XIII. But he obeyed: the consequence was, that God gave him a mighty land. This was the first reward of his obedience. The next was, a son in his old age; and which greatened the blessing, after it had been, in nature, past the time of his wife's bearing of children. (Gen. xxii. 2.) Yet God called for his darling, their only child, the joy of their age, the son of a miracle, and he upon whom the fulfilling of the promise made to Abraham did depend. For this son, I say, God called: a mighty trial: that which, one would have thought, might very well have overturned his faith, and stumbled his integrity; at least have put him upon this dispute in himself. This command is unreasonable and cruel; it is the tempter's, it cannot be God's. For, is it to be thought that God gave me a son to make a sacrifice of him? that the father should be butcher of his only child? Again, that he should require me to offer up the son of his own promise, by whom his covenant is to be performed; this is incredible. I say, thus Abraham might naturally enough have argued, to withstand the voice of God, and indulge his great affections to his beloved Isaac. But good old Abraham, that knew the voice that had promised him a son, had not forgotten to know it, when it required him back again; he disputes not, though it looked strange, and perhaps with some surprise and horror, as a man. He had learned to believe that God, that gave him a child by a miracle, could work another to preserve or restore him. His affections could not balance his duty, much less overcome his faith; for he received him in a way that would let him doubt of nothing that God had promised to him.
To the voice of this Almightiness he bows, builds an altar, binds his only son upon it, kindles the fire, and stretches forth his hand to take the knife: but the angel stopped the stroke: Hold, Abraham, thy integrity is proved. What followed? a ram served, and Isaac was his again. This shows how little serves, where all is resigned, and how mean a sacrifice contents the Almighty, where the heart is approved. So that it is not the sacrifice that recommends the heart, but the heart that gives the sacrifice acceptance.
God often touches our best comforts, and calls for that which we most love, and are least willing to part with. Not that he always takes it utterly away, but to prove the soul's integrity, to caution us from excesses, and that we may remember God, the author of those blessings we possess, and live loose to them. I speak my experience; the way to keep our enjoyments is to resign them; and though that be hard, it is sweet to see them returned, as Isaac was to his father Abraham, with more love and blessing than before. O stupid world! O worldly Christians; not only strangers, but enemies to this excellent faith! and whilst so, the rewards of it you can never know.
XIV. But Job presses hard upon Abraham: his self-denial also was very signal. For when the messengers of his afflictions came thick upon him, one doleful story after another, till he was left almost as naked as when he was born; the first thing he did, he fell to the ground, and worshipped that power, and kissed that hand that stripped him; so far from murmuring, that he concludes his losses of estate and children with these words: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return: the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job, i. 21.) O the deep faith, patience, and contentment of this excellent man! onewould have thought this repeated news of ruin had been enough to have overset his confidence in God; but it did not; that stayed him. But indeed he tells us why; his Redeemer lived; "I know," says he, "that my Redeemer lives." (Job, xix. 25, 26.) And it appeared he did; for he had redeemed him from the world: his heart was not in his worldly comforts: his hope lived above the joys of time and troubles of mortality; not tempted by the one, nor shaken by the other; but firmly believed, that when after his skin worms should have consumed his body, yet with his eyes he should see his God. Thus was the heart of Job both submitted to and comforted in the will of God.
XV. Moses is the next great example in sacred story for remarkable self-denial, before the times of Christ's appearance in the flesh. He had been saved when an infant, by an extraordinary providence, and it seems, by what followed, for an extraordinary service: Pharaoh's daughter, whose compassion was the means of his preservation, when the king decreed the slaughter of the Hebrew males, (Exod. ii. 1, 10,) took him for her son, and gave him the education of her father's court. His own graceful presence and extraordinary abilities, joined with her love for him, and interest in her father to promote him, must have rendered him, if not capable of succession, at least of being chief minister of affairs under that wealthy and powerful prince. For Egypt was then what Athens and Rome were after, the most famous for learning, art, and glory.
XVI. But Moses, ordained for other work and guided by a higher principle, no sooner came to years of discretion, than the impiety of Egypt, and the oppressions of his brethren there, grew a burden too heavy for him to bear. And though so wise and good a man could not want those generous and grateful acknowledgments, thatbecame the kindness of the king's daughter to him; yet he had also seen that God that was invisible; (Heb. xi. 24-27;) and did not dare to live in the ease and plenty of Pharaoh's house, whilst his poor brethren were required to make brick without straw. (Exod. v. 7, 16.)
Thus the fear of the Almighty taking deep hold of his heart, he nobly refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and chose rather a life of affliction, with the most despised and oppressed Israelites, and to be the companion of their tribulations and jeopardies, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproaches of Christ, which he suffered for making that unworldly choice, greater riches than all the treasures of that kingdom.
XVII. Nor was he so foolish as they thought him; he had reason on his side; for it is said, he had an eye to the recompense of reward, he did but refuse a lesser benefit for a greater. In this his wisdom transcended that of the Egyptians; for they made the present world their choice, as uncertain as the weather, and so lost that which has no end. Moses looked deeper, and weighed the enjoyments of this life in the scales of eternity, and found they made no weight there. He governed himself not by the immediate possession, but the nature and duration of the reward. His faith corrected his affections, and taught him to sacrifice the pleasure of self, to the hope he had of a future more excellent recompense.
XVIII. Isaiah[1]was no inconsiderable instance of this blessed self-denial; who of a courtier became a prophet, and left the worldly interests of the one, for the faith, patience, and sufferings of the other. For his choice did not only lose him the favour of men, but their wickedness, enraged at his integrity to God, in his fervent and bold reproofs of them, made a martyr of him in the end, forthey barbarously sawed him asunder in the reign of king Manasseh. Thus died that excellent man, and commonly called the Evangelical Prophet.
XIX. I shall add, of many, one example more, and that is from the fidelity of Daniel; a holy and wise young man, who when his external advantages came in competition with his duty to Almighty God, relinquished them all; and instead of being solicitous how to secure himself, as one minding nothing less, he was, to the utmost hazard of himself, most careful how to preserve the honour of God, by his fidelity to his will. And though at the first it exposed him to ruin, yet, as an instance of great encouragement to all that like him will choose to keep a good conscience in an evil time, at last it advanced him greatly in the world; and the God of Daniel was made famous and terrible through his perseverance even in the eyes of heathen kings.
XX. What shall I say of all the rest, who counted nothing dear that they might do the will of God, abandoned their worldly comforts, and exposed their ease and safety, as often as the heavenly vision called them,[2]to the wrath and malice of degenerate princes and an apostate church? More especially Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Micah, who after they had denied themselves, in obedience to the divine voice, sealed their testimony with their blood.
Thus was self-denial the practice and glory of the ancients, that were predecessors to the coming of Christ in the flesh: and shall we hope to go to heaven without it now, when our Saviour himself is become the most excellent example of it? and that not as some would fain have it, viz. for us, that we need not; (1 Peter, ii. 21;) but for us, that we might deny ourselves, and so be the true followers of his blessed example.
XXI. Whoever therefore thou art that wouldst do thewill of God, but faintest in thy desires, from the opposition of worldly considerations, remember I tell thee, in the name of Christ, that he that prefers father or mother, sister or brother, wife or child, house or land, reputation, honour, office, liberty, or life, before the testimony of the light of Jesus, in his own conscience, shall be rejected of him in the solemn and general inquest upon the world, when all shall be judged, and receive according to the deeds done, not the profession made, in this life. It was the doctrine of Jesus, that if thy right hand offend thee, thou must cut it off; and if thy right eye offend thee, thou must pluck it out: (Matt. v. 29, 30:) that is, if the most dear, the most useful and tender comforts thou enjoyest, stand in thy soul's way, and interrupt thy obedience to the voice of God, and thy conformity to his holy will revealed in thy soul, thou art engaged, under the penalty of damnation, to part with them.
XXII. The way of God is a way of faith, as dark to sense, as mortal to self. It is the children of obedience, who count, with holy Paul, all things dross and dung, that they may win Christ, and know and walk in this narrow way. Speculation will not do, nor can refined notions enter; the obedient only eat the good of this land. (Isaiah, i. 19.) They that do his will, says the blessed Jesus, shall know of my doctrine; (John, vii. 17;) them He will instruct. There is no room for instruction, where lawful self is lord, and not servant. For self cannot receive it; that which should is oppressed by self, fearful, and dare not. O! what will my father or mother say? How will my husband use me? or finally, what will the magistrate do with me? For though I have a most powerful persuasion, and clear conviction upon my soul, of this or that thing, yet considering how unmodish it is, what enemies it has, and how strange and singular I shall seem to them, I hope God will pity my weakness: if Isink, I am but flesh and blood; it may be hereafter He may better enable me; and there is time enough. Thus selfish, fearful man.
But deliberating is ever worst; for the soul loses in parley: the manifestation brings power with it. Never did God convince people, but, upon submission, he empowered them. He requires nothing without giving ability to perform it: that were mocking, not saving men. It is enough for thee to do thy duty, that God shows thee thy duty; provided thou closest with that light and spirit by which he gives thee that knowledge. They that want power, are such as do not receive Christ in his convictions upon the soul, and such will always want it; but such as do, they receive power, like those of old, to become the children of God, through the pure obedience of faith.
XXIII. Wherefore, let me beseech you, by the love and mercy of God, by the life and death of Christ, by the power of his Spirit, and the hope of immortality, that you, whose hearts are established in your temporal comforts, and so lovers of self, more than of these heavenly things, would let the time past suffice: that you would not think it enough to be clear of such impieties, as too many are found in, whilst your inordinate love of lawful things has defiled your enjoyment of them, and drawn your hearts from the fear, love, obedience, and self-denial of a true disciple of Jesus. Turn about then, and hearken to the still voice in thy conscience; it tells thee thy sins, and thy misery in them; it gives a lively discovery of the very vanity of the world, and opens to the soul some prospect of eternity, and the comforts of the just that are at rest. If thou adhere to this, it will divorce thee from sin and self: thou wilt soon find, that the power of its charms exceeds that of wealth, honour, and beauty of the world, and finally will give thee that tranquillity which the storms of time can never shipwreck nor disorder. Hereall thy enjoyments are blest, though small, yet great by that presence that is within them.
Even in this world the righteous have the better of it, for they use the world without rebuke, because they do not abuse it. They see and bless the hand that feeds, and clothes, and preserves them. And as by beholding him in all his works, they do not adore them, but him; so the sweetness of his blessings that gives them, is an advantage such have upon those that see him not. Besides, in their increase, they are not lifted up, nor in their adversities are they cast down: and why? Because they are moderated in the one, and comforted in the other, by his divine presence.
In short, heaven is the throne, and the earth but the footstool of that man that hath self under foot. And those that know that station will not easily be moved; such learn to number their days, that they may not be surprised with their dissolution; and to redeem their time, because their days are evil; (Ephes. v. 16;) remembering they are stewards, and must deliver up their accounts to an impartial judge. Therefore not to self but to him they live, and in him die, and are blessed with them that die in the Lord. And thus I conclude my discourse on the right use of lawful self.
1. Of unlawful self; it is two-fold: 1st, in religion; 2nd, in morality.—2. Of those that are most formal, superstitious, and pompous in worship.—3. God's rebuke of carnal apprehensions.—4. Christ drew off his disciples from the Jewish exterior worship, and instituted a more spiritual one.—5. Stephen is full and plain in this matter.—6. Paul refers the temple of God twice to man.—7. Of the cross of these worldly worshippers.—8. Flesh and blood make their cross, therefore cannot be crucified by it.—9. They are yokes without restraint.—10. Of the gaudiness of their cross, and their respect to it.—11. A recluse life no true gospel abnegation.—12. Comparison between Christ's self-denial and theirs: his leads to purity in the world, theirs to voluntary imprisonment, that they might not be tempted of the world. The mischief which that example, if followed, would do to the world. It destroys useful society and honest labour. A lazy life the usual refuge of idleness, poverty, and guilty age.—13. Of Christ's cross in this case. The impossibility that such an external application can remove an internal cause.—14. An exhortation to the men of this belief, not to deceive themselves.
1. Of unlawful self; it is two-fold: 1st, in religion; 2nd, in morality.—2. Of those that are most formal, superstitious, and pompous in worship.—3. God's rebuke of carnal apprehensions.—4. Christ drew off his disciples from the Jewish exterior worship, and instituted a more spiritual one.—5. Stephen is full and plain in this matter.—6. Paul refers the temple of God twice to man.—7. Of the cross of these worldly worshippers.—8. Flesh and blood make their cross, therefore cannot be crucified by it.—9. They are yokes without restraint.—10. Of the gaudiness of their cross, and their respect to it.—11. A recluse life no true gospel abnegation.—12. Comparison between Christ's self-denial and theirs: his leads to purity in the world, theirs to voluntary imprisonment, that they might not be tempted of the world. The mischief which that example, if followed, would do to the world. It destroys useful society and honest labour. A lazy life the usual refuge of idleness, poverty, and guilty age.—13. Of Christ's cross in this case. The impossibility that such an external application can remove an internal cause.—14. An exhortation to the men of this belief, not to deceive themselves.
I. I am now come to unlawful self, which, more or less, is the immediate concern of much the greater part of mankind. This unlawful self is two-fold. First, that which relates to religious worship: secondly, that which concerns moral and civil conversation in the world. And they are both of infinite consequence to be considered by us. In which I shall be as brief as I may, with ease to my conscience, and no injury to the matter.
II. That unlawful self in religion that ought to be mortified by the cross of Christ, is man's invention and performance of worship to God as divine, which is not so,either in its institution or performance. In this great error those people have the van of all that attribute to themselves the name of Christians, that are most exterior, pompous, and superstitious in their worship; for they do not only miss exceedingly by a spiritual unpreparedness, in the way of their performing worship to God Almighty, who is an Eternal Spirit; but the worship itself is composed of what is utterly inconsistent with the very form and practice of Christ's doctrine, and the apostolical example. For whereas that was plain and spiritual, this is gaudy and worldly: Christ's most inward and mental, theirs most outward and corporeal: that suited to the nature of God, who is a Spirit, this accommodated to the most carnal part. So that instead of excluding flesh and blood, behold a worship calculated to gratify them: as if the business were not to present God with a worship to please Him, but to make one to please themselves. A worship dressed with such stately buildings and imagery, rich furnitures and garments, rare voices and music, costly lamps, wax candles, and perfumes; and all acted with that most pleasing variety to the external senses that art can invent or cost procure; as if the world were to turn Jew or Egyptian again; or that God was an old man indeed, and Christ a little boy, to be treated with a kind of religious mask: for so they picture him in their temples, and too many in their minds. And the truth is, such a worship may very well suit such an idea of God: for when men can think Him such a one as themselves, it is not to be wondered if they address Him in a way that would be the most pleasing from others to themselves.
III. But what said the Almighty to such a sensual people of old, much upon the like occasion? "Thou thoughtest I was such an one as thyself, but I will reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before thee. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces andthere be none to deliver." But, "to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God." (Psalm l. 21, 22, 23.) This is the worship acceptable to him, "to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God." (Mic. vi. 8.) For He that searcheth the heart, and tries the reins of man, and sets his sins in order before him, who is the God of the spirits of all flesh, looks not to the external fabric, but internal frame of the soul, and inclination of the heart. Nor is it to be soberly thought, that He who is clothed with divine honour and majesty; who covers himself with light as with a garment; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain; who layeth the beams of his chambers in the deep; who maketh the clouds his chariot, and walks upon the wings of the wind: who maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flaming fire: who laid the foundation of the earth, that it should not be moved for ever; can be adequately worshipped by those human inventions, the refuge of an apostate people from the primitive power of religion and spirituality of Christian worship.
IV. Christ drew off his disciples from the glory and worship of the outward temple, and instituted a more inward and spiritual worship, in which He instructed his followers, "Ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem," says Christ to the Samaritan woman, "worship the Father; God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth." (John, iv. 21.) As if he had said, for the sake of the weakness of the people, God condescended in old time to limit himself to an outward time, place, temple, and service, in and by which he would be worshipped; but this was during men's ignorance of his omnipresence, and that they considered not what God is, nor where he is; but I am come to reveal him to as many as receive me; and I tell you that God is a spirit, and will be worshipped in Spirit andin truth. People must be acquainted with him as a spirit, consider and worship him as such. It is not that bodily worship, or these ceremonial services, in use among you now, will serve, or give acceptance with this God that is a Spirit: no, you must obey his Spirit that strives with you, to gather you out of the evil of the world, that by bowing to the instructions and commands of his Spirit in your own souls, you may know what it is to worship him as a Spirit; then you will understand that it is not going to this mountain, nor to Jerusalem, but to do the will of God, to keep his commandments, and commune with thine own heart, and sin not; take up thy cross, meditate in his holy law, and follow the example of Him whom the Father hath sent.
V. Wherefore Stephen, that bold and constant martyr of Jesus, told the Jews, when a prisoner at the bar for disputing about the end of their beloved temple, and its services, but falsely accused of blasphemy; "Solomon," said Stephen, "built God an house; howbeit God dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?" (Acts, vii. 47-50.) Behold a total overthrow to all worldly temples, and their ceremonial appendages. The martyr follows his blow upon those apostate Jews, who were of those times, the pompous, ceremonious, worldly worshippers: "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as did your fathers, so do ye." (Acts, vii. 51.) As if He had told them, no matter for your outward temples, rites, and shadowy services, your pretensions to succession in nature from Abraham; and by religion from Moses. You are resisters of the Spirit, gainsayers of its instructions: you will not bow to his counsel, nor are your hearts right towardsGod: you are the successors of your fathers' iniquity; and though verbal admirers, yet none of the successors of the prophets in faith and life.
But the prophet Isaiah carries it a little further than is cited by Stephen. For after having declared what is not God's house, the place where his honour dwells, immediately follow these words: "But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." (Isaiah, lxvi. 2.) Behold, O carnal and superstitious man, the true worshipper, and the place of God's rest! This is the house and temple of Him whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain; a house self cannot build, nor the art or power of man prepare or consecrate.
VI. Paul, that great apostle of the Gentiles, twice expressly refers the word temple to man: once in his epistle to the church of Corinth; "Know ye not," says he, "that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?" &c. (1 Cor. vi. 19,) and not the building of man's hand and heart. Again, he tells the same people, in his second epistle, "For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said;" (2 Cor. vi. 16;) and then cites God's words by the prophet, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people." This is the evangelical temple, the Christian church, whose ornaments are not the embroideries and furnitures of worldly art and wealth, but the graces of the Spirit; meekness, love, faith, patience, self-denial, and charity. Here it is, that the eternal wisdom, that was with God from everlasting, before the hills were brought forth, or the mountains laid, chooses to dwell; "rejoicing," says Wisdom, "in the habitable part of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of men:" (Prov. viii. 22, 23, 25, 31;) not in houses built of wood and stone. This living house is more glorious than Solomon'sdead house; and of which his was but a figure, as he, the Builder, was of Christ, who builds up a holy temple to God. It was promised of old, that the glory of the latter house should transcend the glory of the former; (Hag. ii. 9;) which may be applied to this: not one outward temple or house to excel another in outward lustre; for where is the benefit of that? But the divine glory, the beauty of holiness in the gospel house or church, made up of renewed believers, should exceed the outward glory of Solomon's temple, which in comparison of the latter days, was but flesh to spirit, fading resemblance to the eternal substance.
But for all this, Christians have meeting-places, yet not in Jewish or Heathen state, but plain, void of pomp or ceremony, suiting the simplicity of their blessed life and doctrine. For God's presence is not with the house, but with them that are in it, who are the gospel church, and not the house. O! that such as call themselves Christians, knew but a real sanctity in themselves, by the washing of God's regenerating grace, instead of that imaginary sanctity ascribed to places; they would then know what the church is, and where, in these evangelical days, is the place of God's appearance. This made the prophet David say, "The king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold." What is the glory that is within the true church, and that gold that makes up that inward glory? Tell me, O superstitious man! is it thy stately temples, altars, tables, carpets, tapestries; thy vestments, organs, voices, candles, lamps, censers, plate, and jewels, with the like furniture of thy worldly temples? No such matter; they bear no proportion with the divine adornment of the King of Heaven's daughter, the blessed and redeemed church of Christ. Miserable apostacy that it is! and a wretched supplement in the loss and absence of the apostolic life, the spiritual glory of the primitive church.
VII. But yet some of these admirers of external pomp and glory in worship would be thought lovers of the cross, and to that end have made to themselves many. But alas! what hopes can there be of reconciling that to Christianity, that the nearer it comes to its resemblance, the further off it is in reality? for their very cross and self-denial are most unlawful self: and whilst they fancy to worship God thereby, they most dangerously err from the true cross of Christ, and that holy abnegation that was of his blessed appointment. It is true, they have got a cross, but it seems to be in the room of the true one: and so mannerly, that it will do as they will have it that wear it; for instead of mortifying their wills by it, they made it, and use it according to them. So that the cross is become their ensign, that do nothing but what they list. Yet by that they would be thought his disciples, who never did his own will, but the will of his heavenly Father.
VIII. This is such a cross as flesh and blood can carry, for flesh and blood invented it; therefore not the cross of Christ, that is to crucify flesh and blood. Thousands of them have no more virtue than a chip: poor empty shadows, not so much as images of the true one. Some carry them for charms about them, but never repel one evil with them. They sin with them upon their backs; and though they put them in their bosoms, their beloved lusts lie there too, without the least disquiet. They are as dumb as Elijah's mock gods; (1 Kings, xviii. 27;) no life nor power in them: and how should they, whose matter is earthly, and whose figure and workmanship are but the invention and labour of worldly artists? Is it possible that such crosses should mend their makers? surely not.
IX. These are yokes without restraint, and crosses that never contradict: a whole cart-load of them would leave a man as unmortified as they find him. Men may soonerknock their brains out with them than their sins; and that, I fear, too many of them know in their very consciences that use them, indeed adore them: and, which can only happen to the false cross, are proud of them too, since the true one leaves no pride, where it is truly borne.
X. For as their religion, so their cross is very gaudy and triumphant: but in what? In precious metals and gems, the spoil of superstition upon the people's pockets. These crosses are made of earthly treasure, instead of teaching their hearts that wear them to deny it: and like men, they are respected by their finery. A rich cross shall have many gazers and admirers: the mean in this, as other things, are more neglected. I could appeal to themselves of this great vanity and superstition. O! how very short is this of the blessed cross of Jesus, that takes away the sins of the world!
XI. Nor is a recluse life, the boasted righteousness of some, much more commendable, or one whit nearer to the nature of the true cross: for if it be not unlawful as other things are, it is unnatural, which true religion teaches not. The Christian convent and monastery are within, where the soul is encloistered from sin. And this religious house the true followers of Christ carry about with them, who exempt not themselves from the conversation of the world, though they keep themselves from the evil of the world in their conversation. That is a lazy, rusty, unprofitable self-denial, burdensome to others to feed their idleness; religious bedlams, where people are kept lest they should do mischief abroad; patience per force; self-denial against their will, rather ignorant than virtuous: and out of the way of temptation, than content in it. No thanks if they commit not what they are not tempted to commit. What the eye views not, the heart craves not, as well as rues not.
XII. The cross of Christ is of another nature; it trulyovercomes the world, and leads a life of purity in the face of its allurements; they that bear it are not thus chained up, for fear they should bite; nor locked up, lest they should be stolen away: no, they receive power from Christ their captain, to resist the evil, and do that which is good in the sight of God; to despise the world, and love its reproach above its praise; and not only not to offend others, but love those that offend them: though not for offending them. What a world should we have if every body, for fear of transgressing, should mew himself up within four walls! No such matter; the perfection of the Christian life extends to every honest labour or traffic used among men. This severity is not the effect of Christ's free spirit, but a voluntary, fleshly humility: mere trammels of their own making and putting on, without prescription or reason. In all which it is plain they are their own lawgivers, and set their own rule, mulct, and ransom: a constrained harshness, out of joint to the rest of the creation; for society is one great end of it, and not to be destroyed for fear of evil; but sin that spoils it, banished by a steady reproof, and a conspicuous example of tried virtue. True godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it, and excites their endeavours to mend it; not to hide their candle under a bushel, but to set it upon a table in a candlestick. Besides, it is a selfish invention; and that can never be the way of taking up the cross, which the true cross is therefore taken up to subject. But again, this humour runs away by itself, and leaves the world behind to be lost; Christians should keep the helm, and guide the vessel to its port; not meanly steal out at the stern of the world, and leave those that are in it without a pilot, to be driven by the fury of evil times, upon the rock or sand of ruin. In fine, this sort of life, if taken up by young people, is commonly to cover idleness, or to payportions, to save the lazy from the pain of punishment, or quality from the disgrace of poverty; one will not work, and the other scorns it; if aged, a long life of guilt sometimes flies to superstition for a refuge, and after having had its own will in other things, would finish it in a wilful religion to make God amends.
XIII. But taking up the cross of Jesus is a more interior exercise: it is the circumspection and discipline of the soul in conformity to the divine mind therein revealed. Does not the body follow the soul, not the soul the body? Do not such consider, that no outward cell can shut up the soul from lust, the mind from an infinity of unrighteous imaginations? The thoughts of man's heart are evil, and that continually. Evil comes from within, and not from without: how then can an external application remove an internal cause; or a restraint upon the body, work a confinement of the mind? which is much less than without doors, for where there is least of action, there is most time to think; and if those thoughts are not guided by a higher principle, convents are more mischievous to the world than exchanges. And yet retirement is both an excellent and needful thing; crowds and throngs were not much frequented by the ancient holy pilgrims.
XIV. But then examine, O man, thy foundation, what it is, and who placed thee there; lest in the end it should appear thou hast put an eternal cheat upon thy own soul. I must confess I am jealous of the salvation of my own kind, having found mercy with my heavenly Father. I would have none to deceive themselves to perdition, especially about religion, where people are most apt to take all for granted, and lose infinitely by their own flatteries and neglect. The inward, steady righteousness of Jesus is another thing than all the contrived devotion of poor superstitious man; and to stand approved in the sight of God, excels that bodily exercise in religion, resulting fromthe invention of men. And the soul that is awakened and preserved by his holy power and spirit, lives to Him in the way of his own institution, and worships Him in his own spirit, that is, in the holy sense, life, and leadings of it: which indeed is the evangelical worship. Not that I would be thought to slight a true retirement: for I do not only acknowledge but admire solitude. Christ himself was an example of it: He loved and chose to frequent mountains, gardens, and sea-sides. It is requisite to the growth of piety, and I reverence the virtue that seeks and uses it; wishing there were more of it in the world: but then it should be free, not constrained. What benefit to the mind, to have it for a punishment, and not for a pleasure? Nay, I have long thought it an error among all sorts, that use not monastic lives, that they have no retreats for the afflicted, the tempted, the solitary, and the devout, where they might undisturbedly wait upon God, pass through their religious exercises, and, being thereby strengthened, may, with more power over their own spirits, enter into the business of the world again: though the less the better, to be sure. For divine pleasures are found in a free solitude.
1. But men of more refined belief and practice are yet concerned in this unlawful self about religion.—2. It is the rise of the performance of worship God regards.—3. True worship is only from a heart prepared by God's Spirit.—4. The soul of man is dead without the divine breath of life, and so not capable of worshipping the living God.—5. We are not to study what to pray for. How Christians should pray. The aid they have from God.—6. The way of obtaining this preparation: it is by waiting, as David and others did of old, in holy silence, that their wants and supplies are best seen.—7. The whole and the full think they need not this waiting, and so use it not; but the poor in spirit are of another mind, wherefore the Lord hears, and fills them with his good things.—8. If there were not this preparation, the Jewish times would have been more holy and spiritual than the gospel; for even then it was required; much more now.—9. As sin, so formality, cannot worship God: thus David, Isaiah, &c.—10. God's own forms and institutions hateful to Him, unless his own Spirit use them; much more those of man's contriving.—11. God's children ever met God in his way, not their own; and in his way they always found help and comfort. In Jeremiah's time it was the same; his goodness was manifested to his children that waited truly upon him: it was an inward sense and enjoyment of him they thirsted after. Christ charged his disciples also to wait for the Spirit.—12. This doctrine of waiting further opened, and ended with an allusion to the pool of Bethesda; a lively figure of inward waiting and its blessed effects.—13. Four things necessary to worship; the sanctification of the worshipper, and the consecration of the offering, and the thing to be prayed for, and lastly, faith to pray in: and all must be right, that is, of God's giving.—14. The great power of faith in prayer; witness the importunate woman. The wicked and formal ask, and receive not; the reason why. But Jacob and his true offspring, the followers of his faith, prevail.—15. This shows why Christ upbraided his disciples with their little faith. The necessity of faith. Christ works no goodon men without it.—16. This faith is not only possible now but necessary.—17. What it is, further unfolded.—18. Who the heirs of this faith are; and what were the noble works of it in the former ages of the just.
1. But men of more refined belief and practice are yet concerned in this unlawful self about religion.—2. It is the rise of the performance of worship God regards.—3. True worship is only from a heart prepared by God's Spirit.—4. The soul of man is dead without the divine breath of life, and so not capable of worshipping the living God.—5. We are not to study what to pray for. How Christians should pray. The aid they have from God.—6. The way of obtaining this preparation: it is by waiting, as David and others did of old, in holy silence, that their wants and supplies are best seen.—7. The whole and the full think they need not this waiting, and so use it not; but the poor in spirit are of another mind, wherefore the Lord hears, and fills them with his good things.—8. If there were not this preparation, the Jewish times would have been more holy and spiritual than the gospel; for even then it was required; much more now.—9. As sin, so formality, cannot worship God: thus David, Isaiah, &c.—10. God's own forms and institutions hateful to Him, unless his own Spirit use them; much more those of man's contriving.—11. God's children ever met God in his way, not their own; and in his way they always found help and comfort. In Jeremiah's time it was the same; his goodness was manifested to his children that waited truly upon him: it was an inward sense and enjoyment of him they thirsted after. Christ charged his disciples also to wait for the Spirit.—12. This doctrine of waiting further opened, and ended with an allusion to the pool of Bethesda; a lively figure of inward waiting and its blessed effects.—13. Four things necessary to worship; the sanctification of the worshipper, and the consecration of the offering, and the thing to be prayed for, and lastly, faith to pray in: and all must be right, that is, of God's giving.—14. The great power of faith in prayer; witness the importunate woman. The wicked and formal ask, and receive not; the reason why. But Jacob and his true offspring, the followers of his faith, prevail.—15. This shows why Christ upbraided his disciples with their little faith. The necessity of faith. Christ works no goodon men without it.—16. This faith is not only possible now but necessary.—17. What it is, further unfolded.—18. Who the heirs of this faith are; and what were the noble works of it in the former ages of the just.
I. But there be others of a more refined speculation, and reformed practice, who dare not use, and less adore, a piece of wood or stone, an image of silver and gold; nor yet allow of that Jewish, or rather Pagan pomp in worship, practised by others, as if Christ's worship were of this world, though his kingdom be of the other, but are doctrinally averse to such superstition, and yet refrain not to bow to their own religious duties, and esteem their formal performance of several parts of worship that go against the grain of their fleshly ease, and a preciseness therein, no small cross unto them; and that if they abstain from gross and scandalous sins, or if the act be not committed, though the thoughts of it are embraced, and that it has a full career in the mind, they hold themselves safe enough within the pale of discipleship and walls of Christianity. But this also is too mean a character of the discipline of Christ's cross: and those that flatter themselves with such a sort of taking it up, will in the end be deceived with a sandy foundation, and a midnight cry. For said Christ, "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment." (Matt. xii. 36.)
II. For first, it is not performing duties of religion, but the rise of the performance that God looks at. Men may, and some do, cross their own wills in their own wills: voluntary omission and commission: "Who has required this at your hands?" (Isa. i. 12,) said the Lord of old to the Jews, when they seemed industrious to have served him; but it was in a way of their own contriving or inventing, and in their own time and will; not with the soul truly touched and prepared by the divine power ofGod, but bodily worship only: that, the apostle tells us, profits little. Not keeping to the manner of taking up the cross in worship as well as other things, has been a great cause of the troublesome superstition that is yet in the world. For men have no more brought their worship to the test, than their sins: nay less; for they have ignorantly thought the one a sort of excuse for the other; and not that their religious performances should need a cross, or an apology.
III. But true worship can only come from a heart prepared by the Lord. (Prov. xvi. 1; Rom viii. 14.) This preparation is by the sanctification of the Spirit; by which, if God's children are led in the general course of their lives, as Paul teaches, much more in their worship to their Creator and Redeemer. And whatever prayer be made, or doctrine be uttered, and not from the preparation of the Holy Spirit, it is not acceptable with God: nor can it be the true evangelical worship, which is in spirit and truth; that is, by the preparation and aid of the Spirit. For what is a heap of the most pathetical words to God Almighty; or the dedication of any place or time to him? He is a Spirit, to whom words, places, and times, strictly considered, are improper or inadequate. And though they be the instruments of public worship, they are but bodily and visible, and cannot carry our requests any further, much less recommend them to the invisible God; by no means; they are for the sake of the congregation: it is the language of the soul God hears, nor can that speak but by the Spirit, or groan aright to Almighty God without the assistance of it.
IV. The soul of man, however lively in other things, is dead to God, till He breathe the spirit of life into it: it cannot live to Him, much less worship Him, without it. Thus God tells us, by Ezekiel, when in a vision of the restoration of mankind, in the person of Israel, an usualway of speaking among the prophets, and as often mistaken, "I will open your graves," saith the Lord, "and put my Spirit in you, and you shall live." (Ezek. xxxvii. 12-14.) So, though Christ taught his disciples to pray, they were, in some sort, disciples before he taught them; not worldly men, whose prayers are an abomination to God. And his teaching them is not an argument that every body must say that prayer, whether he can say it with the same heart, and under the same qualifications, as his poor disciples or followers did, or not; as is now too superstitiously and presumptuously practised; but rather as they then, so we now, are not to pray our own prayers, but his: that is, such as He enables us to make, as He enabled them then.
V. For if we are not to take thought what we shall say when we come before worldly princes, because it shall then be given us; and that "it is not we that speak, but the Spirit of our heavenly Father that speaketh in us;" (Matt. x. 19, 20;) much less can our ability be needed, or ought we to study to ourselves forms of speech in our approaches to the great Prince of princes, King of kings, and Lord of lords. For be it his greatness, we ought not by Christ's command; be it our relation to him as children, we need not; he will help us, he is our Father; that is, if he be so indeed. Thus not only the mouth of the body but of the soul is shut, till God opens it; and then he loves to hear the language of it. In which the body ought never to go before the soul: his ear is open to such requests, and his Spirit strongly intercedes for those that offer them.
VI. But it may be asked, how shall this preparation be obtained?
I answer: By waiting patiently, yet watchfully and intently upon God: "Lord," says the Psalmist, "thou hast heard the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare theirheart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:" (Psalm x. 17:) and, says wisdom, "The preparation of the heart in man is from the Lord." (Prov. xvi. 1.) Here it is thou must not think thy own thoughts, nor speak thy own words, which indeed is the silence of the holy cross, but be sequestered from all the confused imaginations that are apt to throng and press upon the mind in those holy retirements. It is not for thee to think to overcome the Almighty by the most composed matter, cast into the aptest phrase; no, no; one groan, one sigh, from a wounded soul, a heart touched with true remorse, a sincere and godly sorrow, which is the work of God's Spirit, excels and prevails with God. Wherefore stand still in thy mind, wait to feel something that is divine, to prepare and dispose thee to worship God truly and acceptably. And thus taking up the cross, and shutting the doors and windows of the soul against everything that would interrupt this attendance upon God, how pleasant soever the object be in itself, how lawful or needful at another season, the power of the Almighty will break in, his Spirit will work and prepare the heart, that it may offer up an acceptable sacrifice. It is he that discovers and presses wants upon the soul; and when it cries, it is he alone that supplies them. Petitions, not springing from such a sense and preparation, are formal and fictitious: they are not true; for men pray in their own blind desires, and not in the will of God; and his ear is stopped to them: "but for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy," God hath said, "I will arise;" (Psalm xii. 5;) that is, the poor in spirit, the needy soul, those that want his assistance, who are ready to be overwhelmed, that feel a need, and cry aloud for a deliverer, and that have none on earth to help: none in heaven but Him, nor in the earth in comparison of Him: "He will deliver," said David, "the needy when he cries,and the poor, and him that has no helper." (Psalm lxxii. 12, 14.) He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in His sight. "This poor man," says he, "cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." (Psalm xxxiv. 6-8.) "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivers them," and then invites all to come and taste how good the Lord is; "yea, He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great." (Psalm cxv. 13.)
VII. But what is that to them that are not hungry? "They that be whole need not a physician:" (Matt. ix. 12;) the full have no need to sigh, nor the rich to cry for help. Those that are not sensible of their inward wants, that have not fears and terrors upon them, who feel no need of God's power to help them, nor of the light of his countenance to comfort them, what have such to do with prayer? their devotion is but at best, a serious mockery of the Almighty. They know not, they want not, they desire not what they pray for. They pray the will of God may be done, and do constantly their own: for though it be soon said, it is a most terrible thing to them. They ask for grace, and abuse that they have: they pray for the Spirit, but resist it in themselves, and scorn at it in others: they request mercies and goodness of God, and feel no real want of them. And in this inward insensibility, they are as unable to praise God for what they have, as to pray for what they have not. "They shall praise the Lord," says David, "that seek him: for he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry with good things." (Psalm xxii. 26; cvii. 8.) This also he reserves for the poor and needy, and those that fear God. Let the spiritually poor and the needy praise thy name: ye that fear the Lord, praise him; and ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him. Jacob was a plain man, of an upright heart: and they that areso, are his seed. And though (with him) they may be as poor as worms in their own eyes, yet they receive power to wrestle with God, and prevail as he did.
VIII. But without the preparation and consecration of this power, no man is fit to come before God; else it were matter of less holiness and reverence to worship God under the gospel, than it was in the times of the law, when all sacrifices were sprinkled before offered; the people consecrated that offered them, before they presented themselves before the Lord. (Numb. viii., xix.; 2 Chron. xxix. 36; xxx. 16, 17.) If the touching of a dead or unclean beast then made people unfit for temple or sacrifice, yea, society with the clean, till first sprinkled and sanctified, how can we think so meanly of the worship that is instituted by Christ in gospel times, as that it should admit of unprepared and unsanctified offerings? Or, allow that those, who either in thoughts, words, or deeds, do daily touch that which is morally unclean, can, without coming to the blood of Jesus, that sprinkles the conscience from dead works, acceptably worship the pure God: it is a downright contradiction to good sense: the unclean cannot acceptably worship that which is holy; the impure that which is perfect. There is a holy intercourse and communion betwixt Christ and his followers; but none at all betwixt Christ and Belial; between him and those that disobey his commandments, and live not the life of his blessed cross and self-denial. (2 Cor. vi. 15, 16.)
IX. But as sin, so formality cannot worship God; no, though the manner were of his own ordination. Which made the prophet, personating one in a great strait, cry out, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousandsof rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed, thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah, vi. 6-8.) The royal prophet, sensible of this, calls thus also upon God; "O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." (Psalm li. 15-17.) He did not dare open his own lips, he knew that could not praise God; and why? "for thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it:" if my formal offerings would serve, thou shouldst not want them; thou delightest not in burnt-offerings. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise:" and why? because this is God's work, the effect of his power; and his own works praise him. To the same purpose doth God himself speak by the mouth of Isaiah, in opposition to the formalities and lip-worship of the degenerate Jews: "Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool, where is the house that ye build to me? and where is the place of my rest? For all these things hath my hand made. But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." (Isaiah, lxvi. 1, 2.) O behold the true worshipper! one of God's preparing, circumcised in heart and ear, that resists not the Holy Spirit, as those lofty professing Jews did. Was this so then, even in the time of the law, which was the dispensation of external and shadowy performances: and can we now expect acceptance without the preparation of the Spirit of the Lord in these gospel times, which are the proper times for the effusion of the Spirit? By no means: God is what he was; and none else are his true worshippers, but such as worship him in his own spirit: these he tenders as the apple of his eye; the rest do but mock him, andhe despises them. Hear what follows to that people, for it is the state and portion of Christendom at this day; "He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations." (Isaiah, lxvi. 3.) Let none say, we offer not these kinds of oblations, for that is not the matter; God was not offended with the offerings, but offerers. These were the legal forms of sacrifice by God appointed; but they not presenting them in that frame of spirit, and under that right disposition of soul that was required, God declares his abhorrence, and that with great aggravation; and elsewhere, by the same prophet, forbids them to bring any more vain oblations before him; "incense," saith God, "is an abomination to me: your sabbaths and calling of assemblies I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." And "when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; when you make many prayers, I will not hear you." (Isaiah, i. 13-18.) A most terrible renunciation of their worship; and why? Because their hearts were polluted; they loved not the Lord with their whole hearts, but broke his law, and rebelled against his Spirit, and did not that which was right in his sight. The cause is plain, by the amendment He requires; "Wash ye," says the Lord, "make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes: cease to do evil, learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." Upon these terms, and nothing short, He bids them come to Him, and tells them, that "though their sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; and though they be as crimson, they shall be white as wool."
So true is that notable passage of the Psalmist, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul: I cried to him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But verily God hath heard me: he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me." (Psalm lxvi. 16, 20.)
X. Much of this kind might be cited, to show the displeasure of God against even his own forms of worship, when performed without his own Spirit, and that necessary preparation of the heart in man, that nothing else can work or give: which above all other penmen of sacred writ, is most frequently and emphatically recommended to us by the example of the Psalmist, who ever and anon calling to mind his own great slips, and the cause of them, and the way by which he came to be accepted of God, and to obtain strength and comfort from him, reminds himself to wait upon God. "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day long." (Psalm xxv. 5.) His soul looked to God for salvation, to be delivered from the snares and evils of the world. This shows an inward exercise, and a spiritual attendance, that stood not in external forms, but in inward divine aid.
And truly, David had great encouragement so to do; the goodness of God invited him to it and strengthened him in it. For says he, "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock." (Psalm xl. 1, 2.) That is, the Lord appeared inwardly to console David's soul, that waited for his help, and to deliver it from the temptations and afflictions that were ready to overwhelm it, and gave him security and peace. Therefore, he says, "The Lordhath established my goings;" that is, fixed his mind in righteousness. Before, every step he took bemired him, and he was scarcely able to go without falling: temptation on all hands; but he waited patiently upon God: his mind retired, watchful, and intent to his law and Spirit; and he felt the Lord to incline to him. His needy and sensible cry entered heaven, and prevailed; then came deliverance and rescue to David, in God's time, not David's strength to go through his exercises, and surmount all his troubles. For which he tells us, a new song was put into his mouth, even praises to his God. (Psalm xl. 3.) But it was of God's making and putting, and not his own.
Another time, we have him crying thus: "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?" This goes beyond formality, and can be tied to no lesson. But we may by this see, that true worship is an inward work; that the soul must be touched and raised in its heavenly desires by the heavenly Spirit, and that the true worship is in God's presence. When shall I come and appear? Not in the temple, nor with outward sacrifices, but before God in his presence. So that souls of true worshippers see God, make their appearance before him; and this they wait, they pant, they thirst for. O how is the greater part of Christendom degenerated from David's example! No wonder therefore that this good man tells us, "Truly my soul waiteth upon God;" and that he gives it in charge to his soul so to do; "O my soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." As if he had said, None else can prepare my heart, or supply my wants; so that my expectation is not from my own voluntary performance, or the bodily worship I can give him; they are of no value; they canneither help me, nor please him. But I wait upon him for strength and power to present myself so before him, as may be most pleasing to him; for he that prepares the sacrifice will certainly accept it. Wherefore in two verses he repeats it thrice; "I wait for the Lord—My soul doth wait—My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning." Yea, so intently, and with that unweariedness of soul, that he says in one place, "Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God." (Psalm lxix. 3.) He was not contented with so many prayers, such a set worship, or limited repetition: no; he leaves not till he finds the Lord, that is, the comforts of his presence: which brings the answer of love and peace to his soul. Nor was this his practice only, as a man more than ordinarily inspired; for he speaks of it as the way of worship, then amongst the true people of God, the spiritual Israel, and circumcision in heart, of that day: "Behold," says he, "as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy on us." (Psalm cxxiii. 2.) In another place, "Our soul waiteth for the Lord; he is our help and our shield." (Psalm xxxiii. 20.) "I will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy saints." (Psalm lii. 9.) It was in request with the truly godly in that day, and the way they came to enjoy God, and worship him acceptably. And from his own experience of the benefit of waiting upon God, and the saints' practice of those times, he recommends it to others: "Wait upon the Lord: be of good courage, and he will strengthen thy heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." (Psalm xxvii. 14.) That is, wait in faith and patience, and he will come to save thee. Again, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently upon him." That is, cast thyself upon him; be contented, and wait for him to help thee in thy wants; thou canst not think how nearhe is to help those that wait upon him: O try and have faith. Yet again, he bids us, "Wait upon the Lord, and keep his way." (Psalm xxxvii. 34.) Behold the reason why so few profit! they are out of his way; and such can never wait rightly upon him. Great reason had David for what he said, who had with so much comfort and advantage met the Lord in his blessed way.
XI. The prophet Isaiah tells us, that though the chastisements of the Lord were sore upon the people for their backslidings, yet in the way of his judgments, in the way of his rebukes and displeasure, they waited for him, and the desire of their soul, that is the great point, was to his name, and the remembrance of him. (Isaiah, xxvi. 8.) They were contented to be chid and chastised, for they had sinned; and the knowledge of him so was very desirable to them. But what! did he not come at last, and that in mercy too? Yes, he did, and they knew him when he came, a doctrine the brutish world knows not, "This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us." (Isaiah, xxv. 9.) O blessed enjoyment! O precious confidence! here is a waiting in faith which prevailed. All worship not in faith is fruitless to the worshipper, as well as displeasing to God: and this faith is the gift of God, and the nature of it is to purify the heart, and give such as truly believe victory over the world. Well, but they go on: "We have waited for him; we will be glad, and rejoice in his salvation." The prophet adds, "Blessed are all they that wait upon God:" and why? for "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;" they shall never faint, never be weary: (Isaiah, xxx. 18; xl. 31:) the encouragement is great. O hear him once more: "For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God! besides thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."(Isaiah, lxiv. 4.) Behold the inward life and joy of the righteous, the true worshippers; those whose spirits bowed to the appearance of God's Spirit in them, leaving and forsaking all it appeared against, and embracing whatever it led them to. In Jeremiah's time, the true worshippers also waited upon God: (Jer. xiv. 22:) and he assures us, that "The Lord is good to them that wait for them to the soul that seeketh him." (Lam. iii. 25.) Hence it is, that the prophet Hosea exhorts the church then to turn and wait upon God. "Therefore turn thou to thy God; keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually." (Hos. xii. 6.) And Micah is very zealous and resolute in this good exercise: "I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me." (Mic. vii. 7.) Thus did the children of the Spirit, that thirsted after an inward sense of him. The wicked cannot say so; nor they that pray, unless they wait. It is charged upon Israel in the wilderness, as the cause of their disobedience and ingratitude to God, that they waited not for his counsels. We may be sure it is our duty, and expected from us; for God requires it in Zephaniah: "Therefore wait upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I arise," &c. (Zeph. iii. 8.) O that all who profess the name of God, would wait so, and not offer to arise to worship without him. And they would feel his stirrings and arisings in them to help and prepare, and sanctify them. Christ expressly charged his disciples, "They should not stir from Jerusalem, but wait till they had received the promise of the Father, the baptism of the Holy Ghost," (Acts, i. 4, 8,) in order to their preparation for the preaching of the glorious gospel of Christ to the world. And though that were an extraordinary effusion for an extraordinary work, yet the degree does not change the kind; on the contrary, if so much waiting and preparation by the Spirit was requisite to fitthem to preach to man; some, at least, may be needful to fit us to speak to God.
XII. I will close this great Scripture doctrine of waiting, with that passage in John about the pool of Bethesda: "There is at Jerusalem, by the sheep-market, a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches; in these lay a great multitude of impotent folks, of blind, halt, and withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." (John, v. 2-4.) A most exact representation of what is intended by all that has been said upon the subject of waiting. For as there was then an outward and legal, so there is now a gospel and spiritual Jerusalem, the church of God; consisting of the faithful. The pool in that old Jerusalem, in some sort, represented that fountain, which is now set open in this new Jerusalem. That pool was for those that were under infirmities of body; this fountain for all that are impotent in soul. There was an angel then that moved the water, to render it beneficial; it is God's angel now, the great angel of his presence, that blesseth this fountain with success. They that then went in before, and did not watch the angel, and take advantage of his motion, found no benefit of their stepping in: those that now wait not the moving of God's angel, but by the devotion of their own forming and timing, rush before God, as the horse into the battle, and hope for success, are sure to miscarry in their expectation. Therefore, as then they waited with all patience and attention upon the angel's motion, that wanted and desired to be cured; so do the true worshippers of God now, that need and pray for his presence, which is the life of their souls, as the sun is to the plants of the field. They have often tried theunprofitableness of their own work, and are now come to the sabbath indeed. They dare not put up a device of their own, or offer an unsanctified request, much less obtrude bodily worship, where the soul is really insensible or unprepared by the Lord. In the light of Jesus they ever wait to be prepared, retired, and recluse from all thoughts that cause the least distraction and discomposure in the mind, till they see the angel move, and till their beloved please to awake: nor dare they call him before his time. And they fear to make a devotion in his absence; for they know it is not only unprofitable, but reprovable: "Who has required this at your hands?" "He that believes, makes not haste." (Isaiah, i. 12; xxviii. 16.) They that worship with their own, can only do as the Israelites, turn their earrings into a molten image, and be cursed for their pains. Nor fared they better, "that gathered sticks of old, and kindled a fire, and compassed themselves about with the sparks that they had kindled;" (Isaiah, l. 11) for God told them, "they should lie down in sorrow." It should not only be of no advantage, and do them no good, but incur a judgment from him: sorrow and anguish of soul should be their portion. Alas! flesh and blood would fain pray, though it cannot wait; and be a saint, though it cannot abide to do or suffer the will of God; with the tongue it blesses God, and with the tongue it curses men, made in his similitude. It calls Jesus LORD, but not by the Holy Ghost; and often names the name of Jesus, yea, bows the knee to it too; but departs not from iniquity: this is abominable to God.
XIII. In short, there are four things so necessary to worshipping God aright, and which put its performance beyond man's power, that there seems little more needed than the naming of them. The first is, the sanctification of the worshipper. Secondly, the consecration ofthe offering; which has been spoken to before somewhat largely. Thirdly, what to pray for; which no man knows that prays not by the aid of God's Spirit; and therefore without that Spirit no man can truly pray. This the apostle puts beyond dispute; "We know not," says he, "what we would pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities." (Rom. viii. 26.) Men unacquainted with the work and power of the Holy Spirit, are ignorant of the mind of God; and those, certainly, can never please him with their prayers. It is not enough to know we want; but we should learn whether it be not sent as a blessing, disappointments to the proud, losses to the covetous, and to the negligent stripes; to remove these, were to secure the destruction, not help the salvation of the soul.
The vile world knows nothing but carnally, after a fleshly manner and interpretation; and too many that would be thought enlightened are apt to call providences by wrong names, for instance, afflictions they style judgments, and trials, more precious than the beloved gold, they call miseries. On the other hand, they call the preferments of the world by the name of honour, and its wealth happiness; when for once that they are so, it is much to be feared they are sent of God a hundred times for judgments, at least trials, upon their possessors. Therefore, what to keep, what to reject, what to want, is a difficulty God only can resolve the soul. And since God knows better than we what we need, he can better tell us what to ask than we can him: which made Christ exhort his disciples to avoid long and repetitious prayers; (Matt. vi. 7, 8;) telling them that their heavenly Father knew what they needed before they asked: and therefore gave them a pattern to pray by; not as some fancy, to be a text for human liturgies, which of all services are most justly noted and taxed for length and repetition; butexpressly to reprove and avoid them. But if those wants that are the subject of prayer were once agreed upon, though that might be a weighty point, yet how to pray is of still greater moment than to pray; it is not the request, but the frame of the petitioner's spirit. The what may be proper, but the how defective. As I said, God needs not to be told of our wants by us, who must tell them to us; yet he will be told them from us, that both we may seek him, and he may come down to us. But when this is done, "To this man will I look, saith the Lord, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word:" (Isaiah, lxvi. 2.) to the sick heart, the wounded soul, the hungry and thirsty, the weary and heavy laden ones: such sincerely want a helper.
XIV. Nor is this sufficient to complete gospel-worship; the fourth requisite must be had, and that is faith; true faith, precious faith, the faith of God's chosen, that purifies their hearts, that overcomes the world, and is the victory of the saints. (1 Tim. i. 5; Acts, xv. 9; Tit. i. 1; 2 Pet. i. 1; 1 John, v. 4.) This is that which animates prayer and presses it home, like the importunate woman, that would not be denied; to whom Christ, seeming to admire, said, "O woman, great is thy faith!" (Matt. xv. 28.) This is of the highest moment on our part, to give our addresses success with God; and yet not in our power neither, for it is the gift of God: from him we must have it; and with one grain of it more work is done, more deliverance is wrought, and more goodness and mercy received, than by all the runnings, willings, and toilings of man, with his inventions and bodily exercises: which, duly weighed, will easily spell out the meaning, why so much worship should bring so little profit to the world, as we see it does, viz. true faith is lost. "They ask, and receive not; they seek, and find not: they knock, and it is not opened unto them:" (James, iv. 3:) the case is plain;their requests are not mixed with purifying faith, by which they should prevail, as good Jacob's were, when he wrestled with God and prevailed. And the truth is, the generality are yet in their sins, following hearts' lusts, and living in worldly pleasure, being strangers to this precious faith. It is the reason rendered by the deep author to the Hebrews, of the unprofitableness of the word preached to some in those days; "Not being," says he, "mixed with faith in them that heard it." Can the minister then preach without faith? No: and much less can any man pray to purpose without faith, especially when we are told, that "the just live by faith." For worship is the supreme act of man's life; and whatever is necessary to inferior acts of religion must not be wanting there.
XV. This may moderate the wonder in any, why Christ so often upbraided his disciples with, O ye of little faith! yet tells us, that one grain of it, though as little as that of mustard, one of the least of seeds, if true and right, is able to remove mountains. As if he had said, There is no temptation so powerful that it cannot overcome: wherefore those that are captivated by temptations, and remain unsupplied in their spiritual wants, have not this powerful faith: that is the true cause. So necessary was it of old, that Christ did not many mighty works where the people believed not; and though his power wrought wonders in other places, faith opened the way: so that it is hard to say, whether that power by faith, or faith by that power, wrought the cure. Let us call to mind what famous things a little clay and spittle, one touch of the hem of Christ's garment, and a few words out of his mouth, (John, ix. 6; Luke, viii. 47, 48,) did by the force of faith in the patients: "Believe ye that I am able to open your eyes?" (Matt. ix. 28;) "Yea, Lord," say the blind, and see. To the ruler, "only believe;" (Matt. ix. 23;) he did,and his dead daughter recovered life. Again, "If thou canst believe:" I do believe; says the father, help my unbelief: and the evil spirit was chased away, and the child recovered. He said to one, "Go, thy faith hath made thee whole;" (Mark, x. 52; Luke, vii. 48, 50;) and to another, "Thy faith hath saved thee; thy sins are forgiven thee." (Matt. xxi. 21, 22.) And to encourage his disciples to believe, that were admiring how soon his sentence was executed upon the fruitless fig-tree, he tells them, "Verily, if ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this, which is done to the fig-tree; but also, if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and cast into the sea, it shall be done: and all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive," (Matt. xviii. 19; Luke, xviii. 27.) This one passage convicts Christendom of gross infidelity; for she prays, and receives not.
XVI. But some may say, It is impossible to receive all that a man may ask. It is not impossible to receive all that a man, that so believes, can ask. (Mark, ix. 23.) The fruits of faith are not impossible to those that truly believe in the God that makes them possible. When Jesus said to the ruler, "If thou canst believe," he adds, "all things are possible to him that believeth." (Matt. xix. 26.) Well, but then some will say, It is impossible to have such faith: for this very faithless generation would excuse their want of faith, by making it impossible to have the faith they want. But Christ's answer to the infidelity of that age, will best confute the disbelief of this. "The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God." (Heb. xi. 6.) It will follow then, that it is not impossible with God to give that faith; though it is certain that without it it is impossible to please God: (1 Tim. i. 5; iii. 9:) for so the author to the Hebrews teaches. And if it be else impossible to pleaseGod, it must be so to pray to God without this precious faith.
XVII. But some may say, What is this faith that is so necessary to worship, and gives it such acceptance with God and returns that benefit to men? I say, It is a holy resignation to God, and confidence in him, testified by a religious obedience to his holy requirings, which gives sure evidence to the soul of the things not yet seen, and a general sense and taste of the substance of those things that are hoped for; that is, the glory which is to be revealed hereafter. As this faith is the gift of God, so it purifies the hearts of those that receive it. The apostle Paul is witness, that it will not dwell but in a pure conscience: he therefore in one place couples a pure heart and faith unfeigned together: in another, faith and a good conscience. James joins faith with righteousness, (James, ii.) and John with victory over the world; (1 John, v. 4;) "This," says be, "is the victory which overcomes the world, even our faith." (Rom. iv. 1, 2.)
XVIII. The heirs of this faith are the true children of Abraham, (John, xvi. 9, 10,) in that they walk in the steps of Abraham, according to the obedience of faith, which only entitles people to be the children of Abraham. This lives above the world, not only in its sin, but righteousness: to this no man comes, but through death to self by the cross of Jesus, and an entire dependence by him, upon God.