melancholy thing when he is at a distanee from God, and eannot tell God his wants and sorrows. Though he be never so mueh studied in divinity, and the deep things of God, yet if God be not with him, if he does not eome near to his merey-seat, so as to eonverse with him as his friend, the soul is concerned and grieved, and never rests till this distanee be removed. It is to little purpose all these forms are maintained, if we have not the substanee and the power of godliness; if our God be not near us, if we never get near to God.
REFLECTION II.
How happy are we under the gospel, above all ages and nations besides us, and before us! For we have advantages of getting near to God, beyond what any other religion has; above what the heathen world ever enjoyed; for their light of nature could never show them the throne of graee; above what the aneient petriarehs had, though God eame down in visible shapes, and revealed and discovered himself to them as a man or an angel; above what the Jews had, though God dwelt among them in visible glory in the holy of holies. The people were kept at a distance, and the high-priest was to come thither but onee a-year; and their veil, and smokes, and shadows, did, as it were, eoneeal God from them, although they were types of a future Messiah; and even their Shekinah itself, or cloud of glory,
