choice and extraordinary blessings it will be the blackest ingratitude in such to neglect his worship or to put him off with a few Hypocritical devotions Is it commendable for a people to trifle in their worshipping of that God who has made his perfections Conspicuous in their safety Where is the Justice of it when persons are made eminent by their mercies it is but reasonable they should give God the glory of it by the most Cordial and lively devotions When Moses had recounted the great things which God had done for Israel at the Red Sea and in the Wilderness he said to them Deut. 10.12 And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul 2 Persons should make a return of their hearty devotions to their God for the great things he has done for them likewise in point of VVisdom That God might again appear for them in the times of their danger and distress It is no part of wisdom for a people to affront their God to provoke their glorious preserver or to Engage an Almighty power against them Therefore it is a madness in any after God has signally appeared for and delivered them to flight his worship to dissemble in their devotions and to mock with an infinite Majesty For this is the way to have the divine Providence as Conspicuous in their destruction as it was before eminent in their Salvation This will engage him against them as an Enemy who before appeared for them in the Relation of a Friend Therefore it is a piece of commendable Policy in a People to be sincere Adorers of their God especially after unusual and surprizing Deliverances that so he may continue to succour and save them in their Straits and Dangers he may still secure them from the Rage and Violence of their Designing Enemies that he may defend and protect them when subtle Heads and powerful Hands are attempting their Ruine that when Plots and base and barbarous Designs are framing against them he may suddenly blast and totally disappoint them Knowing this that as God has done great things for a People so he will continue to be friend and to bless them if they will be but Loyal and dutiful and sincere in their Adorations of him For says God 1 Sam. 2.30 Them that honour me I will honour i. e. Those who adore and worship me with a Religious Fear and with Devout Hearts according to my own Institutions I will honour them I will advance them to Dignity I will make them glorious and prosperous That therefore was good Advice of David to his Son Solomon 1 Chron. 28.9 And thou Solomon my Son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing a mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts If thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever USE 1. I shall apply this Truth by way of Reprehension and this condemns 1. Those who neglect to fear and serve God with all their hearts although God has done great things for them Many amongst us are justly chargeable with gross Ingratitude on this score God has been pleased to Plant the Gospel in its Purity among us and has now preserved it with us for many years in spite of all the Rage of Hell and Malice of Râ—me God has hitherto by a series of gracious Providences secured to us our Civil and Religious Liberties whenas our Enemies at home and abroad have been imploying all their Skill and their Cunning all their Power and Interest to wrest them from us They have been unwearied in their contriving Methods to Enslave and Ruine us But the success has not been answerable to their restless Endeavours and their matchless Diligence No the watchful Shepherd of our Israel has observed all their bloody and mischievous Designs and has been as careful to prevent and defeat them as they have been studious to hatch and contrive their Villanies How often has the Divine Providence interposed for us sheltred us from Threatning Storms when we were in danger and knew it not How many Eminent Deliverances has he wrought out for us when we saw no Design against us till it was render'd visible by the defeat Yet after all these Admirable displays of the Divine Mercy and Goodness how little is God served or sincerely worshipped amongst us How do Men trifle in their Duties and complement with their God by their External Devotions Men of all Perswasions pretend a great deal of Zeal for the Worship of God nothing more dear to them if you will believe what their Tongues avow yet when they come to engage in this Worship of which they seem so fond how much coldness and carelesness do they betray and discover Their hearts and affections do not keep them company in their Duties But where is the Equity of such a Carriage What! Has God signally owned us Has he been our glorious Protector Psal 126.2 Has he filled our Tongues with laughter and the Faces of our Enemies with shame and confusion And shall we slight his Worship Shall we offer him a dead Devotion without the heart This will be unreasonable not administring the least shadow for a defence Those words of Moses are applicable enough to such ungrateful Wretches Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus requite the Lord oh foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father which hath bought thee hath he not made thee and established thee Was it not he who delivered us from the Romish Yoke who rescued us from Popish Tyranny Has he not made us a prosperous and a flourishing Nation made us great and glorious in the Eyes of our Neighbours and Established the Reformed Religion amongst us And shall we dare to provoke such a God with our Formalities and Hypocrisies our fruitless and heartless Devotions Oh! be ashamed of an Ingratitude so black and inexcusable 2. This condemns also those who are so far from being encouraged to serve God from the consideration of the great things he has done for us that they murmur at and are discontented with their own mercies They are dissatisfied with God's gracious Providences They fret and storm and repine because God has delivered us Own they will not that God has done any great thing for us in the late happy Revolution The mercies which God has been pleased to hand to us by our King they account their misfortune and are ready to vote them oppression They are uneasie because they cannot be in Slavery Our safety is their sorrow and our liberty is their bondage They can see nothing of a gracious Providence in the King 's Settlement upon the Throne All those wonderful and signal Successes which God has granted him have not
A SERMON PREACHED In a Congregation in the City of EXON ON THE Thanksgiving-day Thursday April 16. 1696. By a Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Robert Osborne Bookseller near the Bear in Exon 1696. 1 Samuel 12.24 Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things he hath done for you IF we look back to the eighth Chapter of this first Book of Samuel we shall find that the Israelites were extreamly desirous of a King The Government which God had set up amongst them did not satisfie them They were fond ef being like to other Nations round about them They would have a King to Rule over them They were weary of that easie that gentle Government which God had Erected they would have one that should Rule with a more absolute sway and exercise a Power more Despotical amongst them But this was a most apparent affront to their God it was an ungrateful contempt of his Government Therefore says God to Samuel 1 Sam. 8.7 They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not Reign over them i. e. This their eager desire of a King was not so much a quarrel they had against Samuel as it was a daring affront to God himself who had placed them under that sort of Government by Judges In this chap. 12th verse 1. we have an account of Samuel's discourse to this People in which he tells them that he had granted their request had complied with their unreasonable demand and had appointed them a King Then he goes about to convince them of their Ingratitude to their God in their having been so impatiently importunate for a King He recounts to them how eminently God had appeared on their behalf How signally he had delivered them with what wonders of Providence he had favoured them how he had many times secured them from the hands of their cruel Enemies who sought their destruction Then in the close he very tartly upbraids them with their disingenuous carriage to their God in their peremptory request of a King verse 12. Ye said unto me nay but a King shall Reign over us when the Lord your God was your King Farther to convince them of their sin against their God and of the Divine displeasure against themselves for so insolent a piece of Ingratitude He calls for a Storm of Thunder and of Rain verse 17. Is it not Wheat-Harvest to day I will call to the Lord and he shall send Thunder and Rain that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of the Lord in asking you a King And immediately such a storm of Thunder and Rain was sent from Heaven which was somewhat unusual in those Countreys in time of Harvest as some assure us This Judgment somewhat awakened them hereupon they address Samuel to intercede with God for them verse 19. And all the people said unto Samuel pray for thy Servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not for we have added to all our sins this Evil to ask us a King Samuel tells them that he would become a Supplicant on their behalf For says he verse 23. God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you As if he had said I am sensible that it is my unquestionable duty to pray for you as I am a man an Israelite a Minister I am obliged to do this for you Nay so far was he from putting them off with a Denial that he would not only pray for them which was part of his Office but as a faithful Minister he would likewise instruct and advise them for their advantage and happiness he would discover to them what course they should take what methods they should pursue to become a peaceful a prosperous and a flourishing People Therefore he says I will teach you the good and the right way A way far beyond any thing of the best Humane Politicks whatever a Method for safety and settlement far surmounting any thing they could possibly contrive And this way he lays before them in the words of my Text viz. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things he hath done for you In which words you have these things considerable as 1. An Exhortation to a duty Fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart In which Exhortation you may again consider 1. The Matter exhorted to which is to fear the Lord and serve him in truth i. e. They were to worship him with a Worship of his own prescription and of Divine Institution 2. You have the Manner prescribed how this duty is to be performed with all the heart 2. You have the Encouraging Motive laid down to induce them to the more careful discharge of this prescribed duty and that in those words For consider how great things he hath done for you From the words I would present you with this Truth to be the subject of a short Discourse viz Doct. That the consideration of those great things which God has done for a People should be a powerful Argument to induce them to fear and serve him in truth and with all their hearts VVhat I have to say upon this subject I shall confine to these following Generals As 1. I shall briefly shew you what we are here to understand by fearing and serving of God 2. VVhat it may import to serve God in truth and with all the heart 3. Prove that the Consideration of the great things God has done for a people should be a powerful Argument to persuade them to serve God in Truth and with all the Heart 4. Shall make some practical improvement of it 1. I shall briefly shew you what we are here to understand by fearing and serving of God I shall not at present detain you with a discourse about the various significations of the word fear it will be sufficient for my present purpose to prove to you that this word many times in the Sacred Scriptures is of so ample a signification as to denote the whole worship of God Thus Deut. 10.12 And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God i. e. to adore and worship him in opposition to all Heathenish Idolatries and false-false-worship And thus Psal 34.9 Oh! fear the Lord ye his Saints i. e. Pay him all the respect the reverence and adoration which is his due Thus Deut 6.13 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his Name What we are here to understand by the fearing of God may be learnt from those words of our Saviour which are a comment upon this Text Matth. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Here our Lord explains the word fear by worship So that frequently in the sacred writings we meet with the word
their Virtue or eminent for some notable Exploits or some remarkable Atchievements Thus the Heathens advanced their Hero's into the number of their Gods and the Papists pay Divine Honours to their Cannonized Saints For nothing more common with these latter than to address their supplications to St. Francis and St. Dominick the Virgin Mary c. But such a Worship as this is false-worship because terminated upon a wrong Object and is a most apparent affront to the great God who will not have this honour given to another Isa 42.8 I am the Lord that is my Name and my glory will I not give to another To pay a Religious respect to any other than God is an express violation of the first command which peremptorily says Thou shalt have no other Gods before me The Worship of the Samaritans of old which was of this sort was therefore censured by our Saviour with an Ye worship ye know not what John 4.22 Samuel well knowing the temper of the Israelites how prone they were to relapse into Idolatries how ready to present their Devotions to the Heathen Deities does here advise them to serve God in truth with an utter rejection of all the Heathen Idoâ—s whatever He would have them to confine their Worship only to the true God to the glorious Jehovah in opposition to all false Gods and Gentile Deities For God is the only proper Object of Religious Worship therefore says our Saviour Matth. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Persons ought to worship him exclusively without admitting any into Partnership with him For he will not suffer a Rival in his Honour Psal 50.15 Call upon me not upon a Saint or an Angel in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee None have power to save as God therefore none should have such honour as he 2 Worship may be false as to the Medium of it God has declared in his sacred Word in what way and by what means he will be honoured and adored He knows what ways of Worship are most suitable to his own Nature and so what will be most acceptable to himself Therefore it is no way reasonable that in these matters every man should be left to his own wild fancy For we find from experience that when persons have taken upon them a liberty or licence rather to prescribe Modes of Worship they have fixed upon such trifling such ludicrous and sometimes barbarous Rites as nothing comport with so holy so merciful so awful a Being as God is so that God himself has all the reason to determine of those Modes by which he will be honoured and adored And he has positively prescribed the way in which he will have men to pay him Homage As our Worship must be confined to God as the solitary Object of it so the way of it must be limited by his sacred Will Men must not make their own Imaginations the Rule of Worship That is not currant Coin which has not Caesar's Image and Superscription upon it and that is not true and warrantable Worship which has not the stamp of a Divine Authority God has set us bounds in the Matter of his Worship to which we dare not make any additions and from which we are not allowed to make any defalcations Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add to the Word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that ye may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you A like passage you find Deut. 12.32 What thing soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish therefrom God will not allow any Men to make either additions to or substractions from his own Worship If Men substract from the Worship of God and wilfully neglect what he has prescribed they daringly affront his Soveraignty and quarrel at his Commands If they add to his Institutions and appoint more parts of Worship than he has done they arraign his Wisdom as if he had not contrived wisely enough for his own Honour as if he wanted wisdom for the Instituting of his own Worship It savours of an intolerable piece of Arrogancy for any Man to presume that he can prescribe to God or make any advantageous additions to his own Appointments Such an one forgets the narrowness of his own Intellectuals as well as the All-comprehensiveness of the Divine VVisdom He does but display his own folly who goes about to teach the Omniscient Deity what ought to be adopted into his VVorship But to conclude this God must not be worshipped according to the little Model of our fancies but according to his own Appointments Not according to our Inventions but his own Institutions not according to our Imaginations but according to the Line of his own Revelations not according to Men's extravagant suggestions but his own wise prescriptions VVhoever offers to God a VVorship which he has not authorized does not serve him but rather affront him Hence it was that Samuel studying and designing the good and welfare of the Israelitish People advises them to offer to God a true VVorship a VVorship which he would approve and accept that so he might still continue to be their propitious Governour and their bountiful Benefactor 2. As persons must worship God with a worship that is true as to the matter of it so it must be right as to the manner it must be offered to the glorious Object of it with all the heart As fearing and serving of God in truth is here in my text put in opposition to all false worship so I humbly conceive the serving of God with all the heart is put in opposition to all dissimulation and Hypocrisie Too many worship God with their bodies when their hearts are estranged from him They offer him the outward Man and deny him the Soul Present him with the Carcass of devotion whenas there is no spirit to animate it They give him the bended knee and the hand lifted up whilst their minds are wandring after Vanity Of such kind of worshippers as these is the complaint Matth. 15.8 9. This people draweth nigh to me with their mouths and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me Were there no more bodies sometimes in the most thronged Assemblies then there are Souls how small would the number be How often do men dissemble in their Duties and offer to their God a skin instead of a Sacrifice so that altho their worship may be pompous yet it is not sincere and will not meet with acceptance from him who looks beyond the surface and penetrates the very secrets of the Soul God does not only expect that worship men present him should be true as to the matter but sincere as to the manner Some in the Duties of Religion are just like a person who takes his Scabbard and offers it to his prince but imploys his sword in another's service They will bring
fear importing the whole worship of God In this sense are we to take the word fear in the Text And the following word serve is Exegetical of the former and likewise shews that by the word fear we are to understand a worshipping and an adoring of the True God Then as to the word serve it also imports the worshipping of God look back but to verse 10. of this Chapter and hence you may learn the meaning of this word For there is it said And they cryed to the Lord and said we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth But now deliver us out of the hands of our Enemies and we will serve thee Where the serving of God is put in opposition to the serving of Baalim and Ashtaroth and so plainly denotes the worshipping of God So that the thing which Samuel here presses the Israelites to is the paying that homage that honour and adoration to the great Jehovah to the only immortal God which are his due He would have them to give over the worshipping their Baalim and their Ashtaroth to renounce all Heathen Deities and to betake themselves intirely to the service of the only True God 2. I am to explain what it does import to serve and fear God in truth and with all the Heart And here 1. What it is to serve and worship God in truth Now to serve God in truth is to worship him in a way and a manner of his own appointment It is to present him him with such services as he himself has Authorized So that it is put in opposition to all false worship For Samuel does here caution the Israelites against all Idolatrous and Superstitious usages against all kind of worship that has not the stamp of Divine Authority put upon it for no worship can be pleasing to God but what can plead a Divine warrant Whatever pompous Devotions and gaudy Ceremonies men may adopt into their worship if they cannot shew a Commission from Heaven for them God will abhor them altho their esteem may be ne're so much buoyed up by Mens approbation and applause God's will and command is the Rule of worship not Mens teeming fancies Therefore it is a sin against God an affront to his Soveraignty for any man or any society of Men to use any othet sort of worship than that God has legitimated by his own Command Wherefore God rebuking the sinful complyance of the Jews with the Idolatrous worship of the Heathen nations condemns their practices as sinful because they were not bottom'd upon any command of his Jerem. 19.5 They have built also the high places of Baal to burn their Sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal which I commanded not nor spake it neither came it into my mind They had no injunction from God for the warranting such a kind of worship that was enough to render it unlawful They acted without a Commission therefore was it false worship and sore displeasing to God Now worship may be false Either 1. With respect to the Object Or 2. With respect to the Medium of Worship 1. Worship may be false with respect to the Object of it As when persons terminate that worship which is only due to the great God on any Created and finite being when they pay that homage and adoration to the Creature which ought entirely to be confin'd to the glorious Creator either when they limit their Devotions to the Creature with a total neglect of the Almighty God and substitute some other person or thing in his Room to be the Object of their Religious adorations Thus some besotted wretches worship the Devil pay their homage to the Prince of Darkness as if He were the God who made them Apiece of Idolatry practised amongst many of the Inhabitants of Florida and the Natives of Virginia were formerly no strangers to it and generally in the Southern America they have set up the destroyer of Souls for their Deitie Lactant. de origin error Cap. 14. Some have worshipped the Hosts of Heaven the Sun the Moon and the Stars Nay the Jews themselves tho' instructed in the true worship of God became so sottish as to take up this piece of Idolatry in imitation of their Heathen Neighbours for it is said Jer. 19.13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the Kings of Judah shall be defiled as the place of Tophet because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt Incense unto all the Host of Heaven Strange that a people favoured with so many stupendious Miracles to render the belief of the Messages of God to them the more easie should be so soon drawn away to the worshipping of the Celestial Luminaries one would have thought that the many excellent priveledges they were blessed with beyond others and the excellent informations they had from the inspired Prophets should have sufficiently fortified them against so gross a piece of Idolatry But we are told 2 Kings 17.16 That they left all the Commandments of the Lord their God and made them Molten Images even two Calves and made a grove and worshipped all the Host of Heaven and served Baal Others as the antient Persians have set up Fire for their God and with a blind Zeal have paid it their Devotions Matth. Theat Histor p. 13. says Chaldaei ignem sacrum pro Deo coluerunt that the Chaldeans also worshipped sacred Fire and he assigns the reason of it Cum enim audierant Sacrificia à Sanctis Patriarchis oblata Igne coelitûs delapso Incensa consumpta esse non Deum cujus potentiâ illud fiebat sed ipsum Ignem colere stolidi ceperunt They paid this Reverence to the Element of Fire because they had heard that it consumed the Sacrifices which were offered up by the antient Patriarchs But the Egyptians on the contrary chose out the Element of Water for their Deity and so made their devout Addresses to the Banks of their famous Nilus Hereupon says Julius Firmicus de Errore Prof. Relig. p. 2. Aegypti incolae Aquarum beneficia percipientes Aquam colunt Aquis supplicant Aquas superstiriosâ votorum continuatione venerantur The Egyptians perceiving the great advantages of the Element of Water worship the Waters Vid. Caelsi Rhodigini lectiones Antiquas p. 1489. pray to them and address them with their repeated superstitious Vows Others again altho' they worship God yet they admit either Angels or Men or some other creature to share with God in their devotional Addresses Thus many amongst the Heathens have adored sinful Men whose Vices gave them their Divinity and whose Crimes were their Consecrations Bacchus and Venus were numbred amongst their Deities and had their respective Homages paid them Vid. Caecil Cyprian de Idolorum vanitat p. 2. and Minut. Faelix de Idolorum vanitat p. 27. says sanê Acca Larentia Flora Meretrices propudiosae inter Romanorum Deos computandae Others have adored Men famous for