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SERM.
XI.]
'THE
FELICITY
OF
CREATURES.
199
to the blessedness
of
saints
arid angels.
God sent
his
word after Adam the sinner, when he
fled
from him
in
'paradise,
that
he
might
retal
man back to himself;
and
he
has
been
ever
since
sending
messages
of
peace,
and
invitations of
love, to
a ruined and rebellious world.
Happy
sinners, who
hear the
voice
of
an
inviting God,
who
turn their
back upon the perishing vanities
of
life
and
time, who
forsake the creatures,
and
return
to
their
Creator
again
!
Thousands of
the sons
and daughters
of
Adam
have
accepted
the
messages
of
this grace,
and
have been
by
these
methods
trained up
for
glory
:
Bycon-
versing with
God
in his
ordinances, and dwelling in
his
courts on earth,
they have been
happily
prepared
fel-
on everlasting
habitation
in his
court
of
heaven.
We
this
day
are favoured
with
the same divine call in the gospel
;
let
every soul
of
us
rejoice and
follow.
V. Reflection.
The true
value
of
things on
earth
may
be
judged
of
and
determined
by
their tendency
to bring
us
near
to
God
and
heaven.
The
common measure.
of
our
esteem
of
things,
is
the
influence they have to
pro-
mote what
we
think our happiness. Now,
if
our
judg-
ment
be
set
right
in
this point, and
we
.
are
convinced
that
an
approach
to
God
is
the
way
to
be
happy,
then
whatsoever leads
us
nearest
to
God,
will
rise in value in
our
esteem.
Then our hearts
will
set
a
high
esteem on those friends
or
relatives
who draw us to
the
knowledge
and
love
of
God
:
Then
we
shall prize
the
ministrations
of
the gos-
pel
in
England above.the riches
of
both the
Indies
;
then
we
shall
not
think
the
ministry
of
the word a mean
and
contemptible
employment,
nor delight
to
hear scandals
thrown
on
the persons or the
characters
of
those
who
are
engaged
in
it;
fòr these
are
the servants
of
the living
God,
who shew us
the
way
to be
happy.
Then
we
shall
commend those sermons, and those writings
most,
not
that
have most
wit
and
fancy
in
them,
but
those.
which
we
feel
and
find to
draw
our hearts farthest
off from sin
and the
creature, and bring them nearest
to
God;
and
then,
if
there
were
but
one
bible
in
the
world,
we
should
all
agree to
say,
tl`tat
there
is
not
treasure enough
in
all
the material creation
to
purchase
it
out
of our
hands,
VI.
Reflection,
All
the means
of
separation from
04