The peril of the times displayed. Or The danger of mens taking up with…

2. Do we lay out all our care and cost on the out side of duties, or are we most solicitous about the inside of them? There is the External part of the duties that we are called to do, and we are not to be negligent in it: there is a right and decent carriage of our bodies in the worship of God, which is not to be neglected; a suitable expressing of our selves in our words, when we address our selves to God in our Prayers; a decorum to be used in every Service that we engage in the performance of: but still this is the least thing that is to be minded in it; but if we make this our all, or if it be the principal care that we concern our selves about, & we think we have done enough if we have been accurate in this, it argueth Hypocrisy. If, when we come to an ⟨p. 129⟩Ordinance, our utmost concern is, to lift up our hands, or turn up our eyes, or frame our selves to an outward reverential […]: or if when we pray, all our business is to put our Confessions, or Petitions, or Thanksgivings into handsome words or expressions; or curious Language, or laying out our gifts, and making a flourish with them, in any duty that we are engaged in, this is mere formality. If there be any power of Grace stirring in us, our great business in addressing our selves to any duty, will be to search for our hearts and see where they are, and how they are disposed; and in pursuing the discharge of these duties, to look after our hearts, and see that they do not steal from us, and get into the Corners of the earth; we shall be solicitous that our Graces may be brought into exercise; that in our hearing of the word of God dispensed to us, we may be waiting to hear what the Lord hath to say to us and that with a preparedness of Soul to submit to his will, and receive his truth in the love of it: that in our Prayers to God, we may have an active, lively sense of our Spiritual wants, and that our faith be in ⟨p. 130⟩a suitable exercise. David in this regard, first takes notice of his heart. Psal. 57.7. My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise.

2. Do we lay out all our care and cost on the out side of duties, or are we most sollicitous about the inside of them? There is the External part of the duties that we are called to do, and we are not to be negligent in it: there is a right and decent carriage of our bodies in the worship of God, which is not to be neglected; a suitable expressing of our selves in our words, when we address our selves to God in our Prayers; a decorum to be used in every Service that we engage in the performance of: but still this is the least thing that is to be minded in it; but if we make this our all, or if it be the principal care that we concern our selves about, & we think we have done enough if we have been accurate in this, it argueth Hypocrisy. If, when we come to an