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196
NEARNESS TO
GOD
[SEAM. X1.
cannot
make me completely happy, unless
I.
am beloved
of
him also,
and
unless.
I
feel
that
he loves me.
Happi-
ness
requires mutual
love.
III.
The third ingredient therefore
of
our
felicity, and
that
which
perfects
the blessedness
of
a
creature,
is,
the
delightful
sense
of
the
love
of
an almighty friend. To
know, to love, and to
be
beloved
by
such
a
being,
must
complete
our
bliss
;
one
who
hath
all
beauty,
and
all
goodness
in
himself; one
who
can free us from
every
pain, secure
us,
against
every
peril,,
and confer upon
us
every
pleasure.
This
is
the perfection
of our
heaven,
when all these
are
enjoyed
in
a perfect
degree, without
any
alloy.
Now
such
is
the state of
those who
are
chosen
and caused
to
approach unto God,
so
as to know him,
and
love
him;
that
they
have
the
chiefest advantages
to
obtain
the assurance
and taste
of
his love.
The
man
whom the
Psalmist pronounces
blessed in
my
text,
hopes
for
this
pleasure
in the house
of
God,
that
he
shall
be sa-
tisfied with
thedivine
goodness
there.
The
loving- kindness
of
.God
is life,
or
something bet-
ter
than
life;
Ps.
lxiii.
3.
and
to
have
a sensation
of
this
loving
-
kindness,
is
to
feel
that
I
live.
To
think, to
know,
and to be assured
that
I
am beloved,
by
an all -
sufficient power, who can do
more
for
me
than
I
can ask
or
think,
in
life,
and death, and
in
eternity,
and. to
have
pleasing and
spiritual
sensations
of
this
shed abroad
in
the
heart
;
this raises the
christian
near
to the
upper
heaven, while
he dwells on
earth, and
he rejoices
with
joy
unspeakable, and
full
of
glory.
Some may
object here
and
say,
Is it
no
part of
our
blessedness
then
to
love
the
saints, to rejoice in their
love,
to contemplate the
works
of
God, and
his
wonders
in
creation and providence
?
Answer,
Yes surely;
and
we
have allowed
it
before
;
But when
we
take true
satis-
faction
in
any
of
these;
it
is
as
they
proceed
from
God,
'as they relate
to
God, and lead our
souls to
centre
in
him;
for God, who
is
the first cause, must
be
the last
end
of
all,
and
no
creatures,
as
divided from
him,' can
make
us
either
holy
or happy.
I
'
proceed
to
make
some
improvement
of
the
few
thoughts
I
have
delivered on
this subject.
I. My first reflection should
be
upon the
scale
of
blessedness,
or
the several degrees
of
felicity
that
crea-