416
THE
HAPPINESS
OP
SEPARATE
SPIRITS.
[DISC.
I1.
the future
state, and
may
feast
our contemplation and
improve our joy.
The
blessed
God himself
is
an
infinite
being:
His
perfections and glories
are
unbounded:
His
wisdom, his
holiness,
his
goodness,
his
faithfulness,
his
power
and
justice,
his
all
sufficiency, his
self
-
origination, and
his un-
fathomable eternity,
have such
a number of
rich ideas
belonging
to
each
of
them,
that
no
creature
shall ever
fully
understand.
Yet
it
is
but reasonable to
believe,
that
he
will
communicate
so
much
of
himself to us
by
degrees, as
he sees
necessary for
our
business
and
bless-
edness
in
that upper
world. Can it
be
supposed
that
we
should
know every
thing
that
belongs to
God
all
at
once,
which he
may discover to
us
gradually
as
our
ca-
pacities improve
?
Can
we
think
that
an infant
-soul
that
had
no time for
improvement
here,
when
it
enters
into
heaven shall
know
every thing concerning
God,
that
it
can
ever
attain
to
through
all the ages
of
its im-
mortality When
a
blessed
spirit
has
dwelt
in
heaven
a
thousand
years,
and conversed
with
God and
Christ,
angels
and
fellow-
spirits during
all
that
season,
shall
it
know nothing more
of
the
nature and wondrous proper
-
ties
of
God
than
it knew the first
moment
of
its
arrival
there
?"
But
I
add further,
the works
of
God shall doubtless
be the
matter of
our search
and delightful survey,
as well
as
the nature and properties
of God
himself.
"
His
works
are honourable and
glorious, and
sought out
of
of
all
that
have pleasure
in
them;" Ps.
cxi.
2,
3.
In
his works
eve
shall
read
his
name,
his
properties,
and
his
glories,
whether
we fix
our
thoughts
on
creation or
providence.
The
works
of
God
and
his Wonders
of
creation
in
the
known and unknown
worlds,
both
as
to the number,
the
variety,
and
vastness
of
them,
are almost infinite;
that
is,
they transcend
all the limits
of our
ideas,
and
all
our
present
capacities
to
conceive. Now there
is
none
of
these
works
of
wonder,
but
may
administer
some
enter
-
tainment
to
the
mind
of
man,
and may richly furnish
* God himself hath infinite
goodness
in him, which the creature cannot
take
in
at once; they
are taking
of
it
in
eternally. The
saints
see
in
God
still
things fresh, which
they
sew
not
in
the beginning
of their
bles-
sedness.
Dr. T.
Goodwin.