66 39. Songs to Jeho vah and the Lamb, This is Sion, the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth,' in glory. Psa. xlviii. 2; 1. 2: this is the city which God hath made, even which he hath made in a peculiar manner. Oh what glory! oh what majesty! oh what joy! oh what blessedness! "As we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts; God hath established it for ever. The Lord our God doth save us this day, as the flock of his people; for we are the stones of a crown lifted up as an ensign upon his land: for how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Sing, Ŏ daughter of Sion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem: for the Lord thy God, in the midst of thee, is mighty; he hath saved thee, and rejoiceth over thee with joy; he rests in his love, he joyeth over thee with singing; he hath healed our backslidings, he hath loved us freely; for his anger is turned away, and he comforteth us. He is as the dew unto us; we grow as the lily, and cast forth our roots as Lebanon. He hath made us, and the places round about his holy hill, a blessing; and causeth the showers to come down in their season, even showers of blessing for evermore. And the tree of the field doth yield her fruit, and our land doth yield her increase; and we are safe in our land, and do know the Lord. Behold, he hath brought us from all countries, and gathered us from the coasts of the earth: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he; therefore are we come to, and sing in the height of : Sion; and flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the herd and our soul is as a watered garden: and we shall not sorrow any more at all; for, behold, the Lord hath created a new heaven, and a new earth, and the former is not remembered, nor doth come into mind. Our gates are open continually, they shall not be shut day nor night: for brass we have gold, and for iron we have silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. Violence is no more heard in our land, wasting nor destruction within our borders; but we call our walls salvation, and our gates praise. The sun shall no more go down, neither shall the moon withdraw herself; for the Lord is unto us an everlasting light, and the days of our mourning are ended. We are all righteous, we inherit the land for ever: the branch of his planting, the work of his hands, that he may be glorified. Our light doth break forth as the morning, and our health springeth forth speedily and our righteousness doth go before us, and the glory of the Lord is our rereward. We are saved of the Lord with an everlasting salvation; we shall not be ashamed, nor confounded, world without end. O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things: thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth; for thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat and hast brought down the noise of devils and their slaves: and hast swallowed up death in victory, and we are wiped away tears from all faces. Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, he hath saved us; we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation: he extendeth peace to us like a river, and our glory is like a flowing stream. Our heart rejoiceth, our bones flourish like an herb: and the hand of the Lord is known towards his servants, and his indignation towards his enemies; for he hath punished the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and hath caused the haughtiness of the proud to cease, and hath laid low the pride of the terrible, and broke the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. Hallelujah! salvation, and glory, and honour, and power unto the Lord our God: true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged all his enemies; and the glory of avenging justice is for ever displayed. Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him: let the children of Sion be joyful in their King; for the Lord taketh pleasure in his people he hath beautified the meek with salvation. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Sion; for he hath strengthened for ever the bars of thy gates, he hath blessed thy children within thee; he maketh peace within thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat: the Lord hath chosen thee for his rest; here will he for ever dwell, for he hath desired it." 40. The happiness of the saints super have all manner of Are we not more than blessed? United happiness has the greater abundant, since they force. Oh the sweet fellowship of enjoyments. blessed men and angels! All manner of enjoyments are here! all our natural propensities are fully satisfied, and we are every way filled with God! As our fellowship with him was interrupted, imperfect, and at a distance on earth; so our converse with creatures was of small profit: vanity, as to us, was poured out on all creature enjoyments; since our faculties were, in a great part, vitiated, was not our fellowship on earth oftentimes for the worse, as well as for the better? for that our converse favoured strongly of earth, differing little from that of worldlings. But, is not this a wonderful change! We look like an assembly of kings and priests, indeed. Are we 66 All of not all one, in mind, in love, in joy! for we have the mind of Christ," 1 Cor. ii. 16. us resemble advantageously that perfect and only pattern of holiness, that infinite world of beauty, and boundless ocean of overcoming sweetness; that only delight, love, satisfaction, wonder, and all, of men and angels. I am like thee, O my Wellbeloved! I am like thee! Oh joy! superabounding joy! this one thought bears in its bosom ten thousand heavens. O sirs, are not his glory, his excellence, his sweetness diffused among us? We are one in Christ; and therefore one among ourselves, being united by the Spirit of love. Thou art the " Head," we the "members ;" all treasures of excellence are communicated from thee unto us, as from the "root" to the "branches,” which are the same tree. We are one with thee; "for both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are one," Heb. ii. 11. Are you not excellent, then, O ye angels? were ye not passing excellent, and only delightsome, O ye excellent ones of the earth, when encompassed about with innumerable infirmities? and are you not now 66 so many masses of excellence and delight? If, when clothed with mortality, you were of sublime and princely spirits, what are you now, when mortality is swallowed up of life?" 2 Cor. v. 4. Was our converse sweet in the valley of tears and sorrows? and is it not more than pleasant in this paradise of joys and delights? Was our lamenting our distance from God to one another sweet? what raptures in our mutual congratulations of these overflowing delights-and happiness, in the immediate presence of JEHOVAH and the Lamb! What a golden life is this! As this full enjoyment of thee, O my God, doth swallow up all other enjoyments; so doth it perfect them also. Until our love to thee was perfected, never did we love one another perfectly. The more thou art loved, the more of thy image. Thou art the centre of all my faculties; all my love to saints and angels terminates in thee; thou hast clothed them with thy loveliness, and they are become lovely: yea, though they were not, yet since they are the object of thy love, therefore I will I love them: but because thou hast loved them, therefore hast thou made them wonderfully lovely; and therefore how are we all kindled together into an eternal flame! Oh what a wonderful sympathy! as we suffered in one another's afflictions, so do we rejoice in one another's joy. Oh this superabundant joy and happiness! since all your joy and happiness, men and angels, are mine; even me they affect; I am as filled with them: the happiness of thousands, and myriads of thousands, are abridged into one happiness. And how discovering is the light of thy |