1. We must receive the counsels of his word with all regard and reverence, for that is to receive it ' as the word of God,' 1 Thes. ii. 13. Heathens received the oracles of their gods, and were much moved ; we can drowsily hear of the great things of salvation, of heaven, and the death of Christ, and the covenant of grace, &c., and are not moved, no more moved than with a fable or dream. If a man should make another an offer of a thousand pounds for a trifle, and he should not accept it, you would not say it was because he prized the trifle more — that is improbable, but because he did not believe the offer ; so when God ofifereth heaven upon such terms as he doth, we do not honour him as the eternal truth, but count him a liar, 1 John v. 10, or else we would not neglect the offer.
2. We must yield him reverence in his worship. God is said, Ps. Ixviii. 35, to be ' terrible in the holy places :' he is not only terrible
^ ' Nolentes audire quod auditum damnare non possunt,' &c. — Tertul. in Apol.
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in the high places of the field, where he executeth his dreadful judg- ments, or in the depths of the sea, where the wonders of the Lord are seen, but terrible in the holy places, where his ordinances are dispensed, because there his holiness, which is the astonishing attribute, is most seen and remembered. We do not come to him as the supreme Majesty when we do not come with awful apprehensions : God is dreadful there where he is most comfortable : Deut. xxviii. 58, ' That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God.' To have God for our God is the ground of all our comfort and hope, and yet it is a glorious and fearful name. In Mai. i. 14, the Lord urgeth two arguments why we should worship him with reverence ; one is, ' I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts ;' the other is, ' My name is dreadful among the heathen ; ' implying in the first, that care- less and rude addresses to him are a kind of a lessening his majesty ; they do not come to him as a great king, and do as much as in them lieth go about to persuade the world that he is not the God that he is taken to be, so great, so terrible, and glorious. The next argument is taken from his respect among the heathens, that know him by common providence ; they that have but a glimpse of his glory, that know least of his glory, yet know enough to fear him and reverence him. There- fore take heed of serving him in a loose and perfunctory manner ; you dishonour God exceedingly else, even then when you come to give honour to him.
3. There must be a willing subjection of our hearts and lives to his laws. It must be a subjection of the heart ; God's authority is never more undermined than by a mere ' form of godliness,' 2 Tim. iii. 5. It is the greatest ungodliness that can be, for you rob the Lord of his dominion over the conscience. Hypocrisy is a practical blas- phemy: 'I know the blasphemy of them,' &c., Kev. ii. 9. Tlie life also must be subject to God, by a conformity to his laws. Men hate God as a lawgiver, they love him as a giver of blessings. It is the disposition of all that they would live at large, and have no God to call them to an account. Thoughts that strike at the being of God, and doctrines of liberty, are welcome to a carnal heart ; it is pleasing to think if there were no God, to hear that there is no law ; no sug- gestions are more catching. The life must be conformed to God's laws, for he will be honoured in our conversations, as well as have his throne set up in our consciences. It is the glory of a commander to be obeyed : ' I say to one, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh.' God looketh for glory from you in this kind ; he will have all the world know that his servants are at his beck, that he ' hath called you to his foot,' Isa. xli. 2, 'the righteous from the east, he called him to his foot ; ' that is, to go to and fro at his command : if he say Go, they go ; if he saith Come, they come ; these are the ' people framed for his praise.' He can bid them do nothing but they are ready to do it with the loss of all.
Fourthly, God will be honoured as the utmost end ; and so if in all acts, natural, moral, spiritual, we do not aim at his glory, we are guilty of ungodliness. In acts natural, and matters of the least consequence, we must have a supernatural aim : 1 Cor. x. 31, ' Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.' If I take a meal, I must have an aim at God's glory in it ; in civil acts, and duties of