fuffer his mercy to be glorified in your recovery, his holinefs, power, and juftice, fhall be illuftrated in your perdition. Time is haftening away; judgment is haftening on; no refusing to appear at that bar; no deceiving or biaffing that judge; no room to escape; no fource of confolation under that fentence. How infupportable the reflection on opportunity irrecoverably loft! And how terrible the fanction which follows upon the offer of mercy! You may read it, Prov. i. 24,31. "Becaufe I have "called, and ye refused, I have ftretched out my hand, "and no man regarded: but ye have fet at nought all my "counfel, and would none of my reproof: I alfo will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear "cometh. When your fear cometh as defolation, and your deftruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress "and anguish cometh upon you. Then fhall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they fhall feek me "early, but they fhall not find me: for that they hated "knowledge, and did not chufe the fear of the Lord. They "would none of my counfel; they defpifed all my reproof: therefore fhall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices."

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I only add, if any impreffion is made on your minds, of the importance of eternity, fuffer it to abide there. Let it have an immediate effect. Of all the deceits of fin or Satan, none more fatal than that of putting off convictions to a more convenient feafon. I conclude, therefore, with the words of Solomon, Ecclef. ix. 10. "Whatfoever thy "hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is "no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in "the grave whither thou goeft." Amen.

THE BELIEVER GOING TO GOD AS HIS EXCEEDING JOY.

SERMON 20.

PSALM xliii. 4.

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.

T is of great moment to attend to the proper mixture

IT

of reverence and love which ought to poffefs our hearts in the worship of the living God. If they arise from proper principles, they will not deftroy or weaken, but ftrengthen one another. A believer can never lye too low in the duft before the most holy God; he can never be too fenfible either of his diftance as a creature, or his guilt and unworthinefs as a finner: but, at the fame time, he can never be too deeply penetrated with a fenfe of divine love, or have too strong and ardent defires after communion and fellowship with God. The truth is, the lower we are in our own fight, it doth but the more illuftrate and magnify all the grace that is fhewn to us in the gofpel: and the more joyfully we contemplate the fulness of our portion in an infinite God, it will but the more bring back this reflection, and constrain us to confefs, that we are less than the least of all his mercies.

In feveral paffages of the Pfalms of David, we have very warm and fervent expreffions of the delight which the man after God's own heart had in the worship of his fanc

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tuary. There are few of these more beautiful and forcible than the paffage of which my text is a part, " () send "out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. "Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my ex"ceeding joy." That which feems to have brought the Pfalmift to this ftriking and beautiful thought, was, his being under the preffure of heavy affliction; and, particularly, in a state of distance and banishment from the temple fervice. This led him to flee for refuge to God, his almighty friend and unchangeable portion. Did the Pfalmift then go to God as his confolation in diftrefs? What reafon is there for every Chriflian to go to him as his Father and his God, not only for fupport under the various trials of this mortal ftate, but for happiness and peace after he hath feen and felt the inherent vanity of every created enjoyment?

All I fhall further add upon the words is, that what David is here praying for, is to be brought to the temple of God, to have accefs to his courts, and communion with him there. This he plainly looks upon as a fource of exceeding joy; and, furely, to thofe who are duly difpofed for it, there is not, there cannot be, in this world, a more delightful employment than the joint celebration of our Creator and Redeemer's praife; than the united voice of his fervants in his temple. It is the neareft approach we can make to the employment of heaven, and the most senfible foretaste we can have of its happiness in this foreign land.

But, my brethren, I muft limit the fubject to what is the particular and diftinguishing employment of this day, -the holy ordinance of the Lord's fupper, commemorating our Redeemer's dying love. This was called by the ancients the Eucharist, or Sacrifice of Praise. And, indeed, no difpofition is more proper or neceflary, in attending upon it, than a joyful and thankful frame of spirit. This will be like a precious perfume, which will fill the houfe with its fragrance, and will greatly ftrengthen every other gracious difpofition; and, therefore, my intention is, through the affiftance of divine grace,

I. To fhew you what matter of joy and fatisfaction there is to every fincere Christian, in what is reprefented to our view in the facrament of the Lord's fupper; or, for what reasons we ought, in this folemn fervice in a particular manner, to go to God as our exceeding joy.

Having done fo, I fhall make fome practical improvement of the fubject for your inftruction and direction.

In the first place, then, I am to fhew you what matter of joy and satisfaction there is to every fincere Christian, in what is represented to our view in the facrament of the Lord's fupper; or for what reasons we ought in this folemn service, in a particular manner, to go to God as our exceeding joy. I am deeply fenfible, my brethren, that I have entered on a talk to which I am very unequal, to raise your minds to that fublime temper, of joy in God, and to difclofe that fountain of joy there is to every believer, in what his Redeemer has done, and is ftill doing for him. It is fo great a subject, that we ourselves may fee how unfit a mortal tongue is to fpeak of it: and therefore, I fhall, in the entry, pray that God may fhed "abroad his love in our hearts; that he may fend forth "his light and his truth, that they may be guides to us." and accompany the word spoken with the powerful energy of the spirit of confolation. But a little of that real communion with God which is the work of his Spirit, and which he fometimes vouchfafes to his people, will give them fuch a lively fense of his love and joy in him, as they themselves know may be felt, but cannot be expreffed: and I cannot forbear already oblerving to you, that the meaneft real Chriftian fhall, one day, in the higher house, have fuch a fulness of joy, and fuch conceptions of God and his Redeemer's love, that he fhall look down, with wonder, at the weak and imperfect stretches of our imagination after it now: But fo long as we are here, let us patiently content ourselves with what is given us as necessary to support our weary steps in this defolate wildernefs; with what this ordinance, inftituted for enlivening our faith, fupplies us for our comfort and joy. M

VOL. II.