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: