III. Remark. What everlasting thanks are due to our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath made way for our _appearance before God_ with comfort and hope? You are called by the name of christians, you profess to believe in him, but you know little what you have to do with him, or what use his name is of in religion, if you can go daily to appear in the presence of God without him; you know not the nature of christianity, if you do not feel a want of Christ when you bow yourselves before God. Consider a little what God is, and what you are, that you may have a due sense of the necessity of Christ; say to yourselves, “I am going to appear before the great and glorious God, a God of infinite perfection, and I am a little vessel of mere imperfection and infirmity; what shall I do to stand in his sight? He is a God of majesty and judgment, and I traitor, a rebel by nature and action; I want some person to introduce me into his favour. He is a God of spotless holiness, and I am defiled with a thousand sins, who shall make me appear lovely in his sight! he is a God of inflexible justice, and I a guilty wretch, a criminal, a malefactor, already condemned; who shall plead for me, and obtain a pardon?” O beg of Christ to introduce you with acceptance; in him alone can we appear well-pleasing to God: He is the beloved of the Father, and if we are ever accepted, it must be in the beloved; Eph. i. 6. Christ _appears now in the presence of God for us_, in the virtue of his blood and spotless obedience; Heb. ix. 12, 24. He who once appeared with sin imputed, _was made sin for us_, and was treated as a sinner in the world for our sakes, now appears before God, without sin, in heaven, as our _great High Priest_ and Surety, to make us acceptable to God there. Nor should our warmest devotions, nor our highest praises, dare to appear there without him. Remember that the high priest himself among the Jews, was in danger of death, whensoever he went into the _holy of holies_, to appear before the tokens of the divine presence, if he had not proper garments upon him, and _the blood of atonement_ with him; see Ex. xxviii. 35, 43. Lev. xvi. 2, 13, 14. Let Aaron be clothed, and _the blood so sprinkled_, saith the Lord, _lest he die_. How much more may we fear destruction, if we rashly, or carelessly, come near and speak to God himself, and yet neglect the garment of righteousness, and _the blood of sprinkling_, and Christ our great Mediator.