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influences, which produce a happy serenity of mind, and an alacrity and vigour in the various exercises of the spiritual life, they are so troubled that their soul in a manner fails, they are sick of love, and can receive no consolation until he return. This sorrow arises, if not from the sense, and experience of former enjoyment, at least from a great esteem for familiar intercourse with God. None but one that has enjoyed this privilege, can form a just estimate of its value. Even those who are strangers to God can feel a kind of sorrow for their sins; but none excepting the children of the bridechamber lament the absence of the Bridegroom.

XII. 4thly, Those whom God has blessed with a special interest in himself, are often employed in devout and affectionate meditation upon him. Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also. Accordingly

they who gloried in God as their own God, have unanimously protested, that they thought of nothing with greater pleasure than of Him. The spouse rejoiced that her Beloved was her's ;k but she added, “A bun"dle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall "lie all night betwixt my breasts." David struck his harp and said, "The LORD is the Portion of my inhe"ritance and of my cup;'m but he added, "I have set "the LORD always before me."n My mind," says the pious Augustine,* "is devoted to thee, inflamed with "love to thee, breathing for thee, panting after thee, desiring to see thee, alone. It accounts nothing de

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Song v. 6.

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Præfatio Manualis.

Song ii. 5.

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"lightful but to speak of thee, to hear of thee, to write "of thee, to converse about thee, and often to revolve thy glory in my heart; that the sweet remembrance "of thee, may afford me some respite and refreshment "amidst these calamities. Upon thee, therefore, do I “call, O thou most beloved of all objects; to thee I 66 cry aloud with my whole heart. When I call upon "thee, too, I call upon thee as a God dwelling in my"self; for unless thou wert in me, I could not exist at "all. Surely, thou art in me, for thou abidest in my memory; by this I recognise thee, and in this I find "thee, since I have thee in remembrance, and in thee, " and from thee, enjoy my supreme delight."

From these and similar evidences, it is possible for the believer to attain assurance, that God has become his own God.

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XIII. When the soul knows this for certain, especially if she hear it from the mouth of God himself addressing her inwardly by the Spirit, and actually taste something of the Divine sweetness, she is filled with a great, an incredible Joy. Hence Peter says, "In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye I rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory." Hence that sweet song of a soul rejoicing in God as her own: "The LORD is the Portion of mine inhe"ritance and of my cup; thou maintainest my lot. "The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; yea, I "have a goodly heritage. Therefore my heart is 'glad, and my glory rejoiceth." In another Psalm also, the two following expressions are conjoined, as if by the same stroke of the harp :-"God, my exceeding joy," and,-" O God, my God."a

XIV. This joy, indeed, is not to be wondered at; for when any one knows that God is his own, he finds in Him the most powerful protection against all evil. "In the LORD JEHOVAH, is everlasting strength," (the Rock of ages.) "I will say of the LORD, he is

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my refuge, and my fortress, MY GOD; in him will I "trust." He finds in him, also, an inexhaustible fountain of all desirable good; not only what equals, but also what infinitely transcends his conceptions and desires. "How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O "God! therefore the children of men put their trust "under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and "thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy plea66 sures. For with thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light." Both of these ideas are briefly, but strikingly, united, in the words of God to Abraham, "I am thy SHIELD, and thy exceeding great REWARD ;" and in the following expression of the Psalmist, "For the LORD God is a SUN and a SHIELD."V

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xv. The representation and enjoyment of so great a good, cannot fail to be delightful in the highest degree. If separate goods are pleasant, how delightful is that good, which contains the sweetness and quintessence of every good; and not merely such sweetness as we have experienced in created objects, but as widely different from these, as the Creator differs from the creature! All the beauty, all the glory, and all the joy of the material world, are nothing but resplendent beams, emitted

and diffused around, by the King of beauty, of glory, and of joy. Whatever things were made, were made by him; and, therefore, whatever goodness is found in the creatures, could be derived from him alone, by whom all were made. The borrowed goodness, consequently, of which they are possessed, is darkened and eclipsed, when compared with that uncreated goodness which is its spring and original. God is, doubtless, a Being, in whose light alone, all that is luminous-in whose glory alone, all that is glorious-in whose beauty alone, all that is beautiful-in whose joy alone, all that is joyful, is contained. When he bestowed upon the creatures light, glory, beauty, and joy, he reserved to himself, the source of light, glory, beauty, and joy; and thus he always retained within himself as the fountain, more than he communicated from himself to the creatures. Ought not, then, the possession of so boundless a good, to produce an almost boundless joy?

XVI. Further, the sweetness arising from the gracious communication which God makes of himself, is so great, that it has virtue to sweeten all that is bitter in the bitterest calamities. The smallest drop of this sweetness, distilled into the mouth which pants after it, quickly dispels the greatest sorrows. This rendered torrents of stones pleasant to Stephen, the cross to Andrew, the violent tearing of the skin to Bartholomew, the gridiron to St Laurentius, rods, racks,* wheels, and flames, not to mention prisons and exile, to so many myriads of holy martyrs of Christ ; who, having tasted this sweetness of God, rejoiced and sang when they were led forth to the most dreadful tor

* The Latin term is equuleos, which literally signifies instruments of torture resembling a horse. T.

tures, as if they were conducted to the most splendid entertainments. These things, indeed, seem incredible to the world. But such is the nature of this sweetness of our God, that none can understand it in any other way than by tasting it. Those only who eat of this manna, can conceive how delicious it is.

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XVII. In whatever measure, too, this blessedness is imparted to man in the present life, it is nothing more than the first fruits and earnest of greater, and everlasting enjoyment. Hence arises the constancy and permanence of this joy, if not with regard to its effects, and what are called its secondary acts, at least with regard to its foundation and its primary act. "Everlasting joy shall be upon their head;"w" Your heart "shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." Though, agreeably to the dictates of his infinite wisdom, God is pleased, in this life, to temper the communication of his sweetness with a mixture of bitterness, often very large, but always salutary; there is a principle abiding in believers, which soon gives rise to renewed emotions of joy, and ultimately proves a most abundant source of never-ending delight.

XVIII. Nor has any one cause to be afraid lest he should err by indulging this joy to excess; for God himself invites us not only to cheerfulness, but even to a certain holy and mystic ebriety. The more liberally a person has drunk of this spiritual nectar, though he may seem to others that are ignorant of these delights to be beside himself, he is, in reality, at once the happier and the wiser. There are spirits in material wine, which serve to exhilarate the animal spirits of the hu