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SERM.'Xlt.1
9'I1E
SCALE OF
BLESSEDNES.
the
image
of
God
is
restored
to
us
in
holiness
and
in
happiness; Thus
we
are
said
to
he
holy
as
God
is
holy;
and
thus
also
we
are
blessed as
God
is
blessed.
But
though
we
are admitted
to
this
amazing privilege,
and
hold
communion
with
God,
in
the
same
object
of
contemplation and
love, yet
we must
still
remember,
with humble
adoration,
that
his
holiness
and
his
happi-
ness,
does infinitely
exceed ours.
The
pleasures
which
arise from his knowledge
and
his
love
of
himself,
are
as
far
above
our
taste, or
all
our
ideas
of
blessedness, as
heaven
is
higher
than the earth, or
as
God
is' above
the
creatùre.
There
is
another
sense also
of
this phrase,
commu-
nion or
fellowship with
God,
which has
been used
by
many pious writers, when they make
it
to
signify
the
same thing
as
converse
with
God
;
and this
also
depends
upon our
nearness,
or approach
to
_him
:
As
when
a
Christian,
in
secret, pours
out
his
whole
heart
before
God, and
is
made sensible
of
his
gracious presence,
by
the
sweet influences
of
instruction, sanctification,
or
comfort. When
man speaks,
and God
answers,
there
.
is
a
sacred communion, between
God and
man,
h.
lviii.
9
Thou shalt
call,
and the Lord shall
answer.
This
holy
David
often enjoyed,
and
always
sought
after
it.
When
the
soul,
in
secret, complains
of
perplexity and
darkness,
a.ñd
God
is
pleased
to give some
secret
hints
of
direction
and advice;
when the soul
mourns before
God,
confessing guilt,
and
the weakness
of
grace,
and
some divine
promise
is
impressed,
upon
the mind by
the
Holy
Spirit, whence the
Christian
derives peace
of
con-
science,
and strength
to
fulfil duty,
and
to
resist mighty
temptations: These certainly arc
seasons
of
converse
or
communion
with
God.
So when,
in
public worship,
we
address
God
with
our
souls in
fervent
prayer,
and
while
we
hear
the
word
of
God spoken
to
us by
his
ministers,
we
receive
an
answer
to those
prayers
in
the convincing and
sanctifying
im
pressions
which
the word makes
upon
the
heart;
this
is
also
an
hour
of
secret communion:
So
at
the
supper
of
the
Lord, when
with
hope and
joy
we
receive the
bread
and
the wine,
as
divine
seals
of
the faithfulness
of
God's
covenant, and
when
we
transact
those sòlemn, affairs
also
as seals
of
our
faith and
love;
and our engagements