BAITER'S DYING TIHOUGHTS. 175 me forever? Be not so unthankful, O my soul, as to question, doubtingly, whether thy heavenly Father, and thy Lord, doth love thee. Canst thou forget the sealed testimonies of it? Did I not even now repeat so many as should shame my doubts ? A multitude of thy friends have loved thee so entirely, that thou canst not doubt of it; and did any of them signify their love with the convincing evidence that God bath done ? Have they done for thee what he hath done ? Are they love itself? Is their love so full, so firm, and so unchangeable, as his? My thoughts of heaven are the sweeter, because abundance of my ancient, lovely, and loving holy friends are there ; and I am the willinger, by death, to follow them. And should I not think of it more pleas- edly because my God and Father, my Savior, and my Comforter, is there? And net alone, but with all the society of love. Was not Lazarus.in the bosom of God himself? Yet it is said that he was in Abraham's bosom; as the promise runs, that we shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God.' And what maketh the societyof the saints so sweet as holy love ? It is comfortable to read, that " to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and might," is the first and great command- ment ; and the second is like to it, 0° to love our neighbor as our- selves." For God's commands proceed from that will which is his nature, or essence, and they tend to the same as their objective end. Therefore, be that bath made love the great command, doth tell us that love is the great conception of his'own essence, the spring of that command; and that this commanded, imperfect love loth tend sto perfect, heavenly love, even to our communion with essential,infinite..love. It were strange, that the love and goodness which is equal to the power that made the world, and the wisdom that ordereth it, should be scant and backward to do good, and to be suspected more than the love of friends ! The re- membrance of the holiness, humility, love, and faithfulness, of my dearest friends of every rank, with whom I have conversed on earth, in every place where I have lived, is so sweet to me, that I am oft ready to recreate myself with the naming of such as are now with Christ. But in heaven they will love me better than they did on earth; and my love to them will be more pleasant. But all these sparks are little to the sun. Every place that I have lived in was a place of divine love, which there set up its obliging monuments. Every year and hour ofmy life bathkeen a timeof love; every friend, and every neigh- bor, yea, every enemy, have been the messengers and instruments of love ; every state and change of my life, notwithstanding my sin, bath opened to me treasures and mysteries of love. And af- ter such a life of love, shall I doubt whether the same God do love
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