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SEAM.
XIV.]
HERE
AND
HEREAFTER.
241
.
mind
away,
and
it
is
lost from
God and
devotion again
:
We appear
before
God, and disappear
again;
we
wan-
der
into
the
world,
and
return
to
God,
twenty times in
an hour.
Our
eyes
and
our
ears are constant
witnesses
of
this
painful weakness; and unhappy instruments they are to
draw off
our
souls from the
divinest meditation.
Every
thing
around
us is
ready
to
disturb and divert
our
feeble
nature
in
the most heavenly acts
of
worship
:
Poor
broken worship
!
Poor
frail estate
of human nature
!
But there
is
a
blessed assembly
of better
worshippers
above
:
Awake
our faith and desire to
join
them
!
and
let
each
of
us say,
"
O when shall
I
go to
that
bright
company,
and appear amongst
them before
God."
SERMON XIV.
APPEARANCE BEFORE GOD HERE
AND HEREAFTER.
PSALM
xlii.
2.
When
shall I come
and
appear
before
God?
THE
SECOND
PART.
By
an
appearance
before God,
in the
text,
we
are
to
understand4our attendance upon
him in
the public
ordi-
nances
of
worship; and
the longing desire
the.
Psalmist
had to draw
near
unto
God
in his
ordinances, represents
to
us
the
character
of
every sincere christian, when he
enjoys
his own
right
frame,
and
heavenly
temper
of
soul:
He
longs, he
breathes after those seasons
of
divine im-
provement and
comfort.
I
shall
make no
further repetition of
any thing before
delivered
;
but
considering
that
all
our appearances be-
fore
God
in this world
in his
sanctuary,
are but
means
to
prepare
us
to
stand
before
God
in the world
that
is
to
come;
I
shall
not
think myself
at
all to
wander
from
the
text,
if I
spend
my
whole
time,
at
present,
in shewing
the
difference
that
is
between
our
appearance
before
God
on
earth
here, and
our appearing
before
him in
the
VOL.
I.
R