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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
converse
with
that
wis-
d'om
which
laid
the
eternal
scheme
of
all these
wonders,
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
of
new
scenes to
open
hereafter, and an
everlast-
ing profusion
of'new
wonders
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 in
which
we
are
known;
1
Cor.
xiii.