But what is it thus actively to glorify God ?
Ans. [1.] To acknowledge his excellency upon all occasions : Ps. 1. 23, ' He that ofiereth praise glorifieth me.' Praising him for his excellencies, and declaring the glory of his attributes and works, is one way of glorifying him. God's glorifying of us is effective and creative, ours declarative and manifestive : ' He calleth the things that are not as though they were ; ' but we do no more but say things to be what they are, and that far below what they are. We declare God to be what he is, and are a kind of witnesses to his glory. He is the efficient and sole cause of all the good that we have and are, and bestows some- thing upon us which was not before. This declaring the glory of God is expressed by two words, praise and blessing : Ps. cxlv. 10, ' All thy works shall praise thee, 0 Lord : thy saints shall bless thee/ Pi-aise referreth to his excellency, blessing to his benefits ; both must be done seriously and frequently, and with a deep impression of his goodness and excellency upon our hearts. Every address we make to God tendeth to this, that God may have his due praise understandingly and affectionately ascribed to him. Kepentance and broken-hearted confession giveth him the praise of his justice; the exercise of faith, and running for refuge to the grace of the gospel, doth glorify his mercy ; thanksgiving for benefits received, his benignity and goodness petitioning for grace, his holiness.
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[2.] By a perfect subjection and resignation of our wills to his will. It is work glorifieth God more than words. Verbal praises, if desti- tute of these, they are but an empty prattle : Job xxxi. 20, ' If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep.' So 2 Thes. i. 11, 12, ' Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power ; that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him.' Many speak good words of God, but their hearts are not subject to him, as the devil carried Christ to the top of a high moun- tain, but with an intent to bid him throw himself down again. So many think to exalt God in their professions and praises, but they dishonour him in their lives. God is most glorified in the creatures' obedience, and submission to his laws or providence.
(1.) To his laws, when we study to please him in all things : Col. i. 10, ' That ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.' It is a great honour to a master when his servants are so ready and willing to please him : ' I say to one, Go, and he goeth ; to another, Come, and he cometh ; to my servant, Do this, and he doetli it,' Mat. viii. 9. It is said of Abraham, God called him to his foot, Isa xli. 2. He went to and fro at his command. If God said, Go out of thy country, Abraham obeyed.
(2.) To his providence. It is an honour to him when we are con- tented to be what God will have us to be, and can prefer his glory before our own ease, his honour before our plenty. And so it was with Christ : John xii. 27, 28, ' Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour ; but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify thy name ; ' that satisfied him, so God might be glorified. So Paul, Phil. i. 20, ' Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.' As a traveller takes the way as he findeth it, so it will lead him to his journey's end. We must be as a die in the hands of providence ; whether the cast prove high or low, we are still upon the square.
3. We glorify God rather by entertaining the impressions of his glory upon us than by communicating any kind of glory to him ; and so we glorify him when we grow most like him, when we show forth his virtues : 1 Peter ii. 9, ' Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priest- hood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.' The children of God are a glass and image, wherein the per- fections of God are visibly held forth ; his perfections are stamped upon us, that all that see us may see God in us. But alas ! most of us are but dim glasses, show forth little of God to the world. Thus the creatures glorify God objectively; there is somewhat of the wisdom, goodness,_ and power of God stamped upon them, somewhat of God to be seen in every thing which he hath made. So man much more. There are vestigia Dei, the footsteps of God in the creatures ; but similihido et imago Dei, the likeness and image of God in man, in his natural excellences, much more in the new creature, et? to elvac, ' that we may be to his praise,' Eph. i. 12. There is more of God engraven