that duty; for thou makest an outward shew of what is not in thy heart or affections. Well, then, if you would glorify God, fix and engage your spirits in all the duties you perform to him ; in prayer, let zeal and affection warm your hearts, and offer up that spiritual sacrifice with that heavenly fire; think of nothing, but that God to whom you pray, and those blessings you pray for: hear the truth with as much attention and reverence, as if God were himself speaking to you with his own voice; and mind nothing but how you may understand it for the present, and practise it for the future. In all your duties, bend every power and faculty of your souls to the utmost tension: command them to regard nothing else, for that time: and, if the fowls of the air, thy flying and roving thoughts, will yet come down upon thy sacrifice, let it be thy care, as it was Abraham's, speedily to drive them away; for, by their touch they defile it, but by their stay they would devour it.

2dly. In all the duties of worship which we perform unto God, we ought to glorify him not in our spirits only, but in our Bodies.

As, on the one hand, it is gross hypocrisy and dissimulation, if we present our bodies only before the Lord, with all the shews of a real affection and devotion, whilst yet the heart is far estranged from him; so again, on the other hand, it is a saucy irreverence and profane rudeness, to pretend to worship God in the spirit, when we pay him no respect or observance with our bodies. Certainly, he hath created both soul and body; and he is the Sovereign Lord of both, and expects that tribute and homage should be rendered him from both. Some men have driven all their religion so far inward, that it is become altogether invisible; and, because God is a spirit, they serve him as if they were spirits too, and had nothing to do with the body: they have heard that bodily exercise profiteth little; nor indeed doth it, where the heart and soui do not both excite and accompany it: and, because it is an empty piece of formality and pageantry to worship God only with the body, they will not worship him with the body at all, but only with the spirit; and so unyoke these two, which God hath made to draw together. How many have we seen affect irreverence, as a part or sign of spiritualness; and choose the most unseemly postures they could, only that it might appear they did not flatter nor compliment with God! It is a weakness, hugely incident to human nature, and that I think with which the world was never more tainted than in these our days, to cure extremes by extremes: because hypocrites worship

God only with the outward man, and content themselves only with the pomp and ostentation of an external devotion, therefore do so many think it a demonstration of sincerity to discharge the body utterly from bearing any part in their worship: they despise reverence as a piece of formality, and make communion with God to consist in a familiar rudeness. Certainly, not your souls only, but your bodies also were made for the Lord, as the Apostle speaks, v. 6. He expects his tribute of glory from it, although it cannot pay it in so high and refined a manner as the soul: and, though its actions be but gross and inconsiderable, in comparison with the pure and sprightly operations of the mind; yet they are not so inconsiderable, but that God absolutely requires them from us: and if we be not careful to honour him with our bodies, we rob him, if not of part of his service, yet of his servant. I would not insist so pressingly on this, did I not observe that outward reverence is not only grown into disuse, but into contempt among us; and he is accounted God's best friend and intimate, that keeps the least distance: hence proceed those unwieldy gestures, that argue nothing but either a slighting or wearisomeness of the service you are engaged in. Believe it, God is a Great King; and, in his service, he expects as humble expressions of your reverence, as any you can think due to the greatest monarchs of the world. What saith the Lord, concerning those, who offered the lame and the maimed for sacrifice, Mal. i. 8? Offer it now unto your governor: see whether he would be pleased and contented with such a present: and, if an earthly prince would look upon it as an affront rather than a gift, think you that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will account such a lame and imperfect offering worthy of his acceptance? certainly, that is not fit for God, which is not so much as fit and decent for man. And, though God looks especially at the soul, and the inward affections of the heart; yet he also expects that his offering should be entire, not lame and maimed of one half. He requires from you that outward reverence, that is necessary to testify a due sense of his glorious presence: he requires that you should sacrifice yourselves entirely to him, your bodies upon the altar of your hearts and affections; and both soul and body upon that altar, which alone can make both acceptable, even the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now in all the duties which we perform immediately unto God, we are to glorify him in our bodies Two ways:

By making them the Instruments of his service,

By making them the Witnesses and Testimonies of our

respect and reverence.

(1st) Our bodies must be employed as the Instruments of God's service.

And, here, the tongue is the chief member; which, by the Psalmist, is oftentimes called his glory, because it is a principal organ of glorifying God. Herewith we bless God for mercies, already received; and herewith we pray unto God for mercies, which we yet need. And, though praise and prayer be chiefly the work and employment of the heart, and God can distinctly read what is printed there; yet this sufficeth not, if the voice too bear not its part, where it may be done with conveniency and decency.

(2dly) We ought to glorify God in our body, by testifying all lowly Respect and Reverence in those duties which we perform unto him.

Whatsoever liberty the wantonness of our late times hath indulged; yet certainly we ought, in all our addresses unto the Great God of Heaven, to compose ourselves in such an humble and reverential posture, as may testify that our souls are deeply affected with the awe and dread of that Great Majesty before whom we appear. Wherefore serve the gestures of the body, but to signify the respect of the mind? and, therefore, if we ought to demean ourselves lowlily in the presence of our superiors, only to testify the inward veneration and esteem which we bear towards them; should we not much more do so, in the presence of the Great God? And, if some have falsely and hypocritically made use of this sign, when they have pretended a great deal of zeal and affection in their outward comportment, though inwardly they have been full of all manner of wickedness; yet this should be no argument to us to neglect it: but, first, we should labour to have deep impressions of awe and reverence made upon our spirits; and, then, express that reverence in the most significant and humble deportment of our bodies. This is to glorify God in our spirit and in cur body. And, therefore, doth the Scripture every where abound, both in giving us directions and examples of outward reverence in the worship of God.

In Prayer, we find the holy men of old frequently used Three several postures; all of them expressive of a deep humility. Prostration, or a falling flat on the ground. Thus it is said of Job, that he fell down upon the ground, and worshipped: Job. i. 20.

Kneeling, which is most often mentioned: yea, and because it was the common gesture in this duty, it is of itself mentioned as a periphrasis of prayer by St. Paul, Eph. iii. 14. For this cause I bow my knees: i. e. for this cause I pray unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Standing. So it is said, 2 Chron. vi. 12. that Solomon stood upon the brazen scaffold, and spread forth his hands and prayed: and, chap. xx. 5. that Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation and prayed.

Either of these is a fit posture for prayer; but, especially, kneeling and they all express that reverence and humility, which our souls ought to be possessed with, when we appear in the presence of the great and glorious God. But, for other gestures, which either pride, contradiction, or laziness has introduced, they are altogether unfit for this duty; and, whatsoever inward affection and zeal men may pretend to, yet certainly they give but very little demonstrations of it outwardly.

Then, again, for Hearing the Word, we should do it with a composed gravity and seriousness; shewing the fixedness of our minds, by the fixedness of our bodies. Consider, that the great King of Heaven speaks to you: he speaks by his ambassador: and, the same attention and reverence, that you would shew to your prince, were he speaking unto you; the same, yea and much greater, ought you certainly to shew to your God. Concerning particulars, I leave it to your Christian prudence to judge what is most expressive of reverence towards men; which, though perhaps it be no part of the worship of God, yet he expects and requires as a befitting circumstance: yea, and a circumstance so considerable, that it is almost all that your bodies can do in his service. And judge, I pray, whether it be any less than a slighting of God, that you should declare more respect and reverence to your superiors, which are but mortal frail men like yourselves, than to him, who is the immortal and most high God, blessed for evermore.

The Apostle is somewhat large in giving directions to the Church of Corinth, concerning their outward demeanour in the public worship of God, 1 Cor. xi. 4. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. That this is spoken, not only of the preacher, but of the hearers, appears plainly by the following verse: Every woman, that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head. Now, certain it is, that women were not to pray or to

prophesy in the Church, as teachers; for it was not permitted them to speak: they prayed, therefore, as joining in prayer; and prophesied, as attending upon prophesying, that is, upon preaching the word. And so, in like manner, the whole assembly of men are said to pray and prophesy; that is, to join in prayer, and to hear the word of God preached. But he, that doth this, saith the Apostle, with his head covered, dishonoureth his head. And so, again, v. 10. The woman ought to have power over her head; that is, a veil, or covering, so called, because it betokened her subjection to the power of her husband: she ought to wear this veil because of the angels; that is, that the angels, who are ministering spirits and present in the assemblies of the faithful, joying to behold the order, reverence, and affection of our worship, might see nothing indecent and uncomely.

Indeed, this outward reverence should be used, not only in respect of the attending angels; but in respect both of ourselves and others, as it may excite and help both our and their inward zeal and affection.

First. It will tend to quicken and stir up thine own devotion. For, if thou prostratest thyself before God, will not this put thee in mind what thou art doing; and shame thee if thou findest thy thoughts and thy affections wandering, and wholly incongruous to thy bodily deportment? Whilst thou bowest thy knees, and spreadest forth thy hands towards heaven, canst thou, without blushing, suffer thy thoughts and thy affections to gad abroad, and stray from the work which thou so solemnly makest shew of? This will oblige thee, if thou hast any ingenuity, to call them home, and fix them upon what thou art doing. And,

Secondly. It will much tend to excite and quicken the affections of others, who shall behold thy grave and reverend de

meanour.

For the expression of our affection is naturally apt to imprint the same, on those, that shall observe us. When we see them signify so much awe and humility, it will put us in mind to whom they do it, in whose presence both they and we are: and as, in water, face answereth to face, so doth the heart of man to man; and, therefore, it will be very rare, if those affections, which we see lively stirring in others, do not beget in us also some resemblance and similitude of them.

Indeed, there is no stated universal measure for outward reverence; for that, which is accounted a sign of reverence in these nations, as uncovering of the head, &c. in other places is