nd mercy, and whoso
counts the Son worthy to be a Saviour to them, and sets to their seal of
approbation to him whom God the Father hath sent and sealed, he also
honours the Father, and then he that honoureth the Father, hath it not for
nothing, "for them that honour me I will honour," 1 Sam ii. 30, says the
Lord, and "he that serves me, him will my Father honour," John xii. 26. As
the believing soul cares for no other, and respects no other but God, so
he respects no other but such a soul. "I will dwell in the humble, and
look unto the contrite," there are mutual respects and honours. God is the
delight of such a soul, and such a soul is God's delight. That soul sets
God in a high place, in a throne in its heart, and God sets that soul in a
heavenly place with Christ, Eph. ii. 6, yea he comes down to sit with us
and dwells in us, off his throne of majesty, Isa. lxvi. 1, 2, and lvii.
15.
Lecture II.
Union And Communion With God The End And Design Of The Gospel
Psalm lxxiii. 24-28.--"Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, &c.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? &c. It is good for me to draw near
to God."--1 John i. 3. "That which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly
our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus
Christ."--John xvii. 21-23. "That they all may be one, as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us,
&c."
It is a matter of great consolation that God's glory and our happiness are
linked together, so that whoever set his glory before them singly to aim
at, they take the most compendious and certain way to true blessedness.
His glory is the ultimate end of man, and should be our great and last
scope. But our happiness--which consists in the enjoyment of God--is
subordinate to this, yet inseparable from it. The end of our creation is
communion and fellowship with God, therefore man was made with an immortal
soul capable of it, and this is the greatest dignity and eminency of man
above the creatures. He hath not only impressed from God's finger, in his
first moulding, some characters resembling God, in righteousness and
holiness, but is created with a capacity of receiving more of God by
communion with him. Other creatures have already all they will have,--all
they can have,--of conformity to him, but man is made liker than all, and
is fitte
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