4. Consider what a hard master we were under before : Eom. vi. 17, * But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin.' You have obeyed many masters : Titus iii. 3, ' Ye were sometimes foolish, dis- obedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures,' You that were at the beck of every brutish lust, and were carried to and fro with so many contrary passions and affections, that have left so many wounds in your consciences, alarmed by terrors every day, when you denied yourselves nothing, thought nothing too much or too dear to spend or part with in a sinful course.
5. If once we come to choose his service, we shall find a difference between the Lord and other masters: 2 Chron. xii. 8, 'Nevertheless they shall be his servants, that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.' The sorrow of the one, the sweetness of the other ; the misery of the one, the blessedness of the other ; the bondage of the one, the liberty of the other : they that forsake or refuse God's service shall soon find worse masters. God hath ways enough to punish our straggling from duty and slighting his service ; either by putting us under hard taskmasters, some that shall turn the edge of authority against us, push with the horns of a lamb, a barbarous enemy, making us to be mutual oppressors of each other ; or by giving us over to Satan's power, or our own hearts' lusts.
6. Christ's service is not hard nor heavy : Mat. xi. 30, ' My yoke is easy and my burthen light,' notwithstanding all your prejudices against it. These men live as they list ; they think this a sweet liberty to be guided by their own wisdom, and live according to their own wills, according to their own ends, and that it is better than to be curbed, Ps. ii. 3. But after a little while they have other thoughts, they will find the bitterness of such a course. On the contrary, the more we try the service of God, the sweeter we shall find it to be : 1 John v. 3, * And his commandments are not grievous : and Pro v. iii. 17, ' Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.' Our work
292 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. CXXXVII.
is wages, and our very work carrieth a reward in the bosom of it. So sweet and comfortable it is. Now for directions.
[1.] If we would be God's servants, we must sincerely, wholly, and absolutely give up ourselves to do his will ; and never more to look upon ourselves as our own masters, to do what we please, but wholly to study what will please God. Isa. Ivi. 6, they 'joined themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and be his ser- vants ; ' Rom. vi. 16, ' Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey ? ' There is a solemn dedication made, we take up his service seriously, not upon example barely, or tradition, or fear, or constraint, or some base respects or sinister ends, or some sudden pang or motion ; but after serious and due deliberation, out of judgment rightly informed, and affection thereon grounded, do engage tliemselves to perform humble service to God, without limiting or power of revocation, give up themselves wholly to follow liis directions.
[2.] God's servants have work to do ; none of them must be idle : Mat. XX. 6, 'Why stand ye here all the day idle?' Luke i. 74, 75, ' That we may serve him in holiness and righteousness all our days ;' Phil. ii. 12, ' Work out your salvation with fear and trembling ;' Acts xxiv. 16, ' Herein do I exercise myself, to keep a good conscience, void of offence.' We must not put hands in bosom, having so much work to do. Many presume of being God's servants; but it is only in the notion ; they do nothing for him.
[3.] This service must not be done grudgingly, but heartily : Isa. Ivi. 6, ' And the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and be his servants ;' Deut. X. 12, ' To love the Lord thy God, and serve him.' God will not be served but out of love, not by necessity and constraint. We must yield ohedienliam servi, but not servilem : we are delivered from a slavish spirit : Rom. viii. 15, ' We have not received the spirit of bond- age again to fear.' God's service must be gone about with ready affec- tion and good-will. The respect which we show to God is called service in regard of our strict obligation to it, but obedience in regard of our readiness of mind to perform it. Secondly, Not slightly, but with reverence and zeal: Mai. i. G, ' If I be a master, where is my fear?' Ps. ii. 11, 'Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trem- bling ;' Phil. ii. 12, 'Work out your salvation with fear and trembling ;' and Rom. xii. 1, ' I beseech you by the mercies of God, that you pre- sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is yoiu' reasonable service.' God will not be put off" with anything by the by, it is a lessening of his majesty : ' I am a great king.' Thirdly, It must be done constantly, not by fits. He that is God's servant never ceaseth from his work; their feasting, walking, sitting, sleeping, waking, hungry, thirsty, hearing, or praying, it is all for God. He that doth any of these things merely for himself, to gratify the flesh, doth not act as God's servant: Acts xxvi. IG, ' Serve God instantly day and night.' Fourthly, Orderly. All things in God's service must be regarded according to their weight: Rom. xiv. 18, 'For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men ; ' that is the main things, not in contests about ceremonies : if others cany