OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. 131 will be made meet for the present enjoyment of things, here at a distance and invisible. Love shall have its perfection also, and the least alteration in its manner of operation of ( any grace whatever. And there is nothing that should more excite us to labor after a growth in love to God in Christ, than this, that it shall to all eternity be the same in its nature and in all its operations, only both the one and the other will be made absolutely perfect. The soul will be by it enabled to cleave unto God unchangeably, with eter- nal delight, satisfaction, and complacency. Hope will be perfect in enjoyment, which is all the perfection it is capable of. So shall it be as to other graces. This subjective perfection of our natures, especially in all the faculties, powers, and affections of our souls, and, all their operations, belongs to our blessedness, nor can we be blessed without it. All the objective glory in heaven would not, in our beholding and en- joying of it, (if it were possible,) make us blessed and happy, if our own natures were not made perfect, freed from all disorder, irregular motions, and weak, imperfect operations. What is it then that must give our nature this subjective perfection ? It is that grace alone, whose beginnings we are here made partakers of; for therein consists the renovation of the image of God in us. And the immediate communication of that image to uu, is the absolute perfectionof our na- tures, the utmost which their capacity is suited to. And this gives us the last thing to be inquired into, namely, by what means inourselves we shall eternally abide in that state ! And this is by the unalterable ad- herence of our whole souls to God, in perfectlove and delight. This is that whereby alone the soul reacheth to the essence of God, and the infinite, ineomprehen-
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