The whole life of a Christian we see is a service of God. There is nothing that we do but it may be a ' service' of God. No. Not our par- ticular recreations, if we use them as we should ; as whettings to be fitter for our callings, and enjoy them as liberties, with thankfulness to God, that allows us these liberties to refresh ourselves. There is no passage of a man's hfe, but it may have the respect of a service of God. It is not the matter or stuff, but the stamp, that makes the coin ; so it is not the work, but the stamp, that makes it ' a service,' when we do it with an eye to God. Let the king set a stamp but upon brass, upon a token, yet it will go for current if it have the king's authority and stamp upon it. Let it be but an action of our callings, suppose to give counsel in our studies or pleading of the law, &c., if it have God's stamp upon it ; if there be prayer upon it to bless it, and it be done in obedience to God, and with justice ; not against the rules of piety and charity, and as far as it may displease God, to baulk and avoid all temptations in our callings out of rehgious respects, it is a ' service' of God. Our whole hfe, not only in thel church, but in our particular places, may be a ' service of God;' as it is said here, ' David served God.'
Oh, if we could think of this wheresoever we are, we would take no liberty to offend God in anything. We would not thrust religion into a corner, into a narrow room, and limit it to some days, and times, and actions, and places, and then take liberty to ' defraud and dissemble, to abuse ourselves this way and that way. Is this to serve God ? To ' serve' God is to carry ourselves as the children of God wheresoever we are : so that our whole life is a service of God.
A Christian is no libertine, no man of freedom. He is a servant. Indeed, we have changed our master. We are set at liberty from the slavery of sin and Satan ; but it is not that we should do nothing, to be Belials without yoke ; but it is to serve God. We are taken from the service of Satan to be the Lord's freemen ; and indeed it is to that end. We are
* Qu. ' God ' ?— Ed.
508 KING David's kpitaph.
delivered that wc might serve God, Luke i. 74. Therefore all the actions of our life should be a ' service' to God.
Quest. To make this a little clearer : How can this be, will some man think, that every common action should be a service of God ?
Ans. I will make it clear by an instance. The beasts and other creatures and we have common actions, such as we do in common, as to eat, and to drink, and to move. The beast doth this, and man doth it. When a man doth them, they are reasonable actions, because they are guided with reason, and moderated by reason ; but when the beast doth them, they are the actions of a beast, because he hath no better faculty to guide him. So common actions, they are not a service of God, as they corne from common men, that have not grace and the Spirit of God in their hearts ; they arc more buying and selling, and going about the actions of their callings, as the actions, of a beast are the actions of a beast. But let a Christian come to do them, he hath a higher life and a higher spirit that makes them spiritual actions that are common in themselves. He raiseth them to a higher order and rank. Therefore a Christian ' serveth God.' In all that he doth he hath an eye to God : that which another man doth with no eye to God, but merely in civil respects. We say of policy, it is an ancient observation, which is good and very fit. The know- ledge of a commonwealth, it is a building knowledge, a commanding knowledge ; for though a statesman doth not build, he doth not buy and sell and commerce ; but he useth all other trades for the good of the state. It is a knowledge commanding all other inferior arts and trades, in a com- monwealth, to the last end. They should all be serviceable to the com- monwealth, and if they be not, away with them. So religion, and the knowledge of divine things, it is a commanding knowledge ; it commands all other services in our callings, &c. It doth not teach a man what he shall do in particular in his calling ; but it teacheth him how to direct that calling to ' serve God,' to be advantageous and helpful to his general call- ing ; to further him to heaven, to make everything reductive to his last end, which he sets before him ; that is, to honour and serve God in all things, to whom he desires to approve himself in life and death. He hath a principle, the Holy Ghost in him, and he labours to reduce everything to the main end. Oh that we were in this temper !