that God is and that he ought to be worshipped It appeareth by our Saviours reasoning Iohn 4. 24. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in Truth He giveth directions about the manner of worship but supposeth it that he will be worshipped When God had proclaimed his name and manifested himself to Moses Exod. 34. 8. Moses made hast and bowed himself and worshipped It is the crime charged upon the Gentiles that when they knew God they glorified him not as God Rom. 1. 21. They knew a divine power but did not give him a worship at lest competent to his nature God pleadeth his right Mal. 1. 6. If I be a Father where is mine honour If I be a master where is my fear And God who is the common Parent and absolute Master of all must have both a Worship and Honour in which Reverence and Fear is mixed with Love and Joy So that if God be worship is certainly due to him They that have no worship are as if they had no God The Psalmist proveth Atheism by that Psal. 14. 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God and ver 4. They call not upon God The acknowledgement of a King doth imply subjection to his Laws so doth the acknowledgment of his God imply a necessity of worshipping him III. That both Worship and Service is due to God him shalt thou worship and him shalt thou serve The worship of God is both Internal and External The Internal consisteth in that Love and Reverence which we owe to him the External in those offices and duties by which our honour and respect to God is signified and expressed Both are necessary both believing with the heart and confession with the Mouth Rom. 10. 9 10. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation The soul and life of our Worship and Godliness lyeth in our Faith Love Reverence and Delight in God above all other things the visible expression of it is in Invocation Thanksgiving Prayers and Sacraments and other Acts of outward Worship Now it is not enough that we own God with the Heart but we must own him with the Body also In the Heart serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Psal. 2. 11. Such as will become the Greatness and Goodness of God with outward and bodily worship you must now own him in all those prescribed duties in which these Affections are acted The spirit must be in it and the body also There are two extreams some confine all their respect to God to bodily worship and external Forms Mat. 16. 8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their hearts are far from me They use the external Rites of worship but their Affections are no way suited to the God whom they Worship It is the Heart must be the principal and chief Agent in the business without which it is but the carcass of a duty without the life and the soul. The other Extream is that we are not called to an external bodily worship under the Gospel why did he then appoint the Ordinances of Preaching Prayer Singing of Psalmes Baptisme and the Lords Supper God that made the whole man body and soul must be worshipped of the whole man Therefore besides the inward Affections there must be external Actions whereby we express our Respect and Reverence to God IV. That both these Religious Worship and Service are due to God alone I prove it by these Arguments 1. Those things which are due to God as God are due to him alone and no Creature without Sacriledge can claim any part and fellowship in that Worship and Adoration neither can it be given to any Creature without Idolatry but now Religious worship and service is due to God as God he is thy Lord and worship thou him Psal. 45. 11. Our worship and service is due to him not onely for his supereminent Excellency but because of our Creation Preservation and Redemption Therefore we must worship and serve him and him onely Isa. 42. 8. I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another nor my praise to graven Images God challengeth it as Jehovah the great self-being from whom we have received Life and Breath and all things This Glory God will not suffer to be given to another And therefore the Apostle sheweth the wretched estate of the Galatians Chap. 4. 8. When ye knew not God ye did service to them that by nature are no Gods that is they worshipped for Gods those things which really were no Gods There is no kind of Religious worship or service under any name whatsoever to be given to any Creature but to God only for what is due to the Creator as Creator cannot be given to the Creature 2. The nature of Religious worship is such that it cannot be terminated on any Object but God for it is a profession of our Dependance and Subjection Now whatever invisible Power this worship is tendered unto must be Omniscient Omnipresent Omnipotent Omniscient who knowes the Thoughts Cogitations secret purposes of our heart which God alone doth 1 King 8. 39. Give unto every one according to his ways whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou onely knowest the hearts of all the children of Men. It is Gods Prerogative to know the inward motions and thoughts of the heart whether they be sincere or no in their professions of dependance and subjection So Omnipresent that he may be ready at hand to help us and relieve us Ier. 23. 23 24. Am I a God at hand and not a God afar of can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord. The Palace of Heaven doth not so confine him and inclose him but that he is present every where by his essential presence and powerful and efficacious Providence Besides Omnipotent Psal. 57. 2. I will cry unto God most high unto God who performeth all things for me Alass what a cold formality were prayer if we should speak to those that know us not and who are not near to help us or have no sufficiency of power to help us Therefore these professions of dependance and subjection must be made to God alone 3. To give Religious Worship to the Creatures it is without command without promise and without Examples and therefore without any Faith in the Worshipper or acceptance of God Where is there any command or direction or approved example of this in Scripture God will accept onely what he commanded and without a promise it will be unprofitable to us and it is a superstitious Innovation of our own to devise any
is Trust This is another Foundation of worship Psal. 62. 8. Trust in the Lord at all times pour out your hearts before him Well then inward Worship lyeth in these two things delightful Adhaesion to God and an intire dependance upon him Without this Worship of God we cannot keep up our service to him Not without delight witness these Scriptures Iob 27. 10. Will he delight himself in the almighty will he alwayes call upon God Isa. 43. 22. But thou hast not called upon me O Iacob but thou hast been weary of me O Israel They that love God and delight in him cannot be long out of his Company they will seek all occasions to meet with God as Ionathan and David whose souls were knit to each other So for dependance and Trust it keepeth up service for they that will not trust God cannot be long true to him Heb. 3. 12. Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God They that distrust Gods Promises will not long hold out in Gods way for dependance begets observance when we look for all from him we will often come to him and take all out of his hands and be careful how we offend him and displease him What maketh the Christian to be so sedulous and diligent in duties of worship so awful and observant of God his All cometh from God both in life natural and spiritual In life natural Psal. 145. 15 16 17 18. The eyes of all things wait on thee and thou givest them their food in due season Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing c. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him he will hear their cry and will save them The Lord preserveth all them that love him Implying That because their eyes are to him the Author of all their blessings therefore they call upon him and cry to him 2. Serve him That implyeth external Reverence and Worship Now we are said to serve him either with respect unto the duties which are more directly to be performed unto God or with respect to our whole Conversation 1. With respect unto the duties which are more directly to be performed unto God such as the Word Prayer Praise Thanksgiving Sacraments Surely these must be attended upon because they are Acts of love to God and Trust in God and these holy Duties are the ways of God wherein he hath promised to meet with his people and hath appointed us to expect his Grace and therefore they must not be neglected by us Therefore serve him in these things for Mar. 4. 24. With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you It is a rule of commerce between us and God 2. In your whole Conversation Luk. 1. 74 75. That we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of our life A Christians conversation is a continual Act of Worship he ever behaveth himself as before God doing all things whether they be directed to God or Men out of love to God and fear of God and so turneth second Table duties into first Table duties Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world Iam. 1. 27. Eph. 5. 21. 22. Submitting your selves one to another in the fear of God And next verse Wives submit your selves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. So Alms are a Sacrifice Heb. 13. 16. But to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased 3. Worship and serve God so as it may look like Worship and service performed to God and due to God onely because of his Nature and Attributes His Nature Iohn 4. 24. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth When Hearts wander and Affections do not answer Expressions is this like worship and service done to an All seeing Spirit His Attributes Greatness Goodness Holiness 1. His Greatness and glorious Majesty Heb. 12. 28. Let us serve him acceptably with Reverence and godly Fear Then is there a stamp of Gods Majesty on the duty 2. His Goodness and Fatherly Love Psal. 100. 2. Serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with singing 3. His Holiness 2 Tim. 1. 3. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience 2 Tim. 2. 22. With them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart SERMON VII MATTH 4. 11. Then the Devil leaveth him and behold angels came and ministred unto him IN these words you have the Issue and close of Christ's Temptations The Issue is double I. In respect of the Adversary II. In respect of Christ himself I. In respect of the Adversary then the devil leaveth him II. In respect of Christ himself Behold angels came and ministred unto him I shall consider in both the History and the Observations First The History of it as it properly belongeth to Christ And there 1. Of the first Branch the Recess of Satan then the devil leaveth him 1. It was necessary to be known that Christ had power to chase away the devil at his pleasure that as he was an instance of Temptations so he might be to us a pattern of Victory and Conquest If Satan had continued Tempting this would have been obscured which would have been an infringement of Comfort to us The devil being overcome by Christ he may be also overcome by us Christians 1 Ioh. 5. 18. He that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not That is he useth all care and diligence to keep himself pure that the devil draw him not into the sin unto death and those deliberate scandalous sins which lead to it Christ having overcome Satan in our name and nature sheweth us the way how to fight against him and overcome him 2. Christ had a work to do in the Valley and therefore was not alwayes to be detained by Temptations in the Wilderness The Spirit that led him thither to be tempted led him back again into Galilee to preach the Gospel Luk. 4. 14. Iesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee All things are timed and ordered by God and he limiteth Satan how far and how long he shall tempt 3. In Luke it is said chap. 4. 13. He departed from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a season He never tempted him again in this solemn way hand to hand but either abusing the simplicity of his own Disciple Mat. 16. 22 23. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee But he turned and said unto Peter Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me Or else
Creatures and the infinite Majesty of God the brightness of his Glory soon burdeneth and over-burdeneth the infirmity of the best Creatures 2. Because of our Weakness 1. Natural We faint when we meet with any thing extraordinary and therefore no wonder if we are astonished with the near approach of the Excellent Majesty of God and made unfit for any action of Body or Mind If we cannot look on the Sun how can we see God our Felicity in Heaven would be our Misery on Earth This Wine is too strong for old Bottles 2. Sinful Infirmity consciousness of guilt is in it also and our disconformity to God through sin Isa. 6. 5 6. Wo is me I am for undone I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips and mine eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts So Peter Luk. 5. 8. Depart from me for I am a sinful man this raiseth a fear in us upon every eminent approach or discovery of Gods Glory Before the Fall God and Adam were Friends he would have endured God to speak to him yet after the fall the appearance of God became terrible When he heareth his voice he is afraid and hideth himself and something of this fear sticketh to the best of his People and when God is eminently near it is discovered For persons that have sin in them to be near to so Holy and Glorious a Majesty that is a part of the reason of this Fear and Trouble Well then both these causes go together the Representation of the Majesty of God and the sense of our own frailty and weakness USE Is to press us to two things I. To press us to an holy Awe and Reverence when we come near to God II. To take heed that our fear of God do not degenerate into a slavish fear First To press us to an holy Awe and Reverence of God when we draw nigh unto him Surely we should in all our Worship have such thoughts of God as may leave a stamp of Humility and some Impressions of the Majesty and Excellency of God upon us and we should fall upon our faces though not in a way of Consternation yet in a way of Adoration And because usually we bewray much slightness and Irreverence in our converses with God and Approaches to him I shall press it a little 1. I will shew how the Scriptures in the general do call for this Holy Awe of the Majesty of God in all our Worship Psal. 111. 9. Holy and reverend is his name and therefore never to be used by us but in an awful and serious manner Psal. 96. 4. The Lord is great and greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all Gods Whether we pray or whether we praise God still the heart must be deeply possessed with a sense of his Excellency and we must admire him above all created or imaginable greatness whatsoever and so mingle reverence with our most delightful Addresses to him Again Psal. 89. 17. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are round about him Holy Angels and sanctified Men who of all Creatures have nearest Access to God should most adore and reverence him because they are best acquainted with him and have the clearest sight of him that mortal creatures are capable of The Angels are an assembly of holy Ones that alwayes behold his Face therefore alwayes Lauding and Glorifying God So God is said to be terrible in his holy places Psal. 68. 35. whether Heaven or the Church indeed the awful carriage of his people in his Worship should be one means to convince of the Excellency and Majesty of God 1 Cor. 14. 25. The Apostle sheweth there that an Unbeliever coming into the Christian Assemblies when they are managed with Gravity and Awe is convinced and judged and will fall down on his face and worship God and say God is in you of a truth That is seeing their Humility brokenness of Heart hearing their praises and admirations of God and seeing their orderliness and composedness of Spirit whereas rudeness slightness and irreverence doth pollute and stain the glory of God in their Minds 2. Other Addresses will not become Faith and Love 1. Faith for whosoever cometh to God must fix this principle in his Mind that God is Heb. 1. 6. We do not worship God aright if we do not Worship him as Believers and if we worship him as Believers we will worship him with reverence and godly fear Faith giveth us not only a thought of God but some kind of sight of God and sight will leave an impression upon the heart of reverence and seriousness surely a sight or believing thought of God should be able to do any thing upon the soul. It is the great work of Faith to see him that is invisible Heb. 11. 27. We should in our whole conversation live as in his sight and live as those that remember God standeth by and seeth all that we are about but especially in our worship we then set our selves as before the Lord. Pray as to our Father that seeth what we do Mat. 6. 6. Pray to thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret will reward thee openly Hear as before the Lord Acts 10. 33. We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God Then the Soul should turn the back upon all other things that the mind may be taken up with nothing but God 2. No other worship will become Love Worship is an act of love and delight Now love is seen in admiring the Excellencies of that glorious Being whom we love and ascribing all to him as being deeply affected with his Goodness Rev. 4. 10. The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created They fell down not out of astonishment but reverence and cast their Crowns before the Throne Whatever Honour they have they had it from God and are content to lay it at his feet from whom they have life and being and all things They have such an high esteem of God that before him they cannot be too vile They are unworthy to wear any Crown in Gods presence and are content that their Honour be a footstool to advance and extol his Glory Certainly those that are heartily affected to God will go about his Worship as with Chearfulness so with Humility and Reverence Secondly To take heed that our Humility and Reverence do not degenerate into servile Fear and Discouragement It is apt to do so even in the best of Gods People We can hardly keep the middle between the extreams our Faith is
either men slight sin and make light of it or sinners are apt to sorrow above measure as the incestuous Corinthian 2 Cor. 2. 17. Lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow And the Apostle sheweth there that these were the enterprizes of Satan Some men are careless of Gods interest in the World or else heated into the activity of a bitter Zeal Some are of a scrupulous Spirit that they make Conscience of all things and the devil hurrieth them into a large Atheistical Spirit that they make conscience of nothing How often have we known a fond scrupulosity to end in a prophane Licentiousness when they have been wearyed out of that kind of frame of Spirit Some are dead and heartless like Gallio care for none of these things fight Christ fight Antichrist 't is all one to them and usually they are such as formerly have been heated with a blind and bold madness As Peter at first refused to have his feet washed by Christ and then would have head hands feet and all washed Ioh. 13. 8 9. being out in both What sad work is there made in the Church of God by Solifidians and Nullifidians heretofore 't was all Faith and Free-Grace misapplied and misunderstood and now it is all Morality and Vertue while Christ is neglected and the mystery of the Gospel little set by or valued It is ever the devils policy to work upon the humour of people If they will reform the Church it shall be to a degree of separation and condemning all Churches and Christians that are not of their mode if they be for uniting Christs unquestionable interests must be trodden under foot and all care of Truth and Reformation must be laid aside If he can destroy Religion and Godliness no otherway he will be religious and godly himself but it is either as to private Christians to set them upon overdoing that he may make them weary of the service of Christ or as to the publick by crying up some unnecessary things which Christ never commanded If men be troubled with sin and see a necessity of the Gospel and prize the comforts of it the Gospel must be overgospelled or else it will not serve their turns and that over-gospel must be carried to such a length as to destroy the very Gospel and Free Grace it self The devil first tempted the World to despise the poor Fishermen that preached the Gospel but the World being convinced by the power of the Holy Ghost and gained to the Faith then he sought by Riches and Grandeur to debase the Gospel so that he hath got as much or more by the worldly glory he puts upon Christs Messengers as by Persecution Then when that is discovered the devil will turn Reformer and what Reformation is that the very necessary support and maintainance of Ministers must be taken away All over-doing in Gods work is undoing If Christ will trust the devil will perswade him to trust even to the degree of tempting God 5. Observe That the Devil himself may pretend Scripture to put a varnish upon his evil designs For here he seeketh to foil Christ with his own weapons Which serveth to prevent a double extream 1. One is not to be frighted with the mere noise and sound of Scriptures which men bring to countenance their errors See whether they be not wrested and misapplyed for the devil may quote Scripture but he perverts the meaning of it And usually it is so by his Instruments as that Pope who would prove a double power to be in himself Temporal and Spiritual by that Scripture Ecce duo gladii Behold here are two Swords Luk. 22. 38. It is easie to rehearse the words of Scripture and therefore not the bare words but the meaning must be regarded 2. The other extream is this Let none vilifie the Scriptures because pleaded by Satan for so he might as well vilifie Human Reason which is pleaded for all the Errors in the World or Law because it is urged sometimes to justifie a bad Cause For it is not Scripture that is not a Nose of Wax as Papists say It is a great proof of the Authority and honour of Scriptures that Satan and his greatest Instruments do place their greatest hopes of prevailing by perverting and misapplying of it 6. Observe That God hath given his Angels a special charge about his people to keep them from harm Here I shall show 1. That it is so 2. Why it is so First That it is so is evident by the Scripture which every where shews us that Angels are the first Instruments of his Providence which he maketh use of in guarding his faithful servants Heb. 1. 14. The Apostle saith Are they not all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be the heirs of salvation Their work and employment is to attend us at Gods direction not to be worshipped and served by us by any devotion They are ministring spirits not ours but Christs he that serveth hath a Master whom he serveth and by whom he is sent forth their work and employment is to attend us indeed but at the command and direction of their own Master they are not at our beck to go and come at our pleasure neither do they go and come at their inclination but at the Commission of God Their work is appointed by him they serve us as their Masters Children at his Command and Will and whom do they serve the heirs of salvation They are described Titus 3. 7. That being justified by grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal Life They are not Ministers of conversion and sanctification to this Ministry Christ hath called Men not Angels but in preserving the converted the Angels have an hand Therefore it is notable they are sometimes called Gods Angels Psal. 103. 21. Bless the Lord all ye his hosts ye ministers of his that do his pleasure sometimes their Angels Matth. 18. 10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do alwayes behold the face of my father which is in heaven But whether every one hath an Angel-Guardian is a curious Question Sometimes one Angel serveth many Persons Psal. 34. 7. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them And sometimes many Angels are about one person 2 King 6. 17. And behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots round about Elisha And here in the Text quoted by satan He shall give his angels charge concerning thee There is not mention made of one but many Angels and the Angels in general are said to be ministring spirits When souldiers are said to watch for a City it is not meant that every Citizen hath a Souldier to watch for him The onely place which seemeth to countenance that Opinion is Acts 12. 15. Then said they it is his Angel But if Peter