MEDITATION LIX. The Happiness of the Saints. WHY dost thou then, deluded creature, let thy desires run wild upon variety of objects, and from these vainly expect, that soul and body should be happy? Love that one good, in which all others centre, and this will answer all thy wishes: whatever can contribute to the perfection of thy outward or inward man, is there to be met with in abundance. If beauty delight thee, the righteous are promised to shine as the sun: if activity or strength, or freedom of operation, which no resistance can obstruct, remember they shall be as the angels of God, and that which is sown a natural body shall be raised a spiritual body; that is, it shall resemble those spirits in its activity and penetration, and powers, though not in nature and substance. If length of days and a sound constitution be thy desire, there shall be health unimpaired, and immortality; for the just shall live for ever, and their health is of the Lord. If gratification of desires to the full, they shall be satisfied when they wake up after their Lord's likeness. If musical entertainment, there the angels never cease their melodious praises to God: if any chaste pleasures, of such God shall give them to drink, as out of a river. If wisdom, the most wise God shall then unlock his treasures, and let them into the knowledge of his own mysterious nature and providence. If friend ship, there they shall love God above themselves, and one another as themselves; and God shall love them more than they love themselves. If perfect agreement, there shall be but one soul and one will, for they shall all have no will but God's. If power, they shall be absolute masters of their own will, as God is of his for as God can do whatever he pleases by his own power, so they shall be enabled to do whatever they please, by and through him; for as they shall will nothing but what he wills, so he wills whatever they will, and therefore whatever they will must needs be accomplished. If honour and riches, God shall make his faithful and good servants rulers over many things; nay, they shall be dignified with the title of gods, and the sons of God, and shall be actually heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If secure possession, they shall have as much assurance, that no part of their happiness shall ever forsake them, as they can have that they can never consent to part with it; and that God who loved them so as to vest them in it, can never take it away from them he loves so dearly against their consent; or as they know that nothing is stronger than God, or can separate between him and them. And who can conceive the excellency and greatness of that joy, which must needs result from so inconceivably excellent and great a good? O heart of man, ever wanting somewhat to make up thy satisfaction, every day exercised with pains and sorrows, and almost quite oppressed with the mighty weight and uninterrupted succession of miseries, how wouldest thou exult, should all this bliss flow in upon thee? Ask thy most secret recesses whether they could so expand themselves, as to re ceive the joy which must needs spring up from such exquisite happiness, considered purely as thy own. But further yet, consider that if any other person, equally dear to thee as thy own self, should enjoy the same happiness, this would double thy joy, because thou wouldest be as glad for his sake as for thy own. Again, if two, or three, or more, thus dear to thee, were in the same blessed condition, this joy would be multiplied equally for every one of these. Now according to this way of arguing, what can we suppose will be the rejoicing in heaven, where angels and saints innumerable partake of the happiness, which I have been but very imperfectly describing, and every one of these united in a charity so fervent, that none of them loves any of the rest less than himself, and consequently will rejoice for each of them as much as for himself? If then the heart of man be scarce large enough to contain his joy, for his own single happiness, how shall it find room for so many joys so vastly increased, so often multiplied? Again, in regard we naturally rejoice in the felicity of another in proportion to the love we bear to that person; it will follow from hence, that since in that state God is incomparably more dear to every saint, than that saint is to himself, and all his brethren to him; every saint will consequently feel more satisfaction, and exult incomparably more in the glory and blessedness of God, than he will in his own and all his brethren's put together. And if they so love God with all their heart, and all their mind and soul, that even all their heart, and mind and soul, wants room for the largeness of their affection; they will certainly rejoice too with all their heart, and mind, and soul, so exquisitely, that even all their heart, and mind, and soul, shall overflow and be too narrow to contain the fulness of their joy. Tell me then, O my God and my Lord, my hope and the delight of my heart, whether this be the joy meant by thy blessed Son, when he says to his disciples, Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. For I have here discovered a joy, that seems not only full, but even more than full: since, after all our faculties are filled, there still remains fresh matter for rejoicing; matter more than can be comprehended, more than can ever be exhausted and therefore the whole of that joy can never enter into the persons partaking in it, but they may very properly be said to enter into the joy of their Lord. Say then, Lord, and inform thy servant, whether this be the joy, into which thy faithful servants shall enter, whose diligence in improving their Lord's talents shall be accepted in the great day of account. But that, I am told, is a joy never yet seen, or heard, or so much as conceived by any human mind; and consequently have not yet either in words or thoughts come up near to the excellence of that joy prepared for thy chosen. In short, their joy shall be equal to their love, and their love equal to their knowledge of thee: and certainly the perfection of their love and knowledge of thee in the next life, must needs exceed all that ever eye hath seen, or ear heard, or the heart of man conceived. MEDITATION LX. Final Devotion to God. Grant me then, even me, my dearest Lord, to know thee, and love thee, and rejoice in thee. And if I cannot do these perfectly in this life, let me at least advance to higher degrees every day, till I can come to do them in perfection. Let the knowledge of thee increase in me here, that it may be full hereafter. Let the love of thee grow every day more and more here, that it may be perfect hereafter; that my joy may be great in itself, and full in thee. I know, O Lord, that thou art a God of truth, O make good thy gracious promises to me, that my joy may be full. And till it be so, let my mind meditate, my tongue speak, my heart desire and love, my soul hunger, my flesh thirst after it, and my whole nature gasp and pant most earnestly, till I actually enter into the joy of my Lord, there to remain for ever and ever. For wretched is that soul, whose endeavours and desires are fixed on any other object, by a thirst always tormenting, but never refreshed, never satisfied. The end of living is lost to them who love not God; and he who desires life for the sake of any thing besides, is nothing, and aims at vanity and nothing. He who will not live to thee, he that is wise for any other purpose, is no better than a fool. To thee, therefore, gracious Lord, I commit, bequeath, devote myself, from whom alone my whole being, and life, and knowledge is derived : in |