senses exceed those we now possess. Doubtless as God advanceth our senses, and enlargeth our capacity, so will he advance the happiness of those senses, and fill up with himself all that capacity. Certainly the body should not be raised up and continued, if it should not share in the glory. As it hath shared in the obedience and sufferings, so shall it also in the blessedness. As Christ bought the whole man, so shall the whole partake of the everlasting benefits of the purchase. O blessed employment of a glorified body! to stand before the throne of God and the Lamb, and to sound forth forever, 'Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing; for thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests. Alleluia, salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God. Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.' O Christians! this is the blessed rest; a rest, as it were, without rest; for they rest not day and night, saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.'*— And if the body shall be thus employed, O how shall the soul be taken up! As its powers and capacities are greatest, so its actions are strongest, and its enjoyments sweetest. As the bodily senses have their proper action, whereby they receive and enjoy their objects, so does the soul in its own action enjoy its own object, by knowing, remembering, loving, and delightful joying. This is

* Rev. iv. 11. v. 12, 9, 10. xix. 1. 6. iv. 8.

the soul's enjoyment. By these eyes it sees, and by these arms it embraces.

10.-Knowledge of itself is very desirable. As far as the rational soul exceeds the sensitive, so far the delights of a philosopher, in discovering the secrets of nature, and knowing the mystery of sciences, exceed the delights of the glutton, the drunkard, the unclean, and of all voluptuous sensualists whatsoever. So excellent is all truth. What then is their delight who know the God of truth? How noble a faculty of the soul is this understanding! It can compass the earth; it can measure the sun, moon, stars, and heaven; it can foreknow each eclipse to a minute, many years before. But this is the top of all its excellency, that it can know God, who is infinite, who made all these, a little here, and more, much more hereafter. O the wisdom and goodness of our blessed Lord! He hath created the understanding with a natural bias and inclination to truth, as its object; and to the prime truth, as its prime object. Christian, when after long gazing heavenward, thou hast got a glimpse of Christ, dost thou not sometimes seem to have been with Paul in the third heaven, whether in the body, or out,' and to have seen what is unutterable ?* Art thou not, with Peter, ready to say, "Master, it is good to be here ? O that I might dwell in this mount! O that I might ever see what I now see!" Didst thou never look so long upon the Sun of Righteousness, till thine eyes were dazzled with his astonishing glory? And did not the splendour of it make all things below seem black and dark to thee? Especially in thy day of suffering for Christ, when he usually appears most

manifestly to his people, didst thou never see one d walking in the midst of the fiery furnace with thee like the Son of God?* Believe me, Christians, yea, believe God; you that have known most of God in Christ here, it is as nothing to what you shall know; it scarce, in comparison of that, deserves to be called knowledge. For as these bodies, so that knowledge must cease, that a more perfect may succeed. 'Knowledge shall vanish away. For we know in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.'t Marvel not therefore, Christian, how it can be 'life eternal to know God and Jesus Christ.' To enjoy God and Christ, is eternal life, and the soul's enjoying is in knowing. They that favour only of earth, and consult with flesh, think it a poor happiness to know God. But we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness; and we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know bim that is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.'§

§ 11.—The memory will not be idle, or useless, in this blessed work. From that height the saint can look behind him, and before him. And to compare past with present things, must needs raise in the blessed soul an inconceivable esteem and

Dan. iii. 25. 1 Cor. xiii. 8-12. Jahn xvii. 3. John v. 19, 20.

sense of its condition. To stand on that mount, whence we can see the wilderness and Canaan, both at once; to stand in heaven, and look back on earth, and weigh them together in the balance of a comparing sense and judgment, how must it needs transport the soul, and make it cry out, "Is this the purchase that cost so dear as the blood of Christ? No wonder. O blessed price! and thrice blessed love, that invented, and condescended! Is this the end of believing? Is this the end of the spirit's workings? Have the gales of grace blown me into such an harbour? Is it hither that Christ hath allured my soul? O blessed way, and thrice blessed end! Is this the glory which the scriptures spoke of, and ministers preached of so much? I see the gospel is indeed good tidings, even tidings of peace and good things, tidings of great joy to all nations! Is my mourning, my fasting, my sad humblings, my heavy walking, come to this? Is my praying, watching, fearing to offend, come to this? Are all my afflictions, Satan's temptations, the world's scorns and jeers come to this?-O vile nature, that resisted so much, and so long, such a blessing! Unworthy soul, is this the place thou camest so unwillingly to? Was duty wearisome? Was the world too good to lose? Didst thou stick at leaving all, denying all, and suffering any thing, for this? Wast thou loath to die, to come to this? O false heart, thou hadst almost betrayed me to eternal flames, and lost me this glo

ry

Art thou not now ashamed, my soul, that ever thou didst question that love which brought thee hither? That thou wast jealous of the faithfulness of thy Lord? That thou suspected his love, when thou shouldst only have suspected thy

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self? That ever thou didst quench a motion of his Spirit? And that thou shouldst misinterpret those providences, and repine at those ways which have such an end? Now thou art sufficiently convinced that thy Redeemer was saving thee, as well when he crossed thy desires as when he granted them; when he broke thy heart, as when he bound it up. No thanks to thee, unworthy self, for this received crown; but to Jehovah, and the Lamb, be glory forever."

§ 12. But, O the full, the near, the sweet enjoyment, is that love. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.* Now the poor soul complains, "O that I could love Christ more!" Then, thou canst not choose but love him. Now thou knowest little of his amiableness, and therefore lovest little: Then, thine eye will affect thy heart, and the continual viewing of that perfect beauty will keep thee in continual transports of love. Christians, doth it not now stir up your love, to remember all the experiences of his love! Doth not kindness melt you, and the sunshine of divine goodness warm your frozen hearts? What will it do then, when you shall live in love, and have all in him, who is all? Surely love is both work and wages. What a high favour, that God will give us leave to love him! That he will be embraced by those, who have em-braced lust and sin before him! But more than this, he returneth love for love; nay, a thousand times more. Christian, thou wilt be then brim-full of love; yet, love as much as thou canst, thou shalt be ten thousand times more beloved. Were the arms of the Son of God open upon the cross, and * 1 John iv. 16.