216 THE SCALE'0F ÉLESSEDNESS. [SERT. X!T. earth, and to bring them down to our ideas by material similitudes our Lord Jesus, who is-authorized to confer life and,joy on the saints, and through whom all grace; glory, and blessedness, are conveyed to them, feels, and tastes, and relishes, eminently and in a superior man - ner, all the joy and the blessedness that he conveys to our souls ; and all better than we can do, for he is nearer the fountain ; he takes a divine and unknown satisfaction hi every blessing which he communicates to us. Besides all this, there are some richer streams that terminate and end in hiinsèlf; the peculiar privileges and pleasures of the good man, while others flow through him, as the. head, down to all his members, and give him the first relish of their sweetness. When Christ, at :the head of all the elect saints, shall at the great day draw near to the Father, and say, " Here am I, and the children thou hast given me; those blessed ones whom thou hast chosen, that they may approach unto thee -by me; I have' often approached to thee for them, and 'behold I now approach with them to the courts of thy upper house." What .manner of joy and glory shall this be ! Ilow unspeakablyblessed is our Lord Jesus; and we rejoice with wonder! [This sermon may be divided here.] Fifth, or supreme degree of BLESSEDNESS. V. Our admiration may be raised yet higher, if we make one excursion beyond created nature, and lift our thoughts upward to the blessedness' of the three glorious persons in the trinity.* All their infinite and unknown pleasures are derived from their ineffable union and communion in one godhead, their inconceivable near- ness to each other is the very centre and spring of all fe- licity. They are inseparably and intimately one with God ; they are eternally one God, and therefore eter- nally blessed ; 3 John v. 7. For there' are three that bare record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one; which text I be- lieve to be authentic and divine, and that upon just rea- sons, notwithstanding all the cavils and criticisms, that have_endeavoured to blot it out of the bible. Nor is their blessedness, or their nearness, a dull un- See the marginal note toward the end ofthis part of the sermon, p. 221. 4
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