48. The work of salvation, a never enough admired de. the things of God: for he giveth not the Spirit by measure unto thee, John iii. 34. Oh how great is the mystery of godliness! "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory," 1 Tim. iii. 16. If this was wonderful in time, is it not ten thousand times more now, when the bright day of eternity has broken up? If a sight of this, by faith, was rapturous, have I not now passed all the limits of such emotions? Oh this frame ! Oh glory, glory! thou art massy indeed! Immortality, glory, praise, and dominion to the Highest, that ever it pleased him thus to communicate sign. himself to men and angels; that ever he purposed in himself to give unto us the eternal Son of his delights, as our everlasting Daysman, Redeemer, Husband, Head, Lord, and all things. To have enjoyed thee, according to the first dispensation, had been unspeakable happiness; but to be chosen in Christ, is overflowing happiness! Oh! were we predestinated to be conformed to the image of thy Son, which in time was begun, and now is perfected? Any tincture of thee, O Wellbeloved, any perfume of thy garments, is passing glorious and excellent. Oh then, thousand times blessed I who am clothed with the robes of thy righteousness, the garments of thy beauty; who am satisfied with thy likeness, filled with thy sweetness, adorned with thy loveliness, decked with thy graces. I am like thee! I am like thee! here is all my happiness. This, thy image, was begun in me, in time; and now thou hast M brought it to the high bloom and perfection. What surpassing joys! to think how thou hast made me grow up, from my childhood, to this manly constitution! how hast thou been making me grow up, until thou transplantedst me from thy lower garden of grace, to thy higher paradise of glory! Once I was a small shrub, scarcely discernible from the base thorns and briars that overgrew the earth: but now I am, through thy infinite excellence, a mighty and flourishing cedar in this higher Lebanon. Strange! how thou hast brought me to this glorious condition; and still from lesser to greater, until I have arrived at perfection. Is it not most evident, that "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day?" Prov. iv. 18. Though our beginning was small, yet our latter end is greatly increased: our beginning was full of ignorance and infirmity; now our age is clearer than the noon-day. We shine forth as the morning; thou hast brought forth our righteousness as the light, and our judgment as the noon-day, Psa. xxxvii. 6. And thus hath been thy way, in all thy proceedings. How small was thy church in the beginning! how few in number among the numerous multitude of mankind! Yet, how didst thou increase and multiply her, as the sand on the sea-shore, in despite of devils and wicked men! And ap pearedst thou not, O Wellbeloved, as a small "stone cut out without hands?" Dan. ii. 34: and yet hast become great, and filled all. Thou showedst thyself, at thy first manifestation in the flesh, unto the sons of men, in "the form of a servant," Phil. ii. 7; so that thou wast of no reputation in the eyes of a stupid world, who are only affected with external shows. How didst thou make thy gospel to go through the world, without any earthly pomp or observation! so that the wise men of the world, for a long time, did little notice it; yet did thy name break forth before all nations: the whole world spake of thy glory. It had been a light thing, that thou shouldst only have "raised up the tribes of Jacob:" but thy God did also give thee for " a light to the Gentiles," that thou mightest be his "salvation unto the end of the earth," Isa. xlix. 6. When darkness did " cover the earth, and gross darkness the people," thou filledst them with thy glory, and madest "the place of thy feet glorious;" for the Lord sent "the rod of thy strength out of Zion," and caused thee to rule in the midst of thine enemies ;" and made people willing in the day of thy power;" and at thy right hand did "strike through kings in the day of his wrath;" thou judgedst "among the heathen;" thou filledst "the places with the dead bodies;" thou woundedst "the heads over many countries," Isa. lx. 2, 13; Psa. cx. 2, 3, 5, 6. How vain has the judgment of worldlings proved, who despised the seeds of glory, sown in the hearts of the chosen! they considered not the noon-day brightness succeeding the dawning. Fools! they were only taken with what filled the external senses: transitory glory was a dying blaze. It is gone, eternally gone! the bastard's portion did flourish, and seemed to eclipse the children's for a moment; because it was then the bastard's 66 66 thy : harvest, but the children's seed-time: because thou wouldst show thou couldst lead thy chosen in their weak and childish estate into this kingdom, through fighting, and wrestling, and great opposition of all kinds: whereby our eternal song is drawn up higher, in exalting thy wonderful providence, in bringing us to glory. What astonishing things do I behold, concerning my pilgrimage, which then I could not perceive! Oh time, time! thou fillest eternity with admiration. Wonderful! thou broughtest us not hither at the first production of our beings and was an inch of time a prelude to eternity? did a moment's fighting usher in an eternal triumphing? a life of faith, a life of beholding? a short intercourse, an eternal and full enjoyment? Oh wonderful! Oh sweet dispensation! Oh pleasant conspiration of diverse providences, and all linked together in the most comely order! What an excellent connexion between time and eternity! what joy, to be viewing them both at once, and comparing them together! It is wonderful! to consider the difference betwixt the workings of thy Spirit upon me now, and then, together! was it not the day-star that arose then in my heart? now all is fully illuminated. I am placed under the full rays of thy glory. How is this being of mine filled with thy Divine nature! All is perfected! Oh my elevated faculties! all my accomplishments, in time, are so perfected, as they are swallowed up; and so may be said to be done away, as a small drop, by the approach of a vast ocean. What higher happiness, than thus to resemble thee, O fulness of all happiness! Oh ever flourishing estate of joys! every moment is a golden life, every day is ten thousand heavens of blessedness. 66 66 This is the day of our King's 49. Our blessedness, one eternal tri You espousals," and the day of the umph. gladness of his heart :" this is the day we longed, prayed, sighed, wept, and wrestled for: and may not every minute obliterate millions of millions of ages of sorrow and tormenting labour? This is the day wherein it is ever morn, ever noon-day; but never a declining shade. sorrows, you griefs, you labours, you cannot enter this thrice blessed "day of eternity!" it is our marriage-day," the day of the gladness of our hearts. No nights, weeks, months, or ages; all is after the same-eternity is but one day; the day of the great consummation of the match betwixt our glorious "Bridegroom" and us. In time we were betrothed unto him, by the mediation of his ambassadors, and there passed tokens, as a seal of the willingness of parties; and such were sufficient until the full accomplishment. Now, oh now! are we met together, in this majestic "marriage-hall of glory," prepared for the solemnizing of this eternal marriage. All are now in the "marriage robes." Attendants of the Bridegroom, you are majestically arrayed, as it well becomes the ministers of so magnificent a Prince. Oh how does the Father of the Prince, the Bridegroom, appear in his glory and majesty! what wonderful manifestations of JEHOVAH are here! and how is the Bridegroom adorned! O my Head and Husband, how hast thou arrayed thyself in thy royal and gorgeous apparel! thou |