SERMON XL Nearness to God the Felicity of Creatures. PSALM Lev. 4.BIessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causestto ap- proach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. THE FIRST. PART. IT was an elegant address that the queen of Shebamade to So- lomon, when she had surveyed the magnificence of his 'court, and heard hiswisdom ; " Happy are thy men, and happy are thesethy servants, who stand continually before thee !" 1 Kings x. 8. And there was much truth and honour inher speech. But the harp of David strikes a diviner note ; Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, OGod, thathemay approach unto thee, and dwell in thy courts, in the holysanctuary. Whether, in these words, thePsalmist blesses those levites and priests, whose duty it was to attend the ark, and to dwell pear the tabernacle, or whether he pronounces blessedness on every man of Israel, whose habitation nigh the ark gave him frequent opportunities to attend at that solemn worship, is not very necessary to determine. Either of these may be called dwelling in the courts of God. But it is most probable, that thesacred writer designs the second sense of the word, and that he includes himself in the desire or possession of this blessedness, though hewas neither a priest nor a levite ; for he uses the same phrase in several places, and applies it to himself; Ps. xxvii. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that Imay dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Ps. xxiii. (1../. will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. By which he intimates, that he would seek the most frequent oppor- tunities of approaching God in public worship. It is sufficient to my present purpose, that the holyPsalmist makes the blessedness of man to depend upon his near approaches to God. Here we should remember that God is necessarily neat" to all his cre:..eures, by his infinite knowledge, by his b reserving and governing power : Ile is not farfrom every one of us : for in him we live, and move, and have our being ; Acts xvii. 27, 28. But the privilege which David speaks of in my text, is a peculiar approachof a creature to God, which is a fruit of divine choice
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