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STNS
AND
SORROSVS
SPREAD BEFORE
GOP.
SERM.
vL
REFLECTION
II.
How happy are
we
under
the
gospel,
above all
ages
and
nations besides
us,
and before
us.!
For
we
have
advantages
of
getting
near
to God,
beyond what
utiy
other
religion
has;
above what the heathen' world ever
enjoyed
;
for
their light
of nature
could never
shew
them
the
throne of
grace
:
above what the
ancient
patrie
archs had, though
God
came down in visible shapes,
and revealed and
discovered himself to them
as a
man
or
an
angel
:
above what the
Jews
'had,
though
God
dwelt among them in
visible glory, in
the holy
of
holies.
The
people
were
kept
at
a
distance,
and
the
high
-
priests
were to come
thither but
once a
year;
and their
veil,
and
smokes,
and
shadows,
did, as
it
were,
conceal
God
from
them,.
although they
were types
of
a future
Mes
-.
siah;
and
even
their
shekinah
itself,
or cloud
of
glory,
gave
them no spiritual idea
or
notion
Of
godhead,
though
it
was
a shining emblem
of
God
dwelling
among
them.
We
have
better
ordinances,
and brighter
mediums
of
converse
with
God
;
we
have more powerful assistances
to
raise
us
heavenward
;
we
have
the
Messiah, the
Em-
manuel
;
that
is,
God
in
flesh, God
come
near
us,
that
we may
get
near
to
him
;
we
have the promise
of
the
Spirit,
which
is
one
of
the glorious privileges
of
the
gos-
pel; -Eph.
ii.
13, 18.
"Ye
who
sometimes
were
afar
of;
are
made
nigh
through
the
blood
of
Christ
:
and through
him
have
we
access by one
Spirit
to
the
Father."
Through.
Christ Jesus,
and the purchase
of
his
blood,
and the
working
of
his
Spirit,
we
approach
to the Father,
we
are brought
near
to
God.
And this
very
method,
viz.
the atonement
of
the blood
of
Christ,
and
the working
of
the Spirit
by which
we
are
brought near
to
God
in
our
first conversion,
are
the
ways
by
which
we
must draw
near
hirn in
duty ever
afterward it
is
by
the
same
atonement, and
by
the
same
Spirit. We are continually
contracting
fresh guilt,
and
were
it
not
for the
perpetuity
of
the virtue
of that
sacri-
fice,
our guilt
would be an irremovable
bar
against our
conning
nearto
God
daily and
hourly;
and after
every
newsin;
were
it
not
for
that Spirit,
we
could
never get
near.tq
God
again
:
but-
that
Spirit
is
promised
to
abide
with
us,
John
xiv.
16., and
in Heb.
iv.
14,,
16.
Christ