V

SERMON

PREACHED AT THE ROLLS' CHAPEL, APRIL 2, 1699.

THE DUTY OF EXTERNAL WORSHIP.

O come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.-PSALM XCV. 6.

THESE words are taken from an hymn, which is very fitly placed at the entrance of the morning devotions of the church: it being a solemn and earnest invitation to the public worship of God that follows; and pro bably employed to that purpose at the beginning of the service used in the Jewish temple.

In that hymn, we are called upon to pay all the parts of our internal and external homage.

The words which I have chosen, mention only the latter of these, outward adoration; which they do, by expressing the several modes of it; as worshipping, bowing down, and kneeling before God: terms, which those who are skilled in the original, have been at some pains to explain, so as to settle the distinct meaning of each of them. I shall wave that inquiry, as not very useful, and consider the words in their more free and general sense; as they imply all those devout postures of body in which outward worship may be supposed to consist.

To press upon you, as effectually as I can, the exercise of these, when we thus meet together in God's sanctuary, shall be the business of my present discourse.

In which I shall endeavour to shew how requisite a reverend and pious demeanour in the public service of the church is, in order to render our devotion acceptable to God.

This perhaps, at first sight, may seem too plain a proposition to need any proof: and it will be thought, that there is no good Christian in the world who is not very well satisfied of the truth of it. And yet, certain it is, that there are, among those who aim at a more than ordinary purity in the worship of God, many sincere but deluded persons, who disapprove and deny it; who think external modes of worship not only unnecessary, but superstitious, now under the Gospel dispensation, when, they say, all bodily service is done away, the law of outward rites and ceremonies is abolished, and the true worshippers of God are to worship him only in spirit and truth, John iv. 24.

And even among those who admit the necessity of bodily worship in the theory, yet how many are there that deny it in their practice, and so behave themselves in the public service of the church, as to make it appear, that this truth has not yet in good earnest reached their hearts, or not sunk very deep into them: or if it has, the impressions it once made upon their minds, are now grown so faint and weak, that they operate but little, unless by proper arguments and motives they be continually excited and kept alive in them.

In order, therefore, to convince those who seem not to have sufficiently considered the importance of this duty; and in order also to raise the devotion of such as are remiss and careless in the discharge of it, I shall, in what follows, consider external worship as a fit and reasonable duty, upon these three several accounts. Either as one part of that natural homage which the whole man, soul and body does, by the first principles of reason and law of his nature, owe to his sovereign Lord, his great creator and preserver. Or as an help and assistance towards promoting the spiritual worship of our souls. Or, lastly, as an outward sign, by which we express to others the religious esteem and veneration that dwells in us: that is, in a word, it may be considered with relation to God, ourselves, or our neighbour.

I. First, then, external adoration may be considered as a part of that natural homage, which the whole man, soul and body, owes to God, upon the account of his creation and preservation of us, and his sovereign dominion over us.

If we are to worship God for the being, and the benefits which we receive at his hands, as the plain rules of reason inform us; then does it seem agreeable to the same reason, that we should make use of all those several ways of worship, which do best express the total and entire dependance we have on him. The soul worships him, by framing to itself awful ideas of his majesty and great excellencies, by invoking aid and assistance from him, and by putting up praises to him. The body worships him, by bowing and prostrating itself; and by all those humble and devout postures, which suit best with those inward affections and dispositions of the mind. Both together make up that complete harmony of divine worship, which results from the agreement of the several parts of our frame in the same acts of acknowledgment, that odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God, Phil. iv. 18.

Indeed as we have no way of forming to ourselves any idea of God, but by considering the several limited perfections and excellencies, that are variously scattered among his creatures, and attributing them to him without bounds; so have we no other way of applying ourselves to him, as his vassals, his dependants, and the works of his hands, than by considering what are those inward and outward marks of respect, which we usually pay to the dignity of any man here upon earth, to his authority over us, or his beneficence towards us; and by giving them to God, in a much higher degree, than we do to man. Now, the expression of our esteem of any earthly good, the respect we bear towards persons of great excellence, parents, benefactors, or governors, is contained in these two things; a veneration of mind for them, and a submission of body to them.

And whoever fails in either of these, is, by the general consent of mankind, reckoned to be so far wanting in his duty, and to deviate from those rules of subordination, which God has made necessary for this world.

Of this the mind of man is very sensible; and being therefore conscious of the superlative excellencies of the divine being, and of the infinite goodness of its nature towards us, finds itself uneasy under these apprehensions, till it has paid its due homage, its debt of honour to it. Which, nevertheless, it has no ability to do, otherwise than by applying to God those outward sensible marks of respect, and those inward submissions of soul which are in use among the sons of men.

To these therefore it flies, these it lays hold of, eager and impatient to do something, it knows not well what, in humble acknowledgment of his attributes, and in return to his many loving-kindnesses.

It sees very well, how disproportioned all our acts of homage are to the divine greatness: that God dwells in inaccessible light, to which none of our services can reach; in the glory of an eternal majesty, which nothing we can do can either add to, or diminish. Nevertheless, perceiving in itself a restless principle, exciting it continually to the love and honour of God; strong endeavours after gratitude, and no other way of exerting them, but by inward and outward acts of worship; these, how insignificant soever, it ventures to pay, in sure confidence that they will be grateful to that Being, which accepteth according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not, 2 Cor. viii. 12.

Thus does external adoration become a point of natural homage, due to the supreme Lord of the world, in token of that entire dependance we have on him; the dependance of the whole man, soul and body, which both equally came forth from his hands, and are both equally sustained by him. Both, therefore, must join in paying the common tribute of praise; which, however, to him it may be

nothing worth, of less account than a drop of the bucket, or a small dust of the balance, Isa. xl. 15, yet to usward is the very law of our nature, and our bounden duty and service.

And this is a way of reasoning, which the Holy Ghost in both testaments hath sanctified, and taught us to use. We are invited by the good psalmist in my text, to bow down and kneel before God. And the reason follows: for he is the Lord our God, and we are the people of his hands. Agreeably to which the apostle urges us, to glorify God in our body, and in our spirit, which are God's. We are to glorify him in our body, as well as our spirit, by outward as well as inward devotion; since there is the same argument for both; they are God's his they are, and to him they must do their homage.

And therefore 'tis a remarkable passage which the same apostle hath, Rom. xii. 1: I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God; which is your reasonable service. Though he mentions only the presenting our bodies, yet he gives that the name of our reasonable service, ἡ λογικὴ λατρεία ὑμῶν, a worship agreeable to reason, and to the suggestions of our natural faculties.

We all look for the glorification, not only of our souls, but bodies, in the life to come. Now a reward supposeth a work: it is meet and right, therefore, that we should worship and glorify God in this life with the body as well as the soul, if so be we expect that God should glorify" both our bodies and souls in another." The outward worship, without the inward, is dead; and again, the inward, without the outward, is not complete; even as the glorification of the soul, separate from the body, is not, nor shall be consummate, till the body be again raised and re-united to it.

Indeed they who derogate so much from bodily worship in the service of the true God, do by consequence render idolatry a sin far less heinous in degree