Doct. That when we serve God, w^e must serve him faithfully, with our best.
It is a high dishonour and contempt to God when we bring him a contemptible offering, and think anything is good enough for God: Mai. i. 14, ' Cursed is the deceiver, that hath a male in his flock, and voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing ; for I am a great king,' &c. When we do not offer God the flower and spirit of our souls, we reflect a dishonour upon God. Our duties are so to be ordered that they may argue a proportionable reverence and. dread of God. Alexander would be painted by none but Apelles, and carved by none but Lysippus. Domitian would not have his statue made but in gold or silver. God, the great king, will be served with the best of our affections. When we care not wdiat we offer to God, how will he accept us ? How shall he esteem that which we do not esteem our- selves ? Cain's offering was not so much an oblation as a refusal, a casting off; a rejection of that which was not fit to be reserved for himself, he gives it to God. It must needs displease God, since it could not please himself: in short, God must have the best of our time, and the best of our parts.
[1.] God must have the best of our time. Consider, we can afford many sacrilegious hours to our lusts, and can scarce afford God. a little time without grudging. Is not there too much of Cain's spirit in this ? We adjourn and put off the work of religion to the aches of old age: when we have scarce any vigour, any strength of affections left, oh t then we will worship God. We devote to Satan the flower of our lively youth, and fresh age, and adjourn to God the rottenness and dregs of our old age : Eccles. xii. 1, ' Eemember thy Creator in the days of thy youth.' Why ? — because the prints of God's creating power are then more fresh in our natures, and we have a fairer experience of God's creating goodness than in age. Then is the fittest season to estimate
444 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XIL
the benefits of our creation. Old age are the days in which we have no pleasure ; these are our fresh, choicest days, full of contentment.
[2.] With your best parts. You come to worship God not only with your bodies, but your souls, with the refined strength of your reason and thoughts: Ps cviii. 1, 'I will sing and give praise even with my glory.' If David had anything he called his glory, God should have it.
Application to the sacrament. You have heard of Cain and Abel, in what they agreed, and in what they differed. They agreed in the general action — both drew near to God, and worshipped ; in the general nature of that action — they both brought an offering ; in the general kind of that offering, which was of that which belonged to each of them ; Cain, a tiller of the ground, brought of the fruit of the ground ; Abel, a keeper of sheep, brought of his flock, Gen. iv. 3, 4. They differed thus — one offered in faith, the other not : they differed in the matter of sacrifice — Abel brought the first and fattest ; of Cain it is only said he brought an offering : they differed in acceptance. Kow this showeth you —
1. What you are to do in the Lord's supper.
2. AVhat to expect.
1. What you are to do. Offer to God in the most beseeming manner what will become the majesty of God, the love of Christ, your faith in him and love to him. If you have anything better than another, let God have it. But you will say, What is this to the Lord's supjicr, where we do not come to offer, but to receive ; not to offer sacrifice but to receive a sacrament ; not to feast God, but to be feasted by him ?
Ans. [1.] There is a difference between sacraments and sacrifice, but they have a mutual relation one to the other. A sacrament implieth a sacrifice. The only sacrifice to please God was that of Christ, who offered up himself through the eternal Spirit to God. Christ ofte)'ed the sacrifice to please Gotl ; and being appeased by Christ, he offereth his gifts to us ; as Esau, when reconciled to Jacob, offered him gifts, Gen. xxxiii. 15.
[2.] Though we do not offer a sacrifice, yet we remember a sacrifice offered for us ; and therefore it teacheth us how to be rightly con- versant about such a duty. The use of the sacrifices was — (1.) To exercise brokenness of heart : Ps. li. 17, ' Tlie saciifices of God are a broken heart.' I deserved to die, tormented by the Avratli of God. (2.) To testify faith in the satisfaction and sacrifice of the mes.siah that was to come, and to seek reconciliation with God by him, Lev. i. 3. (3.) To express their hearty thankfulness to God, and desire to please himand walk with him in a course of true obedience : Ps. 1. 5, ' Gather my saints together unto me ; those which have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.' Now, if we would come as Abel, and not as 'Cain, thus must we do : broken-hearted sinners must remember Christ, and apply him to the comfort of their souls, and make use of this duty to that end.