Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A59274
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A sermon preached in a congregation in the city of Exon on the thanks-giving day, Thursday, April 16, 1696 / by a minister of the Gospel.
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Minister of the Gospel.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing S2638; ESTC R35167
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18,147
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32
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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-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
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