.21.8 THE SCALE OF BLESSEDNESS. [SEEM. XIi, May we not therefore suppose the blessedness of the sacred Three to consist also in mutual love? May I call it a perpetual delightful tendency, and active pro- pensity toward each other? An eternal approach to each other with infinite complacency ? An eternal em- brace of each other with arms of inimitable love, and with sensations of unmeasurable joy ? Thus saith the Son ofGod under the character divine wisdotn, Prov. viii. 23, 30. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earthwas. Then was I by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always beforehim. As the Father loveth the Son, so the Son loveth the- Father. As the Father' de- lights infinitely in his perfect image, so may we not ven- ture to say, the Son takes infinite delight in the glorious archetype, and thus imitates the Father ? Will .lot the expressions of the apostle Paul ; Heb. i. 3. and the words of Christ himself; John v. 19, 20. encourage and sup- port this manner of speaking? Ile is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person: The Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth; and what things soever he seeth the Father do, these also doth the Son likewise. And this seems. to be the first foundation of those glorious offices of raising the dead, and judging the world, which in the following verses are committed to the Son, that all men may honour the Son as they honour the Father, ver. 2 3. As the blessed Three have an unknown communion in the godhead, or divine nature, so theymust have an un- speakable nearness to one another's persons, an incon- ceivable in-being and in-dwelling in each other. John xiv. 10. I in the Father, and the Father in me. Each is ,near to the two other divine subsistences, and this mutual nearness must be attended with delight and feli- city unknown to all but the blessed Three who enjoy Q glorious and. divine communion ! The Father for ever pear to his own image the Son, and herein blessed! The Son never divided from the embraces of the Father, and therefore happy ! The Spirit everlastingly near therr; both, and therefore he is the ever-blessed Spirit! And all these united in one godhead, and therefore infinitely and for ever blessed ! 1
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