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23. The relations

are subjects of everlasting amazement.

Who can search into the depths

betwixt God and us of thy boundless love? Thou hast delivered us from going down into the pit; thou hast found a ransom, Job xxxiii. 24. This is a design of infinite Wisdom, the eternal wonder of men and angels! Verily, thy loves are incomprehensible, matchless, boundless, and unchangeable; which, though we sometimes doubted, in the days of our absence, yet all are now evident, as the noon-day light; past, present, and to come, present themselves for ever. Oh, then, my happiness overflows its banks! Am not I overjoyed, as at the first entry? how familiarly and sweetly do I converse with thee, O excellent Wellbeloved! myriads of ages appear not a moment in thy presence. This dispensation is an eternal wonder! Our dignity before our fall was high and glorious: but, oh this dispensation of love! Sirs, is not God our Brother, our Husband, our Redeemer, our only Wellbeloved? Oh our happiness! what shall we do throughout eternity but wonder? "God manifested in the flesh," 1 Tim. iii. 16. Oh strange! Lord God Almighty, what couldst thou do more to creatures? Shall I not behold and admire,

24. Men and angels rejoice in an eternal

and admiring God

circle of beholding admire and behold, and glow with visibly manifested. love, while this immortal Being remains? The vail is drawn aside, and we behold clearly the Man, Christ Jesus, filled with the Godhead ! Indeed the earth is full of a Divine glory; the heavens also in a more special manner; saints and angels, wonderfully and eminently; yet all in measure: but glory dwells in this Man above all measure! he is God equal

with the Father! no nearness to the Fountain of all glory, unto that nearness of the human nature of our Wellbeloved with the Godhead! Oh, then, the emanations of thy inexhaustible fulness! even thy glory, beauty, and sweetness, shall overflow their banks for ever and ever! we are ever filled and over-filled with thy fulness; yet there still remains as much behind. Infinite worlds of men and angels couldst thou satisfy, and make to run over with thine overcoming love and sweetness. Upon whom may, and doth not thy light shine? Thou art the Sun, we are the planets: what should we be, didst thou draw in thy glory? wherever thy glory is peculiarly manifested, there is heaven: let me be any where, so be thou shine upon me. They have the sunny side of the world who behold thy face in righteousness: a world of all creature beauties and delights, is a hell without thee; I should count them a mass of deformity, should they for one minute stand in betwixt me and thy countenance. None but JEHOVAH and the Lamb! Had I had this sight but for one moment on earth, would I in the least have regarded the glistering vanities of time? In thy light I see light, Psa. xxxvi. 9; every thing appears as it is: they are enlightened to the full, who dwell under the beams of thy countenance. Blessed ones, what must he be, whose glory and beauty, darting in upon us, doth beautify us all! What were we, if this fair One were not amongst us? By thy darting upon me, I am partaker of the Divine nature, even transformed from glory to glory. Oh thy attractive, lovely emanations! I cannot,

will not, but follow thee, whithersoever thou goest, though without the borders of this great all, or through the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; these, then, should be no more what they are, but worlds of joy and delights. Oh thy glory, thy glory, thy glory! Cursed monsters, who are under eternal vengeance, for your hatred to his excellence, had you a glimpse of this transcendent glory, should not your misery and torment be quite forgotten? But you are banished from his presence and glory; and therefore you are unutterably miserable. Oh my happiness! "Is it not good to be here?" wonderful! was I ever loth to come here? My Lord is here, are not "then all things here?" Was I ever loth to come here, because silly, harmless death did stand in the way? But what is it to pass through ten thousand black deaths, ten thousand ages of all imaginable torment! One hour here, will do more than make up all. Oh massy, real, substantial, enduring glory! am I not happy, eternally happy! happiness is here in its full bloom and verdure: I am with thee, O Wellbeloved! and is it possible I can be more blessed?

25. The glorified only capable of un

fully mortality can

66

By thy blood, and only by thy derstanding glory blood, have we entered these oceans conceive little. of unspeakable happiness; through thee have we such full access to the Father; thou art our wisdom, our righteousness," all things. Oh perfect security for ever and ever! what wonder this could not enter the minds of mortals? This is only to be conceived by men of able, large capacities. Before, we resembled

thee in part, because we saw thee by faith, as through the glass of thy word, but in part: now we are capacious; now thou shinest upon us in full splendour; whereby thine image is fully impressed upon us; we know thee "face to face," as thou art, without the benefit of interposing creatures, and ideas, extracted from other things. Oh immediate vision of God! oh clear discoveries of infinite perfections! I see, I see the infinite One face to face, as I am seen, 66 and my life is preserved," Gen. xxxii. 30. I am fully satisfied, overcome with thy lovely image! what wonder I am like thee, who partake of thy nature, the beams of thy excellency every where darting upon me! Oh this illumination! oh the high, high pitch of glory! oh the everlasting smiles of my Lord's countenance! oh manifestations of more and more throughout eternity! all the enjoyments of eternity are as one moment: all ages are as swallowed up in the infinite depths of boundless excellences. Creature enjoyments are empty, and may be received; but infinite love delights throughout eternity. When more ages are past than there are atoms in the creation, then shall I be, just as I am now, ever swimming and diving in the depths of thy infinite perfections, and never attaining the furthermost. This is a life! how sweet to dwell under the noonday beams of thy countenance ! All darkness and ignorance are quite dispelled; every thing is known as it is in its own proper essence: here wisdom flourishes in its highest region; my former attainments are swallowed up, like the light of a candle beside the sun. Oh this light day of eternity! oh eternity,

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thou art not sufficient, wherein I may delineate what my elevated heart does conceive! all are inexpressible: mysteries are no mysteries, and yet eternal mysteries! How was I beset with darkness, and could not attain suitable conceptions of thee! how was I vexed with low and unbeseeming thoughts of thy all-glorious Majesty! whence deadness and unfitness of spirit for worshipping thee aright. Now I am enlightened with the full and immediate beams of thy glory; and oh, how great and precious are my thoughts of thee! How am I all inflamed with Divine love therefore I bend to thee with an incessant and eternal propension: holiness before was in part, now the topstone is upon it. How beautiful and comely are we become, through the blood of the Lamb! I see, Wellbeloved, thou canst wash the blackest fair and white, till they become full of heaven and glory. Sirs, are we not far changed? may not every one of us say, I am not I? Might we not mistake ourselves, were it possible such a thing were compatible with glory?

26. The beholding of God, in his way of

goings, to creatures

The wonderful mystery of thy subsistence and out- being One in essence, yet Three in is endless delight. the way of subsistence, was only to be believed by mortals, and not to be understood demonstratively; but now I behold, with a noonday evidence, what I believed. Thou art One, in the most simple manner; and yet there are Three in the blessed Godhead; every one of whom is God; who are only distinguished by proper ways of subsistence. I believed, in the land of darkness, this, as all other mysteries, should be fully manifested in the land of glory:

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