love itself?

11. The soul is not perfectly happy until

it

rest, without interbeloved's love.

ruption, in the Well

Oh delightsome fire! what greater happiness than to burn here for evermore! Now we are for ever one; the days of heaven shall not put a period to this union: thou hast "set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm : for love is strong as death," Sol. Song viii. 6; the coals thereof would burn up hell itself. Nothing but full eternity, incessant enjoyment, will satiate this burning love. This is the place where love does bloom with an eternal verdure: no ups and downs, nor hidings of his face; no contending with time and days, because of their seeming lazy pace; nor with interposing clouds, lingering death, sin, and mortality: nothing but full enjoyment; I am as I would be; I see thy face to the full ; and therefore my happiness overflows the banks.

terest betwixt Christ

eternally sweet con

Thou art mine, my dearest Lord, 12. The mutual inand I am thine; I was thine from and his chosen is an eternity, and thou art become mine sideration. to eternity. Oh my large, wide, broad inheritance! thou art mine in full possession. Oh my happiness, my happiness! my loves overflow, my joys are in their spring-tide! "Even thou art mine, and thy desire is towards me." No wonder I am enraptured with thy bounty; but art thou with mine? Wast thou not at rest, until thou hadst brought me to these higher chambers of glory, that thou mightest be delighted for ever in my fellowship? What am I to thee? If there be any thing in me can draw one look from thee, it is thine, only thine, and not mine own. If the rays of this borrowed loveliness in me redound back upon thee, thou hast received but what is

thine own.

Beholdest thou loveliness in me, who am what I am only of thee? What boundless ocean of sweetness, what infinite worlds of beauty, are in thy matchless Self! many an excellent object have I seen, but thou hast drawn my heart from them all. I have found, I have seen him, who is only lovely: this fair One hath my heart for evermore. Choicest beauties of yesterday, were it possible for you to draw my affections in the least aside? I have tasted of creatures' sweetness, but they could not satisfy; shall it not be my endless exercise, incessantly to draw consolations from the lips that brought the joyful tidings of this boundless happiness? None but thee! if I love and delight in other beauties, it is as they are decked with thy loveliness; as they are emblems, shadows, and reflections of thee, who art " altogether lovely," Sol. Song v. 16: but thou art the substantial beauty, thou art the beauty! let innumerable millions of worlds of beauties stand round about thee, one ray of thy transcendency would eclipse them all. Beholders, can you tell what you see? Oh his beauty, his beauty! what more can be said, than that it infinitely transcends the conceptions of men and angels?

Other loves are but the picture and resemblance of love, to this sublime and noble love of Jesus: this is love indeed. Should I speak of flames? am I not entered in the ocean. The floods, the worlds of love! for "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him," 1 John iv. 16. Is not this a delightful habitation? what joy to think, This is my

eternal repose! I dwell in the midst of hot, burning flames, without harm, as in a bed of roses, and an orchard of delights.

reflecting on former

This is "the fulness of the stature 13. The glorified soul, of Christ." How capacious, to re-things, looks upon all ceive incessantly floods of love! as childish. before my soul was narrow; now it is larger than the heaven of heavens. Oh the outrunnings of my soul after thee! before they were small streams, now they are huge floods: small things are not now noticed; all our desires are now swallowed up. What is the moon when the sun appears? How massy, massy art thou, O love of Jesus! wouldst thou not downweigh innumerable worlds? Had I known, in the ten thousandth part, on earth, what now I know, the world would have imagined me quite beside myself: how wonderfully would I have spoken, written, and done! But, ah! how poorly and childishly did we speak of thee! What joy, that mortality is done away!

Though I behold thee, as thou art; yet am I ever supplied with

shall be ever going

less excellences of

14. Saints and angels forth into the matchnew matter of admiration. When their Wellbeloved. more ages are past than atoms in the creation, I shall not be able to express thine infinite excellence men and angels, when shall you dive so deep, as you may dive no further? Sirs, shall we not for ever speak of Him, of whom too much cannot be spoken? No injury is here done to the Father and blessed Spirit; their glory and excellence do visibly shine here; and do these eyes see God? Oh the mystery of godliness! men and angels, you are all astonished, God

visibly manifested! Oh wonder of wonders! is not thy name rightly termed, "Wonderful?" Oh my elevated thoughts! Oh eternity, eternity! thou shalt be filled with wondering: what glory shines in this Man's face! Thy countenance, Wellbeloved, hath a non-such majesty. The saints have the face of glorified creatures, and no more; but the majesty of thy countenance is altogether Divine. Oh perfection of loveliness! none, who see thee, will inquire, What art thou more than another beloved? Sol. Song v. 9. Thy face, my Well-beloved, is like the face of the Son of God; every smile is full of inexpressible joy: for " God, even, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows," Heb. i. 9. Is not this He, men and angels, whose " visage was more marred than any man's?" Isa. lii. 14; in whom the world saw no beauty or desirableness? Is not this He, whose face was spit upon by the filth and offscourings of men? Verily, Wellbeloved, though thou art "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," Heb. xiii. 8; yet appearest thou far changed from what thou appearedst on earth. Oh, but then thou didst strangely mask thy Divine beauty with the vail of mortality, which now thou hast done away, that thy glory may shine forth in its full splendour before thy chosen ! Oh thy stately majestic head, only worthy to be "crowned with glory and honour," Psa. viii. 5; to be exalted far above all creatures! Strange! this majestic head, that was once beset with a crown of thorns, is now surrounded with the brightness which carries in its bosom boundless

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joys. This was the joy that was set before him," Heb. xii. 2. Oh blessed we, that have such a Head! I praise thee, not because I am able to show forth thy worth fully; but strong love doth constrain me, that for ever I must be expressing, and for ever the conclusion must be, "Thou art altogether lovely;" for to thee alone doth this epithet appertain. Thou chiefest of

created excellences, can this agree to you? Art thou nothing but masses of pure, essential, and unmixed love? Who but he, even he alone, is altogether lovely? He is all love; nothing but loveliness in him! His weakness, infirmity, poverty, contempt, crosses, losses, pains, and death, flash forth the resplendencies of surpassing love and sweetness. Heart and love, and all is gone from me. Oh, the sublime thoughts of my elevated understanding! Oh, this frame! this love! this sweetness! all are unutterable; all are inexpressible!

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15. Even to stand beside the Chief of

ten thousand is a

dignity inconceiva

bly above the extures.

cellence of all crea

That we might be ever with thee, and behold thy glory," was one of thy great petitions, in the days of thy flesh. Thousand, thousand times blessed I, that ever this was asked! Thou didst ask nobly, and thy Father granted like a King. Can we have more than to dwell in thy immediate presence? Any enjoyment of thee, surpasses that of the flower of created sweetness: a sight of thee in a vision of the night, through a glass," or any way, is delightful, as I often have sweetly experienced, in the days of my pilgrimage: "To touch the hem of thy garment," or to see thee in thy infancy, was a

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