284 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS., provocations that have been given to some men, or which they have taken to themselves, which they have thought they could revenge by a neglect of public ad- ministrations, or through slavish peace and negligence in times of difficulty, as is the manner of some, who forsake the assemblies of the saints. Heb. vi. 25. Yet, I never saw, but it issued in a great decay, if not in an utter loss of all exercise of faith and love, and some- times in open profaneness. For such persons con- temn the ways and means, which God in his infinite wisdom and goodness hath . appointed for their exercise and increase ; and this shall not prosper. We may therefore do well to consider, that the principal way whereby we may sanctify the nameof God, in all du- ties of his worship, and obtain the benefit of them to our own souls, is by a conscientious approach to them with a holy desire anddesign to be found in the exer- cise of faith and love on God in Christ, and tobe help- ed and guided therein lay them. To be under an efficacious influence from this de- sign, is the best preparation for any duty. So `David expresseth his delight in the worship of God. `How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.' Psal. lxxxiv. 1, 2. He longed for the tabernacle, and the courts of it, but it was the enjoyment of God him- self, the living God, that he desired and sought after. This was that which made him so fervent in his desires after those ordinances of God. So he expresseth it, Psal. lxiii. 2. ' To see thy power and thy glory, so as 1 have seen thee in the sanctuary.' David h ad had great communion with and delight in God by faith and love in the solemn duties of his worship. At this
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