there, where it shall see and enjoy, and wonder and
praise, and rest in this endless and felicitating
work, making it to sing while passing through the
valley and shadow of death? O if this were believed!
O that we were not drunk to a distraction and madness,
with the adulterous-love of vain and airy speculations,
to the postponing, if not utter neglecting, of this
main and only up-making work, of getting real acquaintance
with, and a begun possession of this mystery in our
souls, Christ, the grand mystery, formed within us,
living and working within us by his Spirit, and working
us up into a conformity unto, and an heart-closing
with God manifested in the flesh, that we may find
in experience, or at least in truth and reality, have
a true transumpt of that gospel mystery in our souls!
Oh, when shall we take pleasure in pursuing after
this happiness that will not flee from us, but is rather
pursuing us! when shall we receive with joy and triumph,
this King of glory that is courting us daily, and
is seeking access and entry into our souls! Oh,
why cry we not out in the height of the passion of
spiritual longing and desire, O come Lord Jesus, King
of glory, with thine own key, and open the door, and
enlarge and dilate the chambers of the soul, that
thou may enter and be entertained as the King of glory,
with all thy glorious retinue, to the ennobling of
my soul, and satisfying of all the desires of that
immortal spark? Why do we not covet after this
knowledge which hath a true and firm connexion with
all the best and truly divine gifts. O happy
soul that is wasted and worn to a shadow, if that
could be, in this study and exercise, which at length
will enliven, and, as it were, bring in a new heavenly
and spiritual soul into the soul, so that it shall
look no more like a dead dis-spirited thing out of
its native soil and element, but as a free, elevated,
and spiritualized spirit, expatiating itself and flying
abroad in the open air of its own element and country.
O happy day, O happy hour that is really and effectually
spent in this employment! What would souls, swimming
in this ocean of pleasures and delights care for?
Yea, with what abhorrency would they look upon the
bewitching allurements of the purest kind of carnal
delights, which flow from the mind’s satisfaction
in feeding on the poor apprehensions, and groundlessly
expected comprehensions of objects, suited to its natural
genius and capacity? O what a more hyperbolical
exceeding and glorious satisfaction hath a soul in
its very pursuings after (when it misseth and cannot
reach) that which is truly desirable! How doth
the least glimpse through the smallest cranie, of
this glorious and glorifying knowledge of God in Christ,
apprehended by faith, raise up the soul to that pitch
of joy and satisfaction which the knowledge of natural
things, in its purest perfection, shall never be able
to cause; and to what a surmounting measure of this
joy and contentation will the experiencing and feeling,