this were to dishonour our nature, to ferve our fellow-creatures and fellow-fervants : befides, that fuch will never facrilegiously ufurp their Maker's honour, nor admit that fervice which is due to him alone. Shall we then ferve man? alas! the breath of great ones is in their noftrils; their life is but a vapour, toffed to and fro with restless noise and motion; and then it vanishes; they die, and all their thoughts and projects perish. What then; fhall we at length be reduced to ferve our lufts? this is worse than pagan idolatry; flocks and ftones indeed could not help or reward their votaries; but our lufts, like wild and favage tyrants, deftroy where they rule, and oppress and overwhelm us with ruins and mischiefs, while we fervilely court and flatter them. I have not done yet: I have proved it indeed to be our duty and honour to ferve God; but thefe with fome are cold and lifeless topicks: I will now prove it to be our interest and happiness; and this too, laying afide at prefent, as I promised, the confideration of a future reward, and the joys fpringing from it. To make good this affertion, it will be neceffary briefly to examine two things. First, The defign or end: and, Secondly, The nature of this fervice. If we enquire after the end of it, 'tis evident ly our own advantage and happiness. The

lufts

lufts or the humours, the wants and neceffities of man, may put bim upon invading our liberty, or purchafing and contracting with us for our fervitude: but God is all-fufficient to himself, and has no need of our fervice when he will be glorified by us, 'tis that we may enjoy his protection and bounty: when he obliges us to obey his commands, 'tis in order to perfect our natures, and purify and qualifie us for the enjoyment of spiritual and divine pleasure : when he enjoins us prayer, 'tis because it does exalt and enlarge our minds, and fit us for the bleffings it obtains: when he prefcribes us felf-refignation, 'tis because he will chufe for us, and manage our affairs better than we can our felves. Let us in the next place confider the nature of this fervice. To Jerve God, what is it, but to love what is infinitely lovely; to follow the conduct of infinite wisdom, and to repofe our confidence in that being whofe goodness is as boundless as his power? to ferve God, 'tis to pursue the great end of our creation, to act confonant to the dignity of our nature, and to govern our lives by the dictates of an enlightened reafon. How wifely has our church in one of her collects expreffed her notion of the nature of God's fervice? whofe fervice is perfect freedom. The devil maintains his dominion over us, by

infa

infatuating our understandings, by enfeebling and fettering our wills, by deluding and corrupting our affections: but on the quite contrary, the more clear and impartial our understandings, the more free and abfolute our wills, the more unbyafs'd and rational our affections, the fitter are we to worship God; nay indeed, we cannot worship him at all as we ought to do, unless our fouls be thus qualified. Therefore is the fervice of God called a rational fervice, un zyTpea: and the word of God is called at agv zázα, fincere milk; to fignify to us, that in the Service of God all is real and folid good. Such is the Perfection of our natures; the might and joy of the Spirit; the protection and conduct of Providence; and all the great and precious promifes of God in Chrift are Yea and Amen. But in the fervice of fin all is cheat and imposture; and under a pompous fhew of good, the prefent is vanity, and the future, repentance; but fuch a repentance as does not relieve, but increase the finners mifery.

This is enough to be faid of the nature of God's fervice: and by the conceffions I made my objector about the beginning of this head, I am restrained from taking notice of the more glorious effects of it: yet Some there are, very great and good ones, that fall not within the compass of the objection,

which I will but just mention. The first is reft. While religion regulates the diforder, and reduces the extravagance of our affections, it does in effect lay a ftorm, and compofe a mutiny in our bofoms. Whilft it enlightens our minds, and teaches us the true value, that is, at least the comparative worthlefness of worldly things, it extinguishes the troubles which prefent difappointments and loffes, and prevents thofe fears which the prospect of future changes and revolutions is wont to create in us. A mind that is truly enlightened, and has no ambition but for immortality and glory, whofe humility with reference to these temporal things is built upon a true notion of the nature of them; this foul has entered already into its reft. This is the doctrine of our Lord and Mafter, Matt. xi. 28, 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden; that is, all ye that are oppreffed by the weight of your own cares and fears, that are fatigued and toiled in the defigns and projects of avarice and ambition, and I will give you reft. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find reft unto your fouls. I need not, I think, here fhew, that the more we fear and ferve God, the more we love and admire him, the more clear is the underftanding, and the more pure the heart: for the more we converfe with folid and eternal

good,

good, the more infignificant and trifling will temporal things appear to us; and, the more the mind rejoyces in the Lord, the oftner 'tis rapt up into heaven, and, as it were, transfigured into a more glorious being, by the joy of the fpirit, and the ardors of di vine love; the more flat and infipid are all earthly and carnal fatisfactions to it. Another effect that attends our shaking off the dominion of fin, and our devoting our felves to the fervice of God, is our being purified from guilt. The ftains of the past life are wafhed off by repentance and the blood of Jefus; and the fervant of God contracts no new ones by wilful and prefumptuous fin. Now therefore he can enter into himself, and commune with his own heart, without any uneafinefs; he can reflect upon his actions, and review each day when it is past, without inward regret or fhame. To break off a vicious courfe; to vanquish both terrors and allurements, when they perfuade to that which is mean and bafe; to be master of one's felf, and entertain no affections, but what are wife, and regular, and fuch as one has reafon to wifh fhould daily increase and grow stronger; these are things fo far from meriting reproach and reproof from one's own mind, that they are fufficient to Support it against all reproaches from without. Such is the beauty, fuch the pleasure of a well established habit of righteousness, that