The Power of Holiness is Expressed in the Duties of God’s Worship

Second Instance.  The Christian must exert the power of holiness in the duties of God’s worship.  The same light that shows us a God, convinceth us he is to be worshipped, and not only so, but that he will be worshipped in a holy manner also.  God was very choice in all that belonged to his worship under the law.  If he hath a tabernacle—the place of worship—it must be made of the choicest materials; the workmen employed to make it must be rarely gifted for the pur­pose; the sacrifices to be offered up, the best in every kind, the males of the flock, the best of the beasts, the fat of the inwards, not the offals.  The persons that at­tend upon the Lord, and minister unto him, they must be peculiarly holy.  What is the gospel of all this? but that God is very wonderful in his worship.  If in any action of our lives we be more holy than in others, sure it is to be, when we have to do with God immediately.  Now this holiness in duties of worship should appear in these particulars.

           First. In making conscience of one duty as well as another.  The Christian must encompass all within his religious walk.  It is dangerous to perform one duty, that we may dispense with ourselves in the neglect of another.  Partiality is hateful to God, espec­ially in the duties of religion—which have all a divine stamp upon them.  There is no ordinance of God’s appointment which he doth not bless to his people; and we must not reject what God owns.  Yea, God communicates himself with great variety to his saints, now in this, anon in that, on purpose to keep up the esteem of all in our hearts.  The spouse seeks her Beloved in secret duty at home, and finds him not; then she goes to the public, and meets ‘him whom her soul loveth,’ Song 3:4.  Daniel, no doubt, had often vis­ited the throne of grace, and been a long trader in that duty; but God reserved the fuller manifestation of his love, and the opening of some secrets to him, till he did, to ordinary prayer, join extraordinary fasting and prayer.  Then the commandment came forth, and a messenger from heaven was despatched to acquaint him with God's mind and heart, Dan. 9:3 compared with ver. 23.  There is no duty, but the saints, at one time or another, find the Spirit of God breath­ing sweetly in, and filling their souls from it, with more than ordinary refreshing. 

Sometimes the child sucks its milk from this breast, sometimes from that.  David, in meditation, while he was ‘musing,’ Ps. 39:3, finds a heavenly heat kindling in his bosom, till at last the fire breaks out.  To the eunuch in ‘reading’ of the word, Acts 8:27, 28, is sent Philip to join his chariot; to the apostles, Christ ‘makes known himself in breaking of bread,’ Luke 24:35; the disciples walking to Emmaus, and conferring together, presently have Christ fall in with them, Luke 24:15, who helps them to untie those knots which they were posed with; Cor­nelius, at duty in his house, has ‘a vision,’ Acts 10:3 from heaven, to direct him in the way he should walk. Take heed, Christian, therefore that thou neglectest not any one duty.  How knowest thou, but that is the door at which Christ stands waiting to enter at into thy soul?  The Spirit is free.  Do not bind him to this or that duty, but wait on him in all.  It is not wisdom to let any water run past thy mill, which may be useful to set thy soul a-going heavenward. 

May be, Chris­tian, thou findest little in those duties thou per­formest; they are empty breasts to thy soul.  It is worth thy inquiry, whether there be not some other thou neglectest?  Thou hearest the word with little profit, may be?  I pray, tell me, dost thou not neglect sacraments?  I am sure too many do, and that upon weak grounds, God knows.  And wilt thou have God meet thee in one ordinance, who dost not meet him in another?  Or, if thou frequentest all public ordin­ances, is not God a great stranger to thee at home, in thy house and closet?  What communion dost thou hold with him in private duties?  Here is a hole wide enough to lose all thou gettest in public, if not timely mended.  Samuel would not sit down to the feast with Jesse and his sons, till David, though the youngest son, was fetched, who was also the only son what was wanting, I Sam. 16:11.  If thou wouldst have God’s company in any ordinance, thou must wait on him in all; he will not have any willingly neglected.  Oh fetch back that duty which thou hast sent away; though least in thy eye, yet, it may be, it is that which God means to crown with his choicest blessing to thy soul.