Herman Witsius, Sacred Dissertations on the Apostle’s Creed (I:111-112):
The representations and enjoyment of so great a good, cannot fail to be delightful in the highest degree. If separate goods are pleasant, how delightful is that good, which contains the sweetness and quintessence of every good; and not merely such sweetness as we have experienced in created objects, but as widely different from these, as the Creator differs from the creature! All the beauty, all the glory, and all the joy of the material world, are nothing but resplendent beams, emitted and diffused around, by the King of beauty, of glory, and of joy. Whatever things were made, were made by him; and, therefore, whatever goodness is found in the creatures, could be derived from him alone, by whom all were made. The borrowed goodness, consequently, of which they are possessed, is darkened and eclipsed, when compared with that uncreated goodness which is its spring and original. God is, doubtless, a Being, in whose light alone, all that is luminous—in whose glory alone, all that is glorious—in whose beauty alone, all that is beautiful—in whose joy alone, all that is joyful is contained. When he bestowed upon the creatures light, glory, beauty, and joy, he reserved to himself, the source of light, glory, beauty, and joy; and thus he always retained within himself, as the fountain, more than he communicated from himself to the creatures. Ought not, then, the possession of so boundless a good, to produce an almost boundless joy?
