Lord. Many men worship they know not what, and therefore they offer him for worship they care not what.. If men had awful apprehenfions of that God whom they worship, as a God greatly to be "feared in the affembly of the faints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him," Pfal. lxxxix. 7. doubtless they would fee, that there is none in heaven or earth like him, and they would worship him in another manner. Therefore the apostle, to engage men to take care how they perform duties, fays, "Let us have grace, whereby we may ferve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a confuming fire," Heb. xii. 28. 29.

I AM now to fhew,

II. How the Lord teftifies his displeasure against fuch perfons.He does fo,

1. By withdrawing from them in religious fervices: "Son of man," fays God by Ezekiel, chap. xi. 3. thefe men have fet up their idols in their hearts, and put the ftumbling-block of their iniquity before their face; fhould I be inquired of at all by them?" And by Hofea he fays, ch. v. 4. "The fpirit of whoredom is in.the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord." It is granted, ordinances are the galleries wherein the King is held, they are the tryfting-places where Chrift meets with his people; but if they be not gone about in a right manner, they will be but an empty fepulchre: "Why feek ye the living among the dead?" The living God is not to be found in a dead worship; when men withdraw their hearts from the fervice of God, then he withdraws himfelf from them; and it is but forry entertainment · a man can have at this feaft, when the Mafter goes away.

"Ye

2. By rejecting their fervices, Mal. i. 13. faid alfo, Behold what a wearinefs is it! and ye have fnuffed at it, faith the Lord of hofts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the fick; thus ye brought an offering: fhould I accept this of your hands? faith the Lord." God will not accept of fuch duties, whatever pains men may take about them, Ifa. i. 11. "To what purpofe is the multitude of your facrifices unto me? faith the Lord." It is better to go halting on in the right way, than to be going ftraight in the of error: "The labour of the foolish weaway rieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city," Ecclef. x. 15. It may well be applied to the duties of fome, what is faid, Hab. ii. 13. "The people fhall labour in the fire, and the people fhall weary themselves for very vanity." To labour in the fire fignifies great pains, and great disappointments; they work in the midst of fcorching flames, and what they do produce confumes between their fingers, they get no good of it.

3. By fpiritual ftrokes upon their fouls. There is a curfe denounced against them, Jer. xlviii. 10. "Curfed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully ;" and Mal. i. 14. " But curfed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth and facrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing." This will pierce the foul; and they are of two forts: (1.) They are deadening strokes; these are filent blows, arrows that fly without noise from the hand of an angry Gcd into the foul: "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears -heavy, and shut their eyes; left they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and convert, and be healed," Ifa. vi. 10. Sometimes men are like Saul among

VOL. I.

H

the

the prophets, but afterwards they are knocked on the head, it may be on a communion-Sabbath, and from that time God answers them not. Many are sprightly profeffors for a while, but at length God is fo provoked, that their hearts are deadened, their affections withered, their consciences stupified, their fouls blafted, and they are then prepared to be pruned off, and caft over the hedge. (2.) Quickening ftrokes, whereby the man's name is changed; he is Mager-Miffabib. The conscience is made like mount Sinai, where nothing but thunder, lightening, and the found of the trumpet, are to be heard. God takes the filthy rags of their lifelefs duties, wraps them in brimstone, and then fets them on fire about the finner's ears; so that, like the house built upon the fand, to which theman, betook himfelf for fhelter, the whole falls. into ruins. As to this, you will observe what the prophet declares, Hof. v. 11.-14. "Ephraim is oppreffed, and broken in judgement; because he willingly walked after the commandment. Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the houfe of Judah as rottennefs. When Ephraim faw his ficknefs, and Judah faw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Affyrian, and fent to king Jareb; yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the houfe of Judah; I, even I, will tear, and go away: I will take away, and none fhall rescue him."

1

Sometimes

4. By ftrokes upon their bodies. the Lord has mingled his people's blood with their facrifices. Thus he did with Nadab and Abihu, Lev. x. I. 2. A wrong look into the ark.coft the

men of Bethfhemesh dear: "The Lord fmote of the people fifty thousand and threefcore and ten men," Sam. vi. 19. Uzziah, taking, hold of

the

the ark, was ftruck dead, 2 Sam. vi. 7. And the apoftle tells, 1 Cor. xi. 30. that for profaning the Lord's fupper, "many (among the Corinthians) were weak and fickly, and many fleep," that is, were dead. One dies before his time, even in his ftrength; another falls fick, it may be after a communion. At communions there is a great throng; perhaps one has got a thruft, another has catched cold, but unworthy communicating has more often done the deed.I fhall inquire,

III. WHY is the Lord fo highly displeased?

1. Becaufe God commands his fervice to be done in a right manner. The matter and right manner of performing duties are, in the command of God, linked together. He will have his fervice well done, as well as really done. We must ferve God with a perfect heart and a willing mind, fcr the Lord fearcheth all hearts, and underftandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts; if we feck him, he will be found of us; but if we forsake him, he will cast us off for ever, 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. Masters on earth challenge to themselves a power to oblige their fervants, not only to do their work, but to do it fo and fo; and though they do the thing itself, yet if not in the manner required, it cannot be accepted. So they brought the ark, but they brought it on a cart, which was oppofite to the command, for it should have been on the shoulders of the Levites; and therefore their fervice was rejected with vengeance.

2. Because the doing of a duty in a wrong manner alters the nature of it, and makes it fin. Hence the plowing of the wicked is fin. Hence prayer is accounted a howling on their bed, Hof. vii. 14. And unworthy communicating is not to eat the Lord's Supper, 1 Cor. xi. 20. If a house be built of never

fo ftrong timber and good ftones, yet if it be net well-founded and right built, the inhabitant may curfe the day he came under the roof of it.

3. Becaufe duties not performed according to the right order, are but the half of the service we owe to God, and the worst half too. The Jews had it written about the doors of their fynagogues,

Prayer without intention is as a body without a foul." A fkeleton of bones without the flesh would have been a very abominable facrifice to have laid upon God's altar; no less abominable are our fervices, when the heart is not engaged, and when the foul is not lifted up to God: "God is a Spirit, and they that worship, him muft worship him in spirit and in truth," John, iv. 24.

Laftly, Because duties thus performed are very dishonourable to God. See again, Mal. i. 6.-8. Now, God is a holy God, and will be fanctified in them that come nigh him, and before all the people he will be glorified, Lev. x. 3. He is a jealous God in the matter of his worship, Jofh.

xxiv. 18.

IV. I AM now to make a practical improvement. And this,

1. In an ufe of information. We may hence fee what a mercy it is that we have a pure worship amongst us at this day; a worship, neither defiled by idolatry, nor corrupted by fuperftition, but after the divine order, according to the pattern shewn on the mount. It is dangerous to join in a way of worship not warranted by the word of God.

2. Let this fill us with a holy reverence of God when we approach his presence in this venerable ordinance, Pfal. lxxxix. 7. Let us know and remember, that the God with whom we have to do is a heart-fearching, holy, and jealous God, who