250 CONTEMPLATION [Chap. 16. Ever so unworthy, you must be crowned. Thiswas the pro- ject of free redeeming grace, the purpose of eternal love. O. blessed grace ! O blessed love ! O how love and joy will rise ! But I cannot express it, I cannot conceive it. 5. " This is that joy which was procured by sorrow, that crown which was procured by the cross. My Lord wept, that now my tears might be wiped away ; he bled, that I might now rejoice ; he was forsaken, that I might not now be forsook ; he then died, that I might now live. O free mercy, that can exalt so vile a wretch ! Free to me, though dear to Christ ! Free grace, that hath chosen me, when thousands were forsaken ! When my companions in sin must burn in hell, I must here rejoice in rest! Here must I live with all these saints ! O comfortable meetingof my old acquaintance, with whom I prayed, and wept, and suffered, and spoke often of this day and place ! I see the grave could not detain you : the same love hath redeemed and saved you also. 6. " This is not like our cottages of clay, our prisons, our earthlydwellings. This voice ofjoy is not like our old com- plaints, our impatient groans and sighs ; nor this melodious praise like the scoffs and revilings, or the oaths and curses, which we heard on earth. This body is not like that wehad, nor this soul like the soul we had, nor this life like the life we lived. We have changed our place and state, our clothes and thoughts, our looks, language, and company. Before, a saint was weak and despised ; so proud and peevish, we could often scarce discern his graces ; but now, how glorious a thing is a saint ! Where is now their body of sin, which wearied themselves and those about them ? Where are now our different judgments, reproachful names, divided spirits, exasperated passions, strange looks, uncha- ritable censures ? Nowwe are all of one judgment, of one name, of one heart, house and glory. O sweet reconciliation ! Happy union ! Now the Gospel shall no more be dishonored through our folly. No more, my soul, shalt thou lament the sufferings of the saints, or the church's ruins ; nor mourn thy suffering friends, nor weep over their dying beds, or their graves. Thou shalt never suffer thy old temptations from Satan, the world, or thy own flesh. Thy pains and sickness are all cured ; thy body shall no more burden thee with weakness and weariness ; thy aching head and heart, thy
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