414 THE GRACE AND DUTY OF
are the differences that are between the actings of the affec- tions, of the one sort and of the other ; whether spiritually renewed, or occasionally changed? And wherein the great exercise of them consists in the duties of religious worship, I have declared what are the grounds and reasons whence men of unrenewed minds do delight ofttimes in the duties of divine worship, and are diligent in the performance of them.
From these and the like considerations, it may be made manifest that the greatest part of the devotion that is in the world doth not spring from the spiritual renovation of the minds of men, without which it is not accepted with God. That which remains to give in instance, farther evidence unto the discovery we are in the pursuit of, is what are the grounds and reasons whereon those whose minds and affec- tions are spiritually renewed, do delight in the institutions of divine worship ; and attend unto their observance with great heed and diligence. And because this is an inquiry of great importance, and is of great use to be stated in other cases, as well as that before us, I shall treat of it by itself in the ensuing chapter, that the reader may the more dis- tinctly comprehend it, both in the nature of the doctrine concerning it, and in the place it holds in our present discourse.
CHAP. XV.
Delight of believers in the holy institutions of divine worship. The grounds and reasons thereof. The evidence of being spiritually minded thereby, Sfc.
That all true believers whose minds are spiritually renewed have a singular delight in all the institutions and ordinances of divine worship is fully evident, both in the examples of the saints in the Scripture, and their own experience, which they will never forego. For this hath been the greatest cause of their suffering persecution; and martyrdom itself, in all ages. If the primitive Christians under the power of the pagan emperors, or the witnesses for Christ under the anti- christian apostacy, would, or could have omitted the observ- ance of them (according to the advice and practice of the
BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED. 415
Gnostics), they might have escaped the rage of their adver- saries. But they loved not their lives, in comparison imto that delight which they had in the observance of the com- mands of Christ, as unto the duties of evangelical worship. David gives us frequently an instance hereof in himself, Psal. xlii. 1 — 4. 'As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : when shall I come and appear before God ? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me. Where is thy God ? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me : for I had gone with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy-day.' Psal. Ixiii. 1 — 5. 'O God, thou art my God ; early will I seek thee : my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is ; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in thy sanctuary. Because thy loving-kindness is' better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live : I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied, as with marrow and fatness ; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.' Psal. Ixxxiv. 1 — 4. 'How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord ; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.'
But a 'greater than David is here.' Our Lord Jesus Christ himself did upon all occasions declare his delight in, and zeal, for all the ordinances of divine worship, which was then in force by virtue of divine institution and command. For although he severely reproved and rejected whatever men had added thereunto under the pretence of a superero- gating strictness or outward order, laying it all under that dreadful sentence, ' Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be plucked up,' and so cast into the fire; yet as unto what was of divine appointment, liis de- light therein was singular, and exemplary unto all his dis-
410 THE GRACE AXD DUTY OF
ciples. With respect hereunto was it said of him, 'that the zeal of God's house had eaten him up/ by reason of the affliction which he had in his Spirit, to see the worship of it neglected, polluted, and despised. This caused him tb cleanse the temple, the seat of divine worship, from the pollutors and pollutions of it, not long before his sufferings, in the face and unto the high provocation of all his adver- saries. So with earnest desire he longed for the celebration of his last passover. Luke xxii. 15. 'With desire have I desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.' And it is a sufficient evidence of the frame of spirit and practice of his disciples afterward, in reference to the duties of evangelical worship by his appointment, that the apostle gives it as an assured token of an unsound condition, and that which tendeth to final cursed apostacy, when any fall into a neglect of them; Heb. x. 25 — 27.