356 THE LASE OF THE PASSIONS IN RELIGION. husiness and blessedness of heaven, and be better prepared for the exercise of those more spiritual affections which belong to the saints departed, and to the happy inhabitants of the intellectual world. The holy apostle teaches us this doctrine in that sweet period of scripture; 1 Pet. i. 3, 6, 8. When we are begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christfrom the dead, therein we greatly rejoice; and the joy surmounts all our present heaviness, and bears us in conquest and triumph through our manifold temptations: It gives us a transporting view of praise, honour and glory at the appearance of our Lord Jesus; whom having not seen we love: in whom though note we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable, andfull of glory; or as it is in the original, with unspeakable and glorified joy. You see here that the three blessed affectionsof hope, love and joy, bring the `soul to the confines of the heavenly world, set him'as it wereat the gates of paradise, fill the heart with those divine sen- sations which are near a-kin to the joys of glorified spirits. Thus, by the exercise of the holy passions in a súblime degree, " we are come to the spirits of the just madeperfect, and almost admitted into the glorious presenceof Jesus, our adored Medi- ator ; Heb. xii. 23, 24. Let us awake, let us arise, let us shake ourselves out of the dust of this earth, and dress our souls in these beautifulgarments: Let us long and breathe after these sacred sensations of refined pleasure, to which the church itself is too much a stranger, in our degenerate times. 'These are fair em- blems and sweet foretastes of those unknown as pleasures which flow from the right-hand of God without ceasing, and run, like rivers, an everlasting course, through all the ages of eternity; Ps. xvi. 13. Meditation. " How glad am I to find that not only my understanding andmy will; but that all my passions may be made serviceable to God and religion, to my noblest designs, and my eternal interest! i am sure some of them have had an unhappy influence to lead me astray from my God, and my duty, and I am greatly pleased to hear that they are capable of being reduced tothe service of myMaker, and become instruments of holiness and peace. Descend, O divine Spirit, descend into my heart ! Takehohl of these active and sprightly powers of my nature, and bind them to thy eternal service. Awaken my fear of the majesty and the justice of God, that I may seek earnestly what I shall do to please him, and how I may obtain his favour: And let my fear be constant and restless till my feet are led into the paths of salvation, and I feel the constraining power of divine love. " Let mydevout passions be ever, awakeand livelywhen I hear the things of God spoken, or when I read of the momentous'
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=