generate, that are his adopted sons,
illuminated by his word, having the eyes of our hearts and understandings
opened; how fairly doth he offer and expose himself? _Ambit nos Deus_
(Austin saith) _donis et forma sua_, he woos us by his beauty, gifts,
promises, to come unto him; [6316]"the whole Scripture is a message, an
exhortation, a love letter to this purpose;" to incite us, and invite us,
[6317]God's epistle, as Gregory calls it, to his creatures. He sets out his
son and his church in that epithalamium or mystical song of Solomon, to
enamour us the more, comparing his head "to fine gold, his locks curled and
black as a raven," Cant. iv. 5. "his eyes like doves on rivers of waters,
washed with milk, his lips as lilies, drooping down pure juice, his hands
as rings of gold set with chrysolite: and his church to a vineyard, a
garden enclosed, a fountain of living waters, an orchard of pomegranates,
with sweet scents of saffron, spike, calamus and cinnamon, and all the
trees of incense, as the chief spices, the fairest amongst women, no spot
in her, [6318]his sister, his spouse, undefiled, the only daughter of her
mother, dear unto her, fair as the moon, pure as the sun, looking out as
the morning;" that by these figures, that glass, these spiritual eyes of
contemplation, we might perceive some resemblance of his beauty, the love
between his church and him. And so in the xlv. Psalm this beauty of his
church is compared to a "queen in a vesture of gold of Ophir, embroidered
raiment of needlework, that the king might take pleasure in her beauty." To
incense us further yet, [6319]John, in his apocalypse, makes a description
of that heavenly Jerusalem, the beauty, of it, and in it the maker of it;
"Likening it to a city of pure gold, like unto clear glass, shining and
garnished with all manner of precious stones, having no need of sun or
moon: for the lamb is the light of it, the glory of God doth illuminate it:
to give us to understand the infinite glory, beauty and happiness of it."
Not that it is no fairer than these creatures to which it is compared, but
that this vision of his, this lustre of his divine majesty, cannot
otherwise be expressed to our apprehensions, "no tongue can tell, no heart
can conceive it," as Paul saith. Moses himself, Exod. xxxiii. 18. when he
desired to see God in his glory, was answered that he might not endure it,
no man could see his face and live. _Sensibile forte destruit sensum_, a
strong obje