Church of England -- Sermons; Ethics; Sermons, English
When we speak of things so much above our comprehension as the employment
and happiness of a future state, doubtless it behoves us to speak with
all modesty and distrust of ourselves. But the Scripture represents the
happiness of that state under the notions of _seeing God_, _seeing Him as
He is_, _knowing as we are known_, _and seeing face to face_. These
words are not general or undetermined, but express a particular
determinate happiness. And I will be bold to say that nothing can
account for or come up to these expressions but only this, that God
Himself will be an object to our faculties, that He Himself will be our
happiness as distinguished from the enjoyments of the present state,
which seem to arise not immediately from Him but from the objects He has
adapted to give us delight.
To conclude: Let us suppose a person tired with care and sorrow and the
repetition of vain delights which fill up the round of life; sensible
that everything here below in its best estate is altogether vanity.
Suppose him to feel that deficiency of human nature before taken notice
of, and to be convinced that God alone was the adequate supply to it.
What could be more applicable to a good man in this state of mind, or
better express his present wants and distant hopes, his passage through
this world as a progress towards a state of perfection, than the
following passages in the devotions of the royal prophet? They are
plainly in a higher and more proper sense applicable to this than they
could be to anything else. _I have seen an end of all perfection_. _Whom
have I in heaven but Thee_? _And there is none upon earth that I desire
in comparison of Thee_. _My flesh and may heart faileth_: _but God is
the strength of my heart and my portion for ever_. _Like as the hart
desireth the water-brooks_, _so longeth my soul after Thee_, _O God_. _My
soul is athirst for God_, _yea_, _even for the living God_: _when shall I
come to appear before Him_? _How excellent is Thy loving-kindness_, _O
God_! _and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of
Thy wings_. _They shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of Thy
house_: _and Thou shalt give them drink of Thy pleasures_, _as out of the
river_. _For with Thee is the well of life_: _and in Thy light shall we
see light_. _Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest_, _and receivest unto
Thee_: _he shall dwell in Thy court_, _and shall be satisfied with the
pleasures of Thy house_, _even of Thy holy temple_. _Blessed is the
people_, _O Lord_, _that can rejoice in Thee_: _they shall walk in the
light of Thy countenance_. _Their delight shall be daily in Thy name_,
_and in Thy righteousness shall they make their boast_. _For Thou art
the glory of their strength_: _and in Thy lovingkindness they shall be
exalted_. _As for me_, _I will behold Thy presence in righteousness_:
_and when I awake up after Thy likeness_, _I shall be satisfied with it_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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