Book IIL of J £ s u s C H R I s T. xi i

Chap. XXXIX.
The Happinefs of them who love God.
Difcifk.']T N having God, I have all things. For A whom can I ha've in Heazfen hut prj^ Ixxiii. Thee^ and what is there upon Earth that I can dejire in comfarifon of Thee ? Oh fweet and COmfortr^- ble Words ! But this is a Sweetnefs, which none c:in tafte, but they who love the Word of God , and .not theJVorUy neither the Things that he in the i John 2,1s. World. My God to me is All ^ I need add no more. The Men of purified Underftandings l5nd this enough^ and they of purified and heavenly AiFe- dions cannot repeat it too often. When thou art prefent, Afflidion and Death are pleafant ; fo r in thy Favour is Life and Joy. When thou art abftint. Life it felf is a Burden ^ for thy Difpleafure is worfe than Death. Thou makeft a merry Heart, a cheer- ful Countenance, in Thee isabundance of Peace,and a continual Feaft. Thou giveft me right Notions of all Events, and rendrelt every Accident a Matter of Joy and Praife to me : >Vithout thee Profperity it felf is naufeous,and I loach my very Mercies. For nothiing here below can pleafe our Palcue, uniefs thy Fa v our and Wifdom give it a grateful Relifli. To him that feeds delightfully on thee, every bitter Morfel is fweet ; but they who want or flight that heave nly Entertainment, find the moft delicious Dainties h:irfli and bitter.
They, who are wife for the World and the Fl^fli, are moft defective in the true and heavenly Wifdom. The Carnal Wifdom ends in Guilt and Death, and the worldly Wifdom purfues Vanity and empty Poi up. But they,who are wife indeed, conform themfelves to thy Example, by a Contempt of all earthly Greatn efs,
;ind
^l^ jflPf t^e imitation BaokiiL
and a vigorous Mortification of their fenfual Appetites and Paffions { they dJfdain the Shadow, and lay hold on the Subftance ; pafs from FalOiood to Truth , and from Body to Spirit. Thefe are the Men, who love and delight in God ; and find no Satisfa(5tion in the Creatures, farther than as they promote the Honour, and ferve the Purpofes, of the great Creator. The Joys they minifter are fubordinate and limited : Not inherent and natural, but by refledion only ,-and eve^ ry thing is eiteemed in proportion, as it tends to its Meeker's Ufe and Praife. So very unlike, fo infinitely dift'erent is the Pleafure we feel from the Creator and the Creature, from the boundlefs Ocean of Eternity^ and the narrow Trad of Tims ; from the original Self*exi(tent Light, and thofe faint Beams fliot down on nhings here below.
Shine then, O Light everlafting! in comparlfon whereof, all created Lights are but a lefs degree of Darknefs. Convey thy felf into my benighted Soul^ purge and difpel the Clouds of Error there, purify my polluted AfFedions, cheer my Sadnefs, enliven my liupid Mind and all its Faculties ; that I may rejoyce and triumph, and bask in thy bright Beams. O ! when will that happy, that long-wifh'd for Hour approach, when I fhall be filled with thy Luftre , and fatisfied with thy prefence, and my God be my All in all.^ For,, fure I am, till that blefs'd Time, my Joysmuftbe im- perfea. I feel, alas ! I feel and lament in my felf, fome remains of the Old Man ftill. Scourged he is, but not entirely Crucified • Wounded and Bruifed ; but not quite Dead. My Flefii, in defpight of all my painfulLabours, continues toluft againfttheSptritjand a domeftick War diftrads and breaks the Peace and good Government of my Mind. This cannot exereife its juft Dominion without perpetual Broils and tumul^ tuous Infurredions. But, O thou, Ti^ho Ru^ Pfallxvi. left the Razing: of tht Sea, and jfillefi the