62 THE NATURE AND BEAUTY
With "silver and gold," and "corruptible things;" it is the "thick clay:" and he that hath most money may render that kind of worship most beauteous and glorious. But now the gospel worship of believers is the price of the " blood of the Son of God." Access to God for sinners could no other way be obtained. Let men, as the prophet speaks, " lavish gold out of their bags" (Isa. xlvi. 6) upon their idols ; their self-invented Worship shall come as short, in true glory and beauty, of the meanest prayers of poor saints, as the purchase of cor- ruptible things cloth of the fruit of the blood and death of the Son of God, 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.
(2.) We have this access from Christ, inasmuch as he hath opened, prepared, and dedicated a way for us to enter into the presence of God. Favour being procured, a way of entrance is also to be provided ; other- wise poor souls might say, " There is water, indeed, in the well ; but the well is deep, and we have not wherewith to draw. There is an acceptance purchased for us in the presence of God ; but by what way shall we come unto him?" I say, he hath provided for us also a way whereby we may enter, Heb. x. 19, 20, — " By a new and living way." The way into the holiest, of old, was through the vail that hung always before ; which the apostle calls " the second vail," chap. ix. 8. The form and use thereof you have, Exod. xxvi. 81, 32, etc. Through this vail the high priest entered into the holy place. Instead hereof, for an entrance into the presence of God in the holy place not made with hands, Christ hath provided and dedicated a " new and living way" for us. This way is himself ; as he telleth Thomas, John xiv. 6, " I am the way." It is by him alone that any can obtain an access unto God. But as to our constant approach in worship, there is a peculiar respect had unto his suffering for us in the flesh. We enter "by his blood," and "through his flesh." How is that? As men being to go to some great potentate or general in an army have, it may be, some word or token which they show, declare, or make use of, if by any they are hindered in their address, — so it is with believers. The law would stop them in their access to God ; so would sin and Satan : but their being "sprinkled with the blood of Christ" is the token that lays all open unto them, and removes all obstacles out of the way; and when they come into the presence of God, it is the suffering of Christ in the flesh that they insist on as to their acceptation with him. They go to God through him, in his name, " making mention of his righteousness," death, and bloodshedding, pleading for acceptance on his account. This is their "new and living way" of going unto God; — this path they tread, this entrance they use; and no man can ob- tain an access unto God but by an interest herein. I wonder not at all that men who know not this way — who have no share, nor ever took one step in it — do fix on any kind of worship whatever, rather
OF GOSPEL WORSHIP. 60
than once make trial what it is to place the glory of their worship in an access unto Gocl, seeing they have no interest in this way, without which all attempts after it would be altogether fruitless and vain. Now, this adds to the order, and increaseth the glory and beauty, of the spiritual worship of the gospel. Go to the mass-book and the rubric of it ; — you will see how many instructions and directions they give priests about the way of going into their sanctum and to their altars ; — how they must bow and bend themselves, sometimes one way sometimes another; sometimes kneel, sometimes stand; sometimes go backwards, sometimes forward. This is their way to the breaden god ; this they call order, and beauty, and glory ; and with such like things are poor, simple sots deluded, and carnal wretches, enemies to Christ and his Spirit, blinded to their eternal ruin. Surely, methinks, this way of gospel access to God is far more comely and glorious : — it is in and by Christ, — a way dedicated by himself on purpose ; it is sprinkled with his blood; it is opened by his suffering in the flesh, and abides " new and living" for ever. Were not blindness come on men to the utmost, — were it not evident that they can see nothing afar off, — that they are wholly carnal and unspiritual, " savouring not the things of God," — it were impossible that they should reject these pearls of the gospel for the husks of swine, such things as they shall never be able to vie with the old heathen in. This only may be said in their excuse, that they cast away and reject what they had no share in, for that which is most properly their own.