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the means appointed and blessed of God, for the exercise and increase of faith and love, with an experience of their efficacy unto that end.
The second is, because they are the means of the com- munication of a sense of divine love, and supplies of divine grace unto the souls of them that do believe. So far as our affections are renewed, this is the most principal attractive to cleave unto them with delight and complacency.
They are, as was observed before, the ways of our ap- proaching unto God. Now we do not draw nigh to God, as himself speaks, as a ' dry hearth, or a barren wilderness,' where no refreshment is to be obtained. To make a pretence of coming unto God, and not with expectation of receiving good and great things from him, is to despise God himself, to overthrow the nature of the duty, and deprive our own souls of all benefit thereby : and want hereof, is that which renders the worship of the most, useless and fruitless unto themselves. We are always to come unto God, as unto an eternal spring of goodness, grace, and mercy, of all that our souls do stand in need of, of all we can desire in order unto our everlasting blessedness ; and all these things, as unto believers, may be reduced unto the two heads before-men- tioned.
1. They come for a communication of a sense of his love in Jesus Christ. Hence doth all our peace, consolation, and joy, all our encouragement to do, and suffer according to the will of God, all our supportments under our suffer- ings, solely depend ; in these things do our souls live ; and without them we are of all men the most miserable.
It is the Holy Spirit who is the immediate efficient cause of all these things in us. He sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts ; Rom. v. 5. He witnesseth our adoption unto us; chap. viii. 15, 16. and thereby an interest in the love of the Father, in God, as he is love. But the outward way and means whereby he communicates these things unto us, and effects them in us, is by the dispensation of the gospel, or the preaching of it ordinarily. He doth the same work also in prayer, and ofttimes in other holy administrations. For this end, for a participation of this grace, of these mer- cies, do believers come unto God by them. They use them as means to draw * water from the wells of salvation,' and to
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receive in that spiritual sense of divine love, which God by them will communicate.
So Christ, by his word, knocks at the door of the heart; if it be open by faith, he coraeth in and suppeth with men, giving them a gracious refreshment, by the testimony of his own love, and the love of the Father; Rev. iii. 20. John xiv. 23. This believers look for in, and this they do in various measures receive by the ordinances of divine worship. And although some, through their fears and temptations, are not sensible hereof, yet do they secretly receive these blessed gracious supplies whereby their souls are held in life, without which they would pine away and perish. So he dealeth with them ; Cant. iv. 5, 6. These are the gardens and galleries of Christ wherein he gives us of his love; Cant. vii. 12. Those who are humble and sincere, know how often their souls have been refreshed in them, and how long sometimes the impres- sions they have received of divine grace and love have con- tinued with them unto their unspeakable consolation. They remember what they have received in the opening and ap- plication of the 'exceeding great and precious promises,' that are given unto them, whereby they are gradually more and more made 'partakers of the divine nature;' how many a time they have received light in darkness, refreshment under despondencies, relief in their conflicts with dangers and temptations, in and by them. For this cause do affections that are spiritually renewed cleave unto them. Who can but love and delight in that which he hath found by experience to be the way and means of communicating unto him the most invaluable mercy, the most inestimable benefit, whereof in this life he can be made partaker? He who hath found a hidden treasure, although he should at once take away the whole of it, yet will esteem the place where he found it. But if it be of that nature, that no more can be found or taken of it at once, but what is sufficient for the present occasion, yet is so full and boundless, as that whenever he comes again to seek for it, he shall he sure to obtain present supply, he will always value it, and constantly apply himself unto it. And such is the treasure of grace and divine love, that is in the ordinances of divine worship.
If we are strangers unto these things, if we have never received efficacious intimations of divine love unto our
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souls, in and by the duties of divine worship, we cannot love them and delight in them as we ought. What do men come to hear the word of God for ? What do they pray for? What do they expect to receive from him ? Do they come unto God as the eternal fountain of living waters? As the God of all grace, peace, and consolation ? Or do they come unto his worship without any design, as unto a dry and empty show? Do they fight uncertainly with these things as men beating the air? Or do they think they bring something unto God, but receive nothing from him? that the best of their busi- ness is to please him in doing what he commands ; but to receive any thing from him they expect not, nor do ever examine themselves whether they have done so or no ? It is not for persons who walk in such ways, ever to attain a due delight in the ordinances of divine worship.