Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

Motion 3. Consider the danger of a carnal worship

(1.) We lose the comfort of worship. The Soul is a great Gainer when it offers a spiritual worship, and as great a loser when it is unfaithful with God. Treachery and perfidiousness hinder commerce among men; so doth Hypocrisy in its own nature, communion with God. God never promised any thing to the Carcass but to the Spirit of worship. God hath no obligation upon him by any word of his, to reward us with himself, when we perform it not to himself: When we give an outside worship, we have only the outside of an ordinance: We can expect no kernel, when we give God only the shell: He that only licks the outside of the Glass, can never be refreshed with the rich Cordial enclosed within. A cold and lazy formality, will make God to withdraw the light of his countenance, and not shine with any delightful communications upon our Souls; but if we come before him with a liveliness of affections, and steadiness of heart; he will draw the veil, and cause his glory to display it self before us. An humble praying Christian, and a warm affectionate Christian in worship, will soon find a God who is delighted with such frames, and cannot long withhold himself from the Soul: When our hearts are inflamed with love to him in worship, 'tis a preparation to some act of love on his part whereby he intends further to gratify us. When John was in the Spirit on the Lords day, that is in spiritual employment, and meditation and other duties, he had that great Revelation of what should happen to the Church in all ages^*; His being in the Spirit, intimates his ordinary course on that day, and not any extraordinary act in him, though it was followed with an extraordinary discovery of God to him; When he was thus engaged, he heard a voice behind him.

(1.) We lose the comfort of worship. The Soul is a great Gainer when it offers a spiritual worship, and as great a loser when it is unfaithful with God. Treachery and perfidiousness hinder commerce among men; so doth Hypocrisie in its own nature, communion with God. God never promised any thing to the Carcass but to the Spirit of worship. God hath no obligation upon him by any word of his, to reward us with himself, when we perform it not to himself: When we give an outside worship, we have only the outside of an ordinance: We can expect no kernel, when we give God only the shell: He that only licks the outside of the Glass, can never be refreshed with the rich Cordial enclosed within. A cold and lazy formality, will make God to withdraw the light of his countenance, and not shine with any delightful communications upon our Souls; but if we come before him with a liveliness of affections, and steadiness of heart; he will draw the vail, and cause his glory to display it self before us. An humble praying Christian, and a warm affectionate Christian in worship, will soon find a God who is delighted with such frames, and cannot long withold himself from the Soul: When our hearts are enflamed with love to him in worship, 'tis a preparation to some act of love on his part whereby he intends further to gratifie us. When John was in the Spirit on the Lords day, that is in spiritual employment, and meditation and other duties, he had that great Revelation of what should happen to the Church in all ages