166 BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. will yet praise thee more and more ; my mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and salvation; Psalm lxxi. 14, 15. The Lord is at my right hand; I shall not be moved. My heart, therefore, is glad, and my glory rejoiceth ; my flesh also shall dwell confident- ly, and rest in hope ; .for God bath showed me the path of life : in his presence is fullness ofjoy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore ; Psalm xvi. 8-11. III. What then remaineth, O my soul, but that, in trust and hope, thou love thy God, thy Savior, thy Comforter, the glorious society, thy own perfection in glorious, endless, heavenly life, and light, and love, and the joyful praises of Jehovah, better than this burden of painful and corruptible flesh, and this howling wilder- ness, the habitation of serpents and untamed brutes, where unbe- lief and murmuring, lust and folly, injustice and uncharitableness, tyranny and divisions, pride and contention, have long provoked God, and wearied thee ! Where the vintage and harvest is thorns and thistles, sin and sorrows, cares and crosses, manured by mani- fold temptation. How odious is that darkness and unbelief, that unholiness and disaffection, that . deadness and stupidity, which maketh such a-work as this, so reasonable, necessary, and pleasant a work, to seem unsuitable br hard? It is unsuitable or hard to the eye to see the sun and light ; or by it to see the beautiful world ? or for a man to love his life or health, his father, or his friend ? What should be easier to a nature that bath rational love, than to love him that is essential love itself? He that loveth all, and giveth to all the loving faculty, shouldbe loved by all ; and he that hath specially loved me, should be specially loved byme. Love is the perfection of all thy preparations. It desireth to please God, and therefore to be in the most pleasing state, and freed from all that is displeasing to him, which is not isbe hoped for on earth. It desireth all suitable nearness, acquaintance, union, and communion. It is weary of distance, estrangedness, and alien society and affairs. It taketh advantage of every notice, intima- tion, or mention of God, to renew and exercise these desires. Ev- ery message and mercy from him is fuel for love, and, while we are short of perfection, stir up our desires after more. When love tasteth of the grapes, it would have the vine. When it tasteth of the fruits, it would dwell where they grow, and' possess the land. Its thoughts of proximity and fruition are sweet ; no other person or thing can satisfy it. The soul is where it loveth. If our friend dwell in our hearts by love, and if fleshly pleasure, riches, and honor, do dwell in the heart of the voluptuous, the covetous, and the proud, surelyGod and our Redeemer, the heavenly socie- ty, holiness, and glory, do dwell in the heart which loveth them with a fervent love. And if heaven dwell in my heart, shall I not
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