DISCOURSE VII. 613. duties as are, and must be unknown, till we put off these coarse and cumberousgarments offlesh and blood, these veils that enwrap our souls in darkness. Happy shall I be indeed, when all the troublesome and disquieting influences of flesh and blood shall cease : All ray painful and uneasypassions shall be for ever banished : Grief and fear, and anger shall vex my spirit no more. Animal nature must be buried in the dust, and all the ferments and emotions of it shall cease for ever. But must I then lose all those kindly ferments of nature too, all those pleasing emotions, which in this present state, add fresh vigour and delight to the soul, in the exercise of its best affec- tions, love and joy ? If all these must be lost, who can inform me what shall come in the room of them ? . Surely love and joy areimmortal things ; they were made for heaven, and cannot die, nor shall their vigour be diminished in a world, that was built for happiness. What strange unknown powers then shall be given to separate spirits, whereby these divine affections shall be invi- gorated, and raised to nobler degrees of exercise ? Or shall my separate spirit, when it isdivested of every clog, and exulting in complete liberty, use all its own affectionate powers in a nobler and more perfect manner, when I shall see the divine objects of them face to face ? Surely the holy souls that aredismissedfrom flesh, shall be richly furnished with all necessary faculties for their own felicity. Every saint in glory shall find full satisfaction, and intense delight, when all its best affections are united and em- ployedon the most lovely and desirable objects; when they are all fixed on God, their supreme good, and on Jesus, the most perfect, and most divineimage of the Father. Jesus, together with the Father, shall be the object of our contemplation and love. And at the same timehis holy soul, with all itspure affections, rejoicing in its own nearness to God, shall be the pattern of our heavenly joy. I in them, says our blessed Lord, l in them, and thou inme, that they all maybe madeperfect in one ; John xvii. 23. And we are told, We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is ; 1 John iii. 2. These are the sweet notices of our future felicity, that he has given us to cheer our hearts in the present state of faith and la- bour : These are the bright, but distant glimpses of those enter- tainments, which are prepared for us to our Father's house: These are little prospects of those rivers of pleasure, that run between the hills of paradise, and make glad thenew Jerusalem, the city ofout God: Such joysas these await uson high. Dowe not feel our hearts pant and point upward ? These are the joys of divine love; the very faith and hope of this blessedness, the slight glimpses and foretastes of it here on earth, have soínething in them unspeakable and full of glory : But the complete relish and fruition of it is reserved for heaven, and for heavenly inhabí-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=