his adoring dispositions and expressions, my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the nightwatches.'* He coveteth the sanctuary for the sake of its divine inhabitants, and welcomed its services with the most pious and exalted affections. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.'† '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 enquire in his temple, ‡ when shall I come and appear before God.' §

V.-Friendship with God includes our cheerful service done to him, and for him. It enters into the notion of Friendship, that we serve and assist each other to the utmost of our power, properly speaking indeed our DIVINE FRIEND needs no service, and can receive no assistance from us; it must be of his own that we give him. 'The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.' || God that made the world, and all that is therein, seeing he is Lord of all, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, ¶ the fountain of life is with him,' || the fountain from

* Psalm lxiii. 6, 7. + Psalm lxxxiv. 1. 2.

? Psalm xlii. 2.

¶ Acts xvii. 24. 25.

+ Psalm xxvii. 4. Psalm xxiv 1.

Psalm xxxvi. 9.

D 3

whence we all participate. But God puts this dignity upon us, that he asks our service and challenges our assistance. Who is on the Lord's side?'*'whom shall I send, viz:-with my messages and instructions, and who will go for us?'+ As he dignifies what we say of him, and to him with the name of praise, so he dignifies what we do for him with the name of service, yea, he calls it not only service, which is what he may justly claim from all the creatures he has made, but he calls it honour, which is a word of different import and which expresses a thing we may either do, or forbear to do. 'Them that honour me I will

honour.' There shall be honour for honour, only of a more excellent and valuable kind. 'If any man serve me, says Jesus Christ, him will my father honour.' § And shall we refuse our service to God our Divine Friend, when he puts

it

upon the footing of our doing him honour? It is not because he wants us, but because he would do us a favour, by employing us, and by receiving from us again as our gift to him, that which he first gave us, as a prince, or a noble honours a poor peasant, by first enabling him to offer gift and service, and then condescendingly accepting and kindly rewarding it. And what should be the return, I will not say of our generosity, but of our equity? should it not be something of this sort?

Lord

serve thyself of

me, and by me, as thou shalt please, my body,

*Exodus xxxii. 26.

I Samuel ii. 30.

+ Isaiah vi. 8.

John xii. 26.

my soul, my time, my liberty, my life, all are thine -all were given by thee, and I would keep back nothing from thee. This is the language of Friendship, and it should be our language to our high and everlasting Friend-we receive from him upon all occasions, we constantly lean upon his power, derive from his bounty, serve ourselves of his creatures and are replenished out of his fulness and shall we not serve his cause ?-shall we enjoy breath and being from him and yield back nothing to him? Is this thy kindness to thy Friend ? ' *

VI. True Friendship supposes persevering and unchangeable constancy and this must enter into our Friendship with God.

God is constant in his friendship for us; his promise is, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,'† and his conduct is of a piece with his promise, for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee.' Let us be constant in our Friendship to him. We read concerning David and Jonathan, that they entered into a covenant of Friendship with each other, and that they swore to that covenant. Something of this kind should pass, something of this kind has frequently passed between God and us. Every vow, every act of self-dedication, every sacrament is a covenant or oath of Friendship with God. The very word sacrament, by which the Lord's supper is denoted, signifies an oath, and has a

*

II Samuel xvi. 17. + Hebrews xiii. 5.

? I Samuel xviii. 3.

Pslam ix. 10. Samuel xx. 3, 17.

reference to that oath of fidelity that every soldier took to his general. So far we have vowed unto the Lord, and cannot go back, and, therefore must perform our vows. 'I have sworn and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.'*

Constancy and perseverance in our Friendship with God is in every way adviseable. He is necessary to us, and we cannot do without him— that is one reasonO keep thy God thy Friend' (said a great and good man),† 'for most certain it. is thou wilt have occasion for him again, and thou knowest not how soon, keep thy interest in him, and estrange not thyself from him.' It is very unreasonable and foolish when a present turn is served to desert God, as though we should never want him again, as though we should never more be in necessity, fear, or trouble, we shall want him as our Friend in every step and stage of our journey through life, we shall especially want him at death, and the approach of eternity—things that will come, and must be provided for. Besides come what will, the keeping our interest in God as our Divine Friend will always be an advantageous and therefore a wise piece of conduct. Here we choose that good part that shall never be taken from us. Here we shall always be on the right side, for as God's cause must be triumphant, his friends must always come off with honour. Behold, (says the prophet) all they that forsake thee

* Psalm cxix. 106.

+ The Lord Chief Justice Hale.

shall be ashamed; ' * but steadfast adherence to God is equally our duty and our glory. They shall not be ashamed in an evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.' +

+ +

Of this steady, persevering, unchangeable constancy, the true servants of God, and more especially his suffering servants, have been examples. Hence sprang the noble deeds and wonderful achievements of that bright list of heroes which is given us by the writer to the Hebrews. The whole life, or daily converse, of those me. upon earth, was one continued struggle with such evils as are most terrible to the apprehensions of mankind,-but they waxed valiant in the fight by keeping near to their divine leader-the storm that was raised to drive them to a distance from him, drove them so much the closer to him, and they behaved themselves in all respects as became the heirs of that most excellent portion that they looked for,-shewing us, and all the world, how to live as seeing him who is invisible, and choose present afflictions rather than sinful pleasures, from a respect to God as the rewarder of them that seek him.

But when I am enumerating the things which constitute us the Friends of God, it would be a manifest omission not to exhibit the distinguishing and characteristic virtues of Abraham, to whom this title, 'Friend of God' was originally given— this I will do in the following section.

* Jeremiah xvii. 13. + Psalm xxxvii. 19.

Jeremiah xi.