3. Those ordinances are prized where many of the servants of God meet together. It is comfortable to enjoy God in secret, such duties are rewarded with an open blessing : Mat. vi. 6, ' But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and shut thy door, and pray unto thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret, will re- ward thee openly.' But here it is God's court. David could thus enjoy God in the wilderness ; Ps. xlii. 4, 'I had. gone with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the multitude that kept holy-day.' It is a comfort certainly to meet with our everlasting companions, joining in concert with them, and beginning our everlasting work. God's people have but one spirit, one divine nature ; are led by the same principles, rules, and ends ; have the same hopes, desires, and joys : to have multitudes of these joining with us in lifting up the same God, in the same solemn worship, pray- ing together, hearing together, sitting down at the same table, and glorifying the same God and Father with the same heart and mouth : Acts i. 14, ' These all continued with one accord in prayer and suppli- cation;' Ps. xxii. 22, 'In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee;' and ver. 25, ' My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation ; I will pay my vows before them that fear him.'
4. It must be to the ordinances, though under reproach, disgrace, persecution : Heb. xi. 26, ' Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.' Though the service of God expose us to the lowest and most painful condition of life, as a door- keeper, if joined with any measure of communion with God : 2 Sam. vi. 22, ' I will be yet more vile than thus.' It is better to suffer afflic- tion with the people of God, than to enjoy the most easy, sumptuous,
154 SERMON UPON PSALM LXXXIV. 10,
and plentiful condition of life with wicked men. Few are content to serve a poor Christ.
5. It is a constant affection, not for a pang. Herod r)Bi(o<i ijKovae * Heard John Baptist gladly,' Mark vi. 20 ; and John v. 35, * He was a burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light ; ' for a season, while ordinances are novel things, or during some qualm of conscience ; but it is from a constant inbred appetite, common to all the saints.
6. This value and esteem must vent itself by a strong desire : Ps. xlii. 1, 2, 'As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, 0 God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : when shall I come and appear before God ? ' The lively believer doth earnestly, and above all other things, seek after communion with God : 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.' There were other things which David might desire, but this one thing was his heart set upon, that he might live in constant 'communion with God. Not to be settled in his regal throne, which he sought not yet to be, but to enjoy that transcendant pleasure of conversing daily and frequently with God ; and the spirit worketh uniformly in the saints.
7. The end of our attendance on ordinances must be God's glory and our own profit. God's glory : Ps. xxvii. 4, ' To behold the beauty of God.' God is infinitely worthy of all honour and praise from his creatures ; love to God hath an influence on it : Ps. xxvi. 8, ' Lord, I have loved the habitation of tliy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.' Our profit : 1 Peter ii. 2, ' As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby ; ' that we may have some increase of light and life : Ps. Ixxxiv. 7, ' They go from strength to strength ; every one in Sion appeareth before God.'
SERMONS UPON LUKE XIX 10.
SEKMON I.
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save ihait whic7i was lost.
Luke xix. 10.
This is given as a reason why Christ came to invite himself to Zaccheus' house, who was a publican. We find, ver. 7, ^ The people murmured, saying, That he was gone to be a guest with a man that is a sinner.' Christ defendeth his practice by his commission, or the errand for which he came into the world, ' For the Son of man,' &c. In which words —
1. The person, or the character by which he was described, * The Sou of man.' Christ is called so, not to deny his godhead, but to express the verity of his human nature, and that he was of our stock and lineage. He might have been a true man though he had not come of Adam, but his human nature had been framed out of the dust of the ground, as Adam's was, or created out of nothing: 'But he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are of one ; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,' Heb. ii. 11. He would be of the mass and stock with uf!.