ßi6 THE WORLD TO HOME. such scenes now and then passing through the soul are glimpses of the heavenly blessedness." SECT, III. Though the eternity and immensity of God' might perhaps in their own nature, and in the reason of things, be first mentioned, yet his majesty, his power, and his wisdom in their sovereign excellency strike the souls of creatures more immediately, therefore I have put these first. However, let us now consider the eternity of the great God and his omnipresence, and think how tire spirits in heaven are affected herewith, and what kindred meditations may be derived from these perfections by the saints here on earth. I proceed therefore, 5. To the eternity of God : which though the most exalted spirit in heaven cannot comprehend, yet it is probable they have some nearer and clearer discovery of it than we can have here is this mortal state, while we dwelt in flesh and blood. We have nothing in this visible world that gives us so much as an exam- ple or similitude of it. The great God who is, who was, and who is to come through all ages, he is, and ryas, and for ever will be the same. Let us go back as many thousand ages as we can in our thoughts, and still an eternal God was before them ; a being that had no beginning of his existence, nor will have any end of his life or duration. And as he says to Moses, lily name is I AM THAT I AM, Exod. iii. 14. So as there is noosing which had any hand in his being, but all the reasons of it are de- rived from his own self- fulness, therefore we may say of him that " he is because he is," and because " he will be :" He had no spring of his first beginning, nor any cause of his continued ex- istence, but what is within himself We can never set ourselves in too mean a light when an eternal God is near us ; and every thing besides God can be but little in our eyes. " And, O my thinking powers, are ye not sweetly lost in this holy rapture, and overpowered with divine pleasure, O my soul, in such meditation as this ? Art thou not delightfully sur- prised with the thoughts of such self- sufficience and such an in- conceivable perfection ? Thy being considered as here in this life, is not so much in the eight of God as an atom in comparison of the whole earth ; and even the supposed future ages of thy existence in the eternal state are inconceivably short, when com- pared with the glory of that being that never began his life or his duration. " Many things here on earth concur towards my satisfaction and peace, but if I have God my friend, I have all in him that I. can possibly want or desire. Let me then live no longer upon creatures when God is all. Let sun, moon, and stars vanish, and all this visible creation disappear and he for ever annihilated if God please, he himself is still my eternal hope and never-fail- ing .spring of all my blessedness : My expectations are ooutinually
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