God's love, wherein they will repose themselves with such a transport, as if they would lose themselves to be all one with him. Whosoever he be therefore that is insensible of all other charms, let him hearken to this, and see what pleasure can do to make him in love with this life of our Lord. Pleasure, I say, which all mankind most passionately desires, be it never so weak and imperfect: the light of all good things, which should we suppose separated from human life, it would be nothing but. darkness and horror. And if thou knowest not yet what spiritual delight means, let thy fleshly pleasures tell thee something of this happiness. If thou art not so sottish as never to have a thought of any thing beyond the satisfaction of thy fleshly lusts, think how much more noble a spirit and the pleasures of it are than a body and all its delights: and then raise up thy mind a little higher, to consider, that if pleasure have now such power over thee, here are the greatest to invite thee: pleasures that as much exceed those of the spirit as they do those of the flesh; pleasures at God's right hand; the very joy of the Most High, the Father of spirits; the pleasures of God himself. O come, come, if thou lovest thyself, and thy own perfect satisfaction, come, I say, whosoever thou art that eagerly followest after pleasure, to the contemplation of these joys which are so sublimely sweet and be content to part with all other, if that be the only means to be possessed of these. What if thou shouldst suffer by devoting thyself to pursue these in many outward accommodations, nay, if thou shouldst lose this life to attain that which is eternal? It will be no dear purchase, but bring thee in an increase of more than an hundred thousand fold. Whatsoever thou expendest here for the Lord Jesus, he hath given thee his bond for it, that it shall be repaid with good measure, heaped up, pressed down, thrust together, and running over into thy bosomb. An overflowing joy it will be, but it runs over into our own breasts. None of it will be spilt beside ourselves, but it will trickle down with a delicious sweetness into our own hearts: which should stir up our most thirsty desires, methinks, to be made partakers of it. If we foretaste the least drop of it in such meditations as these, it should fill our hearts with sharp

longings after more, and dispose us to say, with the devout father I named at the conclusion of the foregoing particular,

"Far be it from me, O Lord, far be it from the heart of thy servant, to think myself happy, whatsoever joy I have in this world. There is a joy which is not the portion of the wicked, but of those who serve thee freely; whose joy thou thyself art. And that is the truly happy life, to rejoice to thee, because of thee, for thee. This is it, and there is no other c."

"O how far distant is this present life from that! Here is falsehood, there is truth. Here is disturbance, there is sure possession. Here is the worst bitterness, there eternal love. Here dangerous pride, there secure joy and triumph. Here we fear lest he that is a friend should on a sudden turn an enemy there a friend is always constant, because no enemy can be admitted thither. Here, whatsoever good we have we are afraid to lose it: there, whatsoever we receive shall be preserved by him, who takes care that neither we pass away from it, nor it from us. Here is death, there is life. Here all things that God hath created; there God himself instead of all, and in all things.

"But what human tongue can extol that which no sense of mortals can comprehend? We will go thither, that we may comprehend it. We will go and see there that which eye hath not seen, and hear there that which ear hath not heard, and understand there what the heart of man cannot now conceive: and seeing, hearing and understanding, we shall exult with unspeakable joy. And what joy is that, where no fear will be! What kind of joy will it be, when thou shalt see thyself a companion of angels, a partaker of the kingdom of heaven, in royal state with the King of all, desiring nothing, in possession of all things, rich without covetousness, administering without money, judging without successor, reigning without fear of barbarians, living an eternal life without death d

c August. lib.x. Confess. cap. 22. [tom. i. col. 182 D.]

4 [Pseud. August.] Orat. contra

d!"

Judæos, Pagan. et Arrian. [al. de symbolo.] cap. xxi. [tom. viii. append. col. 19.]

CHAP. III.

A further explication of the happiness of this life.

IV.

We must stay, as I have said before, for the resolution of such questions, till we enter into that joy: and for the present be glad to know, that our souls being thus happily disposed, shining with a divine light, satisfied with the divine love, and rejoicing in both, must needs issue forth in the most cheerful and delightsome praises of God, who hath preferred us to such a blissful state. For this we all find is one of the natural effects of joy here in this life. As it transports and raises the soul above itself; as it makes us eager to possess, if it were possible, more of that good which gives such delight; and as it makes us for the present forget all other things, all the cares and troubles of this life; and, indeed, so much betters and improves our soul, that of all other things we are not willing to forego it so it never fails likewise to employ the tongue in praising and commending that good to which it owes itself. How barren soever the mind be, or what slowness soever there be in our tongues, joy and pleasure make us fruitful in thoughts, and quicken our speech to declare the content we take in the company of that which is the cause of it. Nay, the voice becomes bigger and louder by its means; and it never utters itself but with earnest notes of its high satisfaction. And therefore it is impossible for the ravished soul, when it is come to the delightful vision of God, to refrain from joining with the heavenly choir to give glory to God in the highest, that is, after the most excellent manner, and with the most exalted affections.

As the understanding, by reflecting upon the blessedness of the whole man, will excite an extraordinary joy in the heart, (as I have just now discoursed,) so by reflecting upon the fountain from whence that happiness flows, and earnestly observing the original of its enjoyments, it cannot but excite in itself admiration and wondering thoughts: and presently employ them to invent the noblest hymns and songs of praise, whereby to magnify and laud this glorious goodness of God.

And this will make still greater additions to the joy before spoken of, which must necessarily be intermixed with these most affectionate thanksgivings, as every one can witness who hath tried this heavenly employment, which the psalmist, in his experience, found so good, so pleasant, and so comelya.

Were all the mercies of but one day placed now in a clear view before your eyes, or could you but at once behold all the blessings that are crowded into every moment, what admiration would it raise up in your hearts! what a volume of praises would you be able to compose! and how much sweeter would this one act of lauding and praising God be, than the enjoyment of all the good things you praise him for! Raise up your minds then to conceive the height of those praises that will be continually springing and bubbling up from thankful hearts, and always filling their mouths; when they shall be able to shoot their thoughts down to the very bottom of their days, and see all the curious providences of God about them, all the favours they have enjoyed, and all the dangers they have escaped as they passed through the tumultuous sea of worldly affairs. O what hallelujahs will it create, when these shall be represented thick together, or stand at once before us! and when we shall not only look upon the past loving-kindnesses of God in one train of thoughts, but in the next behold all our present enjoyments, the quiet shore where we are landed, with the riches and pleasures of the heavenly country! and when we shall also think again of those that are still future, which are always beginning, and never ending, always present, and always to come! This sure will make the voice of praise more loud and shrill, and every note so sweet, that it will give the most grateful touch unto the heart.

Look upon the little birds, and hearken how they chirp and sing in the wide and spacious air, where they have no limits set to their liberty: and then think what a cheerful life they lead in comparison with one that is perpetually cooped up in a cage, and spends many lonesome days and melancholic nights in that solitude. And look again upon your own souls, which we think are capable of the highest pleasures; and cannot you conceive a little how delightful they will find it to be always

d Psalm cxlvii. 1.

singing in the vastest liberty and freedom; to be spreading their wings in the boundless light to which God will bring them; and to be uttering their joys, as they see themselves encompassed on all sides with innumerable objects of contentment? O how infinitely will it transcend all that they are capable of while they are imprisoned, or rather pinioned, in this body! though one moment of those joys which are sometimes felt here by holy souls is not to be exchanged for all that the world can offer in its stead.

And these songs will be made the more melodious by the company that shall join together in the most harmonious consort. All the saints and angels will make up but one happy choir; and will all strive, we may imagine, with an holy emulation to excel each other, and without any envy contend who shall sing the loudest and sweetest praises to our Creator and Redeemer. And what delight, may we conceive, will they take in the delicate strains of each other! How will they be pleased to hear their own voices accompanied with the hymns of so many celestial creatures! How will the whole number be even rapt out of themselves by the melting airs of the whole choir, when they all lift up their voices together, as those myriads of holy ones which St. John saw acknowledging the Lamb worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessinge, which, (as he says ver. 13,) all good Christians even in this world delight to ascribe unto him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever!

The pagans had some little sense of this pleasure, as we may learn from Metrodorus himself; who, though an Epicurean, yet in these words, as Clemens Alexandrinus observes, spoke divinely :-"Remember, O Menestratus, who art born mortal, and hast received a life which will have an end, that ascending with thy soul, even till thou comest to eternity and the infinity of things, thou shalt see both things to come, and things that have been. For, according to Plato, we shall contemplate with the happy choir μακαρίαν ὄψιν καὶ θέαν, “the blessed vision and spectacle' where we, attending upon Jupiter, and others upon other gods, shall be admitted, if it be lawful to speak it, to f Lib. v. Strom. p. 614. [p. 732. ed. Potter.]

e Rev. v. II.