Thee, O Lord; the desire of our soul
is to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee," God will not stay till
they come unto Him, but He will meet them half-way; "thou meetest him,"
like the father of the prodigal, while they are yet half-way, He will
see, and run, and meet, and fall upon their neck; and while they weep at
His feet, tears of contrition; He will weep over their necks, the tears
of compassion: Oh! stir up yourselves, and engage your faith to believe,
and expect a gracious entertainment. If God see you coming in the
integrity and uprightness of your hearts, to enter into covenant with
God, to take Him as your God, and to give up yourselves to be His
people, to take away all from sin, and to give all to Jesus Christ; He
will certainly take it well at your hands, and say unto you, "come, my
people, and welcome; I will be your God, and you shall be my people;"
which that you may not miss of,

In the _fourth_ place, come believingly, in reference to Jesus Christ;
be sure you bring a Christ with you; for "He hath made us accepted in
the Beloved." Come without a Christ, and go without acceptance.

The day of atonement among the Jews was called the day of expiation; and
the word _kippurim_ is derived from an Hebrew root, that signifies to
cover; and so the day of atonement was as much as to say, "the day of
covering; the covering of nakedness: and the covering of sin." "Blessed
is the man whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered."
In which very name of the day, the ground or reason is held forth, why
it was called a day of atonement, because it was a day of covering:
wherein Christ was typified, Who is the "the covering of the saints; the
long white robes of His righteousness" covering both their persons and
performances; so that the nakedness of neither doth appear in the eyes
of His Father; "He hath beheld no iniquity in Jacob, neither hath seen
perverseness in Israel." Why? Not because there was no "iniquity in
Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel," for there was hardly any thing else;
but because their iniquity and perverseness were hid from His eyes,
being covered with the mantle of His Son's righteousness, the Messiah,
which He had promised, and they so much looked for. Let us therefore in
this service, as in all, "put on the Lord Jesus." That as Jacob in the
garments of his elder brother Esau, so we in the garments of our elder
brother Jesus, may find acceptance and obtain the blessing. And t