Though the life of heaven be hidden, yet so much of it is revealed as to give faith leave to lay hold of it; and yet not so much, as to make the hand of faith needless. It is brought down by our Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel, within the view of faith, that we might live in expectation of it, and be animated to the glorious pursuit; but it is not brought within the reach of sense, for we are now in a state of trial; and this is not the proper time nor place for sight and enjoyment. II. Inference. How little is death to be dreaded by a believer, since it will bring the soul to the full possession of its hidden life in heaven! It is a dark valley that divides between this world and the next; but it is all a region of light and blessedness beyond it. We are now borderers on the eternal world, and we know but too little of that invisible country. Approaching death opens the gates to us, and begins to give our holy curiosity some secret satisfaction; and yet how we shrink backward when that glorious unknown city is opening upon us! and are ready to beg and pray that the gates might be closed again: “O! for a little more time, a little longer continuance in this lower visible world!” This is the language of the fearful believer: But it is better to have our christian courage wrought up to a divine height, and to say, “_Open ye everlasting gates, and be ye lift up, O ye immortal doors_, that we may enter into the place where _the King of Glory is_.” There we shall see God, the great unknown, and rejoice in his overflowing love. We shall see him not as we do on earth, darkly, through the glass of ordinances; but inferior spirits shall converse with the Supreme Spirit, as bodies do with bodies; that is face to face; 1 Cor. xiii. 12. There shall we behold Christ our Lord in the dignity of his character as Mediator, in the glory of his kingdom, and the all-sufficiency of his godhead; and we shall be for ever with him. There shall we see millions of blessed spirits, who have lived the same hidden life as we do, and passed through this vale of tears, with the same attending difficulties and sorrows, and by the same divine assistances. They were unknown, and covered with dust as we are, while they dwelt in flesh, but they appear all-glorious and well known in the world of spirits, and exult in open and immortal light: We shall see them, and we shall triumph with them in that day; we shall learn their language, and taste their joys: we shall be partakers of the same glory, which Christ our life, diffuses all around him, on the blessed inhabitants of that intellectual world.