ëììm is §EfuiÍoN %l. lea 1nost exalted love. But for me to know, and to love the best of beings, cannot make me completely happy, unless I am beloved of himAlso, and unless I feel that he loves me: Happiness re= quires mutual love: III: The third ingredient therefore of our felicity; and that Which perfects the blessedness of a creature, it, the delightful sense of the ,love of au almighty friend: To know; to love; and to bebeloved by such a being; must complete our 'bliss; one who hath all beauty, and all goodness in himself; one who can free us from every pain, secure us against every peril, and con- fer upon us everypleasure. This is the perfection of our heaven; when all these are enjoyed in a perfect degree; without anyalloy: Now such is the state of those who are Chosen and caused to approachunto God, so as to know him; and love him ; that they have thechiefest advantages to obtain the assurance and taste of his love: The man whom the Psalmist pronounces blessed in my text, hopes for this pleasure in,the house of God; that he shall be satisfied with the divine goodness there. The loving-kindnessof God is life; or something better than life; Pa: Ixüi: 3. and to have a sensation of this loving-kindness; is to feel that I live: To think, to know, and to be assured that I am beloved, by anall-sufficient power, who can do more for me than I can ask or think, in life, and death, and in eternity; and to havepleasing and spiritual sensations of this shed abroad in the heart ;; this raises the christian near to the upper heaven, while he dwells onearth, and he rejoices withjoy unspeakable, andfull of glory: Some may object here and say, Is it no part of our blessed- ness then to love the saints, to rejoicein their love; tocontemplate the works of God, and his wonders in creation and providence ? ,Answer, 'Yes surely ; and wehave allowed it before ; But when we take true satisfaction in any of these, it is as they proceed from God, as they relate to 'God, and lead our souls to centre in him ; for God, who isthe first cause, must be the last end of all, and no creatures, as divided fromhim, can make us either holy or happy. I proceed to make some improvement of the few thoughts E have deliveredon this subject. I. My first reflection should be upon'the scale of blessedness; ór the several degrees of felicity that creatures are possessed of, according. to their advancing approaches toward God : But my meditations dilate themselves' here to so largeairextent, asmakes it necessary to adjourn this thought to thenext discourse. Ipro- ceed therefore to the II. Reflection, What unknown evil is contained in thena- ture of every sm, for it divides the creature from God and from ßs2
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=