3. Use is to exhort us to worship and serve the Lord our God, and him only.
[1.] Let us worship him. Worship hath its rise and foundation in the heart of the worshipper, and especially religious worship, which is given to the all-knowing God. Therefore there must we begin; we must have high thoughts, and an high esteem of God. Worship in the heart is most seen in two things — love and trust. Love : Deut.* vi. 5, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.' We worship God when we give him such a love as is superlative and transcendental, far above the love that we give to any other thing, that so our respect to other things may give Avay to our respect to God, The other affection whereby we express our esteem of God is trust. This is another foundation of worship : Ps. Ixii. 8, ' Trust in the Lord at all times, pour out your hearts before him.' Well, then, inward worship lieth in these two things — delightful adhesion to God, and an entire de- pendence upon him. Without this worship of God we cannot keep up our service to hira. Not without delight, witness these scriptures : Job xxvii. 10, ' Will he delight himself in the Almighty ? will he always call upon God ? ' Isa. xliii. 22, ' But thou hast not called upon me, 0 Jacob ; but thou hast been weary of me, 0 Israel ! ' They that love God, and delight in him, cannot be long out of his company,
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they will seek all occasions to meet with G-od, as Jonathan and David, whose souls were knit to each other. So for dependence and trust, it keepetli up service, for they that will not trust God cannot be long true to him : Heb. iii. 12, ' Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.' They that distrust God's promises will not long hold out in God's way, for de- pendence begets observance. When we look for all from him, we will often come to him, and take all out of his hands, and be careful how we offend him and displease him. What maketh the Christian to be so sedulous and diligent in duties of worship ? so awful and observant of God? His all cometh from G-od, both in life natural and spiritual. In life natural : Ps. cxlv. 15-20, ' The eyes of all things wait on thee, and thou givest them their food in due season. Thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing,' &c. ; ' The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him ; he will hear their cry and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love him,' — implying that because their eyes are to him, the author of all their blessings, therefore they call upon him and cry to him.
[2.] Serve him. That implieth external reverence and worship. Now we are said to serve him, either with respect unto the duties which are more directly to be performed unto God, or with respect to our whole conversation.
(1.) With respect unto the duties which are more directly to be performed unto God, such as the word, prayer, praise, thanksgiving, sacraments, surely these must be attended upon, because they are acts of love to God, and trust in God ; and these holy duties are the ways of God, wherein he hath promised to meet with his people, and hath appointed us to expect his grace, and therefore they must not be neglected by us. Therefore serve him in these things ; for, Mark iv. 24, ' With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you.' It is a rule of commerce between us and God.
(2.) In your whole conversation : Luke i. 74, 75, ' That we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.' A Christian's conversation is a continual act of worship ; he ever behaveth himself as before God, doing all things, whether they be directed to God or men, out of love to God, and fear of God, and so turneth second table duties into first table duties. 'Pure religion and undefiled, before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world,' James i. 27, Eph. v. 21, 22, ' Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God ; ' and next verse, 'Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.' So alms are a sacrifice : Heb, xiii. 1 6, ' But to do good and to communicate, forget not ; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.'
[3.] Worship and serve God so as it may look like worship and service performed to God, and due to God only, because of his nature and attributes. His nature : John iv. 24, ' God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.' When hearts wander, and affections do not answer expressions, is this