royal spirits, as that they can carry, bravely, the highest exaltation and glory! Thou art worthy thus for ever to ride gloriously, and all thy redeemed ones after thee! thou didst fight and overcome; and shall not all be crowned with immortal glory and honour thou art pleased to cast thy favour upon? Thou didst seek thy bride through labour, and shame, and pain, and sorrow, and death, though deformed and vile, slighting all the manifestations of thine infinite love; and wilt thou not deck and beautify her, and be delighted in her eternally? Oh this sweet, sweet union and communion! 50. The full enjoyment of God, consists in the nearest mutual conjunction. Oh blessed self! that dost rest so sweetly in the arms of thy only Wellbeloved! thy head eternally lies in his bosom: the heat and life arising from his loving heart has a virtue would cause death and sorrow to live and be cheerful. Hell and devils, though I were in the midst of you all, I could not fear you, whilst resting within these invincible arms. You flower and excellence of all creature beauty and loveliness, you could not allure me to leave, for one moment, this delightful repose. This was a counterpoise in all thy difficulties through the valley of tears: the forethoughts of this added strength and courage, in all thy faintings and infirmities: the hope of this sweet rest has not been vain. Had I felt suitable apprehensions thereof, how valiant had I been for the truth upon the earth! how should I ever have contended, to the uttermost, for the smallest things of my Wellbeloved! How should I have acted to admiration! how should I have run and fought, and fought and run, ever with "joy unspeakable and full of glory!" 1 Peter i. 8. Can there be greater blessedness, than to dwell within these arms of love? My labour, my grief, my sorrow, has been just nothing: one moment's repose in thy bosom, my Wellbeloved, might swallow up ten thousand ages of all labour, pain, and sorrow. Now I need no more to charge any, that my Beloved "be not provoked to arise, till he please." I am overjoyed, that all sinning and vanity is done away, which did much separate us asunder! Oh sweet, sweet! that thou hast made me pleasant and desirable in thine eyes! What can I desire more, than that I am lovely and delightsome in the eyes of my Lord the King? Rejoice and be glad in what is thine own: even "rejoice over me with singing, and rest in thy love" towards me, Zeph. iii. 17. Drink, and drink again of that sweetness wherewith thou hast filled me: be delighted always with this loveliness I am partaker of by thy bounty and favour. My blessedness can be no greater; "Thou art mine, and thy desire is towards me," Sol. Song vii. 10. Wonder, and be greatly amazed. O all creatures, the eternal One, and yesterday beings, are for ever in the mutual delights of love: men and angels, you shall ever be infinitely from the furthermost of this abyss of wonders: who can comprehend this exaltation? who can conceive this condescension? what think you, that God and creatures converse so familiarly together? what think you, that he is our Brother, our Husband, one like us, one with us, one for us, one delighted with our fellow ship, for evermore? who can show the thoughts of his heart? who can fully reflect on the astonished apprehensions of his elevated mind? Hast thou not shown what infinite power can do? how low infinite love can stoop? how highly infinite bounty can exalt? how wonderfully infinite excellence can make beautiful and excellent? O my faculties! you shall be ever filled with astonishment, ever satiated with his uncreated sweetness! Can I suffer any want in thy bosom, O Fountain of excellence? shall I not be filled, who am set down beside this Well of living water, under the boughs of the Tree of life, whose delicious fruits are ever falling upon me? Some glimpses of thy love, on earth, were wonderfully above what the abundance of "corn" and "wine" could produce: the report of thine excellence and glory filled the heart with surpassing sweetness: thy emanations could not be contained within this large land, but had influence upon the lower world, causing many of the inhabitants to be deeply in love with thee, whom they never saw; so that they renounced the love of all things for thee, strove exceedingly to be like thee, and to please thee in all things: fought against all opposition, endeavoured to the uttermost for exalting thy glory, and continued in a longing frame to behold thee face to face; and so remained faithful unto the death. 51. The life of glory, the only life, that other overtops all lives, and swallows All creatures live according to the capacity of their being, but no life equal to that which is divine! them up. the animal life is dead and dark, and without efficacy and beauty; the intellectual is a low and base N thing but this life of glory excells all other excellences. All other lives are swallowed up here that which is "in part" and imperfect, is "done away" by that which is the perfection of excellency. O my lovely One, thou art indeed the Prince of life! thou art the life of all the inhabitants of this majestic city: didst thou withdraw what thou hast communicated, should we not be so many lumps of death and deformity? Thou art my All in all! thou art my life, and vigour of all my joys and desires. That divine life, by which thou eternally livest, hast thou breathed into me; so that I am become inconceivably above a living soul, or an intellectual creature: this noble Divine life didst thou communicate unto me, in my dead and sensual condition, but in a small measure, that was much obscured by sin and corruption; then being the time of childhood and wrestling: but how has it grown more and more, until it has overtopped and swallowed up all other lives! so that now I am filled with all thy fulness: even thy nature, thine image, thine excellency, hast thou fully impressed upon me; so that, as thou art, so am I. Oh secure estate! Christ is my life; is not, then, my life eternal? My life lies in the Fountain, and shall it not be ever in its vigour and full strength? Other lives are like small drops, separated from the ocean, and may vanish: how soon did animal, rational, and intellectual lives fall from their native constitution! Nothing is permanent, which is not divine; nothing everlasting, which lies not immediately without the mixture of creature imperfections: the nearer thee, the safer; the farther off from thee, the more dangerous; to be quite cut off from thee, is entire and only misery. Cursed men and angels have no other influence from the Fountain, but that which conserves their natural beings, in their natural operations. O Wellbeloved, not only in thee do I live, move, and have my being, but thou art my" All in all !" I am filled with all thy "fulness." O my life, my life! do I not live for evermore? creatures in heaven: all in all. Jehovah is eminently all things are All things are swallowed up in 52. No necessity of thine infinite excellency! created enjoyments are cried down; times and days are for ever fled away: immediately subjected to JEHOVAH, even the Son himself. All rule, all authority, is put down : no subordinations among creatures; one thing stands not in need of another; every thing would be as it is, though all other creatures were done away all flourish by the immediate rays of the "Sun of Righteousness." God maintains all creatures without the concurrence of creatures: no connexions of second causes, no dependences of one creature upon another: nature's world is quite abolished; the conditions of beings are altogether changed; yet, in how sweet an order do all things agree! All are independent; yet all conspire in one: the bond of love betwixt all is strong and immortal; the mutual aspects of all are pleasant and superabounding, in beings accomplished, every one in their own measure, immediately from the Original of all perfections. You creature beauties, the full emanations of your loveliness and sweetness are ever darted upon me |