Watts - Houston-Packer Collection BX5207.W3 S4x 1805 v.1

SERM:'X 1 THE HIDDEN LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN. fgl unsparing hand all those treasures of life which were hid in God, and in the gospel for them. The All-wise- shall please himself in making so noble creatures, out of so mean materials, dust and ashes. Glorified saints are master-pieces of divine skill ; and the blessed original, or first exemplar of them, the man Jesus, is the perfec -., tion of the contrivance of God; here he has abounded in all wisdom, and prudence. Then the inhabitants of upper worlds shall see an illustrious and holy creation, rising out of the ruins of this wretched globe, involved all in guilt, and weltering in penal fire. When this scene opens: what sounding acclamations shall echo from world to world, and new universal honours be paid to Divine Wisdom ! The morning-stars shall sing toge- ther again, and those holy armies shout for joy. The grace of God descending to earth, in days past, had in some measure prepared his children for glory : But in that day he shall enlarge theircapacities, both of sense and of mind, to An inconceivable extent, änd shall fill the powers of their glorified nature with the fruits of his love, new and old. And what if the limits of our capacity shall be for ever stretching themselves on all sides, and for ever drinking iu..larger.measures ofglory : What, an astonishing state ofever-growing pleasure t What an eternal advance of our heaven ! The godhead is an infinite .ocean of life and blessedness, and finite vessels may be for ever swell- ing, and for ever filling in that sea of all-sufficiency. There must be no tiresome satiety in that everlasting en- tertainment. God shall create the joys ,of his saints ever fresh : He, shall throw open his endless stores of blessing, unknown even to the first rank of angels; and feast the ,sons and daughters of men with. pleasures a-kin to those which were prepared for the Son of God. For verily he took not upon him the nature of angels, but the likeness ofsinful flesh: And when he shall appear the second time without sin too our salvation, we Ball then be made-like him, for we shall see him as he is. Amen.

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=