yet this is my daily comfort, you are my brethren and fellow-members in Christ, and therefore your joys are my joys, and your glory by this near relation is my glory; especially while I believe in the same Christ, and hold fast the same faith and obedience, by which you were thus dignified, and rejoice in spirit with you, and congratulate your happiness in my daily meditations." [Footnote 310] Galatians iv, 26.