160 INVITATIONS TO CHURCH-FELLOWSHIP. more happy are christiansin England, than the Jews in Canaan ! Here we have houses of God near us, churches assembling in every town. They were forced to travel three times a year to Jerusalem, many long and weary miles: It is true God refreshed them in their journies ; Psal. lxxxiv. 5 -7. He gave them showers of rain when they were faint or thirsty; but they tra- velled through Baca, that is, the valley of weeping; many wants -and inconveniences attended them, and the difficulties and bur- dens of such a dispensation, were not light nor little. We may yet continue this reflection, concerning those who dwell in this great city, and say, " How great is the privilege the christians in London enjoy, above those who dwell in the distant villages, or in little solitary cottages in the country !" Here we have the gospel preached in every street, and places of worship at our right-hand and our left : We dwell as it were in the courts of God ; but the poor villager must travel many a mile, and per- haps through miry ways, to attend on thenearest ministrations of the word ; and in the mean time the young and the feeble of the family must be confined at home. O what advances in know- ledge and grace, what growth in holiness, and what approaches to heaven are to be expected from those who dwell so near the places of divine worship, and where the provisions of heaven are brought to our very doors ! " O hów desirable a thing it is to enjoy all such circum- stances of life, as give us liberty to frequent the courts of God !" Howmuch should we value, and how wisely should we improve such a blessing ! Have acare of neglecting due seasons of wor- ship, and be not negligent or unfrequent in your visits to the courts of God, lest lie laÿ someheavy restraints upon you, and divide you from his sanctuary. He has bands and chains of va- rious kinds to cast upon such slothful professors; persecution or sickness, loss of your limbs, or loss of your senses, whereby you may be cut off from the blessings of his church ; or he may break up house and remove far from you, because you do not visit bim ; or he may place your tabernacle afar off fromhis own, and cut short your liberty ; for it is he which determines the bounds of your habitations; Acts xvii. 26. O how unhappily are some persons overloaded with the cares of this lfè ! How are they hurried and overwhelmed in a tumult of worldly affairs ! And the business of their daily calling is too often ready to entrench upon divine hours and ordinances. How sore a distress is it to apious christian to be confined and withheld from the courts of God, by long and tedious distempers of body ! How painful is it to his spirit to lie languishing and faint on a bed of sickness, while others are made to drink of the river ofpledsure, and re- freshing streams of the sanctuary ! They are sorrowful, while ethers are made joyful in the houseofprayer. They are test-
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