PART t. SERMON XI. 165 vain flatteries, are ever flying from their embraces; they delude their pursuit in this world, and shall vanish all at once at the moment of death, and leave them in everlasting sorrow. Let the sensualist sport himselfin his own deceivings, and bless himself inthe midst of his madness : Let therich worldling say, " Soul take thine ease,for thybarns and thy chests arefull." Let the mere philosopher glory that lie has found happiness out let himbusyhiniself in refined subtilties, and swell in the pride of his reason : let all these pretenders to felicity, compliment each other, ifthey please, or call themselves the only happy men ; yet the meanest, and the weakest of all the saints, would not make an exchange with them ; for the saint is brought nigh to God : And though his poverty here be never so great . and his understanding never so contemptible, yet he knows this great truth well, that to exchange God for the creature, would be infinite loss, andmisery unspeakable. Theywho never drew near to God, who never saw God in his works orhis word, so as to love him above all things, and'partakeof his love, must be miserable in spite of all their pretences : They that are far fromGod shallperish ; Ps. lxxiii. 27. IV. Reflection. God has not utterly abandoned this world to sin and. misery, .while he keeps his word and his ordinancesin it : For these are his appointed means of approaching to him, and steps whereby we may climb to the blessednessof saints and angels. God sent his word after Adam the sinner, when he fled from him in paradise, that he might recal man back tohimself; and he has been ever since sending messages ofpeace, and invi- tations of love, to a ruinedand rebellious world. Happy sinners, whohear the voiceof an invitingGod, wile turn their back upon the perishing vanitiesof life and time, who forsake the creatures, and return to their Creator again ! Thousands of the sons and daughters of Adam have accepted the messages of this grace, and have been by these methods trained up for glory By conversing with God in his ordinances, and dwelling in his courts on earth, they have been happily prepared for an everlast- ing habitation inhis court of heaven. We this day are favoured with the same'divinccall in the gospel ; let every soul ofus rejoice and follow. V. Reflection. The true value of things on earth may be judged of and determined by their tendency to bring us near to God and heaven. The common measure of our esteem of things, is the influence they have to promote what we think our happiness. Now, if ourjudgment be set right in this point, and we areconvinced that an approach to God is the way to be happy, na 3
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