A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

2. We do not honour him as the chiefest Good, if we do not delight in Communion with him. Friends love to be often in one another's Company: and certainly if we did value and prize God, we would say, It is good to draw nigh to God, Psal. 73.28. We would preserve a constant Acquaintance between him and us. God hath appointed two Ordinances to preserve Acquaintance between him and the Soul, the Word and Prayer, which are as it were a Dialogue and interchangeable Discourse between God and the Creature: In the Word he speaks to us, and in Prayer we speak to him: He conveys his Mind to us in the Word, and we ask his Grace in Prayer: In Prayer we make the Request, and in the Word we have God's Answer: In Prayer we come to inform God with our Wants, and seek for his Grace; and God answers by his Word to Salvation. Well then, when Men neglect public or private Prayer, or fit and meet Opportunities of Hearing, they are guilty of Ungodliness, for so far they break off Communion with God: especially if they neglect Prayer, that is a Duty to be done at all times, a sweet Diversion which the Soul enjoys with God in private; it is that which answers to the daily Sacrifice; and therefore it is said, Psal. 14.2. They seek not God: and ver. 4. They do not call upon the Lord. When Men are loth to come into God's Presence, whether it be out of Love to Ease, or carnal Pleasure; when Men care not though God and they grow strange, and seldom hear from one another, this is Ungodliness: Our Comfort and Peace lies in Access to God. So for Family-Worship; when God is neglected in the Family, it is a Sign Men do not delight in God as the chiefest Good. Many Families call not upon God's Name; Jer. 10.25. Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not, and upon the Families that call not on thy Name. From one End of the Week to another there is no Prayer or Worship in the Family; the House that should be a Church is made a Sty; yea, there is not a Swine about the House but is better regarded than God: Morning and Evening, they shall have their Attendance; but God is neglected, and not worshipped.

2. We do not honour him as the chiefest Good, if we do not delight in Communion with him. Friends love to be often in one another's Company: and certainly if we did value and prize God, we would say, It is good to draw nigh to God,