SEAM. XII.1 THE SCALE OF BLESSEDNESS. 217 active state; hnowledge and mutual love make up their heaven, so far as mortals dare conceive of it,. and so far as we have leave to speak Of God after the manner of men. first, Knowledge. An eternal blissful contemplation of all the infinite beauties, powers, and properties of godhead, and of all the operations of these powers in an inconceivable variety among creatures, is theglorious employment of God. IIis own knowledge of infinite truths, whether wrapt up in his own nature, or unfolded . anddisplayed in his works, is a pleasure- becoming the Deity ; and each sacred person possesses this unknown pleasure. And besides the general glories of the divine nature, we may suppose, that a full and comprehensive know- ledge of the sameness, the difference, the special pro- perties, and the mutual relations of the three divine per - sons, whichare Utterly incomprehensible to mortals, and perhaps far above the reach of all created minds, is the incommunicable entertainment of the holy Trinity, and makes a part of their blessedness. In reference to this mystery, God may be said to dwell in thick darkness; 1 Kingsviii. 12. or, which is all one, in light inacces- sible; 1 Tim. vi. 16. We are lost in this glorious, this divine abyss, and overcome with dazzling confusion: Nit the ever- blessed Three behold these unities and dis- tinctions in the clearest light. As the Father knorcth me, so know I the Father, saith Jesus the eternal Son, Jahn x. 15. And as the spirit of a man knoweth the things of a man, so the things of God are known to his own Spirit, for he searcheth the depths of God, i Cor. ii. 10, 11. as it is expressed in the original. But God's contemplation, or knowledge of himself, is not his only pleasure, for God is live, 1 John iv. 8. He has an infinite propensity towards himself; and an incon- ceivable complacence in his own powers and perfections, as well as in all tlhe outgoings of them toward created natures. His love being most wise and perfect, mist exert itself toward the Most perfect object, and the thief- est good; and that in a degree answerable to its good- ness too; Therefore he can love nothing in the same de- greewith himself, because hecan find no equal good.
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