222 THE SbALE OF BLESSEDNESS. [SEEM. Zit - supreme felicity consists, so far as we are capable of being acquainted with it. The only reflection with which I 'shall conclude the subject, is this, that communion with God,, which' has been impiously ridiculed by the profane wits of the last and the present age, is no such visionary and fantastic notion as they imagine ; but as it is founded in the words of scripture, so it may be explained with great ease and evidence to the satisfaction of human reason. That it is founded in scripture, appears sufficiently in several verses of the xvii. chapter of St. John's gospel, where the divine union and blessedness of the Father and the Son, are made a pattern of ou'r union to God, And our blessedness; John xvii. 21, 22, 23, 26. That they -all may be one, as-thou, lather, art in me, and I in thee; that they may beone in us: And in this sense, but in a lower degree, even here on earth, our communion, or fellowship, is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, 1 John i. 3. Though our communionwith Christ includes also some particular varieties in it, which is not my present business to explain. That this doctrine is exactly agreeable to reason, may be thus demonstrated : We use the word communion, when two or more per- sons partake of the same thing. So friends have commu- nion in one table when they dine together : Christians have communion in one sermon, in one prayer, or one sacrament, when they join together in those parts of worship; and the saints have communion with God in blessedness, when they rejoice in the same object of contemplation and love. God surveys himself, he is pleased with his own glories, delights in himself as the highest and the noblest object; he trusts in his own right-hand bf power, he leans upon his own understand- ing, he rests in his own counsels andpurposes, he feels, and he acknowledges all his own infinite perfections, and thus he enjoys them all. Thus also is our blessedness frequently set forth in scripture. It is our happiness to knowGod, to contemplate his glories, so.far as theyare revealed; to love him and his goodness; to trust in his wisdom, and lean securely on his strength ; to feel the workings of divine powers and graces in. and upon us, and to make acknowledgment of them all to God. Thus
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