body can doe thus Oh! that J could do so too this is an evidence of a gratious heart that knowes the service of God to be a profitable service but on the contrary such as speak or think otherwise as formerly was said they think the service of God to be but a vaine service and this doth clearly evidence their hearts to be but carnall Thus for the proofe of the Doctrine now follow the Grounds of Reasons why carnal hearts doe Judge the service of God to be but vaine Reason 1 The first is because they make question whether there be any such Lord to serve or no for as Psal 14.1 The foole hath said in his heart there is no God so many such there be even amongst us who though they doe not verbally deny it yet they doe not really and cordially beleeve it for though this be one of those morall principles that are engraven upon the heart of man by nature which can never be utterly blotted out yet as others so this lies up as a dead principle in the Soule and stirs little till it be enlivened and then they making question whether there be such a God to serve or no no marvaile though they judge and condemne the service of that God to be in vain when the worshippers of Baal spent much time and paines in praying offring of sacrifice and cutting themselves with Knives and Lancers and continued thus doing all the day from morning till noone and from noone till night the Prophet that stood by mockt at them and derided them and the reason why he did so was because he knew that there was no such God as they seemed to serve none such to hear and help as they call'd and cried unto and that therefore what they did was in vaine Now that which Elijah the true servant of the true God did to those Priests servants and worshippers of Baal the servants of Baal of the world and sinne doe to the servants of the true God and that upon the selfe same ground though they be mistaken When these carnall hearted creatures and atheisticall spirits look upon the faithfull servants of God and see what time they spend and what paines they take in the service of the Lord calling and crying to the Lord by fervent Prayer cutting I meane rending and tearing their hearts by repentance and humiliation and that so long and constantly from the morning of their youth to the noon tide of their manhood and from the noone tide of their middle age till the evening of their life c. where carnall hearts behold these things I say they secreetly mock at the servants of God for doing thus as thinking in their hearts that their labour is but lost and in vaine because they make question whether there be any such God to serve or no which if there were not then it were in vaine indeed and though there be yet they questioning the truth of it these things must needs seeme in vaine to them Reason 2 Secondly They thinke the service of the Lord to be a vaine service because t is in vain to them they are never the better for any of Gods service which they doe and therefore they think that no body else is they get nothing at the table of the Lord nor at the throne of grace but come away as dead hearted with their corruptions as strong and they continuing as ignorant of the my steries of Christ and life and as unable to pray or doe God any service as formerly and therefore it being thus with them they thinke it is thus with every body else yea that there is no such good as men speake of to be gotten in any part of Gods service And the truth is they dare do no otherwise then give entertainement to these kind of thoughts being suggested to them by Satan hereby to prevent that condemning sentence which their own consciences would be ready to passe upon them for their unprofitablenesse in Gods service For should they admit of this for a truth that there were so much good to be got in duties and ordinances then would conscience be upon them and demand why they do then get no more good thereby and so make them call into question the truth and uprightnesse of their hearts and the manner of their performing duties and doing of God service Which to prevent as also to save themselves in the esteeme of others so farre as they can they cast this imputation upon the service of God it selfe Simil. As it is the practice of some servants that having wasted their wages by some riotous courses or secret haunts of expence to save their credits with their friends and such as would else be ready to tax them for ill husbandry in comming away without clothes on their backs or money in their purse they to save their credit and avoid blame unjustly accuse that service they dwelt in say that it is a stroying and wasting service much work and little wages that there is nothing to be gotten in it and the like thinking thereby to scape free from blame which t is true they may doe with those that know not the service but not with those that know how good and profitable a service it is Thus doe carnall hearts with the service of God and the duties of it thinking and saying it is but vaine to save themselves and whereas they cannot deny but that some others doe thrive and grow better and more then themselves they will not acknowledge this to be from the duties of Gods service but rather from some other thing as for instance when they see others grow in knowledge and parts whilst themselves remaine still grossely ignorant they will not acknowledge that they got this by attending upon the meanes and ordinances but rather impute it to good education to the strength of their memories and other abilities of their own when they see others have gotten power over their passions and corruptions whilst they remaine still hare-braind and furious upon every slight occasion that the wagging of a straw will make them off the hookes and make them little better then Bedlams they will not ascribe any such grace to be power received from Iesus Christ through any ordinance but rather to the goodnesse of their natures Oh they are of a more milde disposition then I am of my nature is hasty I cannot help it c. Nay rather then they will take shame to themselves they wil lay the blame upon God if for want of a true change in the heart they remaine without the spirit of God and the spirit of supplication that they are still children and babes cannot speak in Prayer further then what they have gotten from others then wil they excuse themselves and say that God doth not give the spirit of Prayer to every one alike not considering that promise of Gods giving his holy spirit to them that aske it meaning aright it is granted that he
doth not give it a like to all his people but yet he gives it so to all as it will be quickly discernable to them that have it even this way as many other wayes beside Reason 3 A third ground or reason of carnall peoples Judging thus of the service of God as if it were in vaine is because they see many of those very negligent and carelesse herein whom they much admire great ones and learned ones whom they Judge to be so wise that they cannot be thus mistaken And therefore when they see them carelesse in the duties of Gods service that either they use no prayer nor duties in their families or but seldome or if constantly yet but in a slighty formall way so for hearing the word and other duties c. They begin to thinke surely these things are not so needfull this same serving of God in this manner is not so profitable for if it were certainly such and such learned men and great Schollers that should know better what belong to it then so would not omit these things as they doe thus as the Apostle saith of them in Iude that they had some mens persons in admiration so some mens Iudgements and Practices are had in admiration and followed as unerring patterns and the judgements and examples of these men are more to them then all the precepts of God not considering that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.26 not many wise or great or noble are called Reason 4 The fourth Reason why carnall hearts Judge the service of God a vaine service is because the Lord doth many times deferre the paying of his servants wages for the service which they do for him till afterwards God doth not give them outward prosperity it may be at all and no marvell because as his Kingdome is not of this world so neither shall his servants live as in a Kingdome here nay it may be they attaine not to that inward joy and peace which they expect and shall bee sure of at last together with other parts of their reward which they are uncapable of whil'st they are here onely they must stay as those labourers for their penny Mat. 20. till night so they for their reward till death Now carnall people seeing nothing comming in having no Bird in their hand and wanting faith to believe and patience to waite give it over as labour lost and paines to no purpose that is taken in this service like as in their own doing service to the Devill because when they have sinned Psal 50. and God is so patient as not to reprove and punish them for the present they think hee never will so in the doing of good and serving the Lord they think because it is not rewarded for the present therefore it never will though yet the Lord hath bound himselfe by many promises to reward them which bonds are good debts and the Christians reversions which are better then the worldlings possessions Obj. But here comes an objection in the way which must be removed before we can proceed any further thus some may say if so many doe think the service of God to be in vaine as you say doe why then doe any that are thus naturall and carnall keep Gods service or doe him any work at all you will grant that many which are naturall and carnall yet doe much of Gods work pray preach heare c. And if they thought that all which they did were in vaine surely they would not doe as they do to lose labour Answ I answer there are divers grounds and reasons of their doing God some work and service though yet in their hearts they think it to be in vaine I will instance in two the oneis that they are haled and forced hereunto and that they can do no lesse either the examples of others or a habit gotten by practice or powerfull ordinances making way and work for an inlightned conscience not quite benum'd they are hereby forced upon that service of God which of themselves they have no love unto Simil. As two men that are friends dwell together the one of them having much work to doe calls to the other to come and helpe happily he will not goe himself but sends in his man now this man goes to work not out of any love to him that he goes to work withall nor yet out of any hope to be the better for working with him for he is agreed with his own Master and so therefore looks upon all other work as in vaine onely yet he goes as sent by his own master and so works for the other and dare doe no lesse even so it is here God and conscience are two friends and God having work to doe Prayers to make Sermons to Preach and heare or afflictions to suffer c. conscience that being Gods friend sends in its man for many a man is more servant to his conscience then he is to God and he falls to this work yet looking upon it as in vaine and yet can doe no lesse then goe and work being sent and forced by the power of his conscience to which he is a Servant and not to God though yet hee doth his worke And there is many a man that if his own Master conscience would let him alone that he could be quiet would not do half so much of Gods work as now he doth But when he goes to bed like a beast or abroad in the morning without prayer conscience stuffes his Pillow with Pricks and doth so hale gaule him and disease him that he cannot be quiet but it doggs him and there it baites him thou hast not beene at prayer how dar'st thou make such adventures as thou dost how can'st thou look to bee kept or blest without seeking God c. Hereupon he falls to work and then conscience is quiet and giving him a little cursed peace he is quiet too and this wages he hath from his conscience for the work and duties which he doth but as for any reward from God he hath no ground to looke for any and yet doth what he doth upon this ground I grant the best of Gods servants are bound to hearken to the voyce of conscience but wicked men are more driven by the lash and accusation of conscience then drawn to duty by the light thereof The other ground of this their doing God some work though yet in their hearts they think that service of God to be in vaine is this They do it to make sure uncertainties for though for their own parts they be setled in the thoughts and resolutions of these things and think and say as the Scripture saies of them that there is no God or that his service is in vaine c. Yet either by some powerfull Sermon or upon the generall acknowledgement of the contrary by others or happily upon the beholding of some of Gods people and their carriage in sicknesse and at the approaches of death how comfortably they
that hee hath found a better service then the Lord's Hos 2.5 and that it is better to serve sinne the world and the Devill then to serve God and doth as if he should say well friends heare me and know my judgement Time was when I was a slave to my lust and the world and had no heart to any of the duties of God's service I never cared for prayer the word nor any such thing and so I spent my twenty or thirty first yeares And afterward I know not how going to such a place where there was a Sermon I could not choose but goe in and in hearing my conscience being much stird I was brought to take another course and then I gave my selfe to pray heare read and the like and to professe religion and thus I have held thus many years So that I have tryed both masters and tryed both services and now I proclaime to all the world that I judge the service of sin and of the Devill to be better then the Lord's service for I thinke this to be but a vaine service and therefore I leave it and turne as I hope to mend my selfe Now must not the Lord needs take this very ill at the hands of such as shall thus disparage his service in this manner Vse 2. Of reproofe The second use is for reproofe First to such as not onely think thus that the service of God iâ— in vaine that a man is never the better for it but judge it so evill and conceive a man is much the worse as those in Ioshua to whom it seemed evill to serve the Lord so some think Iosh 24.15 that such as give themselves to pray and mourne for their sins that are zealous for God and forward in the profession of religion are the worse worse in their health worse in their estates worse in their wits and the like These are a degree above the ordinary sort of wicked people and shal fare thereafter of which see Iude 15. for God shall come one day to execute judgement upon ungodly men not onely for all their ungodly deeds but for all their hard speeches also which they have spoken against him Secondly It is of Reproof to such as are guilty of this sinne in the Text. And of this sort are many and multitudes even of those that in a formall manner doe performe many services that the Lord requires that doe hear pray and professe and yet in their hearts have but meane and low thoughts of those duties of Gods service and looke upon the labour and paines taken in it as lost and in vaine Let these know that they are guilty of a sinne which the Devill himselfe was free from He said Iob. 1.9 that Iob did not serve God for nought yet these thinke the service of God to be vaine and fruitlesse but howsoever it is a desperate signe of a carnall heart and a black brand set upon the wicked by the hand of the spirit of God whereby all the world may know them to be wicked where-ever they find it And they themselves may know themselves so to be much more let them be otherwise never so faire and formall yet if they finde this in themselves it may be conviction enough unto them that their hearts are carnall and their conditions desperate If any body should goe and raise a report upon you that are Masters and give great wages that you gave your servants no wages would you take it well at their hands Yet thus doe you report of Gods service at least by your practice by your omitting of that which God commands and by your committing of that which God forbids you proclaime the service of God to be nothing worth But suppose one should aske you how you can tel that it is in vaine to serve God you never tryed to purpose what it was to serve him in sincerity If a man should go and report as before that you made your servants work for nothing you would say how can you tell that seeing you never tryed my service so may I say to such as complaine of the service of God to be a vaine service how can you tel it is so seeing you never made tryall of it upon your own experience and therefore you are guilty of speaking evill of the things which you understand not 2 Pet. 2.12 Thirdly it is of use by way of inference to the people of God For if it be a fault in carnall people much more in such as are spirituall and yet many of these are much to blame even about this very thing having strange thoughts about the vanity of Gods service that upon grounds both from themselves and others 1. From themselves and they are two The one is the non-apprehension of any good gotten by that service that they ever did for God The other is that indiscernable difference in themselves betweene serving and not serving of God performing and omitting the duties of Gods service For the better setling of the people of God in his wayes and service these grounds of their mistakings must be removed and their objections answered or else it is not the bare chiding of them or laying of blame upon them that will pacifie the Soul or satisfie doubts and scruples And therefore I shall endeavour to remove these lets and to answer these objections Obj. 1 First then the soul saith what should I do serving of God 2 King 6.33 or waiting upon the Lord any longer I have spent a great deale of time and taken a great deal of paines that way but I doe not see that I am the better for any thing that I have done as these people here though they had offered many sacrifices yet afterward began to look upon them as cast away We have offered many cattel and creatures in sacrifice say they but wee had better have sold them and laid out the money some other way for our comfortable subsistence So saith many a Soule what shall I doe I have prayed and mourned but nothing the better my Prayers are not let into heaven but shut out my almes are not had in remembrance before God but forgotten my teares are spilt and not bottled up my wants are not supplyed my desires are not answered my corruptions are not mortified I have taken much paines in attending upon the ordinances of God but have got little or no good by them And not only ordinary but extraordinary means have I used I have joyned fasting to my prayers and yet all will doe nothing I was amongst the people of God such a day and such a day in the duties of humiliation but alas I was never the better my heart was as hard at night as it was in the morning so that I had better have been about my calling or the world for there I might have done or got some good for the body but here I got no good either for body or soule there I might
and and all on the sudden the soule is ready to cast away that confidence as nothing worth Oh but saith the Apostle hold your hand and be well advised what you doe be not so prodigall to cast away that in a pang or pittish moode which you were so long a getting and cost you so deare Prove and try your confidence if you will nay 't is needfull you should doe so but cast it not away Or if Satan wring your hold out of your hand and your confidence out of your heart by the strength of any violent temptation then indeed you are to be pittyed and your condition with much Christian compassion to be laid to heart But for you to stand in your owne light and to throw away such a stay to your soules by a willfull refusall of that mercy and denyall of that grace which the Lord hath wrought in you and given you some experience of and that out of the pride of your hearts because you cannot finde a ground of your holding fast of a confidence in your selves but must live upon free grace or out of discontentednesse of spirit that because you cannot affirme that full assurance of heaven and Gods love that you would have therefore you will have none at all because you may not carve your selves and have whole loaves therefore you will scorne crummes and cast away pieces If thus you doe in stead of pitty you shal deserve blame And as little as this confidence waiting upon God seemes worth which you slight and are casting away as worth nothing yet beleeve me t is not in vaine to hold fast upon a promise something will come at last though all seeme but lost for the present And therefore cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of Reward Lastly Caution to all in general it is usefull for all in generall to warne every one to take heed of making voyd and vayne the service of God to himselfe We have seene and heard the evill of this sinne of accusing the service of God for a vaine service and how much wrong they doe the Lord and themselves that cast such an aspersion and unjust imputation upon the service of God But now if that should become really so to us which is not so in it selfe nor to others and that whilst we blame others for saying it is in vaine we should be those that should make it vaine to our selves this would prove hard and sad in conclusion How will this make up the mouths of carnall loose libertines when they come at the judgement seat when those that would never spend time nor take paynes in the service of God shall fare speed as wel as they that spent and took much time therein when those that would not be brought to make any shew of goodnesse or take up the practice of any duties at all shall fare aswell as those that had a faire forme of Godlinesse and were very abundant in holy duties When they that had no prayer in their families so much as once in the weeke or month or yeare shall speed as well and alike with those that had prayer twice a day in a word when those that take their fill in the pleasures of sin that cast off the feare of the almighty Joh. 21.14 saying depart from us for we desire not the Knowledge of thy wayes That were servants to their lusts and not to God but run on in all excesse of riot in sinning with high hands and stiffenecks shal see them thrust out from God that wore his livery call'd him master and did much work in his service Oh how wide will it open their mouthes And if it were possible to laugh in Hell how would it make them laugh and triumph why certainely it will be thus with very many to whom the service of God shall be but a vaine service and they shall lose all the time and paynes that they have spent taken therein see Mat. 7 chap. in the 22 and 23 verses and Luke 13.26 Where you shall finde that many who have beene in Christs company and stood in Christs roome and done Christs worke shall yet be disclaimed by him and excluded from him at the last day And therfore what need is there that we looke well to it that though this service be not vaine in it selfe yet that it prove not vaine to us Which that it may not do Directions that the service of God may not be in vaine I shall desire to lay downe some directions in way of prevention which being followed will undoubtedly make our worke and labour in the service of the Lord profitable unto us but without which could we doe never so much and that in shew never so well yet should we be accounted but evill servants and this is all we shall have at Gods hand at last Isa 50.11 to lye downe in sorow Direction 1 The first thing that a soule must doe that would not have the service of the Lord prove in vaine to him is To get into Covenant with God and to be at agreement with him for whom we do work I doe not meane to Covenant for wages and what thou shalt have for thy work as if otherwise thou wer 't in danger to have nothing for there is no feare of that but onely Covenant with him to be his servant to be one whom he may please to owne and looke upon as one that doth especially belong unto him This is to be in inward Covenant with God for you are to know that there is a secret league and Covenant which is made and passeth between God and the soule at its first conversion In which the Lord for his part makes tender and promise of free grace and mercy to the poore soul seeing it selfe lost and undone And the soul for its part being glad of God and mercy upon such faire termes as he propounds it upon accepts thereof and so the Covenant is struck the soule is willing to become the Lords and to give up it selfe to him and his service wholly and freely And the Lord for his part is willing to accept of that soul and of such service as it is and shall be able to doe for him to assist him in his undertakings to overlooke his fayling and to reward his endeavours And so for ever after this the Lord lookes upon this soule as a servant of his and as set on worke by him and so intends the rewarding of him as his servant which before he doth not but saith as Esay 1.12 who hath required these things at your hands I doe not deny but that I doe require them but not of you and I will give a reward for the doing of them but not to you So in the 50 Psal 16 verse unto the wicked God saith what hast thou to doe to declare my statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth where had you any commission to