( 206 ) SERMONXII. THE SCALE OF BLESSEDNESS; OR, BLESSED 'SAINTS, BLESSED SAVIOUR, AND BLESSED TRINITY. PSALM 1xv. 4. Blessed is the man whom thou chusest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. THE SECOND PART. BY the entrance of sin into the world, man was first separated from God and happiness: God in righteous anger withdrew from his creature man ; and man, obey- ing the dictates of his own impious folly, runs farther away from his Maker God; He is born like a wild ass's colt, unknowning and thoughtless: and like a colt he runs wild in the forest of this world, roving amongst a thousand vanities in quest of happiness, but afar off from God still. He seeks substantial and pleasant food, but be meets with broad barren sands in the wilderness, or with brakes, and briars, and bitter weeds. He follows every foolish fire of fancy, till he is led into many a pit and precipice: He rises again, and changes the chase: He fl s perpetually from object to object, but finds ever- lasting disappointment: Shadows, and painted hopee, flatter and tire, and delude him, till he lies down andde spairs in death. This is the case of mankindby nature; they live igno- rant of God, and wilfully blind to their own felicity. Fatal blindness, and wretched mankind ! But blessed be God, that he has not renounced and abandoned all our race for ever, and fixed us in a state of eternal sepa- ration from him!! Blessed be God, whohas chosen, and already called many of the wanderers to himself again ! He has built dwellings for himself on earth; he has ap- pointed means for our return, and invites all to ap- proach him, Good David had a full and lively sense hereof, when he wrote the words of this song: Blessed is -the man whom thou cirusest, and causest to approach
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