* David served the will of God.'
Here is considerable, as I told you, these three things.
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498 KING David's epitaph.
Tho object whom be served, * God.'
The rule by which he served him, ' his will.' And then
The service itself; for to know ' the will of God,' and not to serve him, it is to no purpose. All must go together. We must servo ' the will of God,' as we see here David did.
1. For the first, it is a known truth, thnt God is the main object of all our service. Indeed, we serve men ; for in love, which is a very busy grace, we must serve one another in good works : but the love of God must set all on work, and all must be done in obedience to him. God is the object that must terminate all our service to men. Whatsoever duty we do, we must do it as to God. If we serve men, if we be Christians, it must be with reference to God, because he commands us, and that we may honour God^ We can do no good to him, Ps. xvi. 2. What doth he care for our goods ? But he hath substituted men in his place, he hath appointed such and such men in our generation to do good unto, and he accounts what we do to them for his sake, as done to him. God is the object of our service, God in Christ as our Father.
' God,' as God, without Christ a mediator, ought to be served for our very creation, if we were to go to hell when we had done, or should vanish to nothing with the beasts ; for our very subordination and subjection to God as creatures implies service. He is the object of service, as being our maker, having given us a being, having given us reason to serve him. But now God considered as a Father in Christ in the covenant of grace, we ought to serve him in a higher regard ; not as creatures the Creator only, and as servants their Lord, but as a gracious Father. So God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and Christ, Mediator, God-man, are the objects of our service, the whole adequate, fit object. We must not go beyond them, for whatsoever else we do, it must be in reference to them. I will not dwell upon the point. It is a foundation to that I am to speak of.
The next thing is the rule of his service : * He served the uill of God.'
' The will of God.'
The word signifieth ■'co-unsel,' and it is better translated 'counsel ' than
* will,' because it is more emphatical. God's will is his counsel, not in regard of imperfection in counsel ; for counsel implies somewhat imperfect, as deliberation and consultation. God sees all at once ; he doth not deliberate, but in regard of that which is eminent in counsel ; what is that ? Wisdom. * By counsel thou shalt be established,' Prov. xix. 18. So what- soever is God's will, that is counsel. It is wise, it is weighed, it is as
* gold seven times tried,' Ps. xii. G. Therefore we should stoop to what- soever is God's will, either in his word or in events. His will is counsel. He is wise, he is not rash. A pattern to all those that would be like God, to do all by counsel and not by will. Those that are put to their will, if there be not answerable wisdom to guide it, to what mishief do they plunge themselves and others !
(1.) God must be served according to his counsel or 7rill, as he hath dis- covered himself in his word ; for service is nothing but an action done with an eye to the will of another. For if a man doth an action that one would have him do, if he do it not with respect to his command,' it is no obedience nor service. He that hath not some care in the act, it is no obedience. As the civil law saith, infringit ohedientiam, &c. (e), it breaks from the nature of obedience that hath no cause for it. He must know his reason ; at the least there is the command of the superior must be a reason and ground for what he doth in all his obedience and service. Therefore there
KING David's epitaph. 499
is a like necessity of tlie word of God as of his service, for what master will be served according to the will of his servant ? Why doth the Scripture mislike will-worship, worship that is according to our own will ? Because therein we make ourselves god ; we serve ourselves, and not God. We must not serve God as we would be loath to be served ourselves. We would be loath to have a servant compliment with cap and knee, and then do as he list himself ; and so for us to come and compliment with God, to hear his word as if we would be directed by him, to kneel and pray to him for fashion, and then all our life after to do as we list. It is a delusion to say we serve God, unless we serve him according to his will.