Chapter XIII: Part 13

The only reflection with which I shall conclude the subject, is this, that communion with God, which has been impiously ridiculed by the profane wits of the last and the present age, is no such visionary and fantastic notion as they imagine; but as it is founded in the words of scripture, so it may be explained with great ease and evidence to the satisfaction of human reason. That it is founded in scripture, appears sufficiently in several verses of the xvii. chapter of St. John’s gospel, where the divine union and blessedness of the Father and the Son, are made a pattern of our union to God, and our blessedness; John xvii. 21, 22, 23-26. _That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they may be one in us_: And in this sense, but in a lower degree, even here on earth, _our communion, or fellowship, is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ_; 1 John i. 3. Though our communion with Christ includes also some particular varieties in it, which is not my present business to explain.

That this doctrine is exactly agreeable to reason, may be thus demonstrated:

We use the word communion, when two or more persons partake of the same thing. So friends have communion in one table when they dine together: Christians have communion in one sermon, in one prayer, or one sacrament, when they join together in those parts of worship; and the saints have communion with God in blessedness, when they rejoice in the same object of contemplation and love. God surveys himself, he is pleased with his own glories, delights in himself as the highest and the noblest object; he trusts in his own right-hand of power, he leans upon his own understanding, he rests in his own counsels and purposes, he feels and he acknowledges all his own infinite perfections, and thus he enjoys them all. Thus also is our blessedness frequently set forth in scripture. It is our happiness to know God, to contemplate his glories, so far as they are revealed; to love him and his goodness, to trust in his wisdom, and lean securely on his strength? to feel the workings of divine powers and graces in and upon us, and to make acknowledgment of them all to God. Thus the image of God is restored to us in holiness and in happiness: Thus we are said to be holy as God is holy; and thus also we are blessed as God is blessed.

But though we are admitted to this amazing privilege, and hold communion with God, in the same object of contemplation and love, yet we must still remember, with humble adoration, that his holiness and his happiness, does infinitely exceed ours. The pleasures which arise from his knowledge, and his love of himself, are as far above our taste, or all our ideas of blessedness, as heaven is higher than the earth, or as God is above the creature.

There is another sense also of this phrase, communion or fellowship with God, which has been used by many pious writers, when they make it to signify the same thing as converse with God; and this also depends upon our nearness, or approach to him: As when a christian, in secret, pours out his whole heart before God, and is made sensible of his gracious presence, by the sweet influences of instruction, sanctification, or comfort. When man speaks, and God answers, there is a sacred communion, between God and man; Is. lviii. 9. _Thou shalt call, and the Lord shall answer._ This holy David often enjoyed, and always sought after it. When the soul, in secret, complains of perplexity and darkness, and God is pleased to give some secret hints of direction and advice; when the soul mourns before God, confessing guilt, and the weakness of grace, and some divine promise is impressed upon the mind by the Holy Spirit, whence the christian derives peace of conscience, and strength to fulfil duty, and to resist mighty temptations: These certainly are seasons of converse or communion with God.

So when, in public worship, we address God with our souls in fervent prayer, and while we hear the word of God spoken to us by his ministers, we receive an answer to those prayers in the convincing and sanctifying impressions which the word makes upon the heart; this is also an hour of secret communion. So at the supper of the Lord, when with hope and joy we receive the bread and the wine, as divine seals of the faithfulness of God’s covenant, and when we transact those solemn affairs also as seals of our faith and love, and our engagements to be the Lord’s; we may properly be said to hold _fellowship, or communion with him_.

What swift advances of holiness doth the saint feel in his heart, and practise in his life, after such seasons of devotion! What glory doth he give to religion in a dark and sinful world! What unknown pleasure doth he find in such approaches to God! And he moves swiftly onward in his way to heaven, by such daily receipts of mercy, and returns of praise. These are powerful motives that will make him persist in his holy practice and joy, in scorn of all the mockery and ridicule of a profane age of infidels. So the moon holds bright communion with the sun, the sovereign planet; so she receives and reflects his beams; she shines gloriously in a dark hemisphere, and moves onward sublime in her heavenly course, regardless of all the barking animals that betray their senseless malice.

This blessed privilege and pleasure of converse with God, which is enjoyed by the saints on earth, is doubtless the pleasure and the privilege of the spirits of the just made perfect, and of angels near the throne, but in a much higher degree: When they address the Majesty of Heaven in the forms of celestial worship, and receive immediate and sensible tokens of divine acceptance; or when they take their orders and commissions from the throne for some particular errand, or high employment, and return again to make their humble report there: These are glorious seasons of converse with their Maker.

Much more glorious communion of this kind does the man Christ Jesus enjoy with God, in transacting all the vast and illustrious affairs of his commission; a commission large as the extent of his Father’s kingdom, full of majesty and justice, terror and grace; a divine commission to govern, to redeem, and to save, or to punish and destroy millions of mankind, as well as to rule all his unknown dominions in the upper and nether worlds.

But in what manner this communion between the Father and Christ is maintained, we know not; nor can we guess in what manner, or in what degree such sort of converse or communion as this is practised, or is possible, between the three glorious persons of the ever-blessed Trinity. These are mysteries wrapt up in sacred darkness, and the explication of them surrounded with dangers. A particular knowledge of these divine unsearchables, any farther than scripture has revealed them, is by no means necessary either to begin, or to maintain our state of grace. Let us content ourselves a few years longer with humble ignorance, and we shall have brighter discoveries in the future world, if it be necessary there to fulfil our happiness, and to complete our state of glory.

HYMN FOR SERMON XII.
_The Scale of Blessedness; or Blessed Saints, Blessed Saviour, and
Blessed Trinity._

Ascend, my soul, by just degrees,
Let contemplation rove
O’er all the rising ranks of bliss,
Here, and in worlds above.

Blest is the nation near to God,
Where he makes known his ways:
Blest are the men whose feet have trod
His lower courts of grace.

Blest were the levite and the priest,
Who near his altar stood;
Blest are the saints from sin releas’d,
And reconcil’d with blood.

Blest are the souls dismiss’d from clay,
Before his face they stand:
Blest angels in their bright array,
Attend his great command.

Jesus is more divinely blest,
Where man to godhead join’d,
Hath joys transcending all the rest,
More noble and refin’d.

But, O what words or thoughts can trace
The blessed Three in one!
Here rest my spirit, and confess
The infinite unknown.

Footnote 24:

These expressions may be sufficiently justified, if we consider
Jepthah’s rash vow of sacrifice, which fell upon his only child; and
Samson’s rude or unbecoming conduct in his amours with the Philistine
woman at Timnah, the harlot at Gaza, and his Delilah at Sorek, his
bloody quarrels, and his manner of life. The learned and pious Dr.
Owen, as I have often been informed by his intimate friend Sir John
Hartopp, called him a rude believer. He might have a strong faith of
miracles; Heb. xi. 22. but a small share of that faith which purifies
the heart.

Footnote 25:

I know the word blessed, when it is applied to God or Christ,
generally signifies, that they are the objects of our blessing or
praise, and it is thus translated from the originals, ברוך or
ευλογητος: But in our tongue this word signifies also happy, and the
original words אשרי and Μακαριος are frequently rendered blessed, to
signify happiness, as in my text. Though, if our translators had
always observed the distinction, the precise lease of the original had
better appeared.

Footnote 26:

See the note toward the end of this part of the sermon, p. 151.

Footnote 27:

This discourse was delivered above twenty years ago, and the reader
will observe some warmer efforts of imagination than riper years would
indulge on a theme so sublime and abstruse. Since I have searched most
studiously into this mystery of late, I have learned more of my own
ignorance: so that when I speak of these unsearchables, I abate much
of my younger assurance; nor do my later thoughts venture so far into
the particular modes of explaining this sacred distinction in the
godhead. There appears to me good reason to doubt, where there can be
three distinct and different principles of consciousness, and three
distinct and different wills in the one God, the one infinite Spirit.
I was afraid to assert it in this sermon heretofore, and I am more
afraid to assert it now. Reason and scripture join to teach me, that
there can be but one God, and this God is a Spirit. What distinctions
may be in this one Spirit, I know not: Yet, since I am fully
established in the belief of the Deity of the blessed Three, though I
know not the manner of explication, I dare let this discourse appear
now in the world, as being agreeable so far to my present sentiments
on this subject. A larger and more particular account of my most
mature thought on the doctrine of the holy Trinity, may be seen in the
last sermon of my third volume.—_April 8, 1729._

TWO SERMONS
_On our Appearance before God here and hereafter._
Delivered in Sir Thomas Abney’s Family at Theobalds in Hertfordshire, at
the Evening-worship, Nov. 25, and Dec. 9, 1716.

_To the Right Worshipful_ Sir Thomas Abney, Knt. and Alderman of London.

WORTHY SIR,

While you were restrained by the laws of men from public worship in that way which you have chosen, I also suffered the same restraint, by the providence of God confining me to long sickness; during which time I enjoyed in your excellent family, many happy conveniences, toward the ease of my affliction, and the recovery of my health.

I thought it therefore a necessary piece of christian gratitude, that some of the first-fruits of my labours should be devoted to your service; and with this view I attempted such meditations as might be well suited to my own circumstances of confinement, as well as to yours; that I might speak more sensibly from the heart to your spiritual advantage, and to the profit of all your household.

Since that time it has pleased the providence of God to take off your restraint entirely, by the repeal of that unrighteous law, and to give you the pleasures of his sanctuary; yet the review of these discourses, through the operation of the blessed Spirit, may renew some useful meditations, when offered from the press as a testimony of public thankfulness, and in this new form proposed to your perusal, by,

SIR,

Your most affectionate,

And obedient servant,

Under many obligations,

I. WATTS.

SERMON XIII.
_Appearance before God here and hereafter._
PSALM xlii. 2.—When shall I come and appear before God.
THE FIRST PART.

The holy Psalmist was now absent from his usual place of public worship, and restrained from coming near to the ark of God which was the token of the divine presence in the days of the Jewish church; and when he had been meditating on his past and present circumstances in this respect, both what he enjoyed heretofore, and what he was deprived of now, he breaks out into a divine rapture: _As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God._ And he goes on to describe the frame of his spirit in this holy song: The substance and sense of the whole psalm is, as it were, epitomized and drawn up into these few words, _when shall I come and appear before God?_ I shall not spend time to shew in how many senses man may be said _to appear before God_; but shall content myself to say, that in this place it signifies attendance on public worship, in the place where it was usually celebrated and performed. In the words of the Psalmist we may find the temper of his heart expressed under these two general heads.

I. A belief of the special presence of God in his ordinances of public worship.—II. An earnest longing after them on that account.

I shall enlarge a little on each of these, and make remarks as I go along, under each head.

_First_, The words express David’s firm belief of the special presence of God in his ordinances, insomuch that he calls an attendance on them, an appearance before God. We are always in the view of God, and _every creature is naked and open_ in his sight, and for ever appears before him as the all-seeing and all-knowing Creator and Governor of all things; but it is a peculiar, a gracious, and favourable presence of God that belongs to his sanctuary, his appointed worship: God is taking special notice of our carriage toward him, and manifesting his designs of special mercy towards us.

David well knew this, that the great end of appointing public worship, was, that there might be a communication between God and man, who were so dreadfully separated by sin: He knew the gracious promise, that where God _recorded his name, there would he come and meet his people, and bless them_; Ex. xx. 24. He knew what sensible tokens of divine presence were found in the sanctuary; there was _the ark of God, and the mercy-seat that covered it_, upon which God dwelt in a bright shining _cloud_ between the golden _cherubims_, to signify his dwelling in light among the glorious angels in heaven; beside the many sweet experiences which David had of sensible discoveries of God in counsel and grace, strength and consolation, in his public worship.

And have not christians, under the gospel, as great a reason to expect the special presence of God among them in his ordinances! Are they not appointed on purpose to bring God near to us, and to bring us near to God? Have we not an express promise of God himself, dwelling in flesh, that _where two or three are gathered together in his name, he will be in the midst of them_; Mat. xviii. 20. and is not Christ worthy of credit? Have we not his word there published and preached? Doth not God appear there very eminently, in the glory of his truth, in the beauty of his holiness, in the purity of his commands, in the terror of his threatenings, in the sweetness of his promises, in the wonders of his wisdom and power, and more amazing works of his grace and love? Doth not the Lord discover himself there in the majesty of his government, in the miracles of his providence, and the divine glory of his fore-knowledge in prophecies exactly fulfilled? Surely that man must be blind indeed, who sees not God in the scriptures.

Will you say, “All this may be seen and read at home in private, as well as in a public assembly?” But you must remember that even the written word of God was communicated to the most part of mankind only in public worship, for some thousands of years: for before the art of printing was invented, one bible was scarce to be found in several hundred houses, and very few of the common people were capable of reading; nor could they know the written word, but by their attendance on the public ministrations of it. And in our day, how many are they who either do, or will know very little of religion, but what they hear at church.

Besides the written word of God is given to be expounded by his ministers, that the gospel being preached at large, and the truths of it being particularly applied, his presence and glory may appear therein. Many parts of scripture are so obscure, that God stands, as it were, behind a veil, or a curtain, till, in the ministry of the word, the sense is explained, the veil removed, and God stands forth to sight in the open glories of his majesty, or his mercy. It was for this purpose that Christ, at his departure from earth, engaged the promise of his presence with his ministers in the preaching of his gospel. _Lo I am with you always even to the end of the world_; Mat. xxviii. 20. And is not this sufficient ground for men to expect and hope to see God there?

Besides all this, have not christians enjoyed blessed experiences of the presence of God _in his sanctuary, in the assemblies of his saints_? One can say, “I was all darkness and ignorance, and there I found divine light, discovering to me my sin and misery, and his salvation.” Another can say, I was _dead in sin_, and found my soul raised to a divine life there; “I was mourning and despairing, and there I found a word of support and holy joy, such as no mere words of men could convey into me; and I am forced to confess _God was in this place of a truth_;” 1 Cor. xiv. 25.

Remarks on the first head.—I. How much should we guard hypocrisy in divine worship, because it is an appearance before God? We do then, in a solemn manner, set ourselves before God, and, as it were, humbly call God to look upon us, and take notice of our hearts. Let us remember this, every one of us, when we go to public worship, we do in effect say to God, “O Lord, we are always in thy sight, but in a special manner we now come to shew thee our hearts, to acquaint thee humbly with our wants, our sorrows, and our sins, our desires and hopes;” and _God will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain; He is a jealous God, he will not be mocked_; Gal. vi. 7. _He is a Spirit, and he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth_; John iv. 24. He is sharp-sighted, he sees through our souls, and knows the ends and designs of our coming, whether to see creatures, and be seen of them, or to see himself, our Creator: Whether to observe the modes, dress, and behaviour of our fellow-creatures on earth, or to learn the will of God, and the mode of heaven. Suppose Jesus Christ, in his human nature, were there, whose _eyes are as a flame of fire_, and through your countenances can discern the most secret thought of your souls, would you not stand in awe of his majesty? Would not this glorious appearance fix the most vain and fluttering imagination in a pious solemnity? How solicitously would you watch over your minds, lest they wander from worship! How carefully would you keep your hearts! Or suppose you saw the holy angels there which attend the churches in worship, would you not be ashamed to trifle in their presence? And has not the spiritual presence of the great God as much real, though invisible awfulness and majesty in it!

How do persons both of the polite and the vulgar world, all agree to dress fine and gay, and make the best figure of all the week, to appear before men on the day of the Lord? But let us remember that we come not only before men, but before the living God, in whose sight, ornaments of the body are of no account, and, O, what pains ought we to take, to put on our best ornaments of the mind! To see that our graces all shine, when we are to stand before God! And not to suffer one vain thought, one corrupt affection to work in us; nor _a spot or blemish_, if possible, to be found upon us!

Alas! what millions of hypocrites have we in the world? How many may we fear in every congregation? How many come to attend at prayers, but never seek to join in their own wishes and desires with the words of him who speaks? How many voices follow the tune in a psalm, but their souls feel no joy, no inward elevation of praise? How many hear the word as the word of man, and their hearts have no sense of God speaking to them? _They sit before God as his people, but their heart goes after their covetousness_; Ezek. xxxiii. 31. after their idols of business, or carnal pleasure, after every vain object of their eyes, or vainer images of the fancy. Let us take heed therefore, how we shut our eyes, or harden our hearts against a present and a speaking God; _for the word of the Lord is quick and powerful_; God speaking by his eternal word, or by his ministers in the sanctuary, pierces the secret recesses of the soul and spirit: God sits there: _discerning the intents and thoughts of the heart; all things are naked and open before his eyes with whom we have to do_; Heb. iv. 13.

II. Remark. In attendance on public worship, we should fix all our hope and expectation of profit upon the presence of God in it; for the design of ordinances is to bring us to _appear before God_. Now, if in things of this life, God should be our chief hope, much more in things of another; Ps. lxii. 5. _My soul, wait thou only upon God, my expectation is from him._

How ready are we, even in spiritual concernments, to depend on outward forms and ceremonials! and to hope, or despair of success, according to some circumstantial attendants on worship? One is ready to say, “If it were a nice enquiry into some deep doctrine, I should get something by hearing the word.” Another complains, “Alas! If it had been a sermon of grace and privileges, I had not been so careless in my attention, nor wasted my time.” And a third satisfies his conscience with this, “If I had heard moral duties enforced powerfully on our practice, then I could profit by the preaching; or if he who ministers had but more skill in composing, more fervency of speech, more warmth in delivery, more graceful pronunciations, more strength of argument; surely I should feel more lasting impressions of religion under every sermon.” And thus we go on from week to week, and worship without any sensible benefit, because we seek all from men.

But, alas! if all these things were exactly suited to our wishes, the matter ever so agreeable, the manner ever so entertaining, the voice ever so charming, and the performance ever so affectionate; if God be not there, there is no lasting benefit; _Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but God gives the increase_: 1 Cor. iii. 6. The ministration of the word is committed to man, but not the _ministration of the Spirit_. What can a man do to give eyes to the blind? To give ears to the deaf? Can a man make the lame to walk? or raise the dead to a divine life? and turn sinners into saints? _Who is sufficient for these things?_

A minister is ready to say, “When shall I preach to such a people? they would learn and profit by my sermons.” A christian is ready to say, When shall I hear such a minister, or partake of such an ordinance, or hear a discourse on such a subject managed in such a particular method? And they are ready to go away discouraged, as though all hope were gone, when they find a disappointment in the pulpit; as though the graces of God were confined to a particular instrument, or as though the words of a man were our only hope.

When any of us have been at church, and waited in the sanctuary, let us examine what did we go thither to see; a shadow of religion? An outside of christian forms? a graceful orator? The figures and shapes of devotion? Surely then we might with as much wisdom, and more innocence, have gone _to the wilderness to see a reed shaken with the wind_. Can we say as the Greeks at the feast; John xii. 21. _We would see Jesus?_ Or, as Absalom; 2 Sam. xiv. 32. _It is to little purpose I am come to Jerusalem, if I may not see the king’s face._ To little purpose we go to church, or attend on ordinances, if we seek not, if we see not God there.

III. Remark. What everlasting thanks are due to our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath made way for our _appearance before God_ with comfort and hope? You are called by the name of christians, you profess to believe in him, but you know little what you have to do with him, or what use his name is of in religion, if you can go daily to appear in the presence of God without him; you know not the nature of christianity, if you do not feel a want of Christ when you bow yourselves before God.

Consider a little what God is, and what you are, that you may have a due sense of the necessity of Christ; say to yourselves, “I am going to appear before the great and glorious God, a God of infinite perfection, and I am a little vessel of mere imperfection and infirmity; what shall I do to stand in his sight? He is a God of majesty and judgment, and I traitor, a rebel by nature and action; I want some person to introduce me into his favour. He is a God of spotless holiness, and I am defiled with a thousand sins, who shall make me appear lovely in his sight! he is a God of inflexible justice, and I a guilty wretch, a criminal, a malefactor, already condemned; who shall plead for me, and obtain a pardon?” O beg of Christ to introduce you with acceptance; in him alone can we appear well-pleasing to God: He is the beloved of the Father, and if we are ever accepted, it must be in the beloved; Eph. i. 6. Christ _appears now in the presence of God for us_, in the virtue of his blood and spotless obedience; Heb. ix. 12, 24. He who once appeared with sin imputed, _was made sin for us_, and was treated as a sinner in the world for our sakes, now appears before God, without sin, in heaven, as our _great High Priest_ and Surety, to make us acceptable to God there. Nor should our warmest devotions, nor our highest praises, dare to appear there without him.

Remember that the high priest himself among the Jews, was in danger of death, whensoever he went into the _holy of holies_, to appear before the tokens of the divine presence, if he had not proper garments upon him, and _the blood of atonement_ with him; see Ex. xxviii. 35, 43. Lev. xvi. 2, 13, 14. Let Aaron be clothed, and _the blood so sprinkled_, saith the Lord, _lest he die_. How much more may we fear destruction, if we rashly, or carelessly, come near and speak to God himself, and yet neglect the garment of righteousness, and _the blood of sprinkling_, and Christ our great Mediator.

Remember, O christian, that for a sinner to appear before God without the Mediator, is a thing of infinite terror, and not of comfort. A traitor would keep at the farthest distance from the prince, if he hath no friend to speak a word for him there. To come and present yourselves before God as sinners, without a Saviour, would be but to awaken his wrath, and put him in mind of your guilt, and his righteous vengeance. Remember therefore to take Christ with you when you come near to God. See Eph. ii. 3, 13, &c. “We are by nature children of wrath, and afar off from God,” it is he only can bring us near:—“No man cometh to the Father but by me;” John xiv. 6.

And as this is the only appointed way for sinners to appear before God, so it has been the sweet experience of ten thousand souls that they have drawn near to God, in this manner, with acceptance and delight. Hear what many a child of God can tell you in this case: “When I had the first sight of my guilt and defilements, and beheld God in the terrors of his holiness and justice, as _a consuming fire_, I was affrighted at the thoughts of appearing before him; every threatening that I heard, I thought it was pronounced against me, nor could I delight myself in the blessings of his gospel, for they were not mine. But when he was pleased to lead and draw me to Christ, I saw such an all-sufficiency of atonement and righteousness in him, that would answer all the demands that divine justice had upon me; I joyfully accepted of this salvation, I surrendered myself as the subject of his saving grace: And though now I behold God in the same glorious and dreadful attributes as before, and behold myself still defiled and sinful, yet I humbly dare appear before him daily and hourly, for Jesus is my intercessor, he is my _propitiation_, he is the Lord my righteousness, and my God sits upon a mercy-seat sprinkled with the blood of this heavenly sacrifice. My sins are many and great, and the matter of my daily groaning; I hear the threatenings and curses of his holy law, but they affright me not from his presence; for in the name of my Mediator I come, who hath borne the curse for me: With humble penitence, and with a lively faith, I draw near to a reconciled God, and give eternal thanks to the Reconciler.”

IV. Remark. What a blessing it is to have many houses of God in the nation where we dwell; and those houses of God near us! God may say to us, as to Israel; Deut. xxx. 12. “Say not who shall ascend into heaven to bring the word to us, that we may hear it? Or, who shall go over the sea, &c. for the word is very nigh to us.” We need not travel so far as the Jews, three times every year, to public worship; and yet they “went from strength to strength, till they appeared before God in Zion;” Ps. lxxxiv. 7. Consider some nations where God is not worshipped aright, and hath no dwelling-place; consider how far some poor creatures come even in this island, many miles from their own dwelling, to appear before God in his ordinances; but God seats his throne, as it were, at our doors: there are many synagogues of God in our land, for us to appear before him, and many near us in the city where we dwell, and near us too in this place of retirement.

How valuable a privilege is it to dwell in a religious family, in a house of God, where there is a _church in the house_, as Phil. verse 2. where we often appear before God? How gladly would many persons (who are in better circumstances in the world than some of us enjoy) exchange those better circumstances for spiritual advantages such as we have: But some of you perhaps may say, “We may be saved without so much religion, without so much ado about the worship of God in families or in churches.” Let me tell you, if a religious family be not a pleasure to you, heaven itself cannot afford you pleasure; for that is but one great religious family, of which Jesus Christ is the head: And if the business of that place be not your delight, you shall never have a place there.

Shall I ask the servants of this house, when you are called in to morning and evening prayer, what is your end? Do you come with hope and desire _to appear before God_? Or is it merely to obey the orders of the house, and comply with the custom of the family, for the sake of your temporal interest? Ask yourselves, my friends, what is it that brings you in constantly at the seasons of reading and praying? Is it a design to get near to God. Shall I ask the children, when you come in at the hour of worship, do you set yourselves as before God? Do your thoughts go along with the words of him who prays? Do ye attend to the word read, as the word of God, whereby you must be judged? Or do you satisfy yourselves to wear out the quarter of an hour, in sitting still, or in kneeling as others do, without thoughts of God? Shall each of us ask our own hearts, how do we pass the time of daily worship? Are we careful to lay aside all our thoughts of the world, that we may be at leisure for God? Remember, that not only in the morning and evening devotion, but at every meal we appear before God: Now, do we join in prayer for a blessing on our food and in giving thanks? Or do we think the word of one who speaks sufficiently sanctifies and blesses the meat for all who taste it?

Let us farther ask our consciences this one question, do we remember God all the day, as those who have appeared before him at worship in the morning? Do we walk among men as those who dwell in a house of God? Do we eat, and drink, and speak, and live, as those who profess so much religion and worship. Let us think on these things, and consider who there is among us that ventures to trifle with the great and dreadful God in such appearances before him? Or provoke him with a conversation unsuitable to such professions?

Blessed be God, there is more than the form of Godliness found in the governing parts of this family! And I am persuaded, that not the parlour only, but the meaner rooms are witnesses of devotion and pious discourse: But we are none of us above the need of self-enquiry; and as we all appear with our bodies to worship God daily, methinks I would not have one soul among us absent from God in this daily worship.

Thus have I finished the first general head of my discourse.

_Secondly_, The words of the text discover to us an earnest longing after divine ordinances, and the presence of God in them. This abundantly appears also in several parts of this psalm: How mournfully doth the Psalmist complain, and what a painful sense he expresses of his long absence from the house of God! _verses_ 3, 4. What a sweet and sorrowful recollection he makes of past seasons of delight in worship? _My tears have been my meat day and night,—my soul is cast down and disquieted, I remember when I went with the multitude to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise_; but now God seems to have _forgotten me_, ver. 9. How earnestly doth 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 similitudes from some of the most vehement appetites of nature to signify his strong desires after God; _my flesh thirsteth for thee, even fainteth for the courts of the living God_.

And this is the blessed temper of a christian, when in his right frame; he is never satisfied when quite restrained from divine ordinances, whether by persecution, by banishment, by the unreasonable laws of men, or by afflictions and weaknesses laid on him by the hand of God. He thinks over again those seasons wherein he enjoyed the presence of God in worship, and the recollection of them increases his desires of their return. He watches every turn of providence, and hopes it is working towards his release: When he sees the doors of his prison begin to open, he is ready to break out of confinement, and seize the pleasure of public worship: He thinks it long till he appears before God again. “I have chosen God, saith he, for my highest good, for my 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.—I. How very different are they from the temper of David, who enjoy public ordinances continually, and are weary of them? Who appear before God frequently on the Lord’s day, and yet cry, _what a weariness is it, when will the Sabbath be gone_; Mal. i. 13. and iii. 14. Amos viii. 5. When shall we return to the world again?

What is the reason of this great aversion to divine worship among those who call themselves christians? Truly the greatest part have nothing 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 come 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 of religion, and yet they cannot look upon God any otherwise than as their enemy, and so they come before him without any love or delight in his company; and then no wonder if they are weary of it. They do not come as friends to take pleasure in his presence; they would be well enough pleased, if they could live for ever in this world, and never have any thing to do with God: Their chief motive is the fear of hell, and therefore they drudge on in toilsome and undelightful religion.

And indeed this is one great reason why so many true christians feel no more longing after God, either in public or in private worship; because, though they have some faith and some cold hope, yet they are contented to abide in this state of uncertainty, without joy or assurance, and do not make it their business to advance in christianity: They cannot rejoice in God as their father, or their friend, with a lively soul; and they find but little pleasure in his house. But it is a divine pleasure, and a-kin to heaven, when a child of God, with a lively faith and joyful spirit, comes before God as his God, and entertains himself with all the blessed discoveries that he makes of his wisdom and grace in his churches, with all the promises of the covenant, with all the words of love that God hath written in his book, or publishes in his ordinances by the ministry of men. He feeds upon heavenly provisions in his Father’s house; and when he departs, he maintains on his soul a sweet savour of heaven. But alas! there is a great withdrawment of the Spirit of God from his churches; a deadness of heart has seized believers in our day, and they grow carnal: O pray that the Spirit may return to the sanctuary again!

II. Remark. How comfortable a thing would it be, to feel our souls longing for divine ordinances more earnestly after restraint! We should learn the language of Jonah, when in the belly of the whale; Lord, _I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple_; Jonah ii. 4. I will look while I am at a distance, and pray toward the mercy-seat, in hope and desire to come near the sanctuary.

We are too ready to grow indifferent, and think we can do well enough without this appearing before God? We grow, as it were strangers to him by long absence; and though the sacred correspondence in public be lost, yet sometimes it is not much regretted: This is a frequent distemper of the soul. When fasting increases a regular appetite, it is a sign of a healthy constitution; but weakly natures are so overwhelmed with a little fasting, that their appetite is gone too. Many christians may complain of this, and say, “Though I find some relish of pleasure when I am in the house of God, and amongst his saints; and though it was very painful to me to endure the first months of confinement, yet a long restraint has brought me under the spiritual disease, that my appetite and desire grow feeble, and my heart too indifferent to public worship.”

Now in order to enquire into the temper of our spirits, and to awaken us to greater longings after divine ordinances, let us consider 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 profession of his name among men, or to receive something from him in order to our own comfort and salvation. If we hope 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: But 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; there we were first awakened and convinced of sin, there we were first led to the knowledge and faith of Christ, and pardoning grace was revealed with power by the ministry of the word; therefore we long after the _sincere milk of the word_, in the same public dispensation 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, sanctification, and peace; these therefore, sometimes have not the same earnest longing after public preaching as others have; yet they do continually attend on the ordinances of Christ in public, 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 glorious and self-denying temper, to maintain a warm zeal to do much 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 God by the blessings we hope to receive; and we should consider, that an utter neglect 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 therefore 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, rejoice and bless the Lord!

However, while any of us 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 all proper opportunities to lift up our souls to him in the midst of common affairs, and thus do what we can to make up the loss of the sanctuary: But we should be still breathing also after church-worship, and the communion of saints; for _God loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob_; Ps. lxxxvii. 2.

III. Remark. O what unhappy clogs these fleshly sinful bodies are to the mind! How they contradict the best inclinations of the soul, and forbid it to fulfil its spiritual desires! The soul would appear often before God, but the flesh forbids: The spirit would rejoice to be among christian assemblies, but the body is too often confined by sickness, or by the necessary cares that relate to this life, this poor animal life, that has so troublesome an influence upon the noblest enjoyments of the mind.

The soul would wait upon God whole hours together in praising, in praying, in hearing the word; but the body is weak, overwhelmed with a little attention, and can bear no more. The soul wrestles and strives against the infirmities of the flesh, and labours hard to abide with God; but these very wrestlings and strivings overcome languishing nature; the impotence of the flesh prevails against the sprightliest efforts and vigour of the mind; the flesh prevails, and the spirit must yield. Thus we are dragged down from the holy mount of converse with God, and the soul, who is a-kin to angels, and employed in their work, must descend, and lie idle, to refresh the animal. In vain would the spirit raise all its powers into lively and devout exercise, if the flesh grows faint under a warm affection, it is forced to let go the holy thought, and quit the divine pleasures of religion, until a better hour return.

Sometimes, through drowsiness, and want of natural spirits, we grow stupid and heavy in religious duties, and have but little sense of that God before whom we appear. Sometimes, through excess of spirits, our imagination grows vain and fluttering, and wanders far away from the God whom we worship. If we fix our thoughts one minute upon things of the highest importance and the most awful solemnity; the next flying idea catches the mind away, and it is lost from God and devotion again. We appear before God, and disappear again; we wander into the world, and return to God, twenty times in an hour.

Our eyes and our ears are constant witnesses of this painful weakness; and unhappy instruments they are to draw off our souls from the divinest meditation. Every thing around us is ready to disturb and divert our feeble nature in the most heavenly acts of worship: Poor broken worship! Poor frail estate of human nature! But there is a blessed assembly of better worshippers above: Awake our faith and desire to join them! and let each of us say, “_O when shall I go_ to that bright company, _and appear_ amongst them _before God_.”

SERMON XIV.
_Appearance before God here and hereafter._
PSALM xlii. 2.—When shall I come and appear before God.
THE SECOND PART.

By an appearance before God, in the text we are to understand our attendance upon him in the public ordinances of worship; and the longing desire the Psalmist had to draw near unto God in his ordinances, represents to us the character of every sincere christian, when he enjoys his own right frame, and heavenly temper of soul; He longs, he breathes after those seasons of divine improvement and comfort.

I shall make no further repetition of any thing before delivered; but considering that all our appearances before God in this world in his sanctuary, are but means to prepare us to stand before God in the world that is to come; I shall not think myself at all to wander from the text, if I spend my whole time, at present in shewing the difference that is between our appearance before God on earth here, and our appearing before him in the other world hereafter; and this in order to awaken the sinner, and to encourage the true christian.

There are two great future appearances before God, the one at judgment, and the other in glory in heaven. The one belongs to all men, the other only to the saints. And now that I may divide my discourse aright and give to every one their portion, I would beg leave chiefly to apply our general appearance before God at judgment, to those who are unconverted, and in a state of sin; for we have reason to fear that there may be some such among us: And I will apply the blessed appearance before God in heaven to converted souls, to whom only it belongs: These are the persons who have faith and love, and are in some measure prepared to appear and worship there.

_First_ then, Let us consider our appearance before God in judgment. It is true, at the moment of death our souls immediately stand before God to be judged, as well as our souls and bodies united, shall stand together there in the great day of the resurrection; yet I shall not make any distinction of these seasons now, lest I should multiply particulars; but shall treat of them together, to awaken the secure and sinful worshipper, who appears before God here in the form of devotion: And to put him in mind he must ere long stand before God in another manner than now he does, and to set his thoughts at work to compare one with the other in these particulars:

1. The sinner now appears with some degree of willingness in the presence of God, then it is under a terrible constraint. A wicked man may be willing to come to public ordinances for many carnal ends, as to comply with his superiors, to follow the custom of the family where he dwells, to gain reputation among men, to satisfy the cries of an awakened conscience; for his conscience, perhaps, will not be easy without the performance of some duties; and so he makes use of divine worship, and his public appearances before God, as a kind of opiate, to stupify an uneasy conscience, and therefore he has some inclination and willingness to come before God here on earth: but at death, and at the general resurrection, he must appear whether he will or no; Heb. ix. 27. _It is appointed for all men once to die, and after death the judgment_; Rom. xiv. 10. and 2 Cor. v. 10. _We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The angels shall gather the elect_ from the four quarters of the world, and bring them near to the judge with pleasure; but sinners shall be dragged toward that awful tribunal, and be forced to abide the trial.

While the believer, who walks in lively faith, says, When shall I come into that world of spirits, and appear there before God? the sinner wishes that day may never come: O that I might live for ever on earth! that I might for ever converse with men, and never see the face of that God who hates me, and whom I have never loved. O that death might make an utter end of me! O that the grave would cover me for ever, that I might rise no more. And when that dreadful day comes, then, “Fall on us, rocks; then, mountains press us down, and conceal us for ever from the wrath of God and the Lamb;” as in Rev. vi. 15, 16. that outcry is represented. But they must stand and see the terror; they are constrained to hear the glorious and dreadful sentence, Dost thou believe this, O my soul! and canst thou be content to live unprepared for the solemnities of this day?