The unconverted would find fault with heaven on several accounts.
(1) That it is a strange country. There is a peculiar sweetness in our native soil, and men are slow to be drawn from it to live in a strange land. Heaven is the "renewed" man's native country, for his Father is in heaven. He is "born from above," therefore he looks upon himself as a stranger on this earth. But the unconverted man is the man of the earth, therefore he "minds earthly things," and would not be at home away from them.
(2) There is nothing there of what they most delight in. If paradise was a place of sensual delights, that religion will be greedily embraced, for that is the kind of heaven men naturally choose. If the covetous man could get bags of gold there, and the volumptuous man could promise himself his sensual delights there, they might be reconciled to heaven, and be meet for it too. But since it is not so, though they may utter fair words about it, truly it has little place in their hearts.
(3) Every corner of it is filled with that which they like least. Holiness fills every corner of heaven. It is true there is joy in heaven, but it is holy joy; there are pleasures; there are places to stand on in heaven, but it is holy ground. And that holiness that appears in every place and in everything in heaven would mar everything and everyplace for the unconverted.
(4) They would hate their new company if they were taken there. Truly, they who care not for communion with God here and now, nor value the fellowship of His people, at least in the vitals of practical Godliness, would never like the company of heaven. Many, indeed, mix themselves with the Lord's people on earth, to procure a Christian name for themselves, but such a thing they could not endure for all eternity.
(5) They would never like the employment of heaven. To be taken up in beholding, admiring, and praising Him that sitteth on the Throne, which is the business of the saints there, would be an intolerable burden to them, seeing it is not agreeable to their natures, and seeing as they care so little for it now on earth.
(6) They would find fault that it is of everlasting continuance. If the Sabbath day is a burden to them, how could they brook the celebrating of an everlasting Sabbath in the heavens!
This Page Title –Finding Fault with Heaven by Thomas Boston The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 78 – placed on line May 2009 Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk |