SERM.'Xlt.1 9'I1E SCALE OF BLESSEDNES. the image of God is restored to us in holiness and in happiness; Thus we are said to he holy as God is holy; and thus also we are blessed as God is blessed. But though we are admitted to this amazing privilege, and hold communion with God, in the same object of contemplation and love, yet we must still remember, with humble adoration, that his holiness and his happi- ness, does infinitely exceed ours. The pleasures which arise from his knowledge and his love of himself, are as far above our taste, or all our ideas ofblessedness, as heaven is higher than the earth, or as God is' above the creatùre. There is another sense also of this phrase, commu- nion or fellowship with God, which has been used by many pious writers, when they make it to signify the same thing as converse with God ; and this also depends upon our nearness, or approach to _him : As when a Christian, in secret, pours out his whole heart before God, and is made sensible of his gracious presence, by the sweet influences of instruction, sanctification, or comfort. When man speaks, and God answers, there . is a sacred communion, between God and man, h. lviii. 9 Thou shalt call, and the Lord shall answer. This holy David often enjoyed, and always sought after it. When the soul, in secret, complains of perplexity and darkness, a.ñd God is pleased to give some secret hints of direction and advice; when the soul mourns before God, confessing guilt, and the weakness of grace, and some divine promise is impressed, upon the mind by the Holy Spirit, whence the Christian derives peace of con- science, and strength to fulfil duty, and to resist mighty temptations: These certainly arc seasons of converse or communion with God. So when, in public worship, we address Godwith our souls in fervent prayer, and while we hear the word of God spoken to us by his ministers, we receive an answer to those prayers in the convincing and sanctifying im pressions which the word makes upon the heart; this is also an hour of secret communion: So at the supper of the Lord, when with hope and joy we receive the bread and the wine, as divine seals of the faithfulness of God's covenant, and when we transact those sòlemn, affairs also as seals of our faith and love; and our engagements
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