is coming, and is not far off.

But now, is there no other application to be made of this point? Is all
this said to satisfy curious wits, or, at the best, to comfort the people
of God? Nay, there is more than so: it must be brought home to a practical
use. As the assurance of salvation doth not make the child of God the more
presumptuous, but the more humble (Ezek. xvi. 63); neither doth it make
him negligent, but diligent in the way of holiness, and in all the acts of
his spiritual warfare, Phil. iii. 13, 14; 2 Pet. i. 10; so that "every man
that hath this hope in him purifieth himself," 1 John iii. 3: so
answerably, the assurance of the new temple, and of the sweet days to
come, serveth for a twofold practical use; even as David also applieth
God's promise of Solomon's building the temple, 1 Chron. xxii. 9; for thus
he speaketh to the princes of Israel, ver. 19, "Now set your heart and
your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise, therefore, and build ye the
sanctuary of the Lord God;" and this is, beside, the charge which he
giveth to Solomon.

First, then, ye must set your heart and your soul to seek God, forasmuch
as you know it is not in vain to seek him for this thing, Dan. ix. 2, 3.
When Daniel understood by books that the seventy years of Jerusalem's
desolation were at an end, and that the time of building the temple again
was at hand, then he saith, "I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by
prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes." O let
us do as he did! O let us "cry mightily unto God," Jonah iii. 8; and let
us, with all our soul, and all our might, give ourselves to fasting and
prayer. Now, if ever, "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much," James v. 16.

Secondly, And the more actively you must go about the business. "Be ye
stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch
as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord," 1 Cor. xv. 58.
What greater motive to action than to know that you shall prosper in it?
"Arise therefore, and be doing."

And so I am led upon the third and last part of the text, of which I shall
speak but very little.

The doctrine is this: Reformation ends not in contemplation, but in
action. The pattern of the house of God is set before us to the end it may
be followed; and the ordinances thereof to the end they may be obeyed:
"Give me understanding (saith David), and I shall keep thy law; yea, I
shall