210 THE SCALE OF BLESSEDNESS. [SERM. XII. Me iiisicknessand sorrow, in anguish and mortal agonies, and ready to receive mydeparting spirit into the arms Of his love ! o that the formal and nominal christian, who attends divine worship, would but once be persuaded, that if be come one step nearer to Ged, his happiness will re- ceive almost an infinite advance ! Let the shadows lead him to the substance; let the image in The glass. allure him to converse with the original beauty, and the ordi- nances òf grace bring him near to the-God ofgrace ! Let himnelonger content himself with pictures of happiness, but give himself up.. entirely to the Lord, and be made possessor of solid and substantial felicity. Blessed is the man who has renouncedsin and the world, and his heart is over-powered by - divine- goodness, and brought near to God in his holy covenant. Yet thereäre degrees of- blessedness among the'saints on earth. Blessed is every-soul whose state and nature are changed; whó is not.a stranger, but a son : but more blessed are those sens who are most like their heavenly Father, and keep closest to him in all their ways! Bless- ed are they abOve- others in the holy family, who seldom wander from their God, whose hearts are always in a heavenly frame,. and whose graces and virtues brighten and improve daily, and makea continual and joyful ad- vance toward the state Of glory! - Third degree of 13LESSEDNESS.- III. Now let us raise our thoughts, and wonder at the blessedness of -the saints -andangels in the upper world: and blessed are those spirits, whether they belong to bo- dies' or not, whom the Lord has chosen, and caused to approach so near him, as to dwell and abide in his higher teourts! :They'are fully satisfied with the goodness of his house, even of his holy temple. The saints are esta- blished as pillars in this temple of God, and shall go-no more-out They approach him in their sublime methods ofworship, without the medium of types and ordinances : They see- God face_ to face, 1 Cor. áiii. 12. Though ,ordinances. in the church on earth are means of drawing near; yet in that very thing they are also tokens of some degree of estrangement.. The saints above are conk atautly before the throne, or night- a4 d day serving the
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