PART I. SERMON XI. 109 acceptable : it is he who maintains the nearness ofyour state, and your peace with God, by ever presenting your natures in his person : He appears in the presence of God.fòr us ; Heb. ix. 24. It is Jesus, who, by his Spirit, lifts you up near to the Father ; and it is by his best beloved and nearest Son, that God the Father draws near to all bischildren. 3. Be not found amongst the mockers of approach to God, and holy converse with him in worship. They despise felicity itself. Such there havebeen of old, and such there are in our days ; and because theyare afar off from God themselves, they deny all nearness to him, they ridicule our approaches to God, as the vain effects of a wild imagination, and the mere sensible com- motions-of awarm fancy. But is it not a very rational and intelligible thing, for a soul in public worship, so to draw near to God, as to learn more of him, and to know more of his perfections and graces than he knew before ? May not such a worshipper have his love to God raised and warmed by such advancing knowledge ! And may he not arise, by holy inferences, toa livelier and surer hope that he is-beloved of God too, and solace himself in this assurance ? What is there in all this which is not perfectly agreeable to reason, or that should provoke an impious jest? But let such have a care, lest they blaspheme God and his Spirit ; let them take heed, lest they be thrust down tohell, and set at a dreadful distance fròm God, without remedy, whoderide thejoy of heaven. 4. Takeheed of those deceits of being above ordinances, lest you lose true happiness through pride and vain conceit. Aban- don the vain fancy of living nearer to God in the neglect of them. God is glorious in himself, but he has appointed or- dinances, as means whereby we may approach and see him. Some stars; though large in themselves, yet are not visible without glasses ; and others that. are visible to the naked eye, yet appear much fairer and larger by this help. Even so those glories of Godpwhich are unknown to reason, and to the light of nature, are discovered in the ministrationsof his word ; suchare his subsistence in three persons, and his forgiving grace : and those glories of hisnature, which are tracedout by human reason, stand in a diviner light, with all their splendorsabout them, in the gospel, and the sanctuary. 5. Never rest satisfied without approaching to God in spirit and in truth, when you attend on his ordinances. This is the goodness of his house that must satisfy the holy soul of the Psalmist, as he expresses it in the following words ofmy text : WVe shall be satisfied with the goodnessofthine house.
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