s r ISO THE SCALE Or aLESSBnNESS. to say, the Son takes infinitedelight in the glorious archetype, and thus imitates the Father ? Will not the expressions of theapos- tle Paul ; Heb. i. 3. and the words of Christ himself; John v. 19, 20. encourage and support this manner of speaking ? He is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person: The Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: andwhat things soever he seeth the Father do, these also cloth the Son likewise. And this seems tobe the first founda tion of those gloriousoffices of raising the dead, and judging the world, which in the following verses are committed to the Son, that all men may honour the Son, as they honour the Father; ver. 23. As the blessed Three have an unknown communion in the Godhead, or divine nature, so they must have an unspeakable nearness to one another's persons, an inconceivable in -being and in-dwelling in each other. John xiv. 10. I in the Father, and the Father in me. Each is near to the two other divine subsist- ences, and this mutual nearness must be attended with delight and felicity unknown to all but the blessed Three who enjoy it. O glorious and divine communion ! The Father for ever near tohis own image the Son, and herein Ùlessed'! The Son never divided from the embraces of the Father, and therefore happy! The Spirit everlastingly near them both, and therefore he is the ever-blessed Spirit! , And all these united in one Godhead, and therefore infinitelyand for ever blessed ! The Father is so intimately near the Son and Spirit, that no finite or created natures or unions can give a just resemblance ofit, We talkof 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 areSome ofthe best that I know. The union of oul and body, is, inmy esteem, still farther from the point, because their natures are so widely different. In vain we search through all the creation to find a complete similitudeof the Creator. And in vain may we run through all the parts and powers of natureand art, to seek afull resemblance of themutual propensity and love of,theblessed Three towards eachother. Mathematicians, talk indeed of the perpetual tendencies, and infinite approxima', Lions of two or more lines in the same surface, which yet never can entirely concur in one line : And if weshould say that the three persons of, the Trinity, bymutualin- dwelling and love, approach each other infinitely in one divine nature, and yet lose not their distinct personality ; it wouldbe 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 eternal spring of love, goodness, and pleasure, must produce
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