DISCOURSE III.. Invitations to Churchfellowship. PSALM lxv. 4.Blessed is the Man whom thou cbusest and causeth toap- proach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy Courts: We shall be satis- fied with the Goodness of thy House, even of thy Holy Temple. THE latter words of the verse shall be the subject of our pre- sent meditations, wherein we shall consider what is meant by dwelling in the courts of God, and what is the goodness of his house wherewithhis favourites shall be satisfied. There are three senses of this sacred phrase, dwelling in the courts of God; and the persons who are favoured to inhabit the sanctuary in either of these senses, may have the blessing of the Psalmist pronounced upon them. The first, and the most obvious meaning of the words, dwelling in the courts of God, is,, a continual attendance on hint in the ministrations of his temple, and the discharge of some holy office there. This was the felicity of several of the priests and the Levites of old under the Jewish dispensation: And this is the happiness of the ministers of the gospel now, who are con- tinually employed in the things of God, and the affairs of reli- gion ; who give themselves up, as the apostles did, to the ministry of the word and prayer; Acts vi. 4. Whose business it is to attend to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine, to meditate on God and Christ and salvation, toconverse with the glorious invi- sibles of the upper world, and give themselves wholly/ to them, as the apostle charges Timothy the young evangelist ; 1 Tim. iv. 13, 15. Blessed is the man whom God chases for a Christian and a minister, whose general calling, in common with the rest of ehristians, is to save his Dion soul, and whose particular employ- ment as a minister is'to save the souls of others. This order of men are utterly unworthy of their privilege, if they do not prize it highly, set a just value upon it, and confess their own happiness. But I have shown elsewhere, that this sense of the words, which is limited to priests and Levites, could never include the whole meaningof David ; for then he had excluded himself from this blessedness, who was not of the tribe of Levi, nor capable of priesthood ; and yet he declares with holy joy, that he would dwell in the house of the Lord for ever ; Psal. xxiii. 6. The second sense of the words therefore, andwhich seems to be the very design of the Psalmist is this Blessed are they whose habitation is near to the ark of God, and the taberna- cle," and thereby " they are made capable of frequenting the
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