231 APPEARANCE ñEFORE COD CSERffi, %Tir, liness found in the governing parts of this family ! And I am persuaded, that not the parlour only, but the meaner rooms are witnesses of devotion and pious dis- course: But we are none of us above the need of self- enquiry; and as we all appear with our bodies to wor- ship God daily, methinks I would not have one soul among us absent fromGod in this daily worship. 'Thus I have finished the first general head of my dis- course Secondly, The words of the text discover to us an earnest longing after divine ordinances, and the presence of God in them. . This abundantly appears also in seve- -rai parts of this psalm: Howmournfully doth the Psalm- ist complain, and what a painful sense he expresses of -his long absence from the house of God ! verses 3, 4. What a sweet and sorrowful recollection he makes'of past seasons of delight in worship? My tears have been my meat day and night, my soul is cast down and dis- quieted, I remember when Iwent with the multitude to -the house of God, with the voice ofjoy and praise; but now God seems to have forgotten Inc, verse 9. How earnestly Both he breathe after the sanctuary ? Ps. lxiii rand lxxxiv. to see -thy power, O God, and thy glory, as he had seen it there. He borrows metaphors and simi- litudes from some of the most vehement appetites of na- ture to signify his strong desires after God ; my flesh' ..thirsteth- for thee, even fainteth for the courts of the living God.) And thisis the blessed temper of a christiarì, when is his right frame ; he is never satisfied when quite re- strained from divine ordinances,, whether by persecution by banishment, by the unreasonable laws of men, or by afflictions and weaknesses laid on him by the hand of God. He thinks over again those seasons wherein he enjoyed the presence of God in worship, and the recol- lection of them increases his desires of their return. He watches every turn of providence, and hopes it is working towards his release: When he sees the doers of his prison begin to open, he is ready to break out of con- finement, and seize the pleasure of public-worship.: He thinks it long tillhe appears before God again. " I have chosen God, saith hey, for my highest good, for ray everlasting portion, and I would willingly aft= resort to
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