28 THE NATURE O1 whilst thou hangest on God by faith, , neither sin, earth, nor hell, can move thee.. Christ will stick closer to thee than a brother, and he is above all enemies, "with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning. "(o) His love to thee will not be, as thine was on earth to him, seldom and cold, up and down. He that would not cease nor abate his love, for all thine enmity, un- kind neglects, and churlish resistances; can he cease to love thee, when he bath made thee truly lovely ? He that keepeth thee so constant in, thy love to him, that thou canst challenge "tribulation, distress, perse- cution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword, to separate thy love from Christ," how much more will himself be constant.( p) Indeed thou màyest be persuaded, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princi- palities, nor powers, nor things present, _ilor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. "(q) And now, are we not left in the apostle's admiration, What shall we say to these things ?f) Infinite love must needs be a mystery to a finite capacity. No wonder angels - desire to look into this mystery.(s) And if it be the study of saint's here, "to know the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, "(t) the saint's everlasting rest must consist in the enjoyment of God by love. 13. Nor bath joy the least share in this fruition. It is that, which all the former lead to, and con - elude in ; even the inconceivable complacency which the blessed feel in their seeing, knowing, loving, and being beloved of God. This is the " white stone, which no man knoweth, saving he that receivethit."(u) Surely this is the joy which " a stranger doth not intermeddle with. "(,e) All Christ's ways of mercy tend to and-end in the saint's joys. He wept, sorrowed, suffered that they might rejoice ; he sendeth the Spirit to be (o) James i. 17. (p) Rom. viii. 35. (q) Rom. viii, 38, 39, (r) Rom. viii. 31. (8) 1 Peter i. 12. (t) Ephes, iii.. 18. 19. (u) hev. ii.'17. (w) Prov. xiv. 10.
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