(2.) It is a tpoeaywyri that we have in this worship ; — a manuduction unto God, in order, and with much glory. It is such an access as men have to the presence of a king, when they are handed in by some favourite or great person. This, in this worship, is done by Christ. He takes the worshippers by the hand, and leads them into the presence of God ; there presenting them (as we shall see), saying, "Behold I and the children which God hath given me," Heb. ii. 13. This is the access of believers ; thus do they enter into the presence of God. Some, it may be, will be ready to say, that a man may be ashamed to speak such great things as these of poor worms, who have neither order in their way, nor eloquence in their words, nor comeli- ness in their worship. Let such men know that they must yet hear greater things of them : and it is meet, indeed, they should be in all things conformable unto Christ; and, therefore, have neither form, nor comeliness, nor beauty in themselves, their way, or their worship, to the eyes of the world, as Isa. liii. 2. And " the world knows not them" and their ways, because "it knew not him" nor his ways, 1 John iii. 1. But if God may be allowed to judge in his own matters, the spiritual worship of the saints is glorious, since in it they have such an access, such a manuduction unto God.
3. From the immediate object of this worship; and that is God. We have an access to God. It is, as I said, the Father who is here peculiarly intended. God, as God, — he who is the beginning and end of all, whose nature is attended with infinite perfection, — he from whom a sovereignty over all doth proceed, — is the formal object of all divine and religious worship. Hence, divine worship respects, as its object, each person of the blessed Trinity equally, not as this or that person, but as this or that person is God; that is the formal reason of all divine worship. But yet, as the second person is con-
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sidered as vested with his office of mediation, and the Holy Ghost as the comforter and sanctifier of his saints ; so God the Father is in a peculiar manner the object of our faith, and love, and worship. So Peter tells us, 1 Epist. i. 21, that through Christ we "believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory/' Christ being considered as mediator, God that raised him from the dead — that is, the Father — is regarded as the ultimate object of our worship; though worshipping him who is the Father as God, the other persons are in the same nature worshipped. This whole matter is declared, Gal. iv. 6 (which I cannot now particularly open), with this explanation, that in our access unto God, Christ being considered as the mediator, and the Holy Ghost as our comforter, advocate, and assister, the saints have a peculiar respect unto the person of the Father.
There are two things that hence arise, evidencing the order, de- cency, and glory of gosjiel worship: — (1.) That we have in it a direct and immediate access unto God ; (2.) That we have access unto God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and ours in him.
(1.) This is no small part of the glory of this worship, that our access is unto God himself. When outward worship was in its height and glory, the access of the worshippers immediately was but unto some visible sign and pledge of God's presence. Such was the temple itself; such was the ark and the mercy-seat. So Paul, describing the tabernacle and temple worshippers, Heb. x. 1, calls them vpogsp^o^s- vovg, " the comers unto sacrifices." There was, as it were, a stop put upon their access, in the visible representations of God's majesty and presence to which they did approach. But now, in this spiritual worship of the gospel, the saints have direct and immediate access unto God, — " the way into the holiest," not made with hands, being laid open unto them all. And where they are enjoined the use of any outward signs, as in the sacraments, it is not, as it were, to stop them there from entering into heaven, but to help them forward in their entrance ; as all know who are acquainted with their true nature and use. I do not say that any of the worship of old was limited in the sensible pledge and tokens of God's presence ; but only that the spirit of the worshippers was kept in subjection, so as to approach unto God only as he exhibited himself to their faith in those signs, and not immediately, as we do under the gospel.
(2.) We have in this spiritual worship of the gospel access unto God as a Father. I showed, in the opening of the words, that God is distinctly proposed here as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in him our God and Father. Hence are we said to come " to the throne of grace," Heb. iv. 16; that is, unto God as he is glori- ously exalted in the dispensation of grace, in kindness, love, mercy, — in a word, as a Father. God on the throne of grace, and God as a