BAXTER'S DTING THOUGHTS. 125 sue the leave for so high a. work ; but he commandeth my love, and maketh it my greatest duty. He inviteth and entreateth me, as if he were a gainer by my happiness. He seeketh to me, to seek to him ;. and as he is the first, so is he the most, earnest suitor. He is far readier to receive my love than I am to give it him. All the compassionate invitations which I have had from him here, by his word and, mercies, assure me that he will there re- ceive me readily: he that so valued my poor, cold, imperfect love to him on earth, will not reject my perfect love in heaven. He that made-it the great work of his Spirit to effect it, will not refuse it when it is made perfect by himself. And he is near to me, and not a distant God, out of my reach, and so unsuitable to my love, Blind unbelievers may dream that he is far off; but he is as near us, even now, as we are to ourselves. He is not far from any of us, for in him we live,and move, arid have our being. The light of the sun is not so near my eyes, as God will be forever to my mind. When he would sanctify us to love him, he bringeth us nigh to him in Christ. ` As we love ourselves easily, as being,' as they say, the nearest to ourselves, so we shall as easily love God as ourselves, when we see that he is as near us as we are to ourselves, as well as that he is infinitely more amiable in himself. ' And because of the imparity of the creature and the Creator, he bath provided such means to demonstrate to. us his nearness, as are necessary to the exercise of our love. -We shall see his glory, and taste, his love, in our glorified Mediator, and in the glory of the church and world. God will condescend to show himself to us according to our capacities -of beholding him. Here we see him in his works and word, and there we shall see him in the glory of all his perfect works. But this leadeth me 'to the second object of my love. ü. Under God, as I shall see, so I shall delightfully love, the glorious perfection of the universe, even the image of God in all the world ; as my leve will be my delight; so I shall, love best that which is best, and most delight in it: and the whole is better than any part; and there is a peculiar beauty and excellency in the whole world, as perfect, compaginato, harmonious, which is not to be found in any part, no, not in Christ himself, its man, nor in his church. The marvelous inclination that all things have to union, even the inanimates, might persuade me, if I felt it not certainly in myself, that 'it is most credible that man also shall have the like inclination, and such as is agreeable to the nature of his faculties ; and therefore' our love and delight in all things is that uniting 'in- clination in man.
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