ll in all, the Beginning and
Original of Being, the Perfect Idea of their goodness and the end of
their motion." In the calming illumination of this clarified vision,
the good man, in whose soul religion has flowered, "is no longer
solicitous whether this or that good thing be mine, or whether my
perfections exceed the measure of this or that particular Creature, for
whatever good he beholds anywhere he enjoys and delights in as much as
if it were his own, and whatever he beholds in himself he looks upon
not as his _property_ but _as a common good_; for all these Beams come
from one and the same Fountain and Ocean of Light in whom he loves them
all with an universal Love. When his affections run along the stream
of any created excellencies, whether his own or any one's else, yet
they stay not here but run on until they fall into the Ocean; they do
not settle into a fond love and admiration either of himself or any
other's excellencies, but he owns them as so many Pure Effluxes and
Emanations from God, and in any particular Being loves the Universal
Goodness. Thus a good man may walk up and down the world as in a
Garden of Spices and suck a Divine Sweetness out of every flower.
There is a twofold meaning in every Creature: a Literal and Mystical; a
good man says of everything that his Senses offer to him: it speaks to
his lower part but it points out something above to his Mind and
Spirit. . . . True Religion never finds it self out of the Infinite
Sphere of Divinity and wherever it finds Beauty, Harmony, Goodness,
Love, Ingenuity, Wisdom, Holiness, Justice, and the like, it is ready
to say: _Here is God_. Wheresoever any such Perfections shine out, an
holy Mind climbs up by these Sunbeams and raises up it self to
God. . . . A good man finds every place he {316} treads upon _Holy
Ground_; to him the world is God's Temple."[36]

The supreme instance of the revelation of the Universal through the
particular, of the invisible through the visible, the Divine through
the human, is seen in Christ. It was precisely such an event as might
have been expected, for "the Divine Bounty and Fulness has always been
manifesting Itself to the spirits of men." Those who have lived by
inward insight have perpetually found themselves "hanging upon the arms
of Immortal Goodness." At length, in this One Life the Divine Goodness
blossomed into perfect flower and revealed its Nature to men. In Him
divinity and humanity are absolutely