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they not be alike precious to all, if all desired to make a suitable improvement of them? The truth is, that the generality of persons attend them only as a mere form, without any consciousness of the ends for which they have been appointed. What if we viewed them as our mother's breast, to which we were invited for the support and nourishment of our souls? What if we came to them, "desiring the sincere and unadulterated milk of the word, that we might grow thereby d?" Verily we should then find such communications from the Lord Jesus, as would fill us with unutterable joye. But we feel not our need of mercy: we have no real desire after the Saviour: we are content with a godliness which consists in mere form, without any thing of power." No wonder, then, that the house of God has no charms for us. True, indeed, persons may affect divine ordinances, just as they would a fine concert, on account of the eloquence of the person by whom they are administered'; or they may set a value on them as means of fostering a high conceit of their own goodness: but as means of access to God, and as a medium of communion with him, they find no real delight in them. To enter into the experience of David, and obtain a conformity of mind to his, religion must be our one great and paramount concern. If once Christ become our supreme joy, whatever brings us near to him, and him near to us, will be " as marrow and fatness to our souls."]

2. What are the prospects of those in whom this experience is found

[Truly, they are blessed among men. They need not envy any other people upon earth. They possess what is far superior to all the delights of sense. View a man at the footstool of the Most High: view even the poor publican, who, through a consciousness of his own extreme unworthiness, dared not so much as to lift up his eyes to heaven. Who that knows with what complacency Almighty God beheld him, and with what pleasure he listened to his sighs, and treasured up his tears in his vial, would not congratulate him on the state of his soul, and on the prospects that were before him? The truth is, that every such person has "his sins put away from him, as far as the east is from the west;" and "his name is written in the Lamb's book of life." For every such person is prepared a crown of glory, that fadeth not away.' He now beholds his God by faith: and soon shall he behold him face to face. He now draws nigh to God in a temple made with hands: and he shall soon commune with him in his temple

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d 1 Pet. ii. 2.

f Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32.

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e John iv. 10. and vii. 37, 38.

g Isai. lviii. 2.

above. He now pours forth his prayers and praises at such intervals as the infirmity of his nature will admit of; and he soon shall engage in praising God, without infirmity or interruption, to all eternity.]

DXXXVII.

DAVID'S LOVE TO GOD'S ORDINANCES.

Ps. xxvii. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

In

MOST of the saints recorded in the Holy Scriptures were eminent for some particular grace. Abraham, faith was chiefly conspicuous; in Job, patience in Moses, meekness; in Elijah, faithfulness and intrepidity. In respect of devotion, David seems to have surpassed all others. Of none have we such ample and minute accounts, in relation to this matter, as we have of him. His public addresses to the Deity, his private communion with him, the inmost recesses of his heart when in his closet or upon his bed, are all laid open to us. On this account the Psalms are pre-eminently useful to all who wish to cultivate a devout spirit, and to maintain a close walk with God. The expression before us may serve as a specimen of the whole. In discoursing upon it, I will,

I. Set before you the example of David

The one object of his desire was to enjoy the ordinances of his God

[David was not of the tribe to which the priesthood exclusively belonged: yet would he gladly have possessed the privilege of the priests, in having his stated residence as near as possible to the tabernacle of his God. But though this could not be, he determined, by the constancy of his attendance there, to make it, as it were, his residence and habitation. This indeed was "the one object of his desire:" and in comparison of it there was nothing in the world that he wished for. To this he made every thing subservient: even the affairs of state were not suffered so to occupy his mind as to divert his attention from the service of the sanctuary. This one object he sought, and "determined to seek it" "to the latest hour of

his life." He "sought it of the Lord" too, entreating him so to order and overrule every thing, that he might not be forced away from Jerusalem, or, whilst there, be kept away from the ordinances of his God. If at any time he was, by the efforts of his enemies, prevented from waiting upon God, he mourned over it, and "panted after the return of those blessed seasons, even as the hunted deer panteth after the water-brooks." On some occasions, his enemies, knowing how painful to him his absence from the tabernacle was, exulted over him, and said, "Where is now thy God?" And so distressing to him were these impious taunts, that "tears were his meat night and day on account of them," and they were even 66 as a sword in his bones"." At those seasons he envied the swallows, that were able to build their nests in the courts of God's house: he envied them, I say, their proximity to the altar of his God. Every day that was spent at a distance from that, seemed, as it were, to be lost to his life; so entirely was his soul wrapped up in the enjoyment of divine ordinances, and in cultivating communion with his God.]

And this desire was founded on the benefit he had derived from them

[There "he beheld the beauty of the Lord;" and there "he inquired of the Lord," spreading before him, from day to day, his every want, his every wish. He looked through the various sacrifices that were offered there from day to day, and beheld in them the perfections of his God. In the death of all the victims he saw the desert of sin, and the justice of God, which had denounced death as the punishment of sin. In the acceptance of those sacrifices he saw the goodness and mercy of God, who had appointed such offerings as means of leading the people to that Great Sacrifice, which should in due time be offered for the sins of the whole world. In the sprinklings and ablutions that were practised, he beheld the holiness of God, who would accept no sinner who should not be purged from his iniquities, and be made holy after the divine image. In the whole of the services altogether he saw "mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissing each othere."

Here he felt encouragement to pour out his soul before God, and to ask whatsoever his returning necessities might require. This, to him whose trials were so great and manifold, was an unspeakable privilege. The extreme arduousness of his affairs also rendered it most desirable to him to spread all his difficulties before the Lord, and to ask counsel of him for his direction. c Ps. xlii. 10.

a Ps. xlii. 1, 2.

b Ps. xlii. 3.

d Ps. lxxxiv. 1-4. e Ps. lxxxv. 10.

True it was that in private he could carry his affairs to the Lord, and implore help from him: but, as the public ordinances were of God's special appointment, and as the high-priest was the established medium of access to him, and of communications from him, he delighted more particularly to wait upon God there; that so, whilst he received blessings in a more abundant measure from God, he might glorify God in the sight of all Israel.]

Admiring, as I do, this bright example, I beg leave to,

II. Commend it to your imitation—

We have far greater reason to love the house of God than ever David had

[If the beauty of the Lord was visible in the Jewish worship, how much more so must it be in the ordinances of the Gospel! David beheld the perfections of his God only under types and shadows: but we behold them reflected as in a glass or mirror, with transcendent brightness, and all shining with united splendour in the face of Jesus Christ. We see, not bulls and goats, but the very Son of God himself, " Jehovah's fellow," offered in sacrifice for the sins of men. What then must the justice be that required SUCH a sacrifice! What the love, that gave HIM from the Father's bosom to be a sacrifice! What the mercy, that spared not HIM, in order that wE, enemies and rebels, might be spared! So imperfectly was this mystery known under the Jewish dispensation, that all, even the most exalted prophets, were in a state of comparative darkness: but now, "the things which from the beginning of the world eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor had it entered into the heart of man to conceive, are revealed unto us by the Spirit';" so that we can truly and emphatically say, "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineths." John the Baptist was greater in this respect than all the prophets; because he personally saw and bare witness to Him, whom all the other prophets spoke of obscurely, and at the distance of many hundred years: but, great as John was, "the least and lowest in the Gospel kingdom is greater than heh." In our ordinances, Jesus Christ is so fully revealed, that he may be said to be "evidently set forth crucified before our eyesi:" and at his holy table we eat his flesh, and drink his blood," as truly in a spiritual sense, as we do really and substantially eat the bread and drink the wine by which they are represented. We see that through the virtue of this sacrifice God is so reconciled to us, as to "behold

f 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10.
h Matt. xi. 11.

g 1 John ii. 8.

i Gal. iii. 1.

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no iniquity in us:" for, viewing us as clothed in the righteousness of his dear Son, he beholds us "without spot or blemish'." Moreover as by faith we see the Lord Jesus carrying his own blood within the veil, so we also hear him making intercession for us at the right hand of God: yea, and "out of the fulness that is treasured up in him we receive" all the blessings that he has purchased for us. How often are we, in the experience of these things, constrained to cry out with the prophet, "How great is his goodness! how great is his beauty m!" And how often, in rapturous admiration of him, do we pray with the Psalmist, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us!" In truth, it is by thus "beholding as with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord"."

Nor have we less the advantage of David in relation to the things which we would ask of God: for we are able to inquire more explicitly and distinctly of our God than he could. He indeed might say with Moses, " Lord, shew me thy glory:" and God would, as in the case of Moses, "make all his goodness to pass before him." But audible sounds conveyed nothing to them in comparison of what shall be disclosed to us by the still small voice of God's Holy Spirit, speaking in us through the written word. To us all the blessings of the Covenant are laid open: and, as God, when he revealed them, said, "I will be inquired of concerning these things to do them "," we are at liberty to take that covenant, and spread it before the Lord, and to ask of him every distinct blessing that is contained in it. We may lay hold on every promise that we can find in the Inspired Volume, and plead it with God, and have it fulfilled Besides, we can ask in the name of Jesus Christ; which none of the prophets ever could. And with what confidence can we do that, when we reflect on the relation which subsists between the Father and the Son, and the express engagement which the Father has made to answer every petition which is offered in his Son's name!

to our souls

Moreover, the particular promise of the Lord Jesus to be more immediately with his people in the public ordinances, and to grant whatever any number of his congregated people shall agree to ask', is a still further encouragement to us to frequent the house of God: for experience proves, that still, as formerly, "God loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob."]

k Numb. xxiii. 21. n 2 Cor. iii. 18.

P Ezek. xxxvi. 37.

Ps. lxxxvii. 2.

1 Eph. v. 27.

m Zech. ix. 17.

• Exod. xxxiii. 18, 19.

9 John xvi. 23, 24. Matt. xviii. 19, 20.

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