to be paid in a way of ingenuous Gratitude But the Service of God this ever comprizes all our Duty in it It is the same that the Wise man refers unto in Eccl. 12. 13. Fear God and keep His commandmens for this is the whole duty of man. There are diverse comprehensive and synonymous Terms by which our Duty to God is expressed in the Scripture of Truth Our Duty is called A Serving of God as it refers to the Acts of our lives in which but it s also called A Fearing of God and A Loving of God as it refers to the Frames of our hearts with which we are to do it It is called A Knowing of God as it refers to the principle of it it is likewise a Living to Him and Walking with Him on the same accounts that it is a Serving of Him. The Service of God notes two things which are to accompany our whole Duty to him It notes first the Homage therein done to our God. The Service of God is His Worship Hâ—s natural Worship and His appointed Worship Hence the Septuagint so translate our Text I and my house will worship the Lord. We serve God when we render to him his Natural Worship So t is intimated in Deut. 10. 12. Fear the Lord thy God walk in His waies love him serve the Lord thy God with all thy Heart When we hope in God when we call on God when we cleave to God then we serve Him. And we serve God when we render to Him his appointed Worship This was intended in Exod. 8. 1. Let my people go that they may serve me We serve Him when we observe the Ordinances of God when we adore him according to the Rules of His Word in His House and wait upon him in the use of his blessed and sacred Institutions It Secondly notes the Honour therein brought to our God. Service is perform'd to God when Glory is procur'd for Him. His Essential Glory we can by no means advance we may His declarative and therein we serve the Lord. T is a passage in Isa. 43. 10. Ye are my witnesses saith the Lord and my servant Our Testimonies to God's Excellencies are the things by which we serve Him. We serve God when we acknowledge Him as our Best Good and our last End and our Omnipresent Iudge We serve him when we think and speak well of him our selves and obtain many others to do so too A Witness for God is a Service to him SECT IV. THis being thus explained I pass on to a Second Proposition PROP. II. Every man should engage HIMSELF in the Service of the Almighty God. The purpose and study of every man should be this I will serve the Lord. We should all be able truly to say of God as in Act. 27. 23. His I am and Him I serve A Servant of God this was the Title not of Ioshua alone but of other Worthies too when Abraham is mentioned it is Abraham the Servant of the Lord. When Moses is mentioned it is Moses the Servant of the Lord. When God speaks of Iob he says Iob my Servant Thus was Ionah thus was Eliâ—jah thus was Zerubbabel also styled And it is a style which Wee too should be ambitious of If we would not be miserable for ever we must be the mystical the Spiritual seed of Israel but such are so saluted in 1 Chron. 16. 13. O ye seed of Israel his Servant As our Fathers Friend so our Fathers Lord we must not forsake We must all be the Servants of God as our Father before us was And this especially for the three ensuing causes REASON I. We are to serve God because God hath Madâ— us The Argument with which Paul perswaded Philemâ—n to receive a Run-away Servant of his own was that in Phil. 1. 19. Thou owest unto me even thine own self By that Argument should each one of us be perswaded to become a Dutiful Servant of the Lord We owe unto him even our own selves Man 〈◊〉 most fit thing that thy Maker should be thy Master There are two Questions which I hope every Child within these Walls can give some right Answer to The Answer to them will render it unquestionable That you and I are to Serve God for ever One Question is By whom were you made We have an Answer to this in Psal. â—00 3. Know ye that the Lord he is God and it is He that has made us and not we our selves Thus 〈◊〉 the Psalmist once argue O come let us worship before the Lord our maker Why If he be our Maker He is to be the Object of our Service And this the rather because of another Question which is For What were you made We have an Answer to this in Isa. 43. 21. This people have I formed for my Self they shall shew forth my praise When we praise God we serve God. Why This is the very business which we were sent into the world upon We had never appeared in the Rank of Actual Beings if God had not propounded some Service to be done unto Himself by creatures of our shape and mould We are Created by God and Endowed by him What could it be for but this That God may have some service from us T is said in Act 17. 28. In him we live and move and have our being Most absurd shall we be if it be not for Him too REASON II. We are to serve God because Christ has Bought us Indeed the Arminian universal Redemption we reject with a just abhorrence The Satisfaction of our Lord Redeemer was not Intended by Him for the Redemption of all mankind nor was it Intended any further than his Intercession is which reaches only to the Elect of God. The Virtue and Success of our Lords death depends not wholly on something to be done by men which God is not the Doer of otherwise men would themselves be the Principals in procuring their own Salvation But one scope of our Lord's Death was even to purchase for us that Grace that Faith that Free-Will which may qualifie us to enjoy the Virtue and Success of it Certainly Peter was more beholden unto the Merit of Christ for his Redemption than Iudas was for his Yet the Purchase of Christ wonderfully binds us all to the Service of God. For First the Redemption of Christ has made our Serving of God a possible thing Had it not been for this poor fallen undone man had never been in a Capacity to serve the Lord. We had never heard this Call from heaven O Repent Return Reform this voice from on high O set your selves now to the serving of that God whom you have been sinning against it had never sounded in our Ears if the Lord Jesus had not made Himself a Sacrifice We must have continued the Slaves of the devil for ever if the Stings of the Dragon had not fastned on the Lord. The Lord Jesus has bought us all into such a Condition that the Proffers and
and they do his Commandments An Angel said once to Iohn the Apostle I am thy Fellow-Servant That Angel is yet alive he makes the motion to every one of us Wilt thou be my Fellow-Servant before the Lord Yea the SON of GOD Himself gives you this Call. Of Him saith our God in Isa 42. 1. Behold my Servant Shall God say thus of Christ and shall He not say it of thee O do not scorn to be the Servant of that GOD who has for a Servant Him whom all the Third Heaven is with endless Raptures adoring of Consider yet again What your Service is while you serve the Almighty God. No Service was ever so delightsome as this t is All peace and perfect peace No Service was ever fo profitable it brings in those things The gain whereof is better than fine Gold you shall be sure to experiment the Truth of that Maxim God is a Rewarder No Service was ever so Honourable It prefers us to be Favourites of a greater Monarch than he that had an hundred and seven and Twenty Provinces under him A Service do we count it No t is a Freedom We are Lords when we are The Lord's Then as he said sumus Domini is true not only in Genitivo singulari but in Nominativo plurali It is a Freedom Yea t is a Kingdom It gives us to sing Lord Thou hast made us Kings and Priests It has been well said Deo servire est regnare We have Crowns on our heads all the while we are in the Service of God but how massy how weighty will they be grown when our Pay-day comes Every Servant of God may now say as in 2. Tim. 4. 8. Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness But Then Then we shall ascend those glittering and glorious Thrones which Eye hath not seen on them we shall be ever with the Lord. Consider finally and let me warn you faithfully If you do not Resolve to serve God it had been good for you that you never had been born All that forsake the Service of God are employ'd in another Service which every soul may tremble at the Description of 't is a Service to those hellish Tigres in Eph. 22. The course of this world the prince of the power of the air and the lust of the flesh You cast off the Service of One but you incurr a Bondage to three let Horror sieze thee O man and let thy ears tingle at the intimations of it The World the Flesh the Devil are thy Lords if God have not Service from thee All the Galleys in the Mediterranean Sea cannot shew a more dismal Vassalage And what will the Issue of that Service be Truly The Wages is Death God will not save you if you do not serve Him. You that now grind for the Philiâ—â—ines of Hell every day must one day be requited with only Coals and Wounds for all your fatal Drâ—dgeries and though you then roar Lord pitty me He will reply with a furious Rebuke Depart I know you not Let me then address you in the Words of Ioshua Choose now whom you will Serve Come speak up come to some Resolution Say Will you serve the cursed and cruel Enemies of your Souls or will you serve the GOD Whom it is good for you to draw near unto O make this Return Lord we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God. SECT VII YOu have been told Why now here How you are to become The Servants of God. There are diverse Counsils to be given hereabout The First COUNSIL Renounce and Forsake the Service of those Idols which you have heretofore been enslaved unto We must as Ioshua here assures us we must put away other gods if we we would serve the Lord. Our Lord has admonished us in Matth. 6. 24. Ye cannot â—erve God and Mammon Even so Ye cannot serve God and Satan And again Ye cannot serve God and Sin. The Holy God may say of you as of them long since Ye have served strange gods But O do you now say to Him as they in Isal. 21. 13. O Lord other lords besides thee have had dominion over us but we will noâ— be for Thee alone Become weary of your Captivity under those Task-masters which have hither to been torturing your souls There are two sorts of Tyrants that every unregenerate man is a Servant unto his Tempers and his Tempters Let the Tempers within us no more cause us to toil and run and sweat for the gratifying of them Let the Tempters without us no more hurry us too fro that their Humours may be pleased Souls I give you no bad counsil when I propound this and I do propound it O Run away from your old masters Come away poor souls come away from the land of your Captivity Look upon the grim face of the Patroons undâ—r which you groan say to them all Farewel you malicious you bloudy you for did Masters Farewel We hope you shall never have any of our Service more O look upon the Calamities of your Service under your invisible Adversaries and say T is enough Say The time past may suffice Thus Take ye the Wings of a Dove and flee away The Second Counsil Bind your selves unto the Service of God by a Covenant never to be Forgotten It was the good Counsil of Hezâ—kâ—ah in 2. Chron. 30. 8. Yeild yourselves unto the Lord. In the Hebrew Original t is Give the Hand unto the Lord. The giving of the Hand was a Rite in the making of a Covenant Men and Brethren Look Zionâ—ards I beseech you and say now I will join my self to the Lord in a perpetual COVENANT Think on the Service which God is to have of you and be able then to declare as in Psal. 119. 110. I have sworn it and I will perform it Make a solemn Covenant that you will be the Lord's Yea a Written a Formal a subscribed Covenant for it has by some been advised and practised Written and Formal Indentures are made between man and man Why should not there be so between God and man when a Service is to be Entred into Especially since t is said in â—sai 44. 5. A man shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord In a Sacred Covenant say I Renounce all the Vanities and Idols of this World. I Engage that I will cleave unto the Lord Iehovah as my Best Good and my Last End promising to live upon Him and unto Him hoping are long to live with Him for ever I Engage That I will cleave unto the Lord Iesus as my Prophet and my Priest and my King Promising to acknowledge Him as the Author of all my Salvation I Engage That I will ever study what is my Duty in these things and wherein I find my self to fall short I will ever count it my Grief my Shame and for pardon betake my self to the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant All this I Engage humbly imploring the Grace
Times we should see ouâ— young ones well informed in Give them at this day to be sensible who is the Supreme Head and King of the Church and what Orders He has appointed to be observed there Secondly There are ferious Questions with which we are to Instruct our Families And there are peculiarly Two Things which we are to question our young ones about Some Questions we are to put unto them First Which Concern their Souls And here yet further to particularize We are to try them with Questions about their Vnderstanding Our Lord Jesus asked his Disciples in Matth. 13. 51. Have ye understood all these things Thus are we to ask our young people Do you understand the great Mystery of Godlinessâ— O keep up the great Ordinance of Catechising in your houses Before your little Folks have left off living upon Milk let them be so well versed in their Milk for Babes that they may readily answer any Question there The Echoes of this Exercise are a most refreshing Melody in the ears of God himself Ask we our young ones What they think of God and of Christ and of Themselves and let them be able to refound the Words of Truth We are to search them also with Questions about their Experience As our Lord asked His Family in Joh. 16. 31. Do ye now believe So should we ask our young people Have you Experieneed a work of Regeneration in your souls Ask them Have you ever yet carried a labouring and heavy-laden soul unto the Lord Iesus Christ It was the Advice of Wisdom Know the state of thy Flocks Thus we should endeavour to Know the state of the Souls which we are to be concerned for to know whether they are in a Natural or a Renewed state Once more We are to help them with Questions about their Temptations It was a Question once given to some in Luc. 24. 38. Why do Thoughts arise in your hearts Even so we should Enquire of our young people What Thoughts are you most troubled with Enquire what Fears enquire what Snares they are most endangered by Be alwaies jealous lest as the serpent beguiled Eve so their minds be corrupted Moreover Some Questions we are to put upon them Secondly which concern their Lives It was once an Interrogatory which some were put unto in Luc. 23. 17. What manner of communications have ye Thus we are to Examine our young people about the Words and the Works that fill their Lives There are especially three things which they should be Examined about their Prayer their Time and their Company Ask them whether they live without Prayer or no Whether in Prayer they secretly and sincerely pour out their souls before the Lord Ask them How they spend their Time How much Idle Time and how much useful Time they allow unto themselves And ask them What their Company is Whom they sit withal Whether vain Persons and Fools or the Saints which are the excellent and all those that fear God Our Question will prove their Safeguard if it be well administred Thirdly There are faithful Reproofs with which we are to Instruct our Families T is said in Prov. 6. 33. The Reproofs of Instruction are the way of life When we give Instruction we shall have occasion to give Reproof too often with it There is no Family that has not Miscarriages that are to be reproved in it Young people too commonly are wild people and without some Castigations they will rarely be kept in order To some of them smart Worâ—s to others of them smart Blowes will be too often due T is said in Prov. 13. 24. He that spareth his Rod hateth his sâ—n but he that loveth him chastens him betimes Frowns are due to all and Rods to some Transgressors in the Family But there are two Negative and two Positive Rules to be minded in Reproving of them The Negative Rules are these two First Reprove not Furiously It is said in Iam. 1. 20. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Remember Nothing will be so well done in a passion but what may be done better out of it If you are to chide yet chide not in a Fury Do not call vile Names much more do not swear do not curse do not Rage with a Tongue set on fire of hell If you are to smiâ—e yet smite not in a Fury Bloody wounding outragious Buffettings are to be avoided lest there be cause to say of you Cursed is their Anger for it is fierce and their Wrath for it is cruel Secondly Reprove not for ever T is said in Ps. 103. 9. God will not alwaies chide neither will He keep his anger for ever To be alwaies finding faults is the way never to be curing them A perpetual Warngling is a continual Dropping which there is no enduring of it prejudices the minds of them that feel it against all that shall be said unto them The Positive Rules are these Two. First Reprove Reasonably Let there be just Cause for it When you reprove it must be for a true cause As it was said of our Saviour in Isai. 11. 3. He shall not reprove after the hearing of His ears Thus we may not go by meer Hear-say when we reprove those that are under us And it must be for a great Cause T is said of the Spirit in Ioâ— 16. 8. He will reprove the world for SIN The sinful thing the thing for which the wrath of God comes the thing which the soul of the Lord hates this we are to reprove We must not throw away Reproofs upon Nothing or upon Every thing Secondly Reprove Scripturally T is said in 2. Tim. 3. 16. All Scripture is profitable for Reproof A Reproof with a Scripture comes with a more than ordinary Majesty and Authority When we Reprove those that are under us First make them read a Text which does Condemn what we would rebuke and then set it home with a very warm lively vigorous Application Fourthly There are solemn Charges with which we are to Instruct our Families It was the Character which the Lord gives of Abraham in Gen. 18. 19. I know him that he will command his children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. O that this might be said of every Householder here I know him that he will take all of his house one by one and Charge every one of them to keep the way of the Lord What saies the Apostle in iâ— Thes 2. 11. We charged every one of you as a father his children We should call aside our young people and lay upon them the Charge of David in 1. Chron. 28. 9. My son know thou the God of thy Father and Serve Him with a perfect Heart and a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all Hearts if thou seek Him He will be found of thee if thou forsake Him He will cast thee off for ever Charge them and this especially about four Things Lay upon them
thou hast proved my heart thou hast visited me thiu hast tried me To use a Similitude made Legitimate and Canonical by the Apostle himself in Heb. 4. 13. The Sacrificeing Knife of old never did penetrate so far into the Bowels of the Creatures it was imployed upon it never laid them so â—aked and open before the standers-by as the examining Eye of God makes a discovery of what is in our Souls and our wayes Secondly There are the Trials of Divine Dispensations which we must have Experience of God's Providences are our Probations by them we are tried what we are The things which befal us in the world fetch out of us those things which manifest what metal we are made of Particularly t is said in 2. Cor. 6. 3 7. We are Approved by things on the Right hand and on the Left. First The Merciful Dispensations of God are Trials of us these are Trials on the Right hand It is a sacred Proverb in Prov. 27. 21. As the Fining-pot for silver and the Furnace for Gold so is a man to his praise or so the mouth which praises any one is to try him As when a man is praised by his Neighbour so when a man is Blessed of his Maker he is then tried unto the utmost Honours from below do Indicare virum they soon Try show the man that is perfum'd therewith and the same is done by Mercâ—es from above Therein the Lord brings us as He did the Souldiers of Gideon to a River of Plenty and He saies as in Iudg. 7. 4. Now I will try them there The Favours of God as it were put us into a Crucible in a Furnace where it soon becomes apparent whether we fear him or no. They are so many Trials Whether we will hear God speaking to us in our prosperity or whether when we wax fat we shall kick against the Lord. Secondly The Afflictive Dispensations of God are likewise Tryals of us And these are Trials on the Left hand So much is intimated in 1. Pet. 1. 6 7. Ye are in heaviness thro' many Temptations that the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of gold which perisheth though it be tried with fire may be found unto praise All Afflictions are Tentations by them we are tried whether we have the Grace of God in us or no. T is Faith but not Faith alone which our Troubles here are the Trials of A Sick-bed is a Furnace a Reproach is a Furnace a Loss or a Goal is a Furnace in which t is tried whether we have the spirits not of Bastards but of Children in us Hence we read of A great Tryal of Affliction Afflicted persons may make that Confession in Ps. 66. 10 11 Thou O God hast proved us thou hast tried us as silver is tried thou hast laid Affliction upon our loins Hereby we are Try'd whether we will despise the Chastning of the Lord or whether we will faint when rebuked of Him. Proposition II. Upon the Trials of God good men come forth as gold There is that in Gold which good men may be compar'd unto We read in Deut. 1. 1. about the mountains of Dizahab that is the Golden mountains because Gold was probably dug from thence The Churches of God in the world are such Mountains of gold Every true Believer is a rich lump of Gold before the Lord. Of such persons t is said in Lam. 4. 2. They are the precious sons of Zion comparable to fine gold There are diverse properties in Gold which a good man will have a blessed Resemblance of I should offer you not Gold but Hay and stubble if I should read you here a Lecture of Metallogy or discourse to you all that I could Philosophize about this King of Metals Let me only touch on a few common Reflections As now Gold is a pure metal Hence we read near some scores of times in the sacred Scripture about pure Gold. It will not readily admit a Mixture or an Alloy with more imperfect Metals unless with Silver Especially the Dust-gold of Guinea Gold whereof Iob saith t is Dust of gold wonderful is the Purity thereof Thus a good man is a pure man He is one of those that are called in Matth. 5. 8. The pure in heart He is pure in his Ends pure in his principles pure in his practises pure from the dross of Lust and he is not so much Nominally as really A Puritan Again Gold is a Ductil Metal T is marvellously extensible when beaten into Leaves t were incredible to tell how far one Grain of Gold may be extended and continued So dense and compacted and united are the parts of it that an Ounce of it may be beaten I suppose into a Thousand Leaves Thus a good Man can be Drawn forth into large Expressions of goodness and vertue It was said by such an one in Psal. 11. 3. My goodness Extendeth He extends his Piety his Charity he extends his lnfluence far and near and he is a Diffusive good Once more Gold is a Beautiful metal 'T is called Aurum for that very cause ab Aura i. e. a Splendore T is a shining and glitt'ring thing and hence things that are very splendid are said to be covered with â—ellow Gold. For this reason an Hook of it once catch't 〈◊〉 by the Lust of the Eye Thus a good man has a transcendent Beauty in him To such an one t was said in Cant. 6. 4. Thou art Beautiful There is a Lustre on the Face and a Lustre in the Walk of such a man he has even the Splendor of A light in the world Furthermore Gold is a Durable Metal Tho' the Bible affirms that it is Corruptible and â—â—â—kerable and Perishing yet there is a mighty Strength to be ascribed unto it It will endure the hottest Fire with small or no Diminâ—â—â—on and Aqua-fortis it self will not eat into it â—â—ch an Enduring thing is a good man. His Character is that in Matth. 24. 13. He shall endure to the end No Fire no Water no Vexation shall consume his Devotion He is the Overcomer whom neither the Flattery nor the Fury neither the Frowning nor the Fawning of any Tempter can dissolve the Religion of Moreover Gold is a Ponderous Metal Even Lead it self in its weight is to Gold as far short as Sixty is of an Hundred if I mistake it not Such is the Quality such the Gravity of a good man. A godly man is a Weighty man. T is said in Prov. 12. 26. A righteous man is more excellent than his neighbour One such man will weigh down multitudes and myriads of other men His being a pondering man it soon makes him become ponderous man. His unconverted Neighbourhood may own of him Thou art worth ten thousand of us Finally Gold is a precious Metal It s precious for the Vse which t is of in Nature Rich Cordials and Medicines are to be extracted from it It s precious also for the Price which