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kl:]
THE
FELICITY
OF
CREATURES.
tures are
'possessed
of,
according
to
their
advancing
ap-
proaches
toward God
:
But
my
meditations
dilate
them-
selves
here to
so
large an
extent, as
makes
it
necessary
to
adjourn
this
thought
to
the next
discourse. I proceed
therefore
to
the
H.
Reflection.
What
unknown
evil
is
contained
in
the
nature
of
every
sin,
for
it
divides the
creature
from
God
and from
happiness
?
It
may be
said
to
every soul
on
earth,
as
it
was
once said to
Israel;
Your iniquities
have
separated
between
you
and your God,
Is.
lix.
2.
What a
world
of
endless mischief was comprized
in
the
first
sin
of
Adam, whereby this lower
creation
`was,
as
it
were,
cut
off from
God
at
once
?
Man
was
at
first
happy
in the image and
love
of
his
Maker,
a
-kin to
him
by na-
ture and creation,
as
a
son to a
father
:
Adam
was
the
Son
of God
;
Luke
iii. 38.
and
he
enjoyed the privilege
and
the
pleasure
of
holy
nearness
to
God, and
humble
converse
with
hirh.
He read
the name
of
his
Maker
in
all.
his
works;
he
could contemplate divine
wisdom,
power,.
and goodness,
there;
he loved his
Creator
with
allhis
soul,
and
was
happy
in his
Creator's
love.
But
when
sin
entered, Adam
fled
from
his
heavenly
Father,
and
his
friend;
he hid
himself among the trees
in
the
garden, when the
voice
of
the
Lord
called
after
him,
Adam,
where
art
thou?
And
it
has been the dismal
de-
scription
of
sinners ever
since,
that
they
are afar
off from
God.
O
what tongue can
express,
or what
heart
can
con-
ceive,
the
immense.load, and
everlasting
train of
mis-
chiefs
and
miseries,
that
lie
heavy on
poor
mankind, and
have pursued human nature,
in all
the infinite members
and branches
of
it,
through
all ages
and nations, for al-
most
six
thousand years?
All these were
introduced
by
man's
first disobedience.
We
are
a sinful race
of
crea-
tures,
born
in
the likeness
of
the original
sinner; We
come
into the
world estranged from
God, and
go
astray
from the womb; for
we
were shapen
in
iniquity,
and
conceived in
sin
;
Ps.
Iviii.
3.
and
li.
5.
It
is
the
tem-
per and
.spirit
of
mankind,
by
nature,
to desire
an
ab-
sence from
God, and
to wish
their
own misery
;
Job
xxi.
14, 15.
What
is
the
Almighty
that
we
should.serve
him
Depart
from
us,
for
we
desire
not the
knowledge
of
thy
ways.
.By nature
we
love him not,
nor
do
we seek,
after
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