SERMONS ON THE SACRAMENTS. 357
for the hearing of the word and the promise annexed thereunto : ' Hear, and your soul shall live.' The word of command, ' Hear ; ' the promise, ' And your soul shall live.' Now, we must hear in obedience to that command ; and sue out that promise, by being confident God is able, faithful, willing to make it good ; by desiring that he would enliven our souls, and, in the conscionable use of the ordinances, wait upon his good pleasure when he will accomplish it.
Examine, therefore — Do you thus use the ordinances in faith and obedience, at Christ's command, and looking to him for the supply of grace that he hath promised to convey by that ordinance? and wilt thou wait for them, and art thou confident the Lord will be as good as his word ? It is a sign that thou dost duties as it is written, that thou hast looked into the institution, and hath conformed to it. If thou canst in thy heaii answer for thy appearance at this holy table, that it is because the Lord commanded thee hither, in expectation of such mercies as the Lord hath made over to this ordinance, and doth long for and desire the accomplishment of them, it is a sign that thou dost it in faith and obedience.
2. The next mark is, if thou dost make the word the rule and ground of thy obedience, thou wilt be careful of the purity of the ordinances, that nothing may be mixed with them but what is in the word, in the institution. There will be no doting upon old customs, no superstitious hankering after ceremonies, unwritten rites, that have no ground in the word of God ; but thou wilt be willing that all should be gone and done away. Certainly those that are so ready to quarrel for some old fond custom, it is a sign they little prize the institution of the ordinances; they do not search that. Ignorant men, that are least versed in the word of God, are most ceremonious. Their very religion is ceremony, and their duty is but a custom. Certainly if they did it for conscience' sake, they would have looked to the com- mand that bindeth the conscience ; and then the love of these things would not have crept upon them, and have possessed their souls. What is the reason many are so disquieted now, when some things are taken away which they were formerly accustomed to? Oli ! brethren, they do not make the word the ground and rule of their obedience. Their ver}'^ religion is custom, that which they have received by tradition, not what was delivered to them in the institution ; and therefore they never look to the mixture and tampering of human devices with God's prescription. They do not care for pine ordinances.
Therefore the rule to examine by is how thou standest affected to the purity of God's worship. Thou wouldest fain have nothing done but what thou hast some warrant for ; nay, thou wouldst have had no word used which may be an occasion of corrupting the woiship of God. Priest and altar do offend, because when such terms are used he beginneth to fear a sacrifice, a. mass, to answer them. They have gotten a pure lip ; as the Lord saith, ' He would turn to the nations a ])ure language, a pure lip.' And in another place, ' I will take away the names of Baalim out of their mouth, and thou shalt call me no more Baali, but Ishi,' Hosea ii. 16, 17. They would not have any monuments of superstition left, not a ]mganish or a popish word in and about the ordinances. Thousrh Baali si^nifieth Lord, vet God
358 SERMONS ON THE SACRAMENTS.
will not be called so, because that was their term for their idol. And. saith David, Ps. xvi. 4, ' I will not take the names of their Grod in my lips.' See that command also of Moses, Dent, xxiii. 13, ' And in all things that I have said unto you, be circumspect, and make no men- tion of the names of other gods : let it not be heard out of thy mouth.' They are careful that such words shall not be used as have a show of idolatry ; they will have the Lord's service expressed the Lord's own way. Unwary speaking hath been cause of much corruption ; and therefore they are so careful to have things done according to the word, that they do not love such names and words as custom and superstition hath a long time used about the ordinances. You shall see, Num. xxxii. 38, it is said there that the Israelites obtained ' Nebo and. Baal-meon (their names being changed) and Shibmah, and gave other names to the cities which they built.' Brethren, these were idolatrous names ; their cities were called after their idols. Baal was an idol. Judges vi. 31 ; and Nebo was an idol: Isa. xlvi. 1, ' Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth ; their idols were upon the beasts.' They change not Shibmah; but Nebo and Baal-meon, such names as were scandalous. So they that are truly careful of coming to the written word, they would have no odd names continued ; they would not have the Lord's day nicknamed Sunday. They have a pure lip, and would have no unbeseeming word used in the worship of God. Search by this.