[3.] Though it be no sin-offering, yet it is a thank-ofl:ering. This in the text was in part so. There are eucharistical as well as ilas- tical sacrifices, as most of the sacrifices under the law: Heb. xiii. 15,
VeR. 4.1 SEIUIONS UPON HEBREAVS XI. 445
' By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, even the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.' Hereby you bind yourselves to obedience and thankfulness : Eom. xii. 1, ' I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reason- able service.'
2. What we are to expect — a testimony that we are righteous — some witness from God of the acceptance of our persons and gifts, not extraordinary by fire from heaven, but by the Holy Ghost : Mat, iii. 11, ' He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.' When the Holy Ghost came down on the apostles, 'there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them,' Acts ii. 3. This spirit we expect : Eom. viii. 16, ' The Spirit itself beareth witness- with our spirit, that we are the children of God.' And in token that he is pleased with us in Christ, he feedeth us from his own table.
SERMON XIIL
By faith Ahel offered unto God cimore excellent sacrifice than Cain, hy ivhich he obtained luitness that he loas 7'igJiteous, God testifying of his gifts : and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh. — Heb. xi. 4.
In order to the further opening this text, I shall handle three points —
1. That carnal_men may join with the people of God in external duties of worship.
2. Though they do join, yet in the performance of them there is a sensible and manifest difference.
3. This different performance ariseth from the influence and efficacy of faith.
Doct. 1, That carnal men may join with the people of God in external duties of worship.
We see in the first worship upon record there is a Cain and an Abel ; so in Christ's parable : Luke xviii. 10, ' Two men went up into the temple to pray ; the one a pharisee, and the other a publican.' And our Lord saith, Mat. xxvi. 41, ' Two women shall be grinding at the mill ; the one shall be taken, and the other left ; ' meaning, the one shall be taken by Christ into heaven, and the other left for devils to be carried into hell. It is wonderfully strange that God should make such a distinc- tion ; but much more strange that two persons shall be praying at the throne of grace, the one taken, and the other left. Tlie reasons of this point, why carnal men do join in external duties of worship, may be reduced to three heads —
1. Natural conscience will put men upon worshijx
2. Custom will direct to the worship then in use and fashion.
3. Carnal impulses will add force and vigour to the performances. Take all together, and then you have full account of a natural man's devotion.
446 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XIII.
First, Natural conscience will put nien upon worship. There are some few principles that are escaped out of the ruins of the fall ; as Job's messengers, ' I only am escaped alone to tell thee,' Job i. 16. There is a little common light left to tell us that there is a God, and, by conse- quence, that this Grod must be worshipped by the creature. Therefore mere natural conscience may suggest worship, and check for the omis- sion of it ; especially when we are serious, and natural light is clear and undisturbed, and men give their consciences leave to speak out. The very heathens were sensible of the necessity of worship, and often speak of beginning all enterprises with God, and say men must be praying to God if they would have a blessing upon their affairs. The apostle saith, Kom. ii. 14, the heathens had ' the work of the law written upon their hearts ; ' that is, the external part of obedience, the outward part of worship, and avoiding gross sins. And the conscience of every natural man is like that of the heathens, only somewhat more enlightened by living in the church. But until they are regenerate they have nothing but the light of nature to guide them, though improved by custom, edu- cation and literal instruction ; and whatever they do, they do it out of the dictate of natural conscience. Natural men are loth to be wholly without worship. Conscience, like the stomach, must be filled, and have something to pacify it, lest it should bark at us, and reproach us all the day long. Men must put on the garb of religion, or their own conscience will not let them be quiet. Thoughts will excuse or accuse, though blindly, and with much imperfection ; and though carnal men are slight in their duties, yet duty there must be.
Secondly, Custom will put us upon the worship then in use and practice. Natural conscience will tell us that God is to be wor- shipped ; but how, it learneth from custom and education : so Ezek. xxxiii, 31, 'They come unto thee as the people come;' that is accord- ing to the manner of religion then in fashion, according to the devotion of the times. And therefore carnal men go on coldly in the run and tract of accustomed and practised duties. ISon exploratis rationih^is traditionis, saith Cyprian : they take up duties upon trust, and they look not so much to the reason and nature of worship, as to the custom and practice of it. Cain went up with Abel ' in process of time,' or at the year's end, the stated time of worship ; so do men pray, hear, keep the sabbath according to their light, and when the laws of their country and the awe of their education challenge these duties at their hands : Ephes. ii. 2, ' Ye walked according to the course of this world (Kar alcova, according to the time ; the apostle means in gentile worship, as well as in the vanity of their conversations — ' according to the doings, or trade, of Israel,' 2 Chron. xvii. 4. So the Geneva trans- lation and the Hebrew word signifieth.) Men do according to the common trade and rate of duty. All a natural man's religion is but cold conformity to what others practise ; and their worship riseth higher and higher according to the rate of their company and education. That custom liath a main influnce upon their acts of devotion and religion is clear, because they do not so much look to the nature of ordinances as to what hath been practised in and about them, ard do not regard the reason and occasion of duties so much as use and custom. This is clear by the instance of tliat case so solemnly propounded: Zech. i. 3,