PART I. SERMON XIII. 197 aider what are the two chief ends of a christian in his appearance before God: It is either to do something for God by a public pro- fession of his name among men, or to receive something from him in order toour own comfort andsalvation. If wehope to receive, this calls faith into exercise ; if we endeavour to do something for his service, this awakens our zeal. Now, is our faith active ? Is our zeal lively in this matter ? Some christians have one of these, some the other most in exercise : Some look most at honouring God in a public profession, some at obtaining some sensible benefit and delight to their own souls : Bid it is best when both of these invite us to the sanctuary, and make us long after the presence of God. Some of us, it may be, have found the work of grace and salvation begun on our souls at public worship ; therewe were first awakened and convinced of sin, there we were first led to the knowledge and faith of Christ, and pardoning grace was re- vealed with power by the ministry of the word ; therefore we long after the sincere milk ofthe word, in the same public dispen- sation of it, that we may grow thereby. Others have been favoured, it may be, with the presence of God more abundantly in secret ; and reading, and meditation, and secret prayer, have been the chief sensible instruments of their conversion, sanc- tification, and peace ; these therefore, sometimes have not the sameearnest longing after public preaching as others have ; yet they do continually attend on the ordinances of Christ inpublic, to maintain religion, in the profession of it, among men ; and they ought to do it. But these persons are most in danger of growing cold and indifferent. I grant it is a gloriousand self - denyingtemper, to maintain a warm zeal to domuch for the honour of God in the world, even though we enjoy but little of him ; but this is not so frequent among men : For we are usually drawn to Godby the blessings we hope to receive ; andwè should consider, that anutterneglect of all those enjoyments of God in the sensible increase of grace and joy, which are to be found-.,in public worship, is a sign that our faith runs too low : We do not expect to receive much from God, even in his own appointed methods ; and there- fore we grow negligent whether we worship him in public or not. O let the soul who feels nothing of this negligence, but maintains a warm desire of ordinances under long restraint, re- joice and bless the Lord ! However, while any of its are confined, our desires after God ought to appear in this, that we often seek him in secret, and are perpetually with him in our thoughts ; that, we take }dl proper opportunitieg to lift up our souls to him in the midst of common affairs, and thus do what we can to make
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