the rivers of my pleasures. You shall be an eternal excellency:b and if God can die, and eternity run out, then, and not else, shall your joys expire. For you shall see me as I am, and know me as you are known;d and shall behold my face in righteousness, and be satisfied with my likeness. And you shall be the vessels of my glory; whose blessed use shall be, to receive the overflowings of my goodness, and to have mine infinite love and glory poured out into you, brimful and running over, for evermore.f And blessed is he that hath believed; for there shall be a performance of the things that have been told him. The Lord hath spoken it, "You shall see my face, and my name shall be written in your foreheads; and you shall no more need the sun, or the moon; for the Lord God shall give you light, and you shall reign for ever and ever," h 18. He taketh us for his people. And as I give myself to you for your God, and all things with myself; so I take you for my covenant people; and you shall be mine in the day wh when I make up my jewels, saith the Lord of hosts; and i will spare a Psalm xxxvi, 8. b Isa. lx. 15. c 1 John iii, 2. Psalm xvii, 15. f Rom. ix, Rev. xxii, 1. & Luke i, 45. i Heb. viii, 10, Isa. xliii, 1. d 1 Cor. xiii, 12. 23. 2 Tim. ii, 20. h Rev. xxii, 3, 4, 5. 1 you, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. The Lord shall count when he writeth up the people, surely they are my children.b I do not only require you to be mine, if you would have me to be for you; but I do promise to make you mine, and to work in you the conditions which I require of you; I will circumcise your hearts to love me; d I will take out the heart of stone; my ławs will I write within you.f Yet you must know that I will be sought unto for these things;s and as ever you expect to partake of the mercies, I charge you to lie at the pool, and wait for my Spirit, and be diligent in the use of my means.b The terms I propose to you, are not rigorous: I shall not stand upon satisfaction at your hands; I have received a ransom, and do only propose him for your acceptance. Believe in him with a loving and obedient heart, perfecting holiness in my fear. I require you to accept of my Son by believing; but I will give you a hand, to take him, and to submit to and obey him: but I must and will guide your hand to write, after him, and cause you to walk in my a Mal. iii, 17. bPsalm lxxxvii, 6. Lev. xx, 26. Ezek. xxxvi, 28. d Deut. xxx. 6. Ezek. xxxvi, 26. f Jer. xxxi, 33. & Ezek. xxxvi, 37.. à Prov, ii. 3, 4, 5. Luke xi. 13. Phil. i, 29. John vi, 65, statutes. I will take you by the arms, and teach you to go; I will order your steps.c Yea, those things will I accept of you as the condition of life, which, viewed in the strictness of my justice, would deserve eternal death.d Grace! grace! Amen. CHAP. III. The Voice of the Redeemed, after the Proclamation. AMEN! Hallelujah! Be it to thy servants according to thy word! But who are we, and what is our father's house, that thou hast brought us hitherto? And now, O Lord God, what shall thy servants say unto thee? For we are silenced with wonder, and must sit down in astonishment; for we cannot utter the least tittle of thy praises What meaneth the height of this strange love? And whence is this unto us, that the Lord of heaven and earth should condescend to enter into covenant with dust? We are not worthy to be as the hand-maids, to wash the feet of the servants of our Lord; how much less to a Ezek. xxxvi, 27. b Hos. xi, 3, 4. c Psalm xxxvii, 23, 31. dEph. iii, 8. 1 Thes. iii, 10. Heb. 9. Eccles. viii. 20. be thy sons and heirs, and to be made partakers of all these blessed liberties and privileges which thou hast settled upon us! But for thy goodness' sakė, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things. Even so, father, because it seemed good in thy sight. Wherefore thou art great, O God, for there is none like thee; neither is there any God besides thee. And what nation on earth is like thy people, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for them great things and terrible; for thou hast confirmed them to thyself, to be a people unto thee for ever; and thou, Lord, art become their God. Wonder, O heavens, and be moved, O earth, at this great thing! For behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people; and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. Be astonished and ravished with wonder, for the infinite breach is made up; the offender is received, and God and man reconciled; and a covenant of peace entered, and heaven and earth are all agreed upon the terms, and have struck their hands, and sealed the indentures. O happy conclusion! O blessed conjunction! Shall the stars dwell with the dust? Or the a 2 Sam. vii. 18. to the end. d Rev. xxi, 4. wide distant poles be brought to mutual embraces and cohabitation? But here the distance of the terms is infinitely greater. Rejoice, O angels; shout, O seraphims; O all ye friends of the bridegroom, prepare an epithalamium;* be ready with the marriage song. Lo, here is the wonder of wonders; for Jehovah hath betrothed himself for ever to his hopeless captives, and owns the marriage before all the world; and is become one with us, and we with him. He hath bequeathed to us the precious things of the heaven above, and the precious things of the earth beneath, with the fulness thereof, and hath kept back nothing from us. And now, O Lord, thou art that God, and thy words be true; and thou hast promised this goodness to thy servants,a and has left us nothing to ask at thy hands, but what thou hast already freely granted. Only the word which thou hast spoken concerning thy servants, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said; and let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, "The Lord of hosts, he is the God of Israel." Amen, Hallehijah. a 2 Som. vii, 25, 28. * A song or ode composed or sung in honour of the mar riage of any one. |