Communion Between Christ and Believers on Earth, Continued

“I WILL COME IN TO HBI, AND WILL SUP WITH HIM, AND HE WITH me:’ Rev. 3:20.

I SHALL now proceed to show you.

III. The transcendent excellency of this life of communion with God: it is the life of our Ufe, the joy of our hearts; a heaven upon earth — as will appear by these twenty excellencies thereof.

Excellency 1. It is the assiviilati?ig instrument whereby the soul is moulded after the image of God. This is the excellency of communion with God, to make the soul like him. There is a twofold assimilation or conformity of the soul to God, the one perfect and complete, the other imperfect and in part. Perfect assimilation is the privilege of the perfect state, resulting from the immediate vision and perfect communion the soul has with God in glory: “When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John, 3:2. Perfect vision produces perfect assimilation; but the soul’s assimilation or imperfect conformity to God in this world, is wrought and gradually carried on by daily communion with him. And as our communion with God here grows up more and more into sphituality and power, so in an answerable degree does our conformity to him advance: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinth. 3: 18. All sorts of communion among men have an assimilating efficacy: he that walks in vain company is vainer than he was before; and he that walks in spiritual, heavenly company, will be more serious than before. But nothing so transforms the spirit of a man as communion with God, Those arc most like God that converse most frequently with him. The beauty of the Lord is upon those souls; it changes the spirit of a man after the divine pattern.

Excellency 2. It is the beauty of the soul, in the eyes of God and all good men; it makes the face to shine. No outward splendor attracts like this; it makes a man the most desirable companion in the whole world: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John, 1: 3. This is the great inducement the apostle makes use of to draw the world into fellowship with the saints, that their fellowship is with God. And if there were ten thousand other inducements, there could be none like this. You read of a blessed time, when the earth shall be full of holiness; when the Jews, now as a lost generation, shall be called, and an eminent degree of sanctification shall be visible in them; and then see the effect of this: “In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirts of him that is a Jew, saying. We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you.” Zech. 8: 23. This is the powerful attractive, the Lord is with you; it is the effect of communion with God, which makes the righteous more excellent than his neighbor. Prov. 12: 26. What a visible difference does this make between one man and another. How heavenly, sweet, and desirable are the conversation and company of some men; how frothy, burdensome, and unprofitable is the company of others; and what makes the difference but only this, the one walks in communion with God, the other is ahenated from the life of God?

Excellency 3. It is the ceyitre on luhich rests the ivearij soul — the rest and refreshment of a man’s spirit: “Return unto thy rest, 0 my soul.” Psa. 116; 7. When we attain perfect communion with God in heaven, we attain to perfect rest; and all the rest the spirit of man finds on earth, is in communion with God. Take a sanctified person who has intermitted for some time his communion with the Lord, and ask him, Is your soul at rest and ease? He will tell you. No. The motions of his soul are like those of a member of his body out of joint, neither comely nor easy. Let him recover his spiritual frame again, and with it he recovers his rest and comfort. Christians, you meet Avitli a variety of troubles in this world; many a sweet comfort is cut ofi, many a hopeful project dashed by the hand of Providence; and wiat, think you, is the meaning of these blasting, disappointing providences? Surely this is their design and errand, to disturb your false rest in the bosom of the creature; to pluck away the pillows you were laying your heads upon, that you may be led back to God, recover your lost communion with him, and say with David, “Return unto thy rest, 0 my soul.” Sometimes we are settling ourselves to rest in an estate, in a child, or the like: at such a time it is usual for God to say. Go, losses, smite such a man’s estate; go, death, and take away the desire of his eyes with a stroke, that my child may find rest nowhere but in me. God is the ark; the soul, like the dove Noah sent forth, let it fly where it will, shall find no rest till it come back to God.

Excellency 4. It is the desire, of all gracious souls throitghout the world. Wherever there is a gracious soul, its desires work after communion with God. As Christ was called, “The Desire of all nations,” Hag. 2: 7, so communion with him is the desire of all nations; and this speaks the excellency of it: “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.” Psa. 27 :4. That is to enjoy communion with him in the public duties of his worship. One thing have I desired, that is, one thing above all others; such an one, that if God shall give it me, I can comfortably bear the want of other things. Let him deny me what he will, if he will not deny me this one thing; this shall richly recompense the want of all other things. Hence the desires of the saints are so intense after this one thing: “As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, 0 God;” and, “My soul fainteth for thy salvation;” “When wilt thou come unto me?” Psalm 42 1; 1 19: 81; 101: 2. No duties can satisfy without it, the soul cannot bear the delay, much less the denial of this communion. Christians reckon their lives worth nothing without it. Ministers may come, ordinances and sabbaths may come; but there is no satisfaction to the desires of a gracious heart, till God comes too: “0 when wilt thou come unto me?”

Excellency 5. As it is the desire, so it is the delight of all the children of God, both in heaven and earth. As communion with the saints is the delight of Christ, “Let me hear thy voice;” and again, “The companions hearken to thy voice; cause me to hear it;” so communion with Christ is the delight of his people: “I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” Sol. Song 2: 14; 8:13; 2:3. It is the pleasure of Christ to see the earnest countenances, the blusliing cheeks, the weeping eyes of his people on their knees; and it is the delight of the saints to see a smile upon his face, and to hear a voice of pardon and peace from his lips. I must tell you, Christians, you must look for” no such delights as these in any earthly enjoyment; there are none better than these, till you come home to glory. Communion with God then appears most excellent, inasmuch as it is the desire and delight of all gracious souls.

Excellency 6. It is the envy of Satan, that which mortifies and disappoints that wicked spirit. 0 how it grates and galls that proud and envious spirit, to see men enjoying the pleasure of communion with God, from which he himself is fallen and cut off for ever; to see the saints in delightful communion with Christ, while he feels the pangs of horror and despair: this he cannot endure to behold. And therefore you find in your experience, that times of communion with God are usually busy times of temptation from the devil. “And he showed me Joshua the high-priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.” Zech. 3:1. It is well for thee, Christian, that thou hast an Advocate standing at God’s right hand to resist and frustrate his attempts upon thee; otherwise Satan would thus destroy your communion with God, and make that which is now your delight, your terror. Many ways doth the devil oppose the saints’ communion with God: sometimes he labors to divert them from it; this business shall fall in, or that occasion fall out, on purpose to divert thy soul’s approach to God; but if he cannot prevail in this, then he labors to distract your thoughts into a thou* sand vanities; or if he succeed not there, he attacks you in your return from duty, with spiritual pride and security. These fierce oppositions of hell show the worth and excellency of communion with God.

Excellency 7. It is the design of all the ordmance?, and duties of religion. God has instituted every ordinance and duty, whether public or private, to beget and maintain communion between himself and our souls. What are ordinances, duties, and graces, but perspective-glasses to give us a sight of God and help us to communion with him? God never intended his ordinances to be our rest, but mediums of communion with himself, who is our true rest. When wo go into a boat, it is not with an intention to dwell there, but to be ferried over the water where our business lies. If a man miss of communion with God in the best ordinance or duty, it yields him little comfort. He comes back from it, like a man that hath travelled many miles to meet a dear friend on special business, but met with disappointment, and returns sad and dissatisfied. God appoints ordinances to be meeting-places with himself in this world: “Thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubims.” Exodus 25: 21, 22. It was not the sight of the golden cherubims, or of the ark overlaid with pure gold, which could have satisfied Moses, had not the special presence of God been there, and had he not held communion with him. “0 God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” Psalm 63: 1, 2, Magnificent structures, or artificial ornaments of places of worship, are of little account with a gracious soul; it is the presence of God and communion with him which is the beauty and glory the saints desire to behold.

Excellency 8. It is the evidejice of our union with Christ and interest m him. All union with Christ must evidence itself by a life of communion with him, or our pretensions to it are vain and groundless. There are many — I wish there were more — inquiring after evidences and signs of their union with Christ; here is an evidence that can never fail you: Do you live in communion with him.? May your life be called a walking with God, as Enoch’s was? Then you may be sure you have union with him; and this is so sure a sign, as that death itself, which usually discovers the vanity of false signs, will never be able to destroy it. Hezekiah could say, “I beseech thee, 0 Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.” 2 Kings, 20: 3. 0, professors, it will be a dreadful thing, whatever ungrounded hopes and false comforts you now have, to find them shrinking away from you, as certainly they will at death; and all on this account: “I have been a man of knowledge, have been frequent in the external duties of religion, but my heart was not in them; I had no communion with the Lord in them, and now God is a terror to my soul. I am going to his awful bar, and have not one sound evidence to carry with me.” That is a remarkable text in Gal. 5: 25, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit;” that is, let us evidence the life of grace in us by exercising that grace in a life of communion with G od. When all is said, this is the surest evidence of our union wdth Christ; and no gifts or performances whatever can amount to evidence of union with Christ without it.

Excellency 9. It is ease in all pains, sweet and sensible ease to a troubled soul. As the bleeding of a vein cools, eases, and refreshes a feverish body; so the opening of the soul by acts of communion with God, gives ease to a burdened soul: griefs are eased by groans heavenward. Many souls are deeply laden with their own fears, cares, and distresses; no refreshment for such a soul, no anodyne in the whole world like communion with God. ‘Psa. 32: 1, 2. How did troubles afflict David’s soul; night and day God’s hand was heavy on him; his soul, as Elihu speaks, was like bottles full of new wine: he must speak to God; and so he did, and was refreshed by it: “I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” Ver. 5. It would grieve one to see how many distressed souls carry their troubles up and down the world, making their complaints to one and another; but obtain no ease. Away to thy God, poor Christian; get thee into thy closet, pour out thy soul before him; and that ease which thou seekest in vain elsewhere, will there be found, or nowhere.

Excellency 10. It <sp food to the soul, and the most delicious, pleasant, proper, and satisfying food that ever it tasted; it is hidden manna. Rev. 2:17. “0 Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the Hie of my spirit.” Isa. 38:16. Regenerate souls cannot live without spiritual food: their bodies can live as well without bread, as their souls without communion with God; it is more than their necessary food. Here they find what they truly call marrow and fatness. Psa. 63: 5. 0 the satisfaction and support they draw from spiritual things by meditutions upon them. “To be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Rom. 8:6. The delicacies upon princes’ tables are husks and chaff to this. Ungodly men may live on the vanities of the world, but a renewed soul cannot subsist long without God. Let such a soul be diverted for a time from its usual refreshments, and he will find his heart aching and pining within him. It is angels’ food, that which your souls must live upon throughout eternity.

Excellency 11. It is the guard of the soid against tJie assaults of tenvptation. It is like a shield advanced against the fiery darts of the wicked one. Your safety lies in drawing nigh to God. “They that are far from thee shall perish. But it is good for me to draw near to God.” Psalm 73: 27, 28. It is good indeed; not only the good of comfort, but the good of safety is in it: “The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him.” Deut. 33: 12. The gracious presence of God is your shield and safety; and if you would have the Lord thus present with you in all your fears, straits, and dangers, see that you keep near to him in the duties of communion. “The Lord-is with you while ye be with him.” 2 Chron. 15: 2.

Excellency 12. It is the honor of the soid, and the greatest honor God ever conferred on any creature. It is the glory of the holy angels in heaven, to be always beholding the face of God. Matt. 18: 10. 0 that God should admit poor dust and ashes unto such a nearness to himself: to walk with a king, and to have frequent converse with him, puts great honor upon a subject; but the saints walk with God; so did Enoch, so do all the saints. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John, 1:3. They have liberty and access with confidence; the Lord, as it were, delivers to them the golden key of prayer, by which they may come into his presence on all occasions with the freedom of children to a father.

Excellency 13. It is the instrument of mortification, and the most excellent and successful instrument for that purpose. “This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the works of the flesh.” Gal. 5: 16. Walking in the Spirit is the same thing as walking in communion with God. Now, says the apostle, if you walk thus in the Spirit, in the actings of faith, love, and obedience, through the course of holy duties, the effect will be, that ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. He does not say. You shall not feel temptations to sin assaulting you; but, You shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, sin shall not have dominion over you; this will free you from the power of sin. A temptation overcome this way is more effectually subdued, than by all the vows, resolutions, and external means in the world. A candle that is blown out with a puff of breath may be rekindled by another puff; but if it is quenched in water, it is not easily lighted again: so you never find such power or success of temptation over you when your hearts are up with God in the exercise of faith and love, as you do when your hearts hang loose from him, and dead towards him. The schoolmen assign this as one reason why no sin can fasten upon the saints in heaven, because they there enjoy the beatific vision of God. This is sure, that the more communion any man has with God on earth, the more free he is from the power of his corruptions.

Excellency 14. It is the kernel of all duties and ordinances. Words and gestures are but the husks and shells of duties. Communion with God is the sweet kernel, the pleasant and nourishing food which lies within them: you see the fruits of the earth are covered and defended by husks, shells, and such-like integuments, within which lie the pleasant kernels and grains; and these are the food. The hypocrite who goes no further than the externals of religion, is said to feed on ashes, Isa, 44: 20, to spend his money for that which is not bread, and his labor for that which satisfieth not. Isa. 55: 2. He feeds upon husks, in which there is but little pleasure or nourishment. What a poor house doth a hypocrite keep! Words, gestures, ceremonies of religion, will never fill the soul; but communion with God is substantial nourishment. As David said, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.” Psa. 63: 5, 6. It grieves one’s heart to think what airy tilings many souls satisfy themselves with; feeding like Ephraim upon the wind, well contented if they can but perform a few heartless duties; while the saints feeding on hidden manna, are feasted as it were with angels’ food.

Excellency 15. It is the light of the soul in darkness, and the pleasantest light that ever shone upon the soul of man. There are many who walk in darkness; some in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, the most dismal of all darkness, except that in hell. There are others who are children of light in a state of reconciliation, yet walk in the darkness of outward afflictions, and mward desertions and temptations; but as soon as the light of God’s countenance shines upon the soul in the duties of communion with him, that darkness is scattered; it is all light within and round about the soul. “They looked unto him and were lightened.” Psa. 34: 5. They looked, there is faith acted in duty; and were enlightened, there is the sweet effect of faith. The horrors and troubles of gracious souls retire on the rising of this cheerful light. As wild beasts come out of their dens in the darkness of the night, and shrink back again when the sun arise th, Psa. 104: 20-22; so do the fears and inward troubles of the people of God, when this light shines upon their souls. Nay more, this is a light which scatters the very darkness of death itself. It was the saying of a worthy divine of Germany upon his death-bed, when his eyesight was gone, being asked how it was within: “Why,” said he, “though all be dark about me,” yet, pointing as well as he could to his breast, “here is light enough.”

Excellency 16. It is liberty to the imprisoned soul, and the most comfortable and excellent liberty in the whole world. He only walks at liberty who walks with God: “I will walk at liberty; for I seek thy precepts.” Psa. 119: 45. “Wicked men cry out of bands and cords in religion; they look upon the duties of godliness as the greatest bondage and thraldom. “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” Psa. 2:3. Away with this strictness and preciseness, it extinguishes the joy and pleasure of our lives; give us our cups instead of Bibles, our jovial songs instead of spiritual psalms, our sports and pastimes instead of prayers and sermons. Alas, poor creatures, how do they dance in their chains, when, in reality, the sweetest liberty is enjoyed in the duties at which they thus scoff. The law of Christ is the law of liberty; the soul of mian never enjoys more freedom than when it is bound with the strictest bonds of duty to God. Here is liberty from enthralling lusts, and from enslaving fears: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Rom. 8: 2. And here is freedom indeed: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Jolm 8: 36. And here is freedom from fears. Luke 1: 74, 75. Those that will not endure any restraint from their lusts, will have their freedom to sin; a freedom they shall have, such as it is. “When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.” Kom. G: 20. Let none therefore be prejudiced against the ways of duty and godliness. The law of Christ is the perfect law of liberty, James 1: 25 — not liberty to sin; but liberty from sin.

Excellency 17. It is a mercy purchased by the blood of Christ for believers, and one of the principal mercies settled upon them by the new covenant. A peculiar mercy, which none but the redeemed of the Lord partake of — a mercy the purchase of which cost the blood of Christ. I do not deny but there are thousands of other mercies bestowed upon the unregenerate: they have health, wealth, children, honors, pleasures, and all the delights of this life; but communion with God, and the pleasures which result therefrom, they are incapable of enjoying. There can be no supping with Christ on such excellent privileges and mercies as these, till the heart is opened to him by faith; you cannot come nigh to God, until you are first made nigh by reconciliation. Eph. 2: 13; Heb. 10: 19-22. What would your lives, Christians, be worth to you, if this mercy were cut off from you? There would be little sweetness or savor in all your outward mercies, were it not for this that sweetens them all. And there is this difference, among many others, between this and all outward mercies: you may be cut ofi” from the enjoyment of those, but you cannot from this; no prison can keep out the Comforter. 0 bless God for this invaluable mercy.

Excellency 18. It is 7iatural to the new creature; the inclination of the newly regenerated soul leads to communion with God. It is as natural to him to desire it and work after it, as it is to the new-born babe to seek the breast: “As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” 1 Pet. 2: 2. There is a law upon the regenerate soul, which inwardly and powerfully constrains it to acts of duty, and fellowship with God in them. Communion with God arises out of the principles of grace. You know all creatures act according to the laws of nature: the sun will rise and the sea will flow at their appointed times; and the gracious soul will make towards its God in the times and seasons of communion with him. It is not forced to these duties by the frights of conscience and the fears of hell, so much as by the natural inclination of the new creature. Two things demonstrate communion with God to be conatural to the regenerate soul, the inner-man, the hidden-man of the heart: namely, first, the restless7iess of a gracious soul without it. The church had sought her Beloved, but found him not. Does she sit down satisfied in his absence? No; “I will rise now, and go about the city; in the streets and in the broad ways 1 will seek him whom my soul loveth.” Sol. Song 3: 2. Second, the satisfaction and pleasure which the soul feels in the enjoyment of communion with God, plainly show it to be agreeable to the new nature: “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember thee upon my bed.” Psa. 63: 5, 6. And when it is thus, duties become easy and pleasant to the soul: “His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John, 5:3. Yea, such a soul will be constant and assiduous in those duties. That which is natural, is constant as well as pleasant. “What is the reason hypocrites renounce the duties of religion in times of difficulty, but because they have not an inward principle agreeable to them? The motives to duty lie vldthout them, not within them.

Excellency 19. It is the holy commerce of all sanctified persons, and the richest trade ever engaged in by men. Thus they grow rich in spiritual treasures; the revenues of it are better than silver and gold. Many of you have traded long for this world, and it comes to little; and had you gained your designs, you had gained but trifles. This is the rich and profitable occupation: “Our conversation is in heaven.” Phil. 3: 20. Our commerce Hes that way, so the word signifies. There are few Christians who have engaged in this soul-enriching trade any considerable time, but can show some spiritual treasures which they have gotten by it: “This I had, because I kept thy precepts.” Psa. 119: 56. As merchants can show the gold and silver, the lands and houses, the rich goods and furniture, which they have obtained by their successful adventures abroad; and tell their friends, so much I got by such a voyage, and so much by another; so Christians have invaluable treasures, though their humility conceals them, which they have gained by this heavenly commerce of communion with God. Their souls are weak, but by communion with God they have gotten strength: “I cried, and thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.” Psa, 138: 3. They have gained peace by it, a treasure inestimable: “Great peace have they which love thy law; and nothing shall ofiend them.” Psa. 119: 165. They have obtained purity by it: “They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.” Psa. 119: 3. 0 what rich returns are here; nay, they sometimes get full assurance by it. The riches of both the Indies will not purchase from a Christian the least of these mercies. These are the rich rewards of our pains in the duties of religion; in keeping his commandments there is great reward. Psa. 19: 11.

Excellency 20. It is oil to the wheels of obedience, which makes the soul go on cheerfully in the ways of the Lord: “I will run the way of thy commandments, when thoushalt enlarge my heart.” Psa. 119: 32, Oiled wheels run freely. How prompt and ready for any act of obedience is a soul under the influence of coraimunion with God. Then it cries, as Isaiah, having gotten a sight of God, “Here am I, send me.” Isa. 6: 8.

Hereby the soul is prepared for the duties of active obedie?icc, to which it applies itself with delight:” Then will

Christ KnocWn?. 15

I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy,” Psa. 43: 4; or, as it is in the Hebrew, “the gladness of my joy.” The soul goes to prayer as a hungry man to a feast, or a covetous man to his treasures: “I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.” Psa. 119: 14.

It prepares the soul for passive obedience, and makes a man rejoice in his sufferings. Col. 1: 24. It will make a Christian stand ready to receive any burden that God may lay on his shoulders, and even be thankful to be so employed: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Neh. 8: 10. A Christian under the cheerful influences of near communion with God, can with more cheerfulness lay down his neck for Christ, than other men can lay out a shilling for him. In all these twenty particulars, you have an account of the excellency of this privilege; but 0 how short an account have I given of it. What remains, is the application of this doctrine.

Inference 1. Hmv certain it is, that there is a God, and a state of glory lyrepared for sanctified soids. These things are undeniable. God has set them before our spiritual eyes and senses. Besides the revelation of heaven in the gospel, which without any thing more makes it infallible, the Lord, for our abundant satisfaction, has brought these things down to the touch and test of our spiritual senses and experience. You who have had so many sights of God by faith, so many sweet tastes of heaven in the duties of religion, 0 what a confirmation and seal have you of the reality of invisible things. You may say of heaven, and the joys above, as the apostle did of Him that purchased it, “Which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled,” 1 John, 1:1; for God has set these things in some degree before your eyes, and put the first-fruits of them into your hands. The sweet relish of the joy of the Lord is on the very palate of your souls. To this spiritual sense of the believing Hebrews the apostle appealed when he said, ye “took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better, and an enduring substance.” Heb. 10: 34. This knowing in ourselves is more certain and sweet than all the traditional reports we can get from others: “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 1 Peter, 1:8. There is more of heaven felt and tasted in this world than men are aware of; it is one thing to hear of such countries as Spain, Italy, and Turkey by the reports we heard of them in our childhood, and another thing to understand them by the rich commodities imported from them, in the way of commerce. 0 did we but know what other Christians have felt and tasted, we should not have such doubtful thoughts about invisible things. But the secret comforts of religion are, and ought to be for the most part, hidden things. Religion lays not all open; the Christian life is a hidden life.

2. If sicch a height of communion with God be attainable on earth, then 7nost Christian?, live below the duties and comforts of Christianitij. Alas, the best of us are but at the foot of this pleasant mount Pisgah. As we are but in the infancy of our graces, so we are but in the infancy of our comforts. What a poor table is kept by many of God’s own children; living between hopes and fears, seldom tasting the riches and joys of assurance. And would you know the reasons of it? There are five things which usually keep them poor and low as to spiritual joys. First, the incumbrances of the world, which divert them from, or distract them in their duties of communion with God, and so keep them low in their spiritual comforts. They have so much to do on earth, that they have little time for heavenly employments. 0 what a noise and din do the trifles of this world make in the heads and hearts of many Christians.

How dear do we pay for such trifles as these. Second, a spirit of formahty creeping into the duties of religion impoverishes its vital spirit, like the embraces of the ivy, which binds and starves the tree it clasps about. Religion cannot thrive under formality, which it is difficult to keep out of a settled course of duty, and much more when duties are intermitted. Third, frequent temptations annoy the minds of many Christians, especially such as are of melancholy temperament. How importunate and restless are these temptations with some Christians. They can gain little comfort or advantage in duty, by reason of them. Fourth, heartapostasy, the inward decay of our first love, is another reason why our duties prosper so little. “Thou hast left thy first love.” Rev. 2: 4. You were not wont to serve God with such coldness. Fifth, in a word, spiritual pride impoverishes our comforts; the joys of the Spirit, like brisk wines, are too strong for our weak heads. For these causes, many Christians are kept low in spiritual comforts.

3. How sweet and desirable is the society of the sahits. It must needs be desirable to walk with them who walk with God. 1 John, 1:3, There are no such companions as the saints. What benefit or pleasure can we find in converse with sensual worldhngs? All we can carry away out of such company is guilt or grief, David speaks of his delight as being with the saints, the excellent of the earth. Psalm 16: 3. And their society would certainly be much more sweet and desirable than it is, did they live more in communion with God than they do. There was a time when the communion of the saints was exceedingly lovely, Mai. 3:16; Acts 2: 46, 47; the Lord restore it to its primitive glory and sweetness.

4. What an unsjjeakable mercy is conversion, which lets the sold into such a state of spiritual pleasure. Here is the beginning of your acquaintance with God — the first spiritual pleasures, of which there shall never be an end.

All the time men have spent in an unconverted state, has been a time of estrangement and alienation from G od; when the Lord brings a man to Christ, in the way of conversion, he begins his first acquaintance with God. “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace; thereby good shall come mito thee.” Job 22:21. This your first acquaintance with the Lord, will grow; every visit you give him in prayer increases intimacy, and humble, holy familiarity between him and you. And 0 what a paradise of pleasure does this let the soul into; the life of religion abounds with pleasures. Psalm 16: 11. “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” Prov. 3: 17. Now you know where to go for relief from any trouble that presses your hearts; whatever prejudices and scandal Satan and his instruments cast on religion, this I will affirm of it, that that man must necessarily be a stranger to true pleasure, and empty of real comfort, who is a stranger to Christ and communion with him. True, here is no allowance for sinful pleasures; nor is there any lack of spiritual pleasures. Bless God, therefore, for converting grace, you that have it; and lift up a cry to heaven for it, you that want it.

5. If there be so much delight in our imperfect, and often interrupted communion with God here, then tvJiat is heaven; %chat are the immediate visions of his face in the perfect state? “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” 1 Cor. 2:9. You have heard glorious and ravishing reports in the gospel of that blessed future state, things which the angels desire to look into. You have felt and tasted joys unspeakable and full of glory, in the actings of your faith and love upon Christ; yet all you have heard, and all you have felt and tasted in the way to glory, falls so short of the perfection and blessedness of that state, that heaven will and must be a great surprise to them who have now the best acquaintance with it.

342 CHTuIST KNOCKIN& AT THE DOOR.

Though the present comforts of the saints are sometimes as much as they can bear, for they say, “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love,” Sol. Song 2:5; yet these high tides of joy are but shallows, compared with the joys of his immediate presence. 1 Cor. 13: 12. And as they run not so deep, so they are not constant and continued, as they shall be above: “So shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4:17.

6. Is this the privileged state into which all helievei’S are admitted by conversion? then strive for the highest attainnent of communion with God in this world: be not contented with just so much grace as will secure you from hell, but labor after such a height of grace and communion with God as may bring you into the suburbs of heaven on earth. Forget the things that are behind you, as to satisfaction in them, and press towards the mark for the prize of your high calling. It is greatly to j-our loss that you live at such a distance from God, and are so seldom with him. Think not that the ablest ministers or the choicest books will ever be able to satisfy your doubts or comfort your hearts, while you let down your communion with God to so low a degree. 0 that you may be persuaded now to hearken obediently to three or four necessary words of counsel.

(1.) Make communion with God the very level and avm of your sold in all your approaches to him in the ordinances and duties of religion. Set it upon the point of your compass, let it be the very thing your soul designs; let the desire and hope of communion wdth God be the thing that draws you to every sermon and prayer: “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.” Psa. 27:4. That was the mark David aimed at; and men’s success in duties is usually according to the spiritual

aims and intentions of their hearts in them: both sincerity and comfort lie much in men’s aims.

(2.) In all your approaches to God, plead hard with him far the manifestation of his love, and further communications of his grace: “Hear, 0 Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst. Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger.” Psalm 27: 7 — 9. Hov, full of pleas and arguments for communion with God was this prayer of David. Lord, I am come, in obedience to thy command; thou saidst, “Seek ye my face,” thou badest me come to thee, and wilt thou put away thy servant in anger? Thou hast been my help, I have had sweet experience of thy goodness, thou dost not use to put me ofi and turn me away empty.

(3.) Desire not comfort for its own sake, but comforts and refreshments for service and obedience’ sake; that thereby you may be strengthened to go on in the ways of your duty M’ith more cheerfulness. “I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.” Psa. 119: 32. As if he should say, 0 Lord, the comforts thou shalt give me, shall be returned again in cheerful services to thee. I desire them, as oil to the wheels of obedience, not as food for my pride.

(4.) As ever you expect much comfort in the way of communion with God, see that you are strict and circumspect in your conversation. It is the looseness and carelessness of our hearts and lives which impoverishes our spiritual comforts. A little pride, a little carelessness frustrates a great deal of comfort which was very near us, almost in our hands. ““When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered.” Hosea 7:1. So, just when the desire of thy heart was at the door, some sin stept in the way of it. “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.” Isa. 59: 2. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, is tender, and hath quick sensibility to your unkindnesses and offences. As ever, therefore, you expect comfort from him, be careful in your conduct towards him, and grieve him not.

7. This point speaks needful counsel to tmbelievers — to all that live estranged from the life of God, and have done so from the womb. Psalm 58: 3. To you the voice of the Kedeemer sounds a summons once more: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” 0 that at last you may be prevailed with to comply with the merciful terms propounded by him. Will you shut out a Saviour bringing salvation, pardon, and peace with him? Christ is thy rightful owner, and demands possession of thy soul; if thou wilt now hear his voice, thy former refusals shall never be objected.* If thou still reject his gracious offers, mercy may never more be tendered to thee; there is a call of Christ which will be the last call, and after that no more. Take heed what you do; if you still demur and delay, your damnation is just, inevitable, and inexcusable. Hear me, therefore, ye unregenerate souls, in what rank or condition soever Providence has placed you in this world, whether you be rich or poor, young or old, masters or servants, whether there be any stirrings of conviction in your consciences or not; for however your conditions in this world differ from each other at present, there is one common misery hanging over you all, if you continue in that state of unbelief in which you now are.

(1.) Hearken to the voice and call of Christ, you that are exalted by Providence above your poorer 7ieighbors — who have your heads, hands, and hearts full of the world: men of trade and business, I have a few solemn questions to ask you this day.

You have made many gainful bargains in your time, but what will all profit you if the agreement be not mad«3

COMMUNION WITH CHEIST.^ 345

between Christ and your souls? Christ is the only treasure which can enrich you. Matt. 13 :44. Thou art poor and miserable, whatever thou hast gained of this world, if thou hast not gained Christ; thou hast heaped up guilt with thy riches, which will more torment thy conscience hereafter, than thy estate can yield thee comfort here.

You have made many insurances to secure your estates, which you call policies; but what insurance have you made for your souls? Are not they exposed to eternal hazards? 0 impolitic man, to be so provident to secure trifles, and so negligent in securing the richest treasure.

You have adjusted many accounts with men, but who shall make up your accounts with God if you are Christless? “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Matt. 16:26. Say not, you have much business on your hands, and cannot afford time; you will have space enough hereafter to reflect upon your folly.

(2.) You ivlio are poor in the world, what say you; will you have two hells, one here and another hereafter? No comfort in this world, nor hope for the next? Your expectations here laid in the dust, and your hopes for heaven built upon the sand? 0 if you were once in Christ, how happy were you, though you knew not where to obtain your next bread. Poor in the world, but rich in faith; and heirs of the kingdom which God has promised. James 2:5. 0 blessed state. If you had Christ, you would have a right to all thmgs, 1 Cor. 3: 22, 23; you would then have a Father to take care for you. But to be poor and Christless, no comfort from this world nor hopes from the next, this is to be miserable indeed. Your very straits and wants should prompt you to the great duty I am now pressing on you; and methinks it should be matter of encouragement that the greatest number of Christ’s friends and followers come out of that rank of men to which you belong. 15^ (3.) You who are seamen, floating often on the great deep, you are reckoned a thh’d sort of persons between the living and the dead; you belong not to the dead, because you breathe, and scarcely to the living, because you are continually so near to death. What think you, friends, have you no need of a Saviour? Do you live so secure from the reach and danger of death? Have your lives been so pure, righteous, and innocent, who have been in the midst of temptations in the world abroad? Ponder that scripture, 1 Cor. G: 9, 10: “Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of Grod;” ponder it, I say, and think whether you have not as great and pressing a necessity of Jesus Christ as any poor souls under heaven. You have had from God many temporal salvations, great and eminent deliverances; and will these satisfy you? Is it enough that your bodies are delivered from the danger of the sea, though your souls sink and perish in the ocean of God’s wrath for ever? If you will yet accept Christ upon his terms, all that you have done shall be forgiven. Isa. 55: 1, 2. The Lord now calls to you in a still voice: if you hear his voice, well; if not, you may shortly hear his voice in the tempestuous storms without you, and a roaring conscience within you. Poor man, think what an interest in Christ will be worth, wert thou now, as shortly thou mayest be, floating on a piece of wreck, or shivering on a cold and desolate rock, crying, Mercy, Lord, mercy. Mercy is now offered thee, but in vain wilt thou expect to find it, if thou continue thus to despise and reject it.

(4.) You who are aged and full of days, hearken to the voice of Christ; God has called on you a long time. When you were young you said, it is time enough yet, we will mind these things when we are old, and come nearer to the borders of eternity. Well, now you are old, and just on the “borders of it; will you indeed mind it now? You have left the great concerns of your souls to this time, this short, very short time; and do the temptations of your youth take hold upon your age? What, delay and put off Christ still, as you were wont to do? Poor creatures, you are almost gone out of time, you have but a short space to deliberate; what you do must be done quickly, or it can never be done. Your night is even come upon you, Mien no man can work.

(o.) You who are young, in the bud or flower of your time, Christ is a suitor for your first love; lie desires the kindness of your youth; your spirits are vigorous, your hearts tender, your affections flowing and impressible; you are not yet entered into the incumbrances and distracting cares of the world. Hereafter a crowd and thick succession of earthly employments and engagements will come on; sin will harden you by custom and continuance. Now is your time; you are in the convertible age; few that pass the season of youth are brought to Christ afterwards. It is the wonder of an age to hear of the conversion of aged sinners. Besides, you are the hope of the next generation. Should you neglect and despise Christ, how bad soever the present age is, the next will be worse. Say not, we have time enough before us, we will not quench the sprightly vigor of our youth in melancholy thoughts, Remember, there are skulls of all sizes and graves of all lengths in the churchyard. You may die before those that seem to stand nearer the grave than you. 0 you cannot be happy too soon. As young as you are, did you but taste the comforts that are in Christ, nothing would grieve you more than that you knew him no sooner. Behold, he standeth at thy door in the morning of thy age, knocking this day for admission into thy heart.

(6.) To you who have had some slight, ineffectual, and vanishing convictions formerly, the Lord Jesus once more renews his call. Will you now at last hear his voice? It is an infinite mercy to have a second call. I doubt not but many among you, while you have sat under the word, have had such thoughts as these in your hearts: “Sure my condition is not right, nor safe; there must another manner of work pass upon my soul, or I am lost for ever. External duties of religion I do perform, but I am a stranger to regeneration.” Such inward convictions as these were the knocks and calls of Christ, but they passed away and were forgotten: your convictions are dead, and your hearts the more hardened; for it is with a soul under conviction as in putting iron into the fire, and quenching it again; this hardens it the more. You have been near the kingdom of God, but will be the more miserable for that, if you are shut out at last. The quickening of your convictions is the right way to the saving of your souls. The Lord make you this day to hear his voice.

(7.) Such as go to hear the gospel on vain accounts, for mere novelty or worse ends — to catch advantages, or to reproach the truths of God — scoffing at the most solemn voice of Christ: the word that you have slighted and reproached, the same shall judge you in that great day, except the Lord give you repentance unto life, and make the heart tremble mider it that hath scotTed at it. “Be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong.” Isa. 28: 22.

(8.) Let all whose hearts the Lord has opened this day, for the enjoyment of the gospel, the blessed instrument of their salvation, bless the Lord that has made it a key by regeneration to open the door of salvation to your souls: “And as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” Col. 2: 6.