brother of Martha and Mary, whom Jesus Christ raised from the dead, (John xi. 43, 44;) for he also is raised from the death of sin, and out of the grave of his own corruptions, and set at liberty to live the new life of faith and love, through the resurrection-power of the same incarnate God.
108. In the proportion in which any man is enabled to say to his heavenly Father, from the ground of an interior perception, All mine are Thine, (John xvii. 10,) in the same proportion he is enabled also to say, from the same perception, All Thine are mine: in other words, so far as man acknowledges from a humble and grateful heart, that all his property, both mental and corporeal, is God’s more than his own; so far also it is given him to perceive, to his utter astonishment and most complete gratification, that, according to his capacity of reception, all the most blessed things of God are his, viz. the Divine love, wisdom, providence, grace, and protection.
109. There appears to be an equilibrium of joy and sorrow necessary to constitute the perfection of human happiness, for, if either preponderate, the happiness is proportionably diminished. Man can as little bear an excess of the one as of the other, and each seems intended as a counterpoise to the other, to prevent that excess. Thus, the deepest afflictions and trials are rendered, under the Divine Providence, subservient to the best purposes of blessing, by checking the in temperance and thoughtlessness of man’s natural delights, and thus making them spiritual, by connecting them with their Divine Fountain. Hence come
