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GLIMPSE OF GLORY.

THOU, Lord, the glory and beauty 1. Invocation, of the higher paradise, fulfil thy promise upon me, in letting me see thee in thy beauty, "and that land that is very far off," Isa. xxxiii. 17. A discovery of thine excellency, a taste of thy sweetness, should cause me to overlook all sublunary things should enable my glory to proclaim thine aloud before the sons of men. Let thy strength appear in weakness; thou canst perfect glory and praise by babes, and nothings; get thyself glory, and I have all I can desire.

All joys! am I not exalted on the 2. Admiration. high places of the earth? Wonderful! what strange things are these? "What hath GOD done?" Shall I write, or shall I not? What avails earth's idiom here, which falleth short in the full expression of earthly things? Shall I not debase my Lord's glory, if I endeavour to represent it by the low, base, and childish expressions of earth's idiom? But since our condescending Lord is pleased, in borrowed terms, to express these inexpressible enjoyments, which neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor

the heart of man conceived," 1 Cor. ii. 9; we will follow his footsteps; being certain, though our expressions reach not the brim of that ocean, yet they may surpass most men's esteem of it. May we not, then, in borrowed speeches and dark emblems, delineate "the glory of his kingdom," the excellency of his person, and "the riches of his inheritance in the saints in light, until we come unto the fulness of the stature of Christ," when we shall "see" and express "him as he is?” Eph. i. 18; iv. 13; 1 John iii. 2.

3. The soul must

Now, my soul, thou art got up to be elevated on the the top of this sublime and majestic

wings of heavenly

meditation, before

it get a sight of the mountain, overlooking the celestial promised land. Canaan. Ah, my senses are not celestial! yet do the things I see and hear fill me with "joy unspeakable, and full of glory," 1 Pet. i. 8: I cannot tell what my faculties are filled with. Words are narrow for such high and wide things. But should we not express these things according to our measure?

mortals, than un

derstood.

4. Glory is rather I am quite amazed, confounded, to be admired by and enraptured at once. Oh eternal dwelling-place of blessed men and angels; and of the Man infinitely more excellent than all! How am I affected with thy various beauty, excellent glory, and delightsome sweetness! What appearest thou now, O lower world! Thou art the dunghill; this the palace-royal thou art the foot-stool; this the throne. Were the curtains betwixt the higher and lower worlds drawn aside, all lower glories would disappear; all glories are here, and only here this is the world. Where shall we find

emblems anywhere else, sufficient to represent, in the thousand thousandth part or property, one of the infinite beauties, various glories, admirable excellences, transcendent virtues, wherewith this land is stored? Verily, it is a large land indeed, like a confluence of an infinite number of worlds. O my Lord, thy report was true, “In my Father's house are many mansions," John iv. 2. The earth is nothing to the visible heavens, and the visible to the invisible. Oh vast land! are they not shallow fools, who boast themselves of shovelfuls of earth! But worms are much taken up with dunghills. Nothing below this narrow vault of the visible heavens, can bound the outgoings of capacious and sublime spirits.

5. We may ima

gine, in this our

childhood, child

ishly; and so con

ceive of glory in a metaphoric way.

And oh the beauty and sweetness wherewith this blessed land is adorned! Earth, in its May clothing, with its various beauties, appeared somewhat delightsome before; but all former apprehensions are swallowed up; all the senses and faculties are lost in the endless maze of infinite varieties of beauties and excellences. Are not the

eyes almost ravished from their proper orbs, by the strong attractive virtue of heavenly objects? Are they not dazzled and confounded? What varieties! what glories! what numberless numbers! every object is enough to allure: but the combination of them all cannot be told. How are the ears charmed with numberless variety of melodious raptures! How do incessant and full gales of odoriferous exhalations perfume and fill with sweetness! What shall I say? Am I not nonplussed here? Lo, all beauties, both material and immaterial,

here! all things are here in an eminent manner. O mighty God, this world is a masterpiece of thy power, wisdom, and goodness, indeed! Did I never see more of thy wonderful attributes, than is imprinted on this golden world, should I not be filled with an eternal rapture? Heaven is a land befitting the inhabitants: all things bloom and flourish with an eternal and glorious verdure, seeming, as it were, all to outbrave one another in wonderful beauty and excellency; what would an earthly paradise appear here? Shall we speak of gold and gems, trampled upon by beasts? Sure the sun in its strength would blush to let forth its rays on so beautiful a place; the least stone here would look him out of countenance. Nothing in the lower world, which is not here; and nothing here, which is to be seen in the lower world. If we speak any thing in earthly idiom, it must be in perfect contradictions: all is covered over with all varieties of beds of lilies, and roses, and dropping sweet-smelling myrrh; everywhere the vines flourish, the mandrakes send forth an odoriferous exhalation, the pomegranates bud, the grapes and all fruit hang in goodly order; all is an orchard, every place is the sunny side of the hill, and also a pleasant shadow; every place is filled with odoriferous gales; and yet there is nothing but one sweet and endless calm: the winds that blow here are like vital and animal spirits. Are they not these heart-refreshing and soul-rejoicing breathings of the Spirit of life? All are planted with trees, every one of which doth specifically differ from one another, and bears every month, every hour

every minute, ten thousand kinds of fruits; and every fruit contains ten thousand qualities; and every quality ten thousand virtues; and every virtue ten thousand delights; and every delight is enough to confound myriads of worlds of men and angels. All things send forth melodious notes, odoriferous perfumes, and what may charm thousands of senses, differing specifically from one another. All things here do more than contain all the virtues and excellences of sun, moon, and stars. Oh, what every thing is! how inconceivable, and beyond imagination! This world is all things; it is a palace, also it is a glorious and stately city, decked with the glory and comeliness of her Builder; whose light is "like unto a stone most precious;" whose walls are high, and beautified with "twelve gates; and at the gates are twelve angels. The figure of this city is foursquare, its circuit twelve thousand furlongs, and the height of the wall an hundred and forty-four cubits; the building thereof is of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as it were transparent glass," Rev. xxi. 11-18. If the foundations thereof be of pearl, the houses, streets, and walls of gold, what must the deckings of the houses be! If the ordinary stuff exceed the price of the diamond, who can weigh our most noble jewel of the "New Jerusalem?" Sure all the excellence of this lower universe would be of no reckoning here; yea, many worlds are not to be valued. Must not this be a glorious and delightsome city, which is immediately enlightened with the uncreated glory of JEHOVAH, and the Lamb? "All the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it,"

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