SERMON XII. The Scale of, Blessedness: Or, Blessed Saints, Blessed Saviour, and Blessed Trinity. PSALM Isv.4.Blessedis the manwhomthonchoosest, and eausest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy coots. THE SECOND PART. BY the entranceof sin into the world, man was first separated from God and happiness : God in righteous anger withdrew from his creature man ; and man, obeying the dictates of his own im- piousfolly, runs farther away from his Maker God ; He is born likea wild ass's colt, unknowing and thoughtless : and like acolt he runs wild in the forest of this world, roving amongst a thou- sand vanities in quest of happiness, but afar off from God still. He seeks substantial and pleasant food, but he meets with broad barren sands in the wilderness, or with brakes, and briars, and bitterweeds. He follows every foolish fire of fancy, till he is led into many a pit and precipice ; He rises again, and changes the chase : He flies perpetually from object to object, but finds ever- lastingdisappointment : Shadows, and painted hopes, flatter and tire, and delude him, till he lies down and despairs in death. This is the case of mankind by nature ; they live ignorant of God, and wilfully blind to their own felicity. Fatal blindness and wretched mankind! But blessed be God, that he has not renounced and abandoned all our race for ever, and fixed us in a state of eternal separation from him ! Blessed be God,who has chosen, and already called many of the wanderers to himself again ! He hasbuilt dwellings for himself on earth ; he has ap- pointed means for our return, and invites all to approach him. Good David had a full and lively sense hereof when he wrote the words of this song Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, andcausest to approach unto thee, that hemay dwell in thy courts: Whence I deriveel this doctrine in the foregoing sermon. Doctrine. Nearness to God is the foundationof acreature's happiness. This doctrine appeared in full evidence, while we considered the three chief ingredients of true felicity, viz. the contemplation of the noblest object, to satisfy all the powers of the understand- ing, the love of the supreme good, to answer-the utmost propen-
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