29 NEARNESS TO GOD [SERM. X1. tages of this kind. The understanding is a noble faculty of our natures; truth is its proper food ; and truth, in all the boundless varieties and beauties of it, is the ob- ject of its pursuit, when it is refined from sensualities. This is the delight of the philosopher, to search all the hiddenwonders of nature, and pursue truth with a most pleasurable and restless fatigue : For this he climbs the heavens, traces the planetary and the starry worlds : For this he pries into the bowels of the earth, and sounds the depths of the ocean; and when, with immense toil of mind, he has found out some unknown natural , truth, how are all the powers of his soul charmed within him, and he exults, as it were, in a little paradise ! But the souls, who are admitted to draw nearest to God, contemplate. infinite truth in its original. They converse with that divine artificer, who spread abroad these curtains of heaven, who moulded this globe of earth, and furnished the upper and the lower worlds with all their admirable varieties. He is a God of glory and beauty in himself, as well as the author of all the beauties of nature. All his perfections, as well as his works, yield heavenly matter for contemplation: He eminently contains in himself all ,the amazing scenes of nature, and the more transporting wonders of the world of grace ; those mysteries wherein he has abounded in all wisdom and prudence: How the ruined sons of Adam were rescued from death, by the Son of God dying in their stead; how Satan was baffled in his most subtle designs, and the deepest policies of hell under- mined, when the prince of darkness destroyed his own kingdom, by persuading men to put the Son of God to death. What a divine pleasure is it to conversewith that wis- d'omwhich laid the eternal scheme of all thesewonders, and of ten thousand more unknown beauties in the transactions of providence and grace, with which the blessed minds above are feasted to satisfaction r And besides all these, God has 'reserved in hí`iìself :a hidden world ofnew scenes to open hereafter, and an everlast- ing profusion of'newwonders to display before the eyes of his favourites. Heaven is described by seeing God, . by beholding him face to face, and by knowing him in the way and manner inwhich we are known; 1 Cor. xiii.
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