ocean of overcoming fweetness, that only delight, love, fatisfaction, wonder, and all, of men and angels. I am like thee, O my Wellbeloved! I am like thee, O joy! fuperabounding joy! this one thought bears in its bofom, ten thousand heavens. O Sirs, are not his glory, his excellency, his fweetnefs diffused among us? We are one in Chrift; and therefore one among ourselves, being united by the Spirit of love. Thou art the head, we the members, all treafures of excellency are communicated from thee unto us, as from the root to the branches, which are the fame tree. We are one with thee; for both he that fanctifieth, and they that are fanctified, are one. Are you not excellent then, O ye angels? were ye not paffing excellent, and only delightfome, O ye excellent ones. of the earth, when encompaffed about with innumerable infirmities? and are you not now fo many maffes of excellency and delight? If, when clothed with mortality, you were of fublime and princely fpirits; what are you now, when mortality is fwallowed up of life? Was our converfe fweet in the valley of tears and forrows? and is it not more than pleasant in this paradife of joys and delights? Was our lamenting our diftance from God to one another fweet? what ravishments in our mutual congratulations of thefe overflowing delights, and happiness, in the immediate prefence of JEHOVAH and the Lamb? what a golden life is this? As this full enjoyment of thee, O my God, doth fwallow up all other enjoyments; fo doth it perfect them alfo. 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 faints and angels terminates in thee; thou haft clothed them with thy lovelinefs, and they are become love ly yea, though they were not, yet fince they are the object of thy love; therefore will I love them but because thou haft loved them, therefore has thou made them wonderfully lovely; and therefore how are we all kindled together into an eterna flame! O what a wonderful fympathy! as we fuf fered in one another's afflictions; fo do we rejoice in one another's joy. O this fuperabundant joy and happiness! fince all your joy and happiness, men and angels, are mine; even me they affect; I am as filled with them: the happiness of thoufands, and myriads of thousands, are abridged into one hap pinefs. And how discovering is the light of thy glory! I know every one of you in particular, as by name, and what was your lot on earth. When our converse is more joyful, fhall not our fellowfhip now be paffing excellent? The faculties are great, the objects are great, and great is eternity, which we have ever before us in our fellow fhip: we are not confined, as on earth, to days, hours, and years; but shall speak to one another of his infinite excellencies again and again, and more and more, and for ever speak: and what new delights, fince earth's childish dialect is done away! Words, fentences, orations, and volumes were as dark fhadows, of little or no fignification: but O the profound idiom of Emmanuel's country! every word is like a talent, representing more than ten thoufand excellent volumes in earth's language. How admirably do mortality and immortality differ in all things! Cry out then his matchlefs praises; shall we not contend, who fhall fpeak moft excellently of his glory? shall we not be for ever recounting his wonderful goodness to us, in time and eternity O ravishing fellowship with men and angels! O more than ravishing voice of the Son of God! were it not the prerogative of glory, that one en oyment cannot divert from another, I fhould for ever fhut all my faculties against you, O fellowtreatures; that they might only be filled with Jefus my only Wellbeloved. Whatever I enjoy, ftill I enjoy thee perfectly and fully: with whomfoever I converse, continually I am with thee. Thou art the beginning, middle, and end of all. O the eternal high tides of joys in my heart! nothing can feparate me in the leaft, from this immediate enjoyment of thee. The members are not hindered from receiving influences from the head, because of their mutual commerce among themfelves; rè-~~ flex rays hinder not the direct; the enjoyment of the thing included eminently, hinders not the enjoyment of that which includes. I enjoy thee; and therefore I enjoy all things: and my enjoy ment of creatures, is no new enjoyment; but another manner of enjoying of thee; like the beholding the light of the fun darting from the moon : every one of us reflects the beauty wherewith thou adorneft us. 41. All the attributes of God contribute to our eternal blefednefs, but his unchangeableness is the crown of all. How do all fmile with a ravishing countenance, whether we view in time on earth, these present enjoyments, or their flourishing throughout eternity? The confideration of God's wonderful pro• vidences in time, will fill the thoughts with endlefs admiration. And am I not ravished in looking back into infinite perfections, before all ages? Here there is ever a further; but it is according to finite conception, to look upon thee, as past, prefent, and to come. Thou art eminently all things, I 2 yet yet not formally, and in their own proper nature: we change every moment, and have still new actings, because we are finite beings; but with thee there is no variableness, nor fhadow of turning. Whatever thou doft, from eternity thou doft it: thy actings have neither beginning, middle, nor ending; which are but one fimple act, the fame with thyself, though virtually and equivalently it contains in its bofom innumerable actions; even as thy everlastingness, innumerable days, years and ages. Who can admire enough thy fimplicity! All thy excellencies are but one excellency, cqui valent unto infinite worlds of excellencies. O what a bleffed life have we, men and angels, in dwelling in God,the almighty, allfufficient JEHOVAH!in whom is contained infinite varieties of all joys, all pleafures, ail fweetnefs, all contentments, all beauties, all glories, in a tranfcendent, eminent, and most perfect manner. O happy I who have fuch an infinite One, boundlefs One in all perfections, to be my portion! O thou art infinite, eternal, anchangeable in thy wifdom, power, holiness, juftice, goodness and truth. Everlafting ravishments! he, who loveth us, is unchangeable; he, in whom we truft, is the Rock of ages, whofe goings forth have been from eternity. O then! thy fmiles are everlafting. Our happiness is eternal; it is joy upon joy, to confider, this life can have no period: it hath neither middle, progiefs, nor ending; but shall e ver be a beginning, and fhall be ever, ever alike far from the period of my joys and happiness; e ver in this fame ravished unspeakable frame of di vine love and joy, I am just now into! Shall it e ver be high tide? O more than happiness! it over. flows its banks: it is much I bear this joy! O my joys! my joys, you are of an immortal dura tion! O my excellent Wellbeloved, now haft thou with eternity crowned all my happiness! to think ever to be disjoined from thee, would imbitter all the prefent fweetnefs: the greater the enjoyment, the greater the lofs. Temporary enjoyments nothing affect me: what will end, will be as if it had not been. Never fo many ages are nothing in the minds of elevated creatures: only brutes are taken with time. Nothing is real and substantial, but what is enduring. Nothing vain and empty now: all things here fhall be ever in the felf fame ftate we are now in. So are all things in hell alfo. The fashion of this world fhall never pafs away: all are now folid and enduring: vanity is for ever banished out of the univerfe; all things fhall be for ever as they are. O my joys though you were low, yet the thoughts of your eternal permanency may cause you, fwell over your banks. O glory, glory! how maffy art thou? Not a thing gliftering now, and anon evanished. O the more enduring fubftance! the kingdom unmoveable: thefe everlafting arms incircle us eternally! For the Lord fball reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, to all generations. We that truft in the Lord, are like mount Zion, that cannot be removed, but abideth for ever : the glory of the Lord shall endure for ever; he shall rejoice in all his works. The children of thy Jervants fball continue, and their feed fhall be established before thee with long life dost thou fatisfy them, and fbeweft them thy falvation. Thou art the firength of their heart, and their portion for ever. O real, folid, fubftantial, enduring portion! indeed, thou art the Rock of ages. All the innumerable ages palt, prefent, and to come, do roll upon thee as their foundation. Thy years are throughout all generations of old didft thou lay the foundations of : I 3 the |