224 SHE SCALE OF BLESSEDNESS. SEAM. xrr. to be the Lord's; we may properly be said to hold fel- lowship, or communion wvitli him. What swift advancesof Holiness loth the saint feel in his heart, and practise in his life, after such seasons of devotion ! What glory do,th he give to religion in a. dark and sinful world ! What unknown pleasure loth he find in such approaches to God ! And he moves swiftly on- ward in his way to heaven, by such daily receipts of mercy, and returns of praise. These are powerful motives that will make him persist in his holy practice and joy, in scorn of ali the mockery and ridicule of a profane age of infidels. So the moon holds bright communion with the sun, the sovereign planet.; so she receives and re- flects his beams ; she shines gloriously in a dark hemis- phere, and moves onward sublime in her heavenly course, regardless of all the barking animals that betray their senseless.malice. This blessed privilege and pleasure of converse with God, which is enjoyed by the saints on earth, is doubt- less the pleasure and the. of the spirits of the Est made perfect, and of angels near the throne, 'but n a Much higher degree : When they address the Majes- ty of Heaven in the forms of celestial worship, and re- ceive immediate and sensible tokens of divine accept- ance ; or when they take their orders and commissions from the throne for some particular errand, or high em- ployment, . and return again to make their humble report there: These are glorious seasons of converse with their Maker. Much more glorious communion of this kind does the man Christ Jesus enjoy with God, in transacting all the vast and illustrious affairs of his commission ; a com- mission large as theextent of his Father's kingdom. full of majesty and justice, terror and grace e adivine com- mission tagovern, to redeem, and to save, or to punish and destroymillions of mankind, as well as to rule all' his. unknown dominions in the upper and nether worlds. But in what manner this communion between the Fa- ther and Christ is maintained, we know not; nor can `ve,guess in what manner, or in what degree such sott of converseor communion as this is practised, or is possi- ble, between the three glorious persons of the ever- blessed Trinity. These are mysteries wrapt up in sacretl
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