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SEAM.
XII.1
THE
SCALE
OF
BLESSEDNESS.
207
unto
thee,
that
he may dwell in
thy courts Whence
I
derived
this
doctrine
in
the foregoing
sermon.
Doctrine.
Nearness
to
God
is
the foundation
of
a
creature's happiness.
This doctrine
appeared
in full evidence,
while
we
con-
sidered
the
three chief ingredients
of
true
felicity, viz.
the
contemplation
of
the
noblest
object, to satisfy all
the
powers
of
the
understanding;
the
love
of
the supreme
good,
to
answer the utmost propensities
of
the will;
and
the sweet
and
everlasting sensation and
assurance
of
the
love
of
an almighty friend,
who
will
free us from
all
the
evils
which
our nature
can fear,
and confer upon
us
all
the good which
a
wise
and innocent creature
can desire.
Thus
all the
capacities
of
man
are
employed in
their
highest and sweetest exercises and enjoyments.
Now
it
isGod
alone, the
great and
ever
blessed
God,
who
can
furnish
us with all these
materials
of
blessedness, who
can refine
our natures, and
who
can
thus
engage
and,
entertain
all
the powers
and appetites
of
our natures re-
fined.
Having
finished
what
I
designed in the
explication and
proof
of
this
doctrine,
I
proceeded
to make various
re-
flexions
for
oùr
information and practice. But the
me-
ditation
which
I
proposed, and reserved for
this
dis
course,
was
the sacred
scale
of
blessedness,
or
the seve-
ral degrees
of
felicity,
that
creatures
are possessed
of
according
to
their advancing approaches
toward
God
;
and
we
shall find blessedness, in its
highest perfection, to
Wong
only
to God
himself.
First
degree
of
BLESSEDNESS.
I. Happy are
they
who,
though they are sinners by
nature, yet are
brought
so
near to God,
as
to
be
within
the sound and call
of
his
grace.
In
this
sense
the whole
nation
of
the
Jews
was
a peo-
ple
near unto
God,
for
he
shewed
his
word unto
Jacob,
his
statutes and
his
judgments unto Israel;
and upon this
account
they were happy,
in
ancient
ages,
above all
kingdoms
of
the earth,
P,s.
cxlvii.
and
cxlviii.
Happy
those countries where
the
apostles
of
Christ
planted
the
gospel,
and
brought
grace and salvation
near
fhetn,
though they
were
before
at
a
dreadful distance
from
God! Happy
Britons
in
our
age! Though
we
are
involved, with
the rest
of
mankind,
in the
common
4