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T
ÑE
SCALE
ÓF
BLESSEDNESS.
tSERM.
X1
/.
ruins
of
our
first
defection from
God, yet
we
are
not
left
in
the darkness
of
heathenism,
on
the
very confines
of
hell: But God
has
exalted
us
neat
to
heaven and
himself, in the
ministrations
of
his word,
and
led
us
in
a
way
to
his
everlasting enjoyment. He
has
built
his
sanc-
tuaries
amongst
us,
and established
his
churches
in
the
midst
of
us.
We are invited
to behold the
beauty
of
the
Lord,
to
return
to
our obedience
and
his
love,
and thus
be
made happy for
ever.
This
is
a
matter of
divine choice
and peculiar
favour.
Blessed England,
whom he
bath
chosen, and
caused to
approach
thus far towards himself
!
And
why was
not
the
polite nation
of
China
chosen too
:
And
why
not
the
poor
savages
of
Africa,
and
the
barbarous
millions
of the
American world? Why
are
they left
in
a dismal
estrange
-
ment
from God, Even
so,
Father, because it pleased
thee,
whose counsels
are unsearchable, and
whose ways
ofjudgment
and mercy
are past
finding out.
Blessed
are the people
who
hear and
know the
joyful
sound,
Ps.
lxxxix.
15.
But there are
degrees
of
this
blessedness, even in the
lands
which enjoy the
gospel.
Blessed
are
they above others,
who dwell
near
to
the
places
of
public
worship, who
sit under
an
enlightening,
a
powerful
and
persuasive
ministry, who have
opportu-
nity
to
hear the
word
of God
often,
and
who
have skill
to
read
it.
Blessed
are
they
who
are born
of
religious parents,
and trained
up in
the early
forms
of
piety;
these
are
still
brought nearer unto God
;
they
are nursed
up, as
it
were,
in his
churches,
and
dwell in his
courts.
And
blessed
are
those who
are devoted
to
the
service
of
the sanctuary, like the priests and levites
of
old, who
were
brought nearest to
God, among
all
Israel;
for
their
civil
employment,
as well as
their
religious
duty,
led them
continually
toward God, heaven and
happi-
ness.
DA
all
these glorious privileges
are not
sufficient
to
ensure eternal
felicity, unless
we
come one step
farther
irI
approaching
to
God.
Second degree
of
Blessedness.
II.
Happy are
those souls
who have
been
taught
to
im-
prove
their
outward advantages
of
nearness
to
God,
so
as to obtain
reconciliation
with
him
by
the blood
of
.5