Cain offer sacrifice ? and yet God had no respect to him, nor to his offer- ing, because his sacrifice was not offered up in a right manner, his offering was not offered up by a hand of faith ; he offered his offering, but because he did not offer himself as an offering to God, his offering was rejected by God,' Gen. iv. 8.^ A work may be materially good that is not formally and eventually good ; and this was Cain's curse. How frequently did God command the Jews to pray ? and yet he plainly tells them, * When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you ; yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear,' Isa. i. 15. He commanded them to sacrifice, and yet he saith, ' To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices?' ver. 11, and all because they did not manage their prayers nor sacrifices in a right manner. Their hands were full of blood, and their hearts were full of sins, and their lives were full of lewdness ; and therefore all their services were vain oblations, yea, an abomination to God. An unsound heart looks no further than to the substance of the command. If he has heard, and prayed, and fasted, and read, and repeated, and given alms, and received the Lord's supper, he strokes himself, and blesses himself, and hugs himself, and thinks all is well, and so he looks no further. But now a sound sincere Christian, he looks to the circumstance as well as the substance, to the manner as well as to the matter of the command. When he prays, he labours to pray fervently, earnestly; he labours to get his heart into his prayers ; when he hears, he will hear with attention and intention of spirit ; when he walks, he endeavours to walk wisely, humbly, faithfully, fruitfully, circumspectly, exemplarily, winningly, convincingly, blamelessly; when he obeys, he desires and endeavours to obey freely, ^\illingly, cheerfully.'^ O sirs ! if we pray, and pray not fervently ; if we hear, and hear not fruitfully; if we obey, and obey not willingly ;. if we shew mercy, and do it not cheerfully ; if we sanctify the Sabbath, and not with delight, . all is worth nothing,, all will come to nothing, Isa. Iviii. 13. Mark, there are some circumstances accessory, some necessary, some wherein the being, and some wherein the well-being of a duty doth consist ; and if you abstract these from them, the duty is Avorth nothing. Take away fervency and humility from prayer, take away faithfulness and fruitful- ness from hearing, and take away willingness and delight from obedience, and all will be worth nothing. God regards not only the matter, but the manner. Criton the papist could say, That God loved better ad- verbs than nouns, not to pray only, but to pray well. Non bonum sed bene ageve, Not to do good, but to do it well, is the great wisdom of a Chris- tian. What is the sun without light, or the fountain without water, or the body without the soul, or wood without fire, or a bullet without a gun, or a ship without a rudder? No more are words in prayer, without the spirit of prayer. God looks more at the manner than at the niatter of your prayers. And let thus much suffice to confirm the first particular. But, [2.] Secondly, That obedience that springs from faith, is an obedi- ence that is only grounded upon the word of God, the commands of God. Ps. cxix. 4, 5, 'Thou hast commanded us \o keep thy precepts dili- gently ; Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes !' Isa. viii.
* Luther on Genesis. — G.
2 James V. 17, 18; Micah vi. 8 ; 1 Tet. ii. 12, and iii. 1-3 ; 1 Thess. ii. 10; 2 Cor. i.l2; Ps. ex. 3.
342 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. II.
20, 'To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.' Mat. v. 18, ' For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.' John x. 35, ' If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken.' Chap. xii. 48, ' He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him ; the word that I liave spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.' 2 Tim. iii. 1 6, 17, ' All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.' Now the reasons why that obedience that springs from faith is an obedience that is only grounded upon the word of God, the commands of God, are these five : (1.) And the Jirst is drawn //'om the supremacy and sovereignty of God, vjho alone is to prescHbe to man his duty. He is our great Lord and Master, he is our only Lord and Lawgiver. Isa. xxxiii. 22, ' For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King.' James iv. 12, ' There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy ; who art thou that judgest another ?' Now by the laws of this Lord and Lawgiver, we must square all our actions. Look, as it would be very absurd in a servant to do that work which he thinks meet, and not what his master commands ; so it is as absurd for men to think, that God will accept of this or that at their hands, when they cannot plead his superscription and authority for what they do. God will one day say to such, ' Who hath required this at your hands ?' Isa. i. 12. O sirs I you must lay the command of God as a foundation for what you do, or else all your buildings, though never so glorious, will certainly totter and fall; in all you do, you must be able to say, 'Thus saith the Lord,' or else after you have done your best, you may be undone for ever. But, (2.) Secondly, Crod's promise and blessing is only annexed to God's command. He that will have the sweet of the promise, and the bless- ings of heaven, he must look that his obedience be bottomed upon divine commands. In holy actions it is not thy performance, nor thy grace, nor thy warmth, nor thy zeal, but the command and the promise that is annexed to it, that will bear thee out. Therefore we are called children of the promise, and heirs of the promise, Gal. iv. 28 ; Heb. vi. 17. The children of God, in all their obedience, should still keep an eye upon the command of God, and the promise of God, as ever tliey would run the race that is set before them, Heb. xii. 1. But,