them describe what they do know by experience. Nay, we look on it as a great aifair to get news from Spain, Italy, France, or any corner of the world; and there are some so curious in this respect that they prefer to go without their meals rather than lose the latest news, although we know very well that such news is often a mere fabrication; yet it pleases us to gratify our curiosity and to be able to talk about what is going on in the world. Oh, how great then will be the delight and pleasure of the mind in the kingdom of heaven, when all history shall be clear and evident to us as well as all science without bewildering us with multiplicity or confusing us with the vast variety of subjects! Oh, Christian faith, provided thou art kept alive by good works, what a great reward awaits thee in heaven!
The will shall be filled with joy in the possession of all imaginable goods. There is still another faculty of the soul, the will, which is the proper seat of joy; this too shall be filled to overflowing with delights, and shall swim in an ocean of pleasure. The human will enjoys complete felicity and perfect pleasure when it has all it desires, and in the way in which it desires. To no purpose should we seek such happiness in this vale of tears; here we have no joy without care and trouble; nor has there ever been a man since the world was made who always had all his desires satisfied; even that most fortunate of kings, Solomon, in the midst of his riches, honors, and carnal pleasures, complained in the bitterness of his heart. If we are not wanting in one thing we are in another; and if we sometimes taste a little pleasure, it lasts a very short time, or otherwise we get disgusted with it. If there is any one on earth who has all he wishes and as he wishes, it is in my opinion the man who wills what God wills, and neither wishes nor desires anything but what God wills. Heaven of joys! thou art the city of rest, in which every wish and desire of the will shall be completely fulfilled and satisfied for all eternity! “But as for me, I will appear before Thy sight in justice: I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear.”[1] Such are the words in which David expresses his joy at the thought of heaven. Here on a royal throne, in the midst of treasnres and riches, and all the delights of sense, I am only a poor beggar; it is only hereafter that my hunger shall be fully appeased. Truly, “I shall be satisfied;” in heaven I shall have everything I wish for, and as long as I wish to have it; nor will satiety cause me disgust, or weariness, or
- ↑ Ego autem in justitia apparebo conspectui tuo: satiabor cum apparuerit gloria tua.—Ps. xvi. 15.
