are my companions; every one of which tranfcends, by millions of ftages, in wisdom and excellency, the moft excellent mere man on earth. O ye beloved ones, is not our fellowship far changed? Old things are paffed away, all things are become new! All earthly ties are broken afunder, which did much hinder the fellowship of faints on earth we are every way free! fpiritual relation hath fwallowed up all other. No obligation betwixt us, but that of love: we hold not a ny thing mediately; Jefus the firft-born of the Almighty King is our immediate fuperior in all things. O glorious magnific kingdom! Olet the crown for ever flourish on the head of the Conqueror! what though all this affembly of men and angels fhould be abased, if he be exalted? what though all fhould decrease, if he increase? what is the flower and chief excellency of all created glory? He is the beauty and triumph of all creatures, the head and first born of every creature, infinitely more than all creatures; he is JEHOVAH.

57. The faints are eternally acquitted; and all their faculties are filled up with his ravishing voice.

All things are eternal: the faints are eternally acquitted and justified; and all the wicked are ever impanelled and condemned. In how ravishing a manner doth our Wellbeloved fmile upon us? for ever doth he stretch forth the arms of his love to embrace us? O the fweetnefs of his lips! the loveliness of his voice! honey and butter is under his tongue, and the fmell of his nofe, is as the fmell of Lebanon: his eyes are ever fixed upon us; every look, every beckoning of the hand manifefts a love, ever to be admired, and never to be comprehended. O his voice, his voice is he

not

not faying, Behold, and for ever behold your Lord, your Head, your Hufband, your King, your Maker, your only Wellbeloved, who loved you with an eternal love; washed you, when polluted, in mine own blood; and made you kings and priests to my Father and your Father?

Did I love you, when vile and abominable? and shall I ever hate you, when made fair and fovely, through my perfect comelinefs? Come, my faireft fpoufe, come, my lovely one, let us fatiate ourselves with ravishing loves, while the heavens remain. Behold these arms, that were stretched out upon the cross, for your fakes, are ever ready to embrace you: with defire have I defired this golden day of mutual loves and delights; even this day of my efpoufals and gladnefs of heart; and therefore I have put on my marriage-robes, arrayed myself with glory and majesty, as with a garment: and you alfo have I decked with paffing glory. And, can we be but ravifhed? Thou haft ravibed my heart, my fifter, my fpoufe! even when thou wat black, thou waft precious in my eyes: fin and vileness is nothing in the way of my infinite love. I loved thee, because I loved thee: and because I loved thee, therefore halt thou become exceeding lovely. Are you not dear unto me? are you not my delights and rejoicing? you are the fruit of my labours, fufferings, fad hearts, tears, fighs, groans, fear, pain, fhame, reproach: in feeing you, I behold my feed, the travel of my fou!, and am fatisfied: enjoy me now, as much as your foul defires. All mountains are removed, all fhadows are fled away; the occafions of your doubtings, jealoufies, defpondencies, are no more: we fhall enjoy one another to the full. Love fhall be no more pained and fick of delays.

Have I not

hafted

hafted to this eternal day of enjoyment? how have I dispatched much in a fmall time? I have come Skipping over the mountains, leaping over the hills. I fwimmed through feas of blood, oceans of tears, worlds of woes and griefs; trode the wine-prefs of the wrath of God Almighty; crufhed the people in mine anger, and trampled them in my fury; made my name to found throughout the whole world; filled the earth with the knowledge of my name; erected a glorious church on earth, of Jew and Gentile; put away time and days, cried down for ever all earthly pleasures, pomps, glory, that we might enjoy this eternal day of love's fulleft manifestations: and behold, I am become all in all unto you for evermore. Reft, my deareft fpoufe, in my bofom: reft in your love unto me; behold, I reft in my love unto thee, and rejoice over thee with finging. Haft thou laboured with me? here is an eternal repose. Haft thou mourned? partake of my boundless joys. Hall thou fuffered for my name's fake? thou shalt eternally ride with me in my majeftic, triumphant chariot of glory: thou shalt no more be fick of love, thro' abfence and want of the light of my countenance; whence ill thoughts, and doubtings of mine unchangeable love. Kifs, and kifs for ever, and take thy fill of love-embraces. His banner of love shall ever overspread us! it is nothing what thou hast been; fince I have elected thee, and washed thee, and made thee paffing beautiful and excellent; and thou haft become mine: my life, my blood, my foul did I give for thee: I have become like thee, and made thee like unto me, that our fellowship might be most intimate and fweet: and what, my fair one, could I have done more, to make thee fuperabundantly bleffed? have I not fitted thee

for my fellowship? have I not adorned thee with fuperexcellent beauty, glory, and majefty? Nothing can fhew forth thy pleasantness, thy furpaffing excellencies: all trees, all flowers, all rofes, and lilies, all the beauties that adorn the spangled heavens, would blufh. to contend with thy furpaffing beauty; all their perfections are but emblems of that fubftantial excellency, wherewith I have beautified thee. Thine eyes would over. come me, I could not look upon thy beauty, if thou didst not draw near; that love may be fatif fied with full enjoyment.' Can there be greater bleffednefs? can there be more intimate fellowfhip? O what love-embraces! what love-kiffes! what overcoming fmiles! we bathe ourselves in the oceans of pure unmixed love! The very fmell of thy garments, my fair one, ravish my heart, they exhale a fragrancy like a field which the Lord hath blessed! even my Father hath blessed thee, and thou art blessed for evermore. All who have curfed thee, have been curfed; and all who have bleffed thee, have been bleffed. The eternal God is thy refuge; and underneath are everlasting arms: and he hath caft out the enemy from before thee; and hath said, Destroy them. Thou dwelleft in fafety, alone; the fountain of Jacob is open unto thee. O people faved of the Lord, the shield of thine help; and who is the frength of thine excellency and thine enemies have been found liars unto thee; and thou haft troden them upon their high places. O are you not blessed, eternally bleffed, who have been appointed to fo great things? Glory, excellency, Arength, beauty, honour, and all are yours! behold, behold, ye children of my everlasting loves and delights, thefe precious crowns, thefe "garlands of glory,

where

wherewith I adorn you!' Behold, behold, all creatures, devils, and wicked men, thus is it done. eternally unto the men whom the King delighteth to honour. This is the majesty I clothe them with, who have loved, feared, and obeyed me, unto death, in their generation. This is the kingdom, thefe are the glorious manfions, I havefet them down into. I fpake not to you, my fair ones, of earthly kingdoms and poffeffions: thefe. celeftial habitations were you ordained unto, ast your everlafling country. I told you of worlds, and kingdoms, and crowns, and fceptres, and cities, and glorious manfions; and behold, inconceivably more than I promifed: yea, did you not inherit time alfo? did you ever want journeybread, as long as on the way to this country?. though, for your good, I did not laden you with the thick clay of the earth, I ever cut out that lot which was beft for you, which was not a life of. earthly abundance: if it had been otherwife, I fhould have made you the only fharers of earth, the only potentates of time; but dunghill earth was far below your divine minds. How degrading had it been, to fee my fellow heirs vexed, turmoiled, and distracted with dunghill concernments? No, your generous fpirits were exercifed with high and excellent things, and were not brought down by the empty concernments the fons of the. earth were only occupied with. My way to this unfpeakable glory was through contempt, reproach, afflictions, poverty, fhame; I could not lignify you, more than by making you partakers of my lot, my excellent ones: if I had plunged you in the midst of earthly profperity and abunlance, you should have miffed the greatest glory, which is fuffering for my name's fake; your crown P 2 fhould