capable of any material representation; that his right to prescribe in every thing relating to his worship is absolute and inalienable; that the presumption of dividing this right with him has introduced all the absurdities and mischiefs of idolatry; and that the descendants of Abraham were chosen by him, that in them he might preserve his truth, maintain his prerogative, and display his government, in the sight of all the world, we perceive the import, and we feel the force, of the second commandment.

Let us now avail ourselves of these facts and principles, in marking the evils denounced, and the virtues required.

I. The neglect of worship, as spiritual homage to God; and,

II. Human innovations in the institutions of his worship; are distinctly condemned.

I. The highest Authority has declared, that" they who worship God, must worship him in spirit and in truth:" the adoration of the mind, and the service of the heart, are, therefore, inseparable from the scriptural idea of worship.

The acts of worship required in Scripture,-praise prayer, and the observance of revealed institutions,are private, domestic, and social; adapted to the secrecy of the closet, the circle of the family, and the public solemnities of the church; to live in the wilful neglect of any of these duties is, therefore, a gross and contemptuous violation of this divine commandment.

Are you"restraining prayer" habitually, or even occasionally, before God, in solitude? Are you, placed at the head of a family, omitting the worship of God in that family? Are you easily persuaded to absent yourself, or to detain others, from the engagements of the "house of prayer?" Then, you are living in sin; and, unless your conscience becomes enlightened to perceive your guilt, and your heart purified, that you may hate your present disposition

and conduct, you will not value the gospel,-you will not believe in the Saviour of sinners; and, therefore, your soul must perish! Whatever may be the immediate reason of your neglect of divine worship, and deadness to its importance,-whether indolence, or presumption, or business, or procrastination, or society, or amusement,-oh, be assured that your heart has departed far from God: there is in it a tendency to wander from him through eternity!

"Take heed, lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." The worship of Him who is a spirit cannot consist in words, forms, and gestures. The body may assume the posture, and the lips may breathe the language of devotion, where there is neither desire nor gratitude, and therefore neither prayer nor praise. It is easy to conceive the most punctual observance of all the forms of service in the congregation, in the family,-yes, and in the closet too, without the worship which is "in spirit and in truth!" You may confess sins, of which you have not felt the burden, nor seen the pollution. You may, in words very suitable and scriptural, when sincerely used, ask forgiveness, though you have no humiliating sense of your guilt; no enlightened conviction of the justice and grace of God displayed in the cross of Christ; no reliance of your heart on the merit of the Saviour's obedience! You may use the language of thankfulness for mercies which you have neither contemplated nor received as mercies. You may say you desire to partake of blessings, on whose nature you have not reflected, and whose worth you have never seriously pondered. You may "draw nigh to God with your lips, while your heart is far from him."

Every instance of presumption and self-dependence, of formality and hypocrisy, of inconstancy and irregularity, of wandering or levity, in the exercise of either private or public worship, is a sin,-a sin of which we must be convinced, and which we must be induced to hate, and of which we must seek forgive

D

ness, through the blood of the atonement, or we must endure the "wrath to come!"

There is within us a natural dislike, which only divine grace can subdue, to every act of spiritual worship. There is much in constitutional temperament which becomes a mighty hindrance to these solemn duties. There are many trifling circumstances, in the contingencies of every day, to interrupt the communion of the soul with God. The moral atmosphere around us is injurious to the habits of spiritual prayer and praise. The indulgence of any one sin is positively fatal. There is an enemy, too, fertile in devices to divide the heart,-to distract the thoughts, -to lull the spirit into infatuating security, to deceive it by false humility,-to enfeeble it by sinful distrust, to pollute it by unholy dalliance, to entice, or to terrify it away from God by false impressions of his character and of his dispensations. And oh, how often do we suffer this enemy to gain the advantage over us! How often sin separates between us and God! How deeply do we catch the infection of the ungodliness that surrounds us! How we allow the interruptions of life to form excuses for our neglect of God! How thoughtlessly we yield to a volatile, negligent, or dilatory disposition! How awfully predominant is the native disinclination of our hearts for any service that has an immediate reference to God! "Who can understand his errors?" "The law is spiritual."

II. INNOVATION, as well as neglect, is cursed by this commandment. In the judgment pronounced in the name of God by Isaiah* against Jerusalem, we are taught that it was not merely the hypocrisy of the people that provoked his anger, but their heartless "fear towards him was taught by the precepts of men;"—and when the Saviour accused the scribes and pharisees, "who were of Jerusalem," of

* Isaiah, xxix. 13.

making the commandments of God of none effect by their traditions, he applies to them, with peculiar emphasis on the suitableness of the citation, the language of the prophet: "Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of ""* you.

The Apostles of Jesus Christ were extremely careful to assert their divine warrant for every new institute of worship to which they called the attention of mankind; and they were exceedingly jealous of any defect, redundancy, or admixture.-Let no man therefore judge you. Let no man beguile you. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men. Why are ye subject to ordinances after the doctrines and commandments of men? Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. We have no such custom, neither the churches of God.+

Nor was this earnest solicitude superfluous. They that love God "keep his commandments." The same spirit of innovation, by which the patriarchal institutions were debased down to the grossest extremes of idolatry, has breathed its pestilential vapours on the ordinances of the christian church,-corrupting their simplicity,-polluting their sanctity,-tarnishing their glory. It is the vital spirit of that power which "opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." It is the spirit of depraved and presumptuous man: and, whether its pretensions be supported by the traditions of antiquity, or the suggestions of expediency, or the dictates of human authority, or the delusions of superstition,-whether displayed in the conduct of an individual, or in the deeds of a collective body,—it is the spirit of rebel

Matthew, xv. 7, 8, 9. + Colossians, ii. 16. 18. viii. 20.

1 Corinthians, xi. 2. 16.

lion against Him who spake these words: it is the "image of jealousy."

The VIRTUES required in this commandment are all those which are essential to the spiritual and consistent worship of the true God.

I. It requires you to have a clear and impressive belief of the truth of his revelation; especially as relating to the perfect immateriality of his nature,the minute inspection of his providential government, his incommunicable right to institute the services of his own worship,-his goodness to us, in making known his will in a manner and in circumstances so demonstrative of its divine original and authority, and the equity and mercy of enforcing our obedience, by considerations at once so awful and so tender.

II. It requires humility,-a full and practical acknowledgment of our total dependence on God, for wisdom to guide, as well as for strength to aid, and favour to accept us in our attempts to worship him. It is not when engaged in the more solemn acts of worship only that this humility is required: the thinkings of the heart must be brought under its influence. Every "imagination and high thing" must be "cast down." The kingdom of God, all the doctrines, precepts, blessings, institutions of Christianity, must be received in the docile spirit of a little child. This disposition is the result and the evidence of a cordial belief of the truth of God. "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." The seraphim cover their faces with their wings.

III. As the spirit of presumption in religious worship, under all its modifications, is only one varied exhibition of the enmity of the human heart towards God, love to him is the only principle that