---

I. TO GLORIFY AND ENJOY GOD ARE THE GREAT ENDS OF OUR CREATION AND REDEMPTION. This is the great and fundamental article of religion. God's design in the creation and government of the world must have been the manifestation of His perfection, and the conferring happiness on intelligent creatures in proportion to their capacities. To what purpose hath God distinguished man with a rational and immortal soul resembling Himself, but to make him capable of religion and eternal life. What the character of God and the nature of man so clearly demonstrate on principles of reason, God hath expressly declared to us in His Word.

II. GOD HAS GIVEN MEN PROPER INFORMATION OF HIS CHARACTER, WILL, AND GRACE AS THEIR RULE OF DUTY AND THEIR GUIDE TO HAPPINESS. The existence of the creation demonstrates the existence of the Creator; its greatness proves His immensity; its order, His wisdom; and the provision made for the happiness of His creatures, His boundless goodness. In every state of man the only perfect rule of religion is Divine revelation, which confirms all the principles of natural religion, and informs us of many things necessary to be known which our own reason could not have discovered. The dispensations of God's providence subserved the design of His revelations for preserving religion and virtue in the world.

III. THAT BEFORE THE COMING OF CHRIST THE WORSHIP OF THE TRUE GOD SHOULD BE GENERALLY FORGOTTEN AND NEGLECTED BY MANKIND. This melancholy truth the history of the world hath but too amply verified. True religion must always have the true God for its object, and His moral character and revealed will for its rule. False religion originates in a departure from the worship of the true God to that of idols; either as objects of religious adoration or as the means of it. To this cause Moses ascribed the idolatry of Israel. The sun, moon, etc., from being worshipped only as representations of God, came to be considered and worshipped as so many distinct deities. As the multitude of gods worshipped by the heathen distracted their religion, and turned it away from the only true God, so their mean and immoral characters shamefully debased it. Religion is the chief part and foundation of moral righteousness. As before the coming of Christ the Gentiles had grossly departed from the knowledge and profession of the true religion, so the Jews had greatly degenerated from the sincere belief and practice of it.

IV. BY THE GOSPEL AND THE GRACE OF CHRIST ALL NATIONS SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO REMEMBER AND TURN UNTO THE LORD. The coming of the Saviour was the era of light, reformation, and happiness to the world As to the proper improvement of these truths, let us ever live under the serious belief and impression that, to glorify and enjoy God, our Creator and Saviour, are the great ends of our existence, and can be attained only by the knowledge and practice of true religion.

(W. Dalgleish, D. D.)

---

---

KJV: All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

WEB: All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you.