fills and supplies all the creatures with every thing they stand in need of; when we behold all the tribes of the sons of men supported by his boundless sufficiency, his bounty and kind provi dence, and refreshed with a thousand comforts beyond what the mere necessities of nature require. In such an hour if we feel the least flowings of goodness in ourselves towards others, we shall humble ourselves to the dust, and cry out in holy amazement, "Lord, what is an atom to a mountain? What is a drop to a river, a sea of beneficence? What is a shadow to the eternal substance? What good thing is there in time or in eternity, which I can possibly want which is not abundantly supplied out of thy overflowing fulness? Hence arises the eter nal satisfaction of all the holy and happy creation in being so near to thee, and under the everlasting assurances of thy love. I can do nothing but fall down before thee in deepest humility, and admire, adore, and everlastingly love thee, who hast as sumed to thyself the name of love." 1 John iv. 8. God is love.

SECT. IV. Thus far our joys may rise into an imitation of the joys above in the devout contemplation of divine perfections. And not only the perfections of God considered and surveyed singly in themselves, but the union and blessed harmony of many of them in the divine works and transactions of providence and of grace, especially in the gospel of Christ, administer further matter for contemplation and pleasure among the happy spirits in heaven: And so far as this enjoyment may be communicated to the saints here on earth, they may be also said to have a foretaste of the business and pleasure of heaven. Let us take notice of this harmony in several instances.

1. In the sacred constitution of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, as God and man united in one personal agent: Here majesty and mercy give a glorious instance of their union, here all the grandeur and dignity of godhead condescends to join itself in union with a creature, such as man is, a spirit dwelling in flesh and blood; 1 Tim. ii. 5. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man even the man Christ Jesus: But this man is personally united to the blessed God, he is God manifest in the flesh: He is a man in whom dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily, to constitute one all-sufficient Saviour of miserable and fallen mankind: What an amazing stoop or condescension is this for the eternal godhead thus to join itself to a creature, and what a surprizing exaltation is this of the creature for the man Christ Jesus thus to be assumed into so near a relation to the blessed God? All the glories, that result from this divine contrivance and transaction are not to be renumerated in paper, nor by the best capacity of writers here on earth; The heavenly inhabitants are much better acquainted

with thein.

Again, here is an example of the harmony and co-operation of unsearchable wisdom and all-commanding power in the person of the blessed Jesus; and what a happy design is hereby executed, namely; the reconciliation of sinful man and the holy and glorious God: and who could do this but one who was possessed of such wisdom and such power? When there was no creature in heaven or earth sufficient for this work, God was pleased to appoint such an union between a creature and the Creator, between God and man, as might answer all the inconceivable purposes concealed in his thought. If there be wanting a person fit to execute any of his infinite des igns, he will not be frustrated for want of an agent, he will appoint God and man to be so nearly united as to become one agent to execute this design.

2. In the manner of our salvation, viz. by an atonement for sin. The great God did not think it proper, nor agreeable to his sublime holiness, to receive sinful man into his favour without an atonement for sin, and a satisfaction made to the Governor of the world for the abuse and violation of his holy law here on earth; and therefore he appointed such a sacrifice of atonement as might be sufficient to do complete honour to the lawgiver, as well as to save and deliver the offender from death : Therefore Jesus was made a man capable of suffering and dying, that he might honour the majesty and the justice of the broken law of God, and that he might do it completely by the union of godhead to this man and Mediator; the dignity of whose divinity diffuses itself over all that he did, and all that he suffered, so as to make his obedience completely acceptable to God instead of thousands of creatures, and fully satisfactory for the offence that was given him by them; here is a sacrifice provided equal to the guilt of sin, and therefore sufficient to take it away.

You see here what a blessed harmony there is between the justice of God doing honour to his own law, and his compassion resolved to save a ruined creature: Here is no blemish cast upon the strict justice and righteousness of God, when the offender is forgiven in such a method as may do honour to justice and mercy at once; Rom. iii. 24, 25. We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, even his perfect governing justice, though he passes by and pardons the sins of a thousand criminal creatures; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might appear to be just to his own authority and law, while he justifies the sinful man who believeth or trusteth in Jesus the Mediator as becoming a proper sacrifice and propitiation for sin.

3. By the sanctification of our nature. There is also another remarkable harmony between the holiness of God and his mercy in this work of the salvation of sinful man. The guilt of sin is not only to be forgiven and taken away by a complete atonement and sacrifice, but the sinful nature of this ruined creature is to be changed into holiness, is to be renewed and sanctified by the blessed Spirit, and reformed into the image of God his maker: He must not only be released from punishment by forgiveness, but he must be restored to the image of God by sauetifying grace; so that he may be fit company for the rest of the favourites of God in the upper world; that he may be quaJified to be admitted into this society, where perfect purity and holiness are necessary for all the inhabitants of this upper world, and for such near attendants on the blessed God: In that happy state nothing shall enter there that defileth; Rev. xxi. 27. and therefore concerning the criminals among the Corinthians, as vile and as offensive to the pure and holy God as they are represented; 1 Cor. vi. 9-11. viz. Fornicators, idolators, adulterers, drunkards, &c. but it is said, they are washed, but they are sanctified, but they are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

And

Now when the souls of the saints bere on earth are raised to such divine contemplations, what transporting satisfaction and delight must arise from the surprising union and harmony of the attributes of the blessed God in these his transactions? especially when the soul in the lively exercise of grace and view of its own pardon, justification, and restored holiness, looks upon itself as one of these happy favourites of the majesty of heaven: It cries out as it were in holy amazement, What a divine profusion is here of wisdom and power, glory and grace, to save a wretched worm from everlasting burnings, and to advance a worthless rebel to such undeserved and exalted glories!"

SECT. V. "The wonders of divine perfections united in the success of the gospel" give an extasy of joy sometimes to holy souls. Not only do these views of the united perfections of God, as they are concerned in the contrivance of the gospel, entertain the saints above with new and pleasurable contemplations, but the wonders of divine wisdom, power, and grace, united and harmonizing in the propagation and success of this gospel, become a matter of delightful attention and survey to the saints on high.

This is imitated also in a measure by the children of God here on earth. Have you never felt such a surprising pleasure in the view of the attributes of God, his grace, wisdom, and power of making these divine designs so happily efficacious for the good of thousands of souls? If there be joy in heaven among the

angels of God at the conversion of a sinner; Luke xv. 7, 10. what perpetual messages of unknown satisfaction and delight did the daily and constant labours of the blessed apostle Paul send to the upper world? What perpetual tidings were carried to the worlds on high of such and such souls, converted unto God from gross idolatry, from the worship of dumb idols, from the vain superstition of their heroes and mediator-gods, and from the impure and bloody sacrifices of their own countrymen, whereby they intended to satisfy their gods for their own iniquities and to reconcile themselves to these invented gods, these dæmons or devils which were deified by the folly and madness of sinful men? What new hallelujahs must it put in the mouths of the saints and angels on high, to see the true and living God worshipped by thousands that had never before known him, and to see Jesus the Mediator in all the glories of his divine offices admired and adored by those who lately had either known nothing of him, or been shameful revilers and blasphemers of his majesty?

And what an unknown delight is diffused through many of the saints of God now here on earth upon such tidings, not only from the foreign and heathen countries, but even some who have professed christianity, but under gross mistakes and miserable fogs of darkness and superstition? What an inconceivable and overwhelming pleasure has surprised a christian sometimes in the midst of his zealous worship of God and his Saviour, to hear. of such tidings of new subjects in multitudes submitting themselves to their divine dominion? And even in our day, whensoever we hear of the work of grace begun by the ministry of the word, awakening a drowsy and lethargic soul from its dangerous sleep on the brink of hell, rousing a negligent and slothful creature from his indolence and carelessness about the things of eternity; or again, in making a heart soft and impressive to the powers of divine grace, which was before hard as the nether millstone; and especially when multitudes of these tidings come together from distant places, as of late we have heard from New-England, and several of those plantations; from Scotland. and several of her assemblies, what additional scenes of heavenly joy and pleasure have been raised amongst the pious souls, both those who relate and those who hear them,

SECT. VI. "Foretastes of heaven are sometimes derived from the overflowing sense of the love of God let in upon the soul." The spirits above who are surrounded with this blessedness and this love, and rejoice in the everlasting assurance of it, cannot but be filled with intense joy. What can be a greater foundation of complete blessedness and delight than the immediate "sensation and assurance of being beloved by the glorious and supreme, and the all-sufficient being," who will never suffer

his favourites to want any thing he can bestow upon them to make them happy in perfection, and for ever? All creatures are under his present view and immediate command; there is not the least of them can give disturbance to any of the favourites of heaven, who dwell in the midst of their Creator's love; nor is there any creature that can be employed towards the complete happiness of the saints on high, but is for ever under the disposal of that God who has made all things, and it shall be emi " ployed upon every just occasion for the display of his love to his saints.

Some have imagined that that "perfect satisfaction of sout which arises from a good conscience, speaking peace inwardly in the survey of its sincere desire to please God in all things, and having with uprightness of heart fulfilled its duty," is the supreme delight of heaven; but it is my opinion God has never made the felicity of his creatures to be drawn so entirely out of themselves, or from the spring of their own bosom, as this notion seems to imply. God himself will be all in all to his creatures; and all their original springs of blessedness as well as being, are in him and must be derived from him: It is therefore the overflowing sense of being beloved by a God Almighty and eternal, that is the supreme fountain of joy and blessedness to every reasonable nature, and the endless security of this happiness is joy everlasting in all the regions of the blessed above.

Now a taste of this kind is heavenly blessednesss even on this earth, where God is pleased to bestow it on his creatures; and the glimpses of it bring such extasies into the soul as can hardly be conceived, or revealed to others, but it is best felt by them who enjoy it.

SECT. VII. "Foretastes of heaven in the fervent emotions of soul in love to Jesus Christ." What the love and strong affections of the blessed saints above towards Jesus Christ their Lord and Saviour may impress of joy on their spirits, is not possible for us to learn in the present state; but there are some who have even here on earth felt such transcendent affections to Jesus the Son of God, even though they have never enjoyed the sight of him, yet they love him with most intense and ardent zeal; their devotion almost swallows them up and carries them away captive above all earthly things, and brings them near to the heavenly world. There is an unknown joy which arises from such intense love to an object so lovely and so deserving; such is that which is spoken concerning the saints to whom St. Peter wrote; 1 Pet. i. 8. whom having not seen, ye love, în' whom though now ye see him not, yet bellecing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is through this divine taste of love and joy, and glory communicated by the blessed