227 / 514
lEBM.
XIL
THE
SCALE
OF
BLESSEDNESS.
219
The Father
is so
intimately near the
Son
and
Spirit,
that
no finite
or created
natures or
unions
can
give
a
just
resemblance
of
it.
We talk
of
the
union
of
the sun,
and
.his
beams,
of a tree and
its
branches
:
But
these
are
but
poor
images,
and faint
shadows
of
this
mystery,
though
they are
some
of
the best
that I
know.
The
union
ofthe
soul
and
body,
is,
in
my
esteem, still
farther
from the
point, because
their natures are
so
widely different.
Irk
vain
we
search through
all
the
creation
to
find
a
con-
plete similitude
of
the
Creator.
And in vain may
we
run through
all
the
parts and
powers
of
nature and art,
to seek
a
full
resemblance
of
the
mutual
propensity and
love
of
the blessed
Three
to-
wards each other. Mathematicians talk indeed
of
the
perpetual
tendencies, and infinite
approximations
of
two
or
more lines
in the same surface, which
yet never can
entirely concur
in one line
:
And
if
we
should
say
that
the
three persons
of
the
Trinity,
by
mutual in-
dwelling
and
love,
approach
each
other
infinitely in one divine
na-
ture, and yet
lose
not their distinct personality; it
would
be
but
an obscure
account of
this sublime mystery.
But
this
we
are sure
of;
that
for
three
divine
persons to
be
so
inconceivably
near
one
another
in
the original
and
eter-
nal spring
of
love,
goodness, and pleasure,
must pro-
duce infinite delight.
In order
tos
illustrate_
the
.
happi-
ness
of
the sacred Three,
may
we
not suppose something
of
society necessary to the
perfection
of
happiness
in
all
intellectual
nature
?
To
know,
and
be
known, to
love;
and
to be beloved,
are, perhaps, such
essential,
ingredi-
ents
of.
complete
felicity,
that
it
cannot
subsist without
them
:
And
it
may
be
doubted whether
such
mutual
knowledge and
love,
as seems
requisite
for this end,
can
be
found
in
a
nature
absolutely
simple
in all
respects,
May
we
not
then suppose
that
some
distinctions
in
the
divine being
are
of
eternal
necessity,
in
order
to com-
plete the
blessedness
of
godhead
?
Such
a
distinction
as may
admit,
as a
great
man expresses it,
of
delicious.
society,
"
We, for
our
parts,
cannot but
hereby
have
in
our
minds a more gustful
idea
of
a
blessed
state,
than
we
can conceive in
mere
eternal solitude."
And
if
this
be
true,
.
then
the
three
differences,
which:
lv
call
personal distinctions,
in
the
nature of
God,
are,