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SERMON
XII.
THE
SCALE OF BLESSEDNESS; OR, BLESSED
'SAINTS,
BLESSED SAVIOUR,
AND
BLESSED
TRINITY.
PSALM 1xv.
4.
Blessed
is
the
man whom thou chusest and causest to approach unto
thee,
that
he
may
dwell
in
thy
courts.
THE
SECOND
PART.
BY
the
entrance of
sin
into the
world, man
was
first
separated
from
God
and
happiness: God
in
righteous
anger
withdrew
from
his
creature
man
;
and
man, obey-
ing the dictates
of
his own
impious
folly,
runs farther
away
from
his
Maker
God;
He
is
born
like
a
wild ass's
colt,
unknowning and thoughtless: and like
a
colt
he
runs
wild
in the
forest of
this world, roving amongst
a
thousand vanities
in
quest
of
happiness,
but afar
off from
God
still.
He
seeks
substantial and pleasant
food,
but
be
meets
with
broad barren sands in the wilderness,
or
with brakes,
and
briars, and
bitter
weeds.
He
follows
every
foolish
fire
of
fancy, till
he
is
led
into many
a
pit
and precipice:
He
rises again,
and
changes
the
chase:
He
fl s
perpetually
from object
to
object,
but
finds
ever-
lasting disappointment:
Shadows,
and
painted
hopee,
flatter
and tire,
and delude
him,
till he
lies
down
and
de
spairs
in
death.
This
is
the
case
of
mankind
by
nature;
they live igno-
rant of
God, and
wilfully
blind to their
own
felicity.
Fatal
blindness, and
wretched mankind
!
But
blessed
be God,
that
he
has
not renounced and abandoned
all
our
race for
ever,
and
fixed us
in a
state
of eternal sepa-
ration
from
him!!
Blessed
be
God,
who
has chosen,
and
already
called many
of
the
wanderers
to
himself again
!
He
has
built
dwellings for himself
on
earth;
he
has
ap-
pointed
means for
our return,
and invites
all to
ap-
proach
him,
Good David had a
full
and
lively
sense
hereof,
when
he
wrote the words
of
this
song:
Blessed
is
-the
man
whom
thou
cirusest,
and
causest
to
approach