A fourth sign is, That at the hour of thy death this spiritual irorshipping of God u'ill (jive thee content, when iiothin(/ else can. Thou mayest say with comfort, as Hezekiah did, ' Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in sinceritj',' Isa. xxxviii. 2, 3. When downright affliction comes, outward verbal profession vanisheth, with all the comforts thereof; .then perisheth the hope of the hypocrite. Two things upheld Job in comfort, in his great extremity. He was first assured that his Redeemer lived ; and secondly, he knew his innocency in those things that his friends charged him with. And such times will fall on us all, either at the time of death or before, when nothing but innocency and sincerity shall be able to uphold us."
Labour therefore for sincerity and spiritual worship. ' Worship God in spirit,' but let it be done outw^ardly also. But first, bring thy heart and intention to what thou dost, and that will stir up the outward man to its duty. And for the performance hereof follow these directions.
First, Learn to know God aright. For worship is answerable to know- ledge ; for how can we reverence God aright, when we know neither his goodness nor his greatness ? How can we trust on God when we see not his truth in the performance of his promises, in the Scriptures, and in our own experience ? Those that do not these know not God. For as the heart affects according to knowledge, so also it is true in divinity ; as we know his justice we shall fear, as we know his mercy we shall love him, as we know his truth we shall trust on him. Ps. ix. 10, ' They that know thy name shall trust in thee ; ' and in other places of the said psalm, the Lord is known in the judgment he executeth, ver. 16.
Secondly, Know God to he the first mover and cause of all. Men ordinarily fear the creature, attributing that to it which belongs to the Creator. But God he is the giver of all, and Christians look on the secondary means as to* the first author and ground of all'ithe rest. They behold the magistrate as in God, fear them no otherwise but in the Lord. Atheists they will not stick at any sin whatsoever, to get the love of those that may bring them any worldly commodity. A Christian, he pleases and seeks the love of him that can make enemies friends when he lists, and when it is for our good. He knows ' in him we live, move, and have our being.'
Thirdly, Make much of spiritual means. God he works by means, by his word ; attend to it. li works love, fear, joy, and reverence in us ; and therefore no marvel if those that neglect those means are not acquainted with these graces of God's Spirit.
Fourthly, Lift up thy heart to Christ, the quickening Spirit, 1 Cor. xv. 36, seq. Our hearts naturally are dead ; Christ is our life. When thou art most especially called to love, to fear, to humility, pray to him to move thee, and yield thyself to him, and then shalt thou pray in spirit ; as it is said in Jude 20, 'Hear in spirit, do all in spirit ;j' do outward works of thy calling in spirit ; for a true worshipper will out of spiritual grounds do all outward works of his particular calling, as well as the w^orks of his general Christian vocation. Let us therefore do all things from our hcai'ts to God and to our neighbour, else will not God accept of our works. It is the Jew inwardly who shall have praise of God. The want of this sincerity * Qu. 'from the secoudary means to ' ? — G.
74 EXPOSITION OF
hath extinguished the hght of many a glorious professor, and therchy hath brouglit u great scandal upon the true worshippers of God in spirit.
And rejoice in Christ.
The word ' rejoice ' implies a boasting or glorying of the heart, manifesting itself in outward countenance and gesture, as also in speech. It also implies a resting on and contenting in the thing we glory in, proceeding from an assurance that we glory in a thing worthy of glory, for they are fools that delight in baubles. Observe hence, therefore,
l)oct. 1 That tho^ethat uill ironhip Clirist arif/htmust f/Ionj in him. For the worship of Christ is a thing that requires encouragement, and nothing can work this encouragement like the glorying in Christ. And therefore Paul, in the first part of his epistle to the Komans, having shewed that God had elected them freely, and had begun the work of sanctification in their hearts, he comes in the 12th chapter, ver. 1, ' I beseech you,' saith he, ' present yourselves as a holy, living, and acceptable sacrifice to God.' And in Titus ii. 11, ' The grace of God teacheth,' by encouraging us '_to deny ungodliness, and to walk unblameably, soberly, righteously, and godl}' in this present world.' And therefore, whensoever we grow dull or dead, think of the great benefits that we have by Christ, and it will quicken us and all our performances.
Doct. 2. In the next place observe, That Christ is the matter and siihjcrt of true glory and rejoicing, and onJij Christ, for they well go together, a full and large afi'ection with a full and large object. Boasting is a full afl'ection, the object is every way as full.