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God should go, All the Lord's people are not martyrs in action, but all are martyrs in resolution.

3dly, Our religious self, Luke xvii. 10. Whatever we do or suffer for God, we must beware we put it not in Christ's room, for he will endure no rival. We must renounce our

confidence in all, as if we had done nothing.

4. By humility of heart, Mic. vi. 8. whereby, from a sense of our own weakness and unworthiness, we lay our selves low before the Lord, and give him the glory of all. This humility towards God implies,

1st, The keeping up a sense of our weakness and imper fection. Isa, xl. 6. 2 Cor, iii. 5. The humble man will acknowledge that his springs are without himself in God, and that he of himself is but dry and barren, unfit for any good thing, unable for any good work.

2dly, The ascribing the praise of all the good we are, have, or can do, to God, and denying it to ourselves, 1 Cor. xv. 8, 9, 10; The humble see themselves decked with borrowed feathers, and therefore acknowledge their debt and holding all of free grace.

3dly, Self-loathing because of sin, the sin of our nature, and daily failings, Ezek. xxxvi. 31. As the peacock hangs down his starry feathers while he looks to his black feet, so will the sin that besets the man make him walk humbly with his God.

4thly, Keeping within the bounds of our calling, and meddling with nothing beyond our sphere, Psal, cxxxi. 1. If God be our God, he is our great Commander, who has alloted to all their several posts, without which they are not to stir but at his call. And humility will teach a man to keep within the bounds of his station, both because of the authority that set him there, and the sense he has of his having more to do within these bounds than he can well manage.

Lastly, A voluntary undertaking of. any thing the Lord calls us to, however mean it may be in the eyes of the world, Such was David's dancing before the ark, his chusing to be a door-keeper in the house of God, rather than dwell in the tents of wickedness, Christ's washing his disciples feet, &c.

5. By an entire resignation of ourselves to the will of the Lord, Acts ix. 6. The renouncing of our own will is a chief piece of internal worship. Our will is the great rebel against the will of God; it must be bound hand and foot, and re

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signed. We must be resigned, (1.) To the commanding will of God, that his will must be a sufficient reason of obe dience to us, Rom. vi. 17; so that whithersoever the command draws, we must follow, though over the belly of our natural inclinations, Gen. xxii. (2.) To the providential will of God. We must lay our all at his feet, to be disposed of according to his pleasure, Luke xiv. 26; and as the sha dow follows the body, so should our will follow the will of God, Psal. xlvii. 4. If it be his will to lift us up, or cast us down, it must be ours too. And the more we lie like a ball at the foot of Providence, the nearer we are to our duty, Phil. iv. 11, 12.

This resignation must be universal, extending to all things absolute, not suspended on any condition, but in every case; cheerful, so as we may say, good is the will of the Lord.

Lastly, By patience under crosses and afflictions, whereby a man walks tamely and peaceably under the heaviest yoke the Lord lays on him, Psal. xxxix. 9. And why should we not? He is our God, and does us no wrong; we are ever punished less than our iniquities deserve, Lam. iii. 23. God is wise enough, and knows to guide the world without us. He knows better what is good for us than we do. We have Christ for our example; and if we take God for our God, we must allow of his sovereignty.

Thirdly, Here is required the inward worship of our affec tions, which are to be devoted to God, and wherein he is to have the chief room. The parts of it are these:

1. Love to God, whereby we love him as the chief good, the best of beings, Deut. vi. 5. This holy fire should never be wanting on the altar of our hearts, glowing and flaming, We should love him for himself, his most glorious perfec tions, and for his goodness to us. We must begin at the last, and rise to the first. This is the comprehensive, natural, never-failing duty.

2. Desires after him, Psal. lxxiii. 25. These are the breathings of a soul touched with the love of God, which tends always to perfect enjoyment; the silent messengers that should be travelling day and night from the bottom of the heart to heaven, Isa. xxvi. 9. We have many wants: to what door should we go for supply but to his, for communion with him here, and full communion hereafter? Phil. i. 23.

And this love and desire must be above all other loves and desires.

3. Delight in him above all persons and things, Psal. xxxvii. 4. whereby we take pleasure in God whom we love. A life without any delight, is both a miserable and sinful life. A life that knows nothing but carnal delights, is brutish. If there be nothing in the world to yield delight to us, is there not a God in heaven to give it? If earthly things delight us, should not God himself be our delight much more? Should not these streams of delight in the creature lead us up to the fountain-head in God.

4. Rejoicing in him above all, Phil. iv. 4. This is delight raised to a high pitch. We should cheer our hearts in God, in his glorious attributes, words, works, &c. Here only we can joy without hazard of overjoying. He is suited to our case, the field in which being purchased, yea, but discover, ed, we may for joy sell all that we have; and if he be not suited to our mind, our mind is in a bad case.

5. Sorrowing most for offending him, Zech. xii. 10. To offend such a good, kind Father, should of all kinds go nearest our hearts. No trouble in the world, no crosses, should create that degree of grief, that sin should; for there is not so great an evil in the greatest sufferings as in the least sin; neither is the offence of any mortal to be laid in the balance with the offence of a good and gracious God. Tho' our hearts will spring with the touch of a cross, that will be like a rock in respect of sin.

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6. Zeal for his honour, and against sin, above all, Rev. iii. Zeal is a fervour of the affections for God, as one we have an interest in, and is a mixture of love and indignation which strongly carry the soul before them, Psal. Ixix. 9. It is an eager concern in the heart, that there be no rival to God within the soul, or without in the world; whereby every piece of dishonour done to God touches a man's heart with that concern which the dishonour of a husband would touch the heart of a wife. It spreads itself to whatever is the Lord's, his people, word, ordinances, works, &c.

7. Fearing him above all, Isa. viii. 13. We must keep up such an awful sense of his majesty, greatness, and goodness, as may awe our hearts from meddling with what will be offensive, and may stir us up to please him in all things. The want of this, as it is a great contempt of that sovereign Being,

so it is the opening of the sluice of sin and wickedness, Psal. xxxvi. 1. Fear of God is twofold; filial and servile. Filial fear is accompanied with love to God, Hos. iii. ult. and makes a man fear sin, not only because of the punishment, but because of the indignity and baseness of the action. Servile fear is only fear of wrath, without any mixture of love. This is sinful, not because men fear wrath, for that is duty, Mat. x. 28. Psal. cxix. 120. but because there is no regard in it to the goodness of God, nor is it mixed with love to him.

8. Hoping in him above all, Psal. cxxx. 7. This hope is a certain expectation of those good things which faith lays hold on, grounded on the word, Psal. cxix. 49. The more good, powerful, and true any one is, the more may be our hope in the same; but there is none so good, powerful, and true as God, in comparison of whom the creatures are but a compound of evil and weakness, and therefore a lie. Where should our hopes be placed, then, but in him? How weak are the pillars they lean on, when created pillars? The soul sinking from hope when looking to the Lord, is a sin as well as misery.

Lastly, Trust and confidence in him above all, Isa, xxvi. 4. This is the soul's quiet resting in God in the midst of all tossings from the devil, the world, and the flesh. It is the soul's staying itself on the Lord for through-bearing, holding by his word. Other things might have been mentioned, as gratitude for mercies, &c.

Fourthly, As to the duty of the conscience, which makes a part of the internal worship of God, we may take it up in these following particulars.

1. Subjecting itself to God, and to God alone. Consience is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly, Prov. xx. 27. and to be carried by his hand whi thersoever he will. It is his deputy in the soul, and must be subject to him, so as to be given up entirely to him, not to any other, Matth. xxiii. 9. for that is to make a god of the creature. And therefore there is no sin where no law of God is broken; and for conscience to say otherwise, is to betray its trust, and to make an idol of that creature to which it subjects itself.

2. To receive its law from the mouth of God, to be rightly and fully informed of the mind of God with respect to man's

duty, as it is revealed in his word and works. The defect of this makes the eye of conscience so far an evil eye, Matth. vi. 23. It will not excuse that we sin with an erring conscience, Isa. v. 20. for that error of the conscience is a sin, and one sin will not excuse another. If conscience speak not according to the law and testimony, it is because there is no light in it, Isa. viii. 20.

Lastly, To accuse or excuse according to that law, Rom. ii. 15. and that exactly and vigorously. Conscience must not be idle, but at its work, giving a verdict, and a right one, upon our actions. It must not pervert the law, and approve what God condemns, nor condemn what God approves; nor go bluntly about its work.

Fifthly, The duty of the memory is to remember God, Psal. Ixiii. 6. and keep off from forgetting of him, Jude 17. We must remember his word, John ii. 17. bringing it out of the storehouse of the heart, where it was laid up, for our direction, instruction, comfort, &c. We must remember his works, Job xxxvi. 24. We should be often calling to mind what he has done in his works of creation, his providence towards ourselves, the church and others; and especially the great work of redemption, whereof the sacrament of the supper is a solemn memorial.

Lastly, The duty of our whole soul is, that all the faculties thereof be employed in their several operations towards him, so as the whole soul may be as a parcel of candles in one room, each lighted and flaming. Particularly.

1. Prayer and calling on his name, Phil. iv. 6. Prayer is the special duty of the soul, wherein the soul addresses God for all that it stands in need of. And here I mean especially mental prayer, which is always necessary to be joined with vocal; that is, the heart's going along with the words. It is sometimes necessary to be without words, as where we cannot speak but we are overheard, Exod. xiv. 15. There is also ejaculatory prayer, Neh. ii. 4. which may be profitably used amidst our daily employments.

2. Internal praise and thanksgiving, Psal. xlv. 1. The altar of our heart should never be without thank-offerings, because we are ever in God's debt; and our good things received while here are more than our evil things, though the latter are deserved, the former not.

Lastly, Giving all obedience to him with the whole soul,

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