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he gave why he did it was, that the modulation of the voice and musical tune might not divert the minds of men from that spiritual affection which is required, of them in sacred duties. What there is of real order in the worship of God, as there is that order which is an effect of divine wisdom, it is suited and useful unto spiritual affections, because pro- ceeding from the same Spirit whereby they are internally renewed: 'Beholding your order;' Col. ii. 5. Every thing of God's appointment is both helpful and delightful unto them. None can say with higher raptures of admiration, 'How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord !' Psal. Ixxxiv. 1,2. than they whose affections are renewed. Yet is not their delight terminated on them, as we shall see immediately.
2. Men may be delighted in the performance of out- ward duties of divine worship, because in them they com- ply with, and give some kind of satisfaction unto, their convictions. When conscience is awakened unto a sense of the necessities of such duties, namely, of those wherein divine worship doth consist, it will give the mind no rest or peace in the neglect of them. Let them be attended unto in the seasons which light, conviction, and custom call for ; it will be so far satisfied as that the mind shall find present ease and refreshment in it. And when the soul is wonted unto this relief, it will not only be diligent in the perform- ance of such duties, it will not only not omit them, but it will delight in them, as those which bring them in great ad- vantage. Hence many will not omit the duty of prayer every morning, who upon the matter are resolved to live in sin all the day long. And there are but few who sedulously endeavour to live and walk in the frame of their hearts and ways answerable unto their own prayers ; yet all that is in our prayers, beyond our endeavours to answer it in a con- formity of heart and life, is but the exercise of gifts in answer to convictions. Others find an allay of troubles in them, like that which sick persons may find by drinking cold water in a fever, whose flames are assuaged for a season by it. They make them as an antidote against the poison and sting of sin, which allayeth its rage, but cannot expel its venom.
Or these duties are unto them like the sacrifices for sin under the law. They gave a guilty person present ease. But,
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as the apostle speaks, they made not men perfect. They took not away utterly a conscience condemning for sin. Presently, on the first omission of duty, a sense of sin again returned on them, and that not only as the fact, but as the person himself was condemned by the law. Then were the sacrifices to be repeated for a renewed propitiation. This gave that carnal people such delight and satisfaction in those sacrifices, that they trusted unto them for righteousness, life, and salvation. So it is with persons who are constant in spiritual duties merely from conviction. The performance of those duties gives them a present relief and ease; though it heal not their wound, it assuageth their pain, and dispel- leth their present fears. Hence are they frequent in them, and that ofttimes not without delight, because they find ease thereby. And their condition is somewhat dangerous, who upon the sense of the guilt of any sin, do betake them- selves for relief unto their prayers ; which having discharged, they are much at ease in their minds and consciences, al- though they have obtained no real sense of the pardon of sin, nor any strength against it.
It will be said, Do not all men, the best of men, perform all spiritual duties out of a conviction of their necessity ? do not they know it would be their sin to omit them, and so find satisfaction in their minds upon their performance? I say they do : but it is one thing to perform a duty out of conviction of a necessity, as it is God's ordinance, which conviction respects only the duty itself; another thing to perform it to give satisfaction unto convictions of other sins, or to quiet conscience under its trouble about them, which latter we speak unto. This begins and ends in self; self-satisfaction is the sole design of it. By it men aim at some rest and quietness in their own minds, which otherwise they cannot attain. But in the performance of duties in faith, from a conviction of their necessity as God's ordinance, and their use in the way of his grace, the soul begins and ends in God. It seeks no satisfaction in them, nor finds it from them, but in and from God alone by them.
3. The principal reason why men whose affections are only changed, not spiritually renewed, do delight in holy rluties of divine worship, is, because they place their righ-
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teousness before God in them, whereon they hope to be ac- cepted with him. They know not, they seek not, after any other righteousness but what is of their own working out. Whatever notions they may have of the righteousness of faith, of the righteousness of Christ, that which they practi- cally trust imto, is their own ; and it discovers itself so to be in their own consciences on every trial that befals them. Yea, when they cry unto the Lord, and pretend unto faith in Christ, they quickly make it evident that their principal trust is resolved into themselves. Now in all that they can plead in a way of duties or obedience, nothing carrieth a fairer pretence unto a righteousness, than what they do in the wor- ship of God, and the exercise of the acts of religion towards him. This is that which he expects at their hands, what is due unto him, in the light of their consciences ; the best that they can do to please him, which therefore they must put their trust in or nothing. They secretly suppose not only that there is a righteousness in these things which will answer for itself, but such also as will make compensation, in some measure, for their sins ; and therefore, whereas they cannot but frequently fall into sin, they relieve themselves from the reflection of their consciences by a multiplication of duties, and renewed diligence in them.