exert it to the uttermost upon the wicked who provoke it? Is it because perfect and incomprehensible goodness is equally natural and essential to thee? This is a difficulty wrapped up in that light which no man can approach unto. In the impenetrable abyss of thy goodness, there rises it seems a spring, from whence issue out the streams of thy mercy for there is a most exact harmony between all thy glorious attributes; and being so sovereignly and perfectly just, as at the same time to be sovereignly and perfectly good, thy compassion to sinners makes no inconsistence between these seemingly contradictory excellences: for thy goodness, it is evident, would be less, if no ill men had any experience of it; and he is more perfectly good, who extends his kindness to good and bad men both, than he who confines it to the good only; and so is he, who exercises his goodness in sparing and punishing too, than he who exerts it in no other instance, but that of punishing. This therefore gives a rational account of thy mercy to them who least deserve it, that, being perfectly good, thou canst not but in consequence of that be merciful.

O inexhaustible unmeasurable goodness, which so far surpasseth our largest conceptions, let me also partake of thy mercy, which is so rich, so unbounded let thy clemency spare, and prevent the vengeance which I have cause to dread from thy angry justice: let that mercy which is ever flowing out of thee, shed itself upon me. Rouse up thyself, my soul, and stretch thy intellectual powers to their utmost length, that thou mayest have the most sublime and worthy apprehensions of the Divine goodness, that this imperfect dim state will admit.

If each good thing we see and desire below be delightful singly, consider well, how exquisitely so that good must be, which is universal, and con

tains in itself the charms of all the good things that are, and ever were, or shall be. And those not such charms as we find and are fond of in created beings, but as much above them, as infinite excels finite, and the Creator the creature. If then life derived from another be good, how excellent is that life, by which all else do live? If our wisdom be so pleasant and desirable, which reaches no farther than the consideration of objects that present themselves to us; how lovely, how adorable is that wisdom, by which those objects were so admirably contrived, nay, commanded out of nothing? In short, if different objects, according to their vast variety yield so very transporting, so very different delights, think how inexpressibly full of delight He is, who communicated to each out of his own fulness, and so both made all these objects and made them delightful? O the inestimable bliss of them that shall possess this good! What will they have? What will they not have? They will have nothing, to be sure, which they had rather not have. They will be secure of every thing that can make soul and body both happy: so great, so manifold, so perfect bliss, as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive.

CHAP. XV.

The Happiness of the Saints hereafter.

HY dost thou then, deluded creature, let

WH

thy desires run wild upon variety of objects, and from these vainly expect, that soul and body. should be happy? Love that one good, in which all others centre, and this will answer all thy wishes: whatever can contribute to the perfection of thy outward or inward man, is there to be met with in abundance. If beauty delight thee,

the righteous are promised to shine as the sun : (Matt. xiii. 43.) If activity or strength, or freedom of operation, which no resistance can obstruct, remember they shall be as the angels of God, and that which is sown a natural body shall be raised a spiritual body; (1 Cor. xv. 44.) that is, it shall resemble those spirits in its activity and penetration, and powers, though not in nature and substance.

If length of days, and a sound constitution be thy desire, there shall be health unimpaired, and immortality; for the just shall live for ever, and their health is of the Lord. If gratification of desires to the full; they shall be satisfied when they wake up after their Lord's likeness. (Ps. xvii. 15.) If musical entertainment, there the angels never cease their melodious praises to God: if any chaste pleasures; of such God shall give them to drink, as out of a river. (Ps. xxxvi. 8.) If wisdom, the most wise God shall then unlock his treasures, and let them into the knowledge of his own mysterious nature and providence. If friendship, there they shall love God above themselves, and one another as themselves; and God shall love them more than they love themselves. It must be so, since they love him and one another, by and for him, and he loves himself and them by and for himself. If perfect agreement, there shall be but one soul and one will, for they shall all have no will but God's. If power, they shall be absolute masters of their own will, as God is of his for as God can do whatever he pleases by his own power, so they shall be enabled to do whatever they please, by and through him: for as they shall will nothing but what he will, so he wills whatever they will, and therefore whatever they will must needs be accomplished. If honour and riches, God shall make his faithful and good servants rulers over many things; (Luke xix. 17.) nay, they shall be dignified with the title of gods, and the sons of

God, and shall be actually heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If secure possession, they shall have as much assurance, that no part of their happiness shall ever forsake them, as they can have that they can never consent to part with it; and that God who loved them so as to vest them in it, can never take it away from them he loves so dearly against their consent; or as they know that nothing is stronger than God, or can separate between him and them. And who can conceive the excellency and greatness of that joy, which must needs result from so inconceivably excellent and great a good?

O heart of man, ever wanting somewhat to make up thy satisfaction, every day exercised with pains and sorrows, and almost quite oppressed with the mighty weight and uninterrupted succession of miseries, how wouldest thou exult, should all these blisses flow in upon thee? Ask thy most secret recesses whether they could so expand themselves, as to receive the joy which must needs spring up from such exquisite happiness, considered purely as thy own only. But further yet, consider that if any other person, equally dear to thee as thy own self, should enjoy the same happiness, this would double thy joy, because thou wouldest be as glad for his sake as for thy own: Again, if two, or three, or more, thus dear to thee were in the same blessed condition, this joy would be multiplied equally for every one of these. Now according to this way of arguing, what can we suppose will be the rejoicing in heaven, where angels and saints innumerable partake of the happiness, which I have been but very imperfectly describing, and every one of these united in a charity so fervent, that none of them loves any of the rest less than himself, and consequently will rejoice for each of them as much as for himself?

If then the heart of man be scarce large enough.

to contain his joy, for his own single happiness, how shall it find room for so many joys so vastly increased, so often multiplied? Again, in regard we naturally rejoice in the felicity of another in proportion to the love we bear to that person; it will follow from hence, that since in that state God is incomparably more dear to every saint, than that saint is to himself, and all his brethren to him; every saint will consequently feel more satisfaction, and exult incomparably more in the glory and blessedness of God, than he will in his own and all his brethren's put together. And if they so love God with all their heart, and all their mind and soul, that even all their heart and mind and soul, wants room for the largeness of their affection; they will certainly rejoice too with all their heart, and mind and soul so exquisitely, that even all their heart and mind and soul shall overflow and be too narrow to contain the fulness of their joy.

Tell me then, O my God and my Lord, my hope and the delight of my heart, whether this be the joy meant by thy blessed Son, when he says to his disciples, Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (John xvi. 24.) For I have here discovered a joy, that seems not only full, but even more than full: since, after all our faculties are filled, there still remains fresh matter for rejoicing; matter more than can be comprehended, more than can ever be exhausted: and therefore the whole of that joy can never enter into the persons partaking in it, but they may very properly be said to enter into the joy of their Lord. (Mat. xxv. 21.)

Say then, Lord, and inform thy servant, whether this be the joy, into which thy faithful servants shall enter, whose diligence in improving their Lord's talents shall be commended and rewarded at the great day of account. But that, I am told, is a joy never yet seen, or heard, or so much as conceived by any human mind; and consequently