PART 1. SERMON XIII. 105 and praise ; but now God seems to have forgotten me, ver. 9. How earnestly dotlt he breathe after the sanctuary ? Psalm lxiii. and lxxxiv. to see thy power, O God, and thy glory, as he had seen it there. He borrows metaphors and similitudesfrom some of the most vehement appetites of nature to signify his strong desires after God ; nzyflesh thirstethfor thee, evenfainteth for the courts ofthe living God. And this is the blessed temper of a ehristian, when in his right frame; he is never satisfied when quite. restrained from divine ordinances, whether bypersecution, by banishment,'by the . unreasonable laws ofvnen, or by afflictions and weaknesseslaid on him by the hand of God. He thinks over again those seasons wherein he enjoyed the presence of God in worship, and the re- collection of them increases his desires of their return. He watches every turn of providence, and hopes it isworking towards his release : When he sees the doors of his prison begin toopen, he is ready to break out of confinement, and seize the pleasureof Public worship : He thinks it long till he appears before God again. " I have chosen God, saith he, for my highest good, for any everlasting portion, and I would willingly often resort to the place where God hath promised to communicate his blessings, and where I have so often tasted that the Lord is gracious." Remarks on the second head. -l. How very different are they fromthe temper of David, who enjoy public ordinances con- tinually, and are weary of them? Who appear before God fre- quently on the Lord's day, and yet cry, what a weariness is it, when will theSabbath begone ; Mal. i. 13. and iii. 14. Amos viii. 5. When shall wereturn totheworld again ? What is the reason ofthis great aversion to divine worship among those who call themselves christians ? Truly the greatest part havenothing of christianity besides the mere name : Some are stupid sinners, and have no sense of divine things ; and they think it is all lost time : They have no need to corne before God, but that it is the custom of their country, or of the family where they live, and they must, do it ; they do not know how to spend the hour elsewhere without reproof and censure : Or they come merely to see, and to be seen, as is the fashion of `- the land. Some perhaps have a sense ofreligion, and yet they cannot look upon God any otherwise than,at their enemy, and so they come before him without any love or delight in his company; and thenno wonder ifthey are weary of it. They donot come as riends to _take pleasure in his presence ; they would be well enough pleased, if they could live for ever in this world, andnever 0 3
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