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.APPEARANCE BEFORE GOD,
[SEAM..
Xri1.
TWO
SERMONS
ON
OUR APPEARANCE BEFORE GOD
HERE
AND
HEREAFTER.
Delivered in
Sir
Thomas
Abney's
Family
at
Theobald's, in
Hertfordshire,
at
the
Evening-
worship,
Nov.
25, and
Dec.
9,
17
16.
TO
THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL
SIR
THOMAS ABNEY, KNT. AND ALDERMAN OF LONDON.
WORTHY
SIR,
WHILE
you were
restrained by the
laws
of
men from public worship
in
that
way which
you
háve chosen, I
also
suffered
the
same re-
straint,
by
the
providence of God confining
me to long sickness;
during
which time
I
enjoyed
in
your excellent family, many happy conveniences
towards the
ease
Of
my
affliction,
and the
recovery
of
mÿ health.
I
thought it therefore
a
necessary
piece of
christian gratitude,
that
some
of the
first fruits
of
my labours should be devoted
to
your
service; and
with
this view
:I
attempted
such
meditations
as
might
be well suited to my
own
circumstances
of
confinement,
as
well
as
to
your's;
that
I
might
speak more sensibly from the
heart
to
yourspiritual advantage,
and
to
the
profit
of
all
your
houshold.
Since
that
time it
has pleased
the providence
of
God
to
take
off
your
restraint,entirely,
by the repeal of
that
unrighteous law,
and
to give you
the
pleasures
of
his
sanctuary; yet
the review of these
discourses,
through
the
operation of
the
blessed Spirit,
may
renew
some useful
meditations,
when offered from the
press,
as
a testimony
of public thankfulness, and
in
this new
form proposed
to your
perusal, by,
SIR,
Your
most affectionate
And obedient servant,
Under
many obligations,
THEOBALDS,
I.
WATTS.
February
I,
1720.
SERMON
XIII.
APPEARANCE BEFORE GOD
HERE
AND HEREAFTER.
PSALM
sl
i.
2.
When
shall I come
and
appear
before
God?
'rHE FIRST
PART.
THE
holy
Psalmist
was now
absent
from his usual
place
of
public worship, and
restrained
from coming
near
to
the
ark
of
God
which was
the token
of
the di-
vine
presence
in
the
days
of
the Jewish
church;
and
5