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the third heaven, and had his ear opened to hear the Hosannas of the higher house, he says, he heard ineffable things, which it was not fit, proper, or becoming for a man to reveal, because the language of eternity cannot be adapted to the dialect of time.After all the pleasing and glorious metaphors used to represent eternal felicity, still there is a deficiency, though neither from the fulness of that felicity, nor the divine Relater, but from us who hear. Were the definition too refined, the relation too sublime, we should not be able to comprehend it. Therefore, things that make up the excellencies of this lower world, on which men fix their esteem, place their delight, and settle their affections, are chosen to adumbrate it. Hence it is called a kingdom, for there the King Eternal keeps his court; there majesty and honour, glory and renown, are before his face; there are vast dominion, noble privileges, sweet society, and mutual connexions. But as a kingdom is subject to anxiety and change, therefore it is called a crown of life, a crown of glory, that fadeth not away; an eternal day, where saints shine as suns; a royal palace, where there is unceasing harmony, and divine delight; an inheritance in light, and an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And as paradise, or the garden of God, was the sum of created perfection, whence the first Adam was driven, so the heavenly state is called paradise, being the place where the brightest display of uncreated glory is given, and whither the second Adam, Lord of all, as a public person, has entered. Gems, pearls, and precious stones, which men wear on their hands and heads, are but the metaphors of their streets and walls, which are far more excellent than those things

that shadow them out. What, then, must be the liberty, the privileges, the happiness of the inhabitants! But as death destroys all possessions, and darkens the brightest day, therefore this is a state of most permanent bliss, immortal life, eternal vigour, and perpetual bloom. But as to live alone is not consistent with complete happiness, or congruous to the human soul, that is not made to be alone; so in the better country there is an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose presence is fulness of joy, and at whose right-hand are pleasures for evermore. Rivers of living water, and the tree of life bending with fruits of paradise, set out the sufficiency, satisfaction, and redundancy of spiritual refreshment and delight that abound there.

But still, there is something in the blessed state above which supplies the soul with the fullest tides of serenest rapture, ecstacy, and joy, of which all these descriptions of felicity come infinitely short; and that is, vision and fruition of the Lamb, participation of the divine nature, living in and with God, and communion with Jehovah, screwed up to the highest pitch of divine intimacy, carried on through eternity in an uninterrupted out-going of the soul towards her supreme and chief good, and receiving the divine emanations of all his adorable perfections, breathed by the Holy Ghost into all the panting, enlarging affections, and powers of the sanctified soul! But what this is, who can tell? How shall finite and infinite meet? Will God in very deed dwell with man and in man? Shall man in very deed dwell in and with God? Shall a finite spirit have communion with the Father of spirits? Oh! what remains to be revealed in that

exalted state, which has not yet entered into the heart of man! Prepare, my soul, prepare for that felicity to come which is sufficient to satisfy with transport and delight ten thousand heavens of seraphim, much more my shallow mind.

MEDITATION XLIII.

PHILOSOPHY.

Spithead, May 27, 1758.

TRULY philosophy is a study much commended,

and deserves it in its various branches. Where the works of nature are narrowly surveyed, they fill the mind with wonder and delight, and prove that their Creator must be God.

O! says one, how the study of astronomy exalts the soul! And then he expatiates on the starry heavens, or firmament of suns, with their dependent planets, or worlds unseen, and carries on his fruitful theme, till his lectures have filled the extension of space with spacious habitations for intelligent, though unintelligible beings. But, to leave the philosopher to his own conceits, true or false, there is a study which as far excels it, as it excels the ignorance of the illiterate rustic; and rises infinitely higher in the object of its wonder, and subjects of its inquiry; and this is, the sacred study of religion, which is the wisdom that as far excelleth, not only folly, but philosophy, as light excelleth darkness. The philosopher's themes are high in comparison of him who is only amused with mean, low, sordid, and selfish things

(and if not our highest themes, they are allowable ;) but how low and grovelling, in comparison of divine perfections, which entrance the meditant, and transform the student. The philosopher, not content with the earth to circumscribe his studies, grasps at the extended heavens; but the Christian, content with neither, seeks after him whose throne is higher than the heavens; "Whom or what have I on earth but thee? whom or what have I in heaven but thee alone, O Lord ?"

Philosophy describes created light; but religion leads us to the Father of more excellent lights, and super-eminent glories. Astronomy struggles with the laws of the stars, disclosing to us the wonders of the sky; but divinity brings us beyond them, to him who counts their number, calls them by their names, and holds them in his hand. This explains the labour of his hand, that explores the love of his heart. The one leads us to see the palace, the other to behold him who dwells in the heaven of heavens, in eternity unknown. Let the philosopher dwell all his days upon the solar beam, its vivifying and fructifying influences, its quick transition to our earth, its curious intermixture of colours, while nothing is discernible but light; I say, though he should spend all his time on these studies, yet it shall never alter his countenance, or give a visible external lustre thereto; but Moses, when only forty days in the mount with God, receives such a stamp of divinity on his soul, and such a tinge of the celestial beauty on his countenance, that the skin of his face did shine. Nor was this Moses' privilege alone, but is the privilege of every saint in every age: "We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are

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changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." An holy life, or communion with God, not only changes their appearances, but the place of their abode; for though the earthly philosopher remains still below, yet the spiritual philosopher translates his seat above, dwells on high, has his conversation in heaven; yea dwells in love, and therefore'dwells in God, for God is love.

Thus the pious soul, who dwells alone, and is not reckoned among the sensible or polite part of the people, may improve to a miracle in divine knowledge, while the most penetrating philosopher, unless skilled in this, must leave his studies in the midst, that have amused the more knowing part of mankind, and at his end shall be a fool.-While others increase in knowledge, may I increase in love. And while they arrange the stars into their several houses, may I be taken up about the bright, the morning Star.Let them describe the heavens, and all their signs; I will, with the boldness of faith, draw near to him, who spreadeth them as a curtain, and stretcheth them out as a tent to dwell in. While they see a thousand beauties in the sky, "which is strong, and as a molten looking-glass," I will fix the eye of my soul on a more glorious looking-glass, the face of Jesus, and there see brighter displays of much diviner glory.Let the sun be the subject of their theme, as well as the centre of their system; but I will adore the Sun of Righteousness, whose beams outshine created lights, and illuminate benighted souls, though the bright lamp of day could never pierce the eyes of one born blind. Choose you the worlds unknown for your studies, I will choose the world to come for my meditation,

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