in the world against the infection of sin, and the prevalency of temptations over us; neither would it only preserve us from sin, but put us upon duty and service, and direct us also in the performance of it. Insomuch that the hardest duty will be easy to one that knows God; the easiest will be hard to one that knows Him not. Hard did I say? yea, and impossible too; for although a man may know God, and yet not serve Him, it is impossible that any man should serve God unless he knows Him; knowledge itself being both the first duty that we owe to God, and the foundation of all the rest.

And therefore, to conclude, if any desire to perform the vow they made in their Baptism, to love and fear,' to 'honour and obey the eternal God' that made them: if any desire to be Christians indeed, and "holy in all manner of [1 Pet. 1. 15.] conversation;" if any desire to trust on the promises, and observe the precepts of the great Creator and Possessor of the world, to live above the snares of death, and to antedate the joys of Heaven; if any desire to live the life and to "die [Num. 23. 10.] the death of the righteous," to serve God here so as to enjoy Him hereafter; let all such but study the Scriptures, and frequent the public ordinances; be constant and sincere in prayer and meditation, neglecting no opportunity of acquainting themselves with God, but making use of all means possible to get their hearts possessed with a reverential apprehension of God's greatness and glory, and with a due sense of His goodness and perfections, and their work will be soon done: for if they thus know God, they will serve Him too with a "perfect heart and a willing mind."

[1 Chron. 28. 9.1 II. We have seen how we ought to know God, and we are now to consider how we ought to serve Him; without which, indeed, our knowledge of Him will avail us nothing. For, as the Apostle argues, "Though I speak with the 1 Cor. 13. 1. tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." So here: though we should have the highest notions and speculations in divinity, that men or angels ever had; though we should understand the highest mysteries in religion, and dive into the profoundest secrets of Christian philosophy; though we should excel the greatest schoolmen, and the most learned.

doctors that ever lived; and were able to baffle heresies, dispute error and schism out of the Christian Church, and evince the truth of the articles of our faith, by more than mathematical demonstrations; yet, if after all this our knowledge be only notional, not moving our affections, nor putting us upon the practice of what we know, "it is but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal:" it may make a noise in the world, and get us applause amongst men, but it will stand us in no stead at all before the eternal God, yea, it will rise up in judgment against us another day, and sink us lower into the abyss of torments. And therefore, though men may, God doth not look upon this as the true knowledge of Himself. Neither can any one be properly said to know God, that doth not serve Him with a perfect heart and a willing mind. And therefore, having discoursed of that knowledge which is necessary to our serving God, I shall now endeavour to shew how we ought to serve God according to our knowledge.

In speaking unto which, I must beg the reader's most serious and Christian attention, as to a matter which concerns our lives; yea, our eternal lives in another world. I hope there are none of those that pretend to instruct, so brutish and atheistical, as not to desire to serve God: none so proud and self-conceited, as to think that they serve Him well enough already, or at least know how to do it. I write only to such as desire to be instructed, read books of practical religion with no other design but to serve God, and to learn how to serve Him better. And if this be our only design, as I hope it is, let us manifest it to the world, and to our consciences, by attending to, and fixing what we read upon our own hearts. For I may venture to say, that this is the noblest and most necessary subject that I can write, or any one can read of; and that which, if seriously weighed, rightly considered, and truly practised, will most certainly bring us to the highest happiness which our natures are capable of, or our persons were at first designed for. Now, for our clearer proceeding in a matter of so great importance, we will,

1. First, Consider what it is to serve God? A question very necessary to be treated of and resolved, because of the

general mistakes that are in the world about it: many people fancying the service of God to consist in some few particular acts; as in saying their prayers, reading the Scriptures, going to Church, and giving an alms now and then to the poor: especially, if they be but zealous and resolute in the defence of the party or faction they are of, so as to promote it to the highest of their parts, estates, or power, then they think they do God good service, and that this is all He requires of them. Others think they serve God by serving of His creatures, as in praying to saints, bowing to images, and falling down before the eucharist when it is carried in procession nay, many there are who think they serve God when they dishonour Him, wresting His Scriptures, corrupting His doctrines, opposing His vicegerents, seducing His people and servants into error, and all for the promoting of some temporal interests or groundless opinions. But we must know that the service of God is a thing of a higher nature and nobler stamp than such silly mortals would persuade us it is; consisting in nothing less than,

(1.) In devoting of ourselves, and all we have, or are, or do, unto the honour of the eternal God; resigning our hearts wholly to Him, and subduing all our passions and affections before Him. For, seeing we were wholly made by Him, and wholly depend upon Him, if we would serve God at all, we must serve Him with all we are; every faculty of our souls and member of our bodies employing themselves in those services which He hath set them, so as to live as none of our own, but as wholly God's; His by creation, it was He that made us; His by preservation, it is He that maintains us; and His by redemption, it is He that hath purchased us with His Own most precious blood; and therefore, being thus bought with a price, we should "glorify 1 Cor. 6. 20. God both in our souls and bodies, which are His."

And as we are to serve Him with all we are, so also with

all we have. "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and Prov, 3. 9. with the first-fruits of all thine increase." Whatsoever we have we receive from His bounty, and therefore whatsoever we have we should employ for His glory: our parts, our gifts, our estates, our power, our time; whatsoever we can call ours, is His in our hands, and therefore to be improved,

Y

[Luke 19.

20.]

not for ourselves, but Him; as our Saviour shews in the parable of the talents, which the master of the house distri[Matt. 25. buted amongst his servants; "to some he gave one, to some 15.] five, to others ten," that every one might employ his proportion to his master's use; neither squandering it away, nor yet "laying it up in a napkin." It is God that is the grand Master and Possessor of the world, Who parcels it out amongst His creatures as Himself sees good; but wheresoever He intrusteth any thing, He expects the improvement of it for Himself. And so, I suppose, doth every one of us from such servants as we keep; we expect that what we put into their hands be laid out, not for themselves, but for us; and that they spend their time in our service, not their own and if they do otherwise, none of us but will say, they do not serve us, but themselves. How then can we

expect that God will look upon us as serving Him, when we do not do so much for Him as we expect from our own servants, though our fellow-creatures? or how can we think that we serve Him as we ought, unless we serve Him as much as we can? or that God should look upon us as His servants, unless we employ and improve whatsoever we have, not for our own pleasure, profit, or applause, but for His honour and glory, from Whom we did receive it? Let us Matt. 5. 16. remember our Saviour's words, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Which is in Heaven."

(2.) Hence the serving of God consisteth also in the performing of sincere and universal obedience to all His laws and commands: which is but the natural consequent of the former; for if our whole man, both soul and body, and whatsoever we have or are, ought to be devoted to His glory, it must needs follow, that whatsoever we do should be conformable to His precepts; which also is no more than every one of us expects from our servants: for those whom we have covenanted with to be our servants, and whom we keep upon that very account, that they may serve us; we all expect that they should observe all our commands, and do whatsoever in justice and by our covenants we can enjoin them. But how much more then must we ourselves be obliged to obey all the laws and precepts of Him that made

us, Whose creatures we are, and Whose servants, by consequence, we ought to be! I say, 'all His laws and precepts;' for we must not think to pick and choose, to do some things, and leave other things undone for we should take it ill if our servants should serve us so; if when we send them upon several businesses, they should mind only one of them, and neglect all the other, we should questionless look upon them as very idle and careless servants: but let us consider and bethink ourselves, whether we have not served our Master, the eternal God, as bad as our servants have, or can serve us. He hath given us several laws to observe, and hath set us several works to do, and we perhaps can make a shift to do something that is required of us; but never think of the other, and perhaps the principal things too that He expects from us.

Just as if, when Moses had broken the two tables of stone [Exod. 32. 19.] whereon the Ten Commandments were written, one man should have come and snatched away one piece, a second run away with another piece, and a third with another, until at length ten several persons had gotten ten several pieces whereon the Ten Commandments were severally written; and when they had done so, every one of them should have striven to keep the Law that was written on his own piece, never minding what was written on the others. Do you think that such persons as these are could be reputed the servants of God, and to observe His laws, when they minded only one particular branch or piece of them? The case is our own; we hearing of several laws and commands, which the Most High God hath set us, get some one of them by the end, and run away with that, as if we were not concerned in any of the rest. But let us still remember, that the same finger that wrote one of the commands, wrote all the other too. And, therefore, he that doth not observe all, as well as one, cannot properly be said to observe any at all. Neither, indeed, doth he serve God in any thing: for though he may do something that God requires, yet it is plain that he doth not therefore do it because God requires it; for if he did so, he would do all things else too that God requires. And therefore such a person doth not serve God at all in what he doeth; no, he serves himself