Serm. CL the Power of Godlinefs and if there ends be not obtain'd, in vain do we warfbip Gad, all our Religion is but Meer fhew and pageantry. We are but like the people God himfelf defcribes, ¡fa. 29. 1 3. This people draw near me With their mouth, and with their lips do rho ha- nowme, but have removed their heart far from me. Andlike thofe, Ezek. 33..3oj 31; 32. who fpake one to another, every one to his brother, faying; Come, Ipray you; and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unta thee as the people cometh, and they fit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them : for with theirmouth they fhew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetoufnefs. And lo, thouart unto them as avery lovelySong of one that batha pleafant voice, andcan play well on an inflranent : for they hear thy words, but they do them not. This is not to worship God, but impudently to affront him; and if we take this for Religion, we put the groffeft cheat imagina- ble upon our felves: Hear howGod challenges the People of Ifrael upon this ac- count, jet. 7; 2, 3, 4; &C. Hear the word of the Lord, allye of Judah, that enter in at there gates to worfbipthe Lord. Thus faith the Lord of hogs, the God of If- reel; Amendyour ways and your doings, and I will caufe yola to dwell in this placi. This is the great end of all religious Woríhip and Devotion, the Reformation of our lives and aâions; and if it have not this effeâ, it is a cheat. Trull ye not in lying words, Paying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are theft. For if ye thorowly amendyour ways, andyour doings ; ifye ye thorowly execute 3údgment between a man and his neighbour; Ifye opprefs n'ot the flranger, the fatherlefe, and the widow, andflied not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other Gods to ;our hurt: Then will I sauteyou to dwell in this place, in the land that Igave toyour fathers for ever and ever. Behold,.ÿe trufl in. lying words that cannot profit. Will ye fleel, murder, and commit adultery, and fwearfay!), andburn incente unto Baal, and walk after other Gods, whomye know, not : and come end fiendbefore me in this haute, which is called by my name; and fay, we are delivered to do all thefe Abominations ? What greater impudence can there be, than to worship God devoutly, and to live wickedly ? This is to declare that we mock God under a pretenceof ferving him; or elfe that we believe, that God whom we worship allows there abominations, and is pleas'd with them. 2. Others make this form of external Devotion yet more compleat, by a clarion§ and nice regard to the Modes and Circumftances of performing the duties of Reli- gion. They are very púnauai and exalt in all their carriage and geftúres, as if they minded nothing elfe but the outward part of Religion. Not but that great humility and reverence does very well becoine Men in their addreffes to God: but then we muff be fure that this external reverence be a fig-. nification of the inward and teal devotion of our minds. For if it be feparated from this, it is not Devotion, but fuperftition; it is not to wòrfhip God in Spirit and in truth, but in bodily ¡hew and appearance only ; not to honour the divine Majefty, but to fawn upon him and flatter him. And where Men are very intent upon theft things, and endeavour to outftrip other people in voluntary expreflìons of outward Devotion, it too often happens that fuch perfons are deftitute of the fubftance and reality of Religion. They are like the formal complementing fort of People in civil converfation, who commonly have very little in them, and not- withftanding all their finooth outride and appearance, they have neither that foli- dity nor fincerity which is in many a plain ordinary Man. I.E. An orthodox profeflîon of the Chriftian Faith. This is another Form of Religion, which the more knowing and inquiftive fort of Men are apt to take up and refs in. And this is that which in theJewifh Religion the Apoftle calls a Form of knowledge, and of the truth in the Lord. And this is good as far as it goes: But then it muff not reft only ih the brain, but defcend from thence upon the heart and life: Otherwife a Man may have this Form ofGodlinefs, and yet be a denyer ofthe power of it St. Paul puts this fiery cafe, that a Man may have the theory and knowledge of Religion, and yet if it do not produce the fruits of a good life, it is nothing worth, t Cor. 02. 2. Though I have thegift ofprophecy, andunderffarrd all myfleries, and allknowledge, and though I have
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