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Jonathan Edwards [1730], Sermons and Discourses, 1730-1733 (WJE Online Vol. 17) , Ed. Mark Valeri [word count] [jec-wjeo17].
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Serving God in Heaven

In Serving God in Heaven, first delivered on March 14, 1731,Works, 13, 109. Edwards contrasts a heavenly life of active service to God with the earthly temptations of religious apathy and inactivity. Edwards pursues the doctrine on the Aristotelian premise that human beings fulfill their nature by realizing their potency in activity. He also draws on contemporary Anglo-American ethical theory, which held that people became happy when they acted according to their powers. So, according to Edwards, "the happiness of the reasonable creature don't consist in idleness but rather in action." Because serving God was the most excellent end of humanity, acting in such service led to the most delightful happiness.

In the second proposition of the Doctrine, Edwards reinforces this conclusion with reference to the activity of the saints in heaven. Their service to God makes them happy because they find therein a delight in the justice of serving the One who was fit to rule and who redeemed them. They also delight in the rightness of seeing God's will done, in imitating the service of Jesus Christ, and in finding an expression of their love for God. In the Application, Edwards reproves the "dullness, sluggishness, and coldness" of so much that passed for religion among his people. He exhorts his congregation to a fervent service of God on earth, which provides an opportunity to experience at least some of the joy of heavenly service.

Serving God in Heaven displays a typically Calvinist emphasis on activism and antipathy to idleness. The Reformed ideal of sanctification implied worldly effort. There were temporal, which is to say political and economic, implications to this ideal. By focusing on the image of the saints in heaven, however, Edwards directs the activity of the godly explicitly to the theocentric, perhaps even otherworldly, dimensions of piety. From the Perspective of this sermon, worldly activity is but the effect of a higher calling of service shaped to transcendent ends.

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This sermon anticipated some of the approaches that Edwards later would take in such well-known texts as Heaven Is a World of Love, the last sermon in the series on 1 Corinthians 13 from 1738, known as Charity and Its Fruits; and in The End for Which God Created the World, published posthumously in 1765. Here, For instance, are partial developments of the ideas that all creation served to glorify God and that it was the design of rational agents to participate actively in that glorification and so find their true happiness. In Serving God in Heaven, Edwards paid less attention to theoretical issues than to a remarkable juxtaposition of images from heaven—dynamic, joyful, and active—with the commonplace realities of religious life on earth, which was often torpid, resentful, and listless.

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The manuscript is a typical duodecimo booklet of eight well-preserved leaves. There are few marks of revision or reworking. One notation indicates that Edwards repreached the sermon "the second time from Psalms 115:17–18, " a text that urges praise of God.

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Serving God in Heaven
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.
Revelation 22:3

This [is the] first part of the description which John gives us of the glory and blessedness of the new Jerusalem, or of the church in her happy state. And respect seems to be had in those things that are said of it both to the happy state of the Christian church here on earth after the destruction of Antichrist and the other public enemies of the church, and also to the triumphant state of the church in heaven and after the resurrection. Some expressions seem best to suit the former, such as its being built upon twelve foundations which have the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, which signifies the churches being built upon their doctrine; as in Revelation 21:14, "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb"; and nations walking in the light of it, and kings bringing their honor and glory into it (Revelation 21:24); and leaves of the tree being for the healing [Revelation 22:2]. But many things that are here said of this city are too great to be understood of any other state of the church than its triumphant, sinless, and immortal state. And especial respect seems to be had to the state of the church after the resurrection.

After the description of the glory of the city itself in the foregoing chapter, here in this chapter he gives an account of the rich supplies of it and the blessedness of the inhabitants. The supplies of the city are two things, viz. the "pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb" [for] drink; and "the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month" for food.

The description of the blessedness of the inhabitants begins with this. We shall read the whole description which is in this and the two following

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verses: "And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever" [Revelation 22:3–5].

This is a part of the description: that his servants shall serve. The saints in their glorified state, though they are advanced to such a pitch of honor and blessedness, yet they are the servants of God. The throne of God and the Lamb shall be in the heavenly Jerusalem, and all the inhabitants of that world shall be in subjection, and shall serve God and Christ. And this is mentioned as part of the description of the glory and blessedness of that state.

Doctrine.
The happiness of the saints in heaven consists partly in that they there serve God.

I. Show how the happiness of man consists [in serving God].

II. Particularly, how 'tis a part of [the happiness of the saints in heaven].

[I. The happiness of man consists in serving God.]

First. The happiness of the reasonable creature don't consist in idleness but rather in action. The perfection and excellency of man consists in his faculties and principles. God hath endowed man with noble and excellent faculties and powers far above the beasts, wherein consists the natural image of God. The excellency of man above the brute creatures consists in that, that he is capable of a more noble sort of acts.

But man's powers of action were given him for action. God aimed at action, in giving man such capacities of action. And therefore when the reasonable creature is in action, or in the exercise of those powers of action which God hath given it, then 'tis in its more perfect state if its acts are suitable to the rational nature, and consequently is more happy than in a state of idleness.

When the creature is in that state that is most agreeable to the proper perfection of its nature, then is it in its most happy state. The well being, or happy being, of the creature, and its perfect and excellent being, evermore go together. But 'tis more excellent in the creature to be in action than in a state of inactivity. While men's powers of action lie

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dormant and inactive, they are useless; they are as if men had them not. Thus, for instance, if a man has a power of reason and don't exercise his reason, he is as if he had not the power. It is a natural excellency in man to have reason in power, but 'tis a greater excellency for him to have reason in action, for the end of power is action. If it were not for the relation that power has to action, power would be no excellency at all. If it were not for the relation that a power of reasoning and contemplating has to actual reasoning and contemplation, it would be no perfection at all.

God evermore so orders it that the creature should be most happy when it is most according to his design in creating of it. But God created man for action, as is evident by his giving of him those powers of action which he hath. By his giving of him such noble and excellent powers of action as he hath done, it is evident that he made him for action.

Second. A serving of God is that sort of action that man, by the faculties that God has endowed him, is most fitted for. God gave man higher powers than he did the beasts for this end, that he might be capable of those exercises wherein the service of God consists.

He was made capable of reasoning, that he might be capable by his reason to see God in his works, and capable of rational actions, that he might be capable of serving God; God seeks of us a "rational service" [Romans 12:1]. A creature is not capable of serving God without understanding and reason. A creature may be capable of serving that has no reason, as the brute creatures are capable of serving men; but God can be served only by rational creatures.

Therefore, when man serves God, he acts most according to his nature. He is employed in that sort of action that is most distinguishing of him from the beasts. He acts then in a way most according to the end of his formation, and most agreeable to his make and formation of the human nature itself. A man never acts so rationally as when he serves God. No actions [are] so agreeable to reason, and all that are contrary to God's service are contrary to reason. And therefore, doubtless, his happiness consists in serving God.

Third. The serving of God is the most excellent kind of action that man is capable of. If man's happiness consists in action, doubtless it consists chiefly in that kind of action which is most excellent.

'Tis the most excellent kind of action that man is capable of, because 'tis not only the action that man by his noble powers was most fitted for, but as 'tis the exercise of the most excellent principles of the heart. That principle of heart that is the greatest beauty of man is holiness, a principle of love to God. This principle was that wherein man's primitive

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excellency consisted, which he lost by the fall. And this principle is that wherein consists the beauty of the angels in heaven.

By a principle of holiness men are conformed to God and have the image of God. But such a principle is exercised in the creature in serving of God. There is no exercise of holiness in the creature any other way.

II. Particularly, how 'tis a great part of the happiness of the saints in heaven.

First. The saints in heaven will take great delight in serving of [God], as they delight in doing that which is just and right. Justice is what they delight in; if anything is right and equal, it is sufficient to make those spirits that are made perfect to love it and take pleasure [in] it. They will see those charms in equity that will cause them to have a perfect love to it. Saints' love to equity and justice in this world is not perfect. Sometimes a love to other things prevails over it. A saint here may be drawn to do those things that are contrary to it, but it will not be so in heaven, where the soul shall be brought to its perfect rectitude of nature.

It is a most equal and reasonable thing that all other beings should be subject to God, who is so infinitely exalted in the perfection and glory of his nature above all other beings. They will see how worthy he is to govern, and to be the lawgiver and absolute sovereign of the world. They will see how fit God is to rule, and order, and give directions to all other beings by reason of his infinite wisdom, justice, and holiness. And they will rejoice in it, that God reigns, that he that is so worthy to rule has the government in his hands. They will see that it is most just and equal that he that is the first being and the fountain of all, and upon whom all are dependent, should rule all. They will see that 'tis most equal that he of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all things should be supreme Lord: how just it is, that he that created them and keeps them in being every moment should govern them.

They will be sensible that 'tis most reasonable that God should be their ruler, in that he has redeemed them. They will see that all the service which they can render to him is but a small recompense for that great redemption. They will be sensible then how great the redemption was, much more sensible than they are now; for then, they will be sensible how terrible the destruction is that they were redeemed from, and shall know by experience how glorious the happiness which was purchased for them.

They will see how just it is that they should serve him upon whom they live, and from whom they continually receive such great glory and happiness.

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They will be much more sensible how reasonable it is than the saints do in this world, and they will take great delight in it upon this account, as they will take delight in doing that which [is] so right and equal, see that God's authority is rightful, and they will love to be subject to it.

Second. They will take delight in doing God's will because they will know that what [he] wills them to do is best to be done. They will choose to be directed and ordered of God, rather than to be entirely left to themselves, for they will know that God perfectly knows what is best to be done, what will be most for his glory and the good of the blessed society. They will know that God is infinitely wise and holy and that he always wills that which is best.

It will be a great pleasure to the saints to see God accomplishing his own glorious purposes, fulfilling his own will. They will rejoice in seeing God's will done, and it will be a pleasure to them to be made use of as the instruments of it, as it is to the angels. The angels in heaven are blessed, and doubtless 'tis a part of their blessedness that they are continually employed as God's emissaries to accomplish his purposes and to bring to pass those events which God designs. So 'tis a part of the happiness of the saints to fulfill God's will, to fulfill that which is determined by an infinitely wise and holy God.

Third. They will take delight in serving God because they therein become conformed unto God. The thing which God requires of his creatures is to be holy, to do holy actions, to be holy as he is holy; but the saints in heaven will have such an high esteem and admiration of God that they will greatly delight in conforming to him. It will be a great pleasure to 'em to be conformed to him whose beauty they constantly behold with exaltation and ecstasy of soul, and whose glory they cease not day nor night to extol. To see the same beauty in their dispositions and actions will be what they will esteem a great part of their honor and happiness.

And herein especially they will imitate the Lord Jesus Christ. The service of God is an imitation of God, as it is the exercise of holiness; but 'tis an imitation of Jesus Christ, as it is a subjecting to God's authority. Christ, when he was in this world, he obeyed God perfectly; he was obedient even unto death. He delighted to do God's will, as it was written; Psalms 40:8, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart."See The Sacrifice of Christ Acceptable, in Works, 14, 437–57. And in heaven, Christ will be subject to the Father; 1 Corinthians 15:28, "And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son

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himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." It will be a great pleasure to 'em to be conformed to, and to imitate, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fourth. They will know what they do in God's service is what is pleasing and acceptable to God, and that consideration will cause them to take great delight in it. It will be what they will greatly rejoice in, that they may do anything that is pleasing and acceptable to God. 'Tis a great honor done to them and testimony of God's favor that he will delight in anything that they do. And it will maintain their pleasure in doing God's will that they have the constant assurance and continual testimonies of God's acceptance of and complacence in their service. It will be as a sweet smelling savor unto God.

Fifth. They will take delight in it as they will have the honor of glorifying God therein. The glory of God is what the saints in heaven will exceedingly value. They will see that 'tis more worthy to be sought than any other end, and above all things worthy to be rejoiced in when accomplished. And they will esteem it a great honor and happiness that they may be the instruments of glorifying God. Therefore they will take pleasure in praising God, and they will take pleasure in serving and obeying of him.

Sixth. Herein they will have an opportunity to express their love to God. Strong love is a thing that seeks vent. He that has a great love to another, he necessarily desires to express that love and is not satisfied without an opportunity. The saints in heaven therefore will greatly delight in serving of God, as that service will be a service of love. It will be the pure exercise of an unfeigned and perfect love to God. True love is an active principle; it desires to show itself not only in words, but in deeds, by doing something for the beloved.

The saints in heaven have no opportunity to express their love by doing anything for the proper benefit [of God], but they have an opportunity another way, viz. by showing their cheerful subjection to his authority, and obedience to his commands, and by doing what shall be pleasing and acceptable to him and to his praise and glory.

Therefore the saints in heaven are much happier in a subjection to God's authority and in his service than if they were not in such a state.

Application.

I. Hence we may learn something of the nature of the heavenly state. They are not idle but active. 'Tis true the heavenly state is a state of rest:

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they that enter into heaven, they enter into Christ's rest. And 'tis also a state of reward for what they have done: when those that are in the Lord die, "they shall rest from their labors; and their works do follow them" [Revelation 14:13].See JE's MS funeral sermon from Feb. 1736 for his grandmother Rebecca Warham Mather Stoddard, which is on this text and treats the idea that the good works of the saints follow them to heaven.

But this don't hinder but that their state will be a state of action and employment. We need not suppose that they spend their time in doing nothing: no, the saints never are so active as in heaven. As it is said of the angels, that they are as a flame to signify their activity in serving of God, so may it be said of the glorified saints (Luke 20:36). They will forever be employed in heavenly works, and shall be diligent in it. They shall not cease day nor night.

They shall rest from their labors, for although they will still be employed in the service, yet it will be no labor to them. It won't then be as 'tis now. Now, by reason of the infirmity of our flesh and by reason of the corruption of our hearts, it requires a great deal of labor and striving to serve God aright; there are many difficulties in the way. There is labor that causes weariness.

There shall be nothing of this in the other world, for though the saints won't cease to serve God in heaven, yea, though they will be vastly more active in his service than they are now, yet 'twill be rest to 'em. There will be no difficulty or no need of labor and striving, no weariness. They will be active in holiness easily, freely, and naturally as the sun shines. They will have no need of ceasing, to take their rest; it will be all rest. It will be refreshment to them, and not labor, to do the will of God.

The heavenly state will be a state of reward for their works. But yet that don't argue but that they will still continue to act and still to serve. They shall enjoy God in that time. They shall perpetually behold God's glory and perpetually enjoy his love. But they shall not remain in a state of inactivity, merely receiving from God; but they return to him and shall enjoy him in a way of serving and glorifying him.

Every faculty of the soul will be employed and exercised, and will be employed in vastly more lively, more exalted exercises than they are now, though without any labor or weariness. That for which God has given us power of action, as we have observed already, is action. And 'tis not only that those powers may be used a little while, but they shall be used forevermore. And these powers will be perfected in heaven. They will be

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more fitted for action then than they are now, that the saints may act to a greater degree. The souls of the saints, instead of acting less, act a great deal more in heaven than here. Here the faculties are benumbed and stupefied and clogged with flesh and sin; but there they will be as "a flame of fire" [Hebrews 1:7].

A man, when he is converted, he begins that work that he is not only to spend all his life in, but to spend his eternity in.

II. Hence idleness is greatly to be blamed and reproved in those that hope to go to heaven. We in general do hope to spend our eternity in heaven, and to [be] employed after the same manner as the blessed inhabitants of that world are. Therefore idleness, especially in things of religion, is very unbecoming any of us.

But there are some that do especially entertain hopes of heaven that think they have actually a title to the happiness of that state; and in them especially is idleness in God's service unbecoming. If you hope that you belong to that active company above, why don't you imitate [them]? Is not the consideration of their incessant activity in God's service sufficient to make you ashamed of your dullness and sluggishness in God's service, your drowsiness in God's worship, your coldness in prayer and on attendance on ordinances, and sleepiness in hearing of sermons, and that you are no more watchful against sin and diligent in doing good in your day? If you think that you are one that is to spend your eternity in heaven, it becomes you now to endeavor more and more to behave yourself as you will do then, if ever you do come to heaven.

III. Hence those are reproved that esteem the service of God as a hard bondage. There are many that seem to account [it] a misery faithfully and diligently to obey God's commands, because they abridge their liberty of satisfying their lusts and require mortification of irregular appetites. They don't look upon such as live a holy life [as] happy, but account themselves much better on, in that [they] ben't so precise and straitlaced but that they allow themselves to enjoy the pleasures of the world.

But they are greatly mistaken. The service of God is not a slavery as they imagine. They are [not] the worst and most miserable slaves that are the servants of him; but they enjoy the best and most desirable liberty that are holy; they have the "liberty of the children of God" [Romans 8:21]. They are free indeed; John 8:36, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." God's law is a perfect law of liberty; James 1:25, "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."

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It is because wicked men have not right notions of happiness and misery. They are blinded and deluded by Satan, and their lusts. That makes them look upon the service of God as a bondage.

IV. [We are] exhorted to devote ourselves to the service of God. There are not only such motives as these to excite us to it. The authority that requires it is the authority of God; the Majesty of heaven and earth challenges of us, that we devote ourselves to the service of God. And if we do not, we shall expose ourselves to his eternal displeasure; and if we do faithfully serve him, he will eternally reward us. But our happiness does very much consist in this very thing, insomuch that 'tis [the] great part of the glory and blessedness of the inhabitants of heaven.

The heavenly state is that which God's infinite wisdom has contrived for happiness. God knows wherein the happiness of his own creatures does consist; and the blessedness of that state which his infinite wisdom has contrived for the perfection of happiness consists very much in serving of God. And doubtless, that which is a part of the happiness of heaven is pleasant and delightful here in this world. A life of fervent serving of God is a pleasant life. Wisdom's "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace" [Proverbs 3:17]. He, therefore, that desireth "life, and would see good days, let him eschew evil, and speak no guile" [1 Peter 3:10].

This doctrine should encourage those that have chosen God's service, to serve him with the greater cheerfulness. It should endear the service of God to you, to consider that your future and eternal blessedness so much consists in it.

Hereby you may be directed how to live a pleasant life here in this world and inform you what is the likeliest way for you to enjoy much comfort, viz. to be watchful, diligent, and fervent in spirit, serving {of God}.

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Jonathan Edwards [1730], Sermons and Discourses, 1730-1733 (WJE Online Vol. 17) , Ed. Mark Valeri [word count] [jec-wjeo17].