August 9 — On the eternal Enjoyment of God

Consider, first, that although the kingdom of heaven abounds with all that can imagined good and delightful, yet there is but one sovereign Good, in the enjoyment of which consists the essential beatitude of heaven; and that is God himself, whom the blessed ever see, as he truly is, face to face, and see him in the very centre of their own souls; and by the eternal contemplaHon of his infinite beauty and truth, together with all his divine attributes and attractions, they are quite ravished, and set on hre with seraphic flames of eternal love. By means of this contemplation and love, they are closely united, by a most pure and amiable union, with this sovereign and infinite Good; and they eternally enjoy him: he surrounds and penetrates them on all sides with inexpressible delights; he fills their whole souls with himself, the overflowing Source of ail good; he gives himself to them to be their Joy, their Treasure, their never ending Bliss, fie transforms them in a manner into himself; as, when brass or iron, in the furnace, is perfectly penetrated by the fire, it loseth, in a manner, its own nature, and becomes all flame and fire. O happy creatures, what can be wanting to complete your joys, who have within and without you, the immense ocean of endless felicity!

Consider, secondly, that what makes God himself infinitely and eternally happy, is the eternal knowledge, love and enjoyment of himself. For God himself is his own happiness: nothing less than his own immense divinity could ever make him happy. See then, my soul’, the infinite riches of the bounty and goodness of thy God, who giveth his servants in reward of their loyalty, so great a good, that nothing greater can be given; even God himself can give nothing greater, since he giveth himself to them to be their possession and eternal inheritance; and what can be given greater than himself? O, shall not that suffice, my soul, to make thee happy, which maketh God himself happy I Who, then, can be able to conceive the least part of the joy, peace and pleasure, which that soul must experience, that sees herself thus full of. God, and enjoying him! O, how happily does she here lose herself, drowned in an ocean of delights 1 an immense ocean, where she can neither find surface, nor bottom, nor any shore, because it is on every side incomprehensible and infinite.

Consider, thirdly, in what manner all the powers of these blessed souls, which are thus full of God, are eternally employed. Their understanding, elevated by the light of glory, and in this light of God, seeing God the light, ever contemplates, with infinite delight, this sovereign and universal truth; and in him sees all truths, penetrates into the secrets of God, and the sublimest mysteries, and is even let into the closet of his heart, to see there the immense treasures of his love for us, and all the wonders he works in time and eternity, in consequence of this love. Their is continually occupied with the remembranc(i of all their God has ever done for them, his creating them out of his own pure goodness, for the eternal enjoyment of himself; his redeeming them with the blood of his divine Son, and, through him, opening to them an inexhaustible source of mercy, grace, and all good; his manifold preservations, by which he has so often delivered them both from a temporal, and an eternal death; and his innumerable other beneit and distinguishing favours. Their will all set on fire with the sight of the infinite beauty and infinite goodness of their God, loves him without ceasing, and without measure, and perfectly consumes herself in the flames of an eternal love; she lays fast hold on this her sovereign Good, she embraces hini, she eternally adheres to him, and, by a thrice happy union, she becomes in a manner the same thing with her divine Lover. --

Conclude to employ here all the powers of thy soul upon God, by the practice of mental prayer and recollection, and to accustom them now to that kind of exercise, which thou bopest shall be their eternal occupation. Thus mayst thou in some measure anticipate here upon earth the joys of heaven by contemplation and love.