76 THE NATURE AND BEAUTY
to all the ends of the good word of God, whose dispensation is com- mitted unto them;— he enables men to administer the seals of the covenant so, that the faith of the saints may be excited and stirred up to act and exert itself in a way suitable to the nature of each ordi- nance. And all those gifts are bestowed on men on purpose for the good and edification of others; they are never exercised in a due manner, but they have a farther reach and efficacy in and upon the souls of the saints, than he that is intrusted with them was able to take a prospect of. He little knows how many of his words and ex- pressions are, in the infinite wisdom of the Holy Ghost, suited in an unspeakable variety to the conditions of his saints; — here one, there another, is wrought upon, affected, humbled, melted, lifted up, re- joiced by them; the Holy Ghost making them effectual to the ends for which he hath given out the gifts from whence they do proceed. I might mention sundry other advantages which we have that belong to our access unto God by one Spirit ; but because it were endless to enumerate all particulars, and they may be reduced to some one of these general heads, I shall mention no more of them. This, then, is the first evidence that we have in the words, given unto the gloiy, beauty, and excellency of gospel worship: In it we have an access unto the Father in the Spirit; which relates unto the things before mentioned, or rather touched on. Here is order : The Spirit reveals the mind of God as to the worship that is acceptable unto him ; — he furnishes the souls of the saints with all those graces whereby and wherein they have communion with God in his worship ; — he gives gifts unto some, enabling them to go before the assemblies in the worship of God, according to his mind, and unto their edification. Blessed order, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against ! Order, proceeding from the God of order; — his own project and appoint- ment ! Here is beauty, decency, loveliness. It is all the work of the glorious and holy Spirit, which is like himself, — holy, glorious, and beautiful ; and to set up any thing of any man's finding out in com- petition with it, is that which the Lord's soul abhors.
(2.) As the saints in the gospel have access unto God in the Spirit, so they have all their access in one Spirit; and this is the spring of all the uniformity which God requires. So the apostle tells us, that, as to the gifts themselves, there are diversities of them, and difference in them, 1 Cor. xii. 4-6. But where, then, is uniformity? If one man have better and greater gifts than another; — one man be more eminent in one kind, another in another; — one excelling in prayer, another in prophesying and preaching, — what confusion must this needs breed ! Where is, then, any uniformity in all this? The apostle answereth, verse 11. Here lies the uniformity of gospel worship,- that though the gifts bestowed on men for the public performance of
OF GOSPEL WORSHIP. 7F
it be various, and there is great diversity among them, yet it is one Spirit that bestows them all among them, and that in the order before mentioned. One and the same Spirit discovers the will and worship of God to them all; — one and the same Spirit works the same graces for their kind in the hearts of them all ; — one and the same Spirit bestows the gifts that are necessary for the carrying on of gospel worship in the public assemblies to them who are called to that work. And what if he be pleased to give out his gifts in some variously, as to particulars, " dividing to every one severally, as he will?" yet this hindereth not but that, as to the saints mentioned, they all approach unto God by one Spirit; and so have uniformity in their worship throughout the world. This is a catholic uniformity; when whatever is invented by men under that name reaches but to the next hedge, and, as might be easily proved and evinced, is the greatest principle of deformity and disorder in the world. This, then, is the uniformity of gospel worship : — all the saints, everywhere, have their access in it unto God in one Spirit, who worketh alike in the general in them all, though he gives out diversities of gifts, serving to the edification of the whole.
And these are the evidences that are directly and " in terminis" given to the proposition of the beauty, excellency, order, and uni- formity, of gospel worship in the text, as we consider it absolutely in itself. Before I come to consider its glory comparatively, in refer- ence to the outward solemn worship of the temple of old, I shall add but one consideration more, which is necessary for the preventing of some objections, as well as for the farther clearing of the truth in- sisted on; and that is taken from the place where spiritual worship is performed. Much of the beauty and glory of the old worship, ac- cording to carnal ordinances, consisted in the excellency of the place wherein it was performed ; — first, the tabernacle of Moses ; then the temple of Solomon, of whose glory and beauty we shall speak after- ward. Answerable hereunto, do some imagine there must be a beauty in the place where men assemble for gospel worship ; which they labour to paint and adorn accordingly. But they " err, not knowing the Scriptures." There is nothing spoken of the place and seat of gospel worship, but it is referred to one of these three heads, — all which ren- der it glorious: —