[2.] They are mingled with a great deal of weakness and defilement
26 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [S]:R. XX.
— Partus sequiiur ventrem ; our duties have more of us than of the Spirit, therefore they are filthy and defiled. Observe the practice of the saints, their remarkable blemishes : Jacob seeks the blessing with a lie ; Eahab entertains the spies, but makes a lie about dismissing them ; Sarah calls her husband ' lord,' but her words are full of discontent and murmuring and distrust of God's promise. Moses smote the rock twice ; once in obedience and once in indignation. Who would think of such weak services, that God should accept of them ? nay, not only accept of them, but delight in them : Prov. xv. 8, ' The prayer of the upright is his delight ; ' that the holy God should delight in such creatures as we are ! We have imperfect conceits of God's holiness, otherwise we would wonder that he should accept of our faulty performances ; that the holy and pure God should not only accept, but delight in the prayer of a worthless creature. Then —
[3.] There is no profit redounds to God for all this, the advantage is ours : Prov. ix. 12, ' If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself ; ' I's. xvi. 2, ' My goodness extendeth not to thee.' God is blessed for ever, sufficiently happy without the service of the creature. Job xxii. 2, there is a question propounded, ' Can a man be profitable to God, as he that is wise may be profitable to himself? ' God is eternally and everlastingly happy ; he is incapable of improvement ; all the comfort and profit is ours, yet that he should deliglit in them !
Use 3. Direction to teach us what to do in our preparation to duties and holy exercises. If God accept the person and then the performance, look to your state, as well as to the frame of your hearts. Many men heap up duties upon duties, go round in a circle of religious exercises, as if they would work out their salvation that way, but do not regard the interest of their persons. Consider, examination is one of the preparative duties, as well as purgation of sin and excitation of the afiections : 2 Cor. xiii. 5, ' Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith.' We must prove our state still, otherwise we shall be disallowed. It is not necessary only to examine ourselves before the Lord's sujiper, but before other solemn ordinances. God would fain draw the creatures to a certainty, therefore he hath required often trial to lof>k into their state. This is the method of God's acceptance ; first the Lord cleanseth, fits, and consecrates the person to be a spiritual priest, and then he is to offer: Mai. iii, 3, 4, 'He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may ofi'er unto the Lord an oftering in righteousness.' Where God speaks of worship in the times of the gospel, first we must be purified and set apart for the priesthood, then offer up our gift; first there is a ' purging of the conscience from dead works,' then we are meet ' to serve the living God,' Heb. ix. 14 ; first we are ' washed from our sins in his blood ; ' and then ' made kings and priests to God,' Kev. i. 5, 6. There must be an interest founded, and a ground of acceptance for our persons. God will accept nothing at the hands of an enemy ; duties are but varnished sins. This should stir you up to the trial of yourselves, whether you are justified and reconciled to God.
But yon will say. What shall men do that have no assurance, that cannot discern the interest of their persons in Christ ?
VeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 27
I answer, by distinguishing — The case concerneth either persons that have lost assurance, or those that have never gained it.
1. To those that have lost assurance by turning to folly, or tasting of the forbidden fruit of sin. By scandalous falls conscience is weakened, and prayer is interrupted ; as the apostle speaketh of family jars : 1 Peter iii. 7, ' Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.' By allowance of passion, and wrath, and domestical disorder, the heart is discomposed, and we cannot with such a holy boldness and confidence call God father. The like may be said of many foul falls, by which conscience is wounded, and men have lost the peace and calmness of their spirits. Now, in such a case, men are not to come reeking from their sins and rush upon duty ; that would argue little reverence of God, and will find little acceptance with him : Isa. i. 15, 16, ' When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you : yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear : your hands are full of blood. Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes,' &c. Neither are they wiiolly to decline worship and restrain prayer ; that would increase the distemper, and add sin to sin. David got nothing by his silence : Ps. xxxii. 3, ' When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long; ' Ps. li, 3, 'I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.' However, the main care of the next duty must be to get the person reconciled by these solemn acts.