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THE FIRST
FRLITS
OF TFIE
SPIRtT
; OR
CbTSC.
I[:
away
captive above all earthly
things,
and brings
thetas
near
to
the
heavenly
world.
There
is
an unknown
joy
which arises from
such intense
love to
an object
so
lovely
and
so
deserving;
such
is
that
which
is
spoken concerning
the saints
to whom
St.
Peter
wrote
;
1
Pet.
i. 8.
"
whom
having
not
seen, ye
love,
in whom
though
now you see
him
not,
yet
.believing ye
rejoice with
joy
unspeakable
and
full
of
glory."
It
is
through
this divine
taste
of
love,
and joy, and
glory communicated
by
the
blessed
Spirit,
revealing the
things
of Christ
to
their
souls,
that
many
of
the
confessors
and martyrs
in
the primitive
ages,
and
in-later
times,
have
not
only
joyfully
parted
with all
their
possessions
and their
comforts in this
life,
but
have fol-
lowed the
call
of
God
through
prisons
and deaths
of
a
most dreadful kind, through racks
and
fires,
and many
torments,
for the sake
of
the love of
Jesus
;
and perhaps,
there
may be some in
our
day
who
have had
so
lively
and
strong
a
sensation
of
the
love
of
Christ let
in
upon
their
souls,
that
they
could not
only be
content
to be
absent
from
all their
carnal
delights for
ever,
but
even from
their
intellectual and
more spiritual entertainments,
if
they
might
be for
ever
placed
in such
a situation
to
Jesus
Christ,
as
to_
feel,
the
everlasting
beams
of
his
love
let
out
upon
them,
and
to
rejoice in
him with
perpetual de-
light.
As he
is
the
nearest
image
of
God
the Father,
they
-can
love
nothing beneath
God
equal
to
their
love
of
Mini
nor
delight
in
any thing
beneath
God
equal
to their
delight
in
Jesus Christ Indeed
their
love
and their
joy
are
so
wrapped up
in the
great and
blessed
God
as
he
appears
in
Christ
Jesus,
that
they do
not
usually
divide
their
affections in this
matter,
but
love
God
supremely
for
ever,
as
revealing himself
in
his
most perfect
love in
Christ
Jesus unto
their
souls.
How near
this may
ap-
proach
to
the
glorified love
of
the saints in heaven,
or
what
difference there
is
between the holy ones above the
saints
below
in
this
respect;
may be
hard
to
say.
SECTION
VIII.
Foretastes
of
heaven
in
the
transcendent
love
of
the
saints to
each
other."
I
might here ask
some
advanced
saints,
"
Have you never
seen or
heard
of
a
fellow
christiaf
growing
unto
such
a near resemblance to
the blessed
Jesus,
in
all
the virtues and graces
of
the Spirit,
that
4