CONTENTS SECTION 1-GENERAL REMARKS ON MEETNESS FOR THE HEAVENLY STATE ........ SECTION 2.-ON THE CONTEMPLATION OF GOD, IN NATURE AND PROVIDENCE SECTION 3.-ON THE CONTEMPLATION OF GOD, IN RE SECTION 4.-ON THE CONTEMPLATION OF GOD, IN RE DEMPTION. THE SON PAGE 1 14 32 SECTION 5.-ON THE CONTEMPLATION OF GOD, IN RE DEMPTION.-THE SPIRIT SECTION 6.-ON COMMUNION WITH GOD ...... SECTION 7.-ON SUBMISSION TO THE WILL OF GOD 71 89 .... 107 132 146 183 ESSAY. SECTION I. GENERAL REMARKS ON MEETNESS FOR THE HEAVENLY STATE. MUCH of the happiness which is here permitted to man arises from the exercise of kindly feelings. When benevolence leads us to seek the welfare of others, and our hearts are enlarged in good will and charity, our condition of mind is unquestionably one of pleasure to ourselves. Again, when the objects of our purest and warmest affections are granted to us-when we enjoy their company and conversation, and when our kindness towards them is met. by an equal return-this is a source of unrivalled temporal joy. Nor can it be denied, that the purity and height of this joy are just in proportion to the moral excellence of the objects of our love. These remarks may, perhaps, afford us some faint. glimpse of the happiness of those purified spirits, in B |