Serm. 19. in holy Duties ? and thou upon earth. We forget our dif}ance, and by a bold prophanenefs are too fellow -like and familiar with God, when we are not deeply fe- rious and exaEd in what we do and fay in his prefence, but only bab- ble over a few impertinent words without attention and affe &ion : Cer- tainly, God is very feníble of the wrong and contempt we put upon him, for he noteth all, Htb.4.13. All things are naked and open to bim with whom we have to L. Add he will not put it up, for he telleth us, Exod. zo. 8. That he will not hold them guiltlefs that take his Name iu vain ;and he will be as good as his word : For the leaf} diforders in Worfhip have been forely punifhed, witnefs the firoke from heaven up- on Aarons Sons,Lev. I 0.2. The breach made upon Zlztah, 2 Sam 6 6. And the havock made of the Bethfhemites, I Sam. 6. i 9. The dif afes that raged at Corinth, I Cori 1.3o. And though judgments be not fo rife and vilble now upon our unhallowed approaches to God yet he fmiteth us with deadnefs where he loth not (mite us with death , for a man is punifhed otherwife than a boy, and judgments are now fpiritual which in the Infancy of the Church were temporal and bodily. Certain- ly, we have all cause to tremble when we come before the Lord. z. The more fincere any one is, the more he makfth confcience of his thoughts. is more obfervant of them, and more troubledabout them, Ifa. 5 5.7. Let the unrighteous man forfake his thoughts ; then he begin - neth tube ferious, and to have a confcience indeed when his thoughts trouble him.So David,Pf.119.1 13.1 hate vain thoughts .6w thy Law do I love. We think thoughts are free and fubjec4 to no Tribunal, if there be any error in them,we think it is a very venial one, they betray us to no fhame in the world,andthercfore we let them go without di (like and remorfe: But a child ofGod cannot pafs over the matter fo,he knoweth that thoughts arc the immediate births of the foul,& do much difcover. the temper of it; that there Aüions begin, and if vain thoughts be fuf- fered to lodge in him, he will foon fall into further mifchief,and there- fore he confidereth what he thinketh, as well as what he fpeaketh and cloth ; and if at all times, efpecially in Worship, where the workings of the inward man are of chief regard, and the aâs of the outward only required, as a help to our [crying God in the Spirit, Phil. 3. 3 3. Carelefnefs in Duties is the high way to Atheifm, For every formal' and flightPrayer doth harden the heart,and make way for contempt of God ; Men that have made bold with God in duty, and it fucceeds well with them their awe of God is leffened, and the lively fenfe of his Glory and Majefly abated, till it be quite 1oí1; by degrees they out - grow all feelings and tendernefs of confcience, every time you Came to Gott 455
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