HOW TO BEHAVE OURSELVES IN THE PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES, AND THE WORSHIP
THERE PERFORMED, AND AFTER THEM.
I have purposely given such particular directions in part ii. on this
subject, and written so many books about it,[174] and said so much
also in the Cases of Conscience, that I shall here only cast in a few
common directions, lest the reader think I make a balk.
_Direct._ I. Let your preparations in secret and in your family on the
beginning of the Lord's days, be such as conduce to fit you for the
public worship.[175] Run not to church as ungodly people do, with a
carnal heart, that never sought God before you went, nor considered
what you go about; as if all your religion were to make up the number
of the auditors; and you thought God must not be worshipped and obeyed
at home, but only in the church. God may in mercy meet with an
unprepared heart, and open his eyes and heart, and save him; but he
hath made no promise of it to any such. He that goeth to worship that
God at church, whom he forgetteth and despiseth in his heart and
house, may expect to be despised by him. O consider what it is for a
sinner that must shortly die, to go with the servants of God to
worship him; to pray for his salvation, and to hear what God hath to
say to him by his minister, for the life of his immortal soul!
_Direct._ II. Enter not into the holy assembly either superstitiously
or unreverently. Not as if the bending of the knee, and mumbling over
a few words with a careless, ignorant mind, and spending an hour there
as carelessly, would save your souls: nor yet as if the relation which
the worship, the worshippers, and the dedicated place have unto God,
deserved not a special honour and regard. Though God be ever with us,
every where; yet every time, and place, and person, and business is
not equally related to God. And holiness is no unfit attribution, for
that company or that place, which is related to God, though but by the
lawful separation and dedication of man. To be uncovered in those
countries where uncovering signifieth reverence, is very well becoming
a reverent soul; except when the danger of cold forbids it. It is an
unhappy effect of our contentions, that many that seem most reverent
and holy, in their high regard of holy things, do yet carry themselves
with more unreverent deportment, than those that themselves account
profane. God is the God of soul and body, and must be worshipped by
both; and while they are united, the actions of one are helpful to the
other, as well as due and decent.
_Direct._ III. If you can, come at the beginning, that you may show
your attendance upon God, and your esteem of all his worship.
Especially in our assemblies, where so great a part of the duty, (as
confession, praises, reading the Scriptures,) are all at the
beginning. And it is meet that you thereby show that you prefer public
worship before private, and that needless businesses keep you not
away.
_Direct._ IV. If you are free, and can do it lawfully, choose the most
able, holy teacher that you can have, and be not indifferent whom you
hear. For oh how great is the difference; and how bad are our hearts;
and how great our necessity of the clearest doctrine, and the
liveliest helps! Nor be you indifferent what manner of people you join
with, nor what manner of worship is there performed; but in all choose
the best when you are free. But where you are not free, or can have no
better, refuse not to make use of weaker teachers, or to communicate
with faulty congregations in a defective, faulty manner of worship,
sobeit you are not compelled to sin. And think not that all the faults
of the prayers, or communicants, are imputed to all that join with
them in that worship. For then we should join with none in all the
world.
_Direct._ V. When the minister is weak, be the more watchful against
prejudice and sluggishness of heart, lest you lose all. Mark that word
of God which he readeth to you, and reverence, and love, and lay up
that. It was the law, read and meditated on, which David saith the
godly do delight in.[176] The sacred Scriptures are not so obscure and
useless as the papists do pretend, but convert the soul, and are able
to make us wise unto salvation. Christ went ordinarily to the
synagogues, where even bad men did read Moses and the prophets every
sabbath day. There are thousands that cannot read themselves, who must
come to the assembly to hear that word read, which they cannot read or
hear at home. Every sentence of Scripture hath a divine excellency,
and therefore had we nothing but the reading of it, and that by a bad
man, a holy soul may profit by it.
_Direct._ VI. Mind not so much the case of others present as
yourselves; and think not so much how bad such and such a one is, and
unworthy to be there, as how bad you are yourselves, and unworthy of
communion with the people of the Lord, and what a mercy it is that you
have admittance, and are not cast out from those holy opportunities.
_Direct._ VII. Take heed of a peevish, quarrelsome humour, that
disposeth you to carp at all that is said and done, and to find fault
with every mode and circumstance, and to affect a causeless
singularity, as thinking that your own ways, and words, and orders,
are far more excellent than other men's: think ill of nothing out of a
quarrelsome disposition, but only as evidence constraineth you to
dissent. And then remember that we are all imperfect, and faulty men
must needs perform a faulty worship, if any, for it cannot be better
than the agent.
_Direct._ VIII. When you meet with a word in a sermon or prayer, which
you do not like, let it not stop you, and hinder your fervent and
peaceable proceeding in the rest; as if you must not join in that
which is good, if there be any faulty mixture in it. But go on in that
which you approve, and thank God that pardoneth the infirmities of
others as well as your own.
_Direct._ IX. Conform yourselves to all the lawful gestures and
customs of the church with which you join. You come not hither proudly
to show the congregation, that you are wiser in the circumstances of
worship than they, nor needlessly to differ from them, much less to
harden men into a scorn of strictness, by seeing you place religion in
singularities in lawful and indifferent things. But you come to
exercise love, peace, and concord, and with one mind and mouth to
glorify God. Stand when the church standeth; sit when the church
sitteth; kneel when the church kneeleth, in cases where God doth not
forbid it.
_Direct._ X. Take heed of a customary, formal, senseless heart, that
tolerateth itself from day to day, to do holy things in a common
manner, and with a common, dull, and careless mind: for that is to
profane them. Call in your thoughts when they attempt to wander; stir
up your hearts when you feel them dull. Remember what you are about,
and with whom it is that you have to do, and that you tread on the
dust of them who had such opportunities before you which are now all
gone, and so will yours. You hear and pray for more than your lives;
therefore do it not as in jest or as asleep.
_Direct._ XI. Do all in faith and hope. Believe what you may get of
God in prayer, and by an obedient hearing of his word. Would you not
go cheerfully to the king, if he had promised you to grant whatever
you ask? Hath not God promised you more than kings can give you? Oh it
is an unbelieving and a despairing heart, that turneth all into dead
formality! Did you but hope that God would do all that for you which
he hath told you he will do, and that you might get more by prayer
than by your trades, or projects, or all your friends, you would go to
God with more earnestness and more delight.
_Direct._ XII. Apply all the word of God to yourselves according to
its usefulness. Ask as you go, How doth this concern me? this
reproof, this mark, this counsel, this comfort, this exhortation, this
direction? Remember as much as you can, but especially the most
practical, useful parts. Get it home so deep upon your hearts, that it
may not easily slide away. Root it by close application as you go,
that affection may constrain you to remember it.
_Direct._ XIII. Above all, resolve to obey what God shall make known
to be his will; take heed lest any wilful sin should escape the power
of the word; and should ordinarily go away with you as it came.
Careless hearing and careless living tend most dangerously to a
hardened heart and a forsaken state. If you regard iniquity in your
heart, God will not hear your prayers. The sacrifice of the wicked is
abominable to him. The foolish shall not stand in his sight, he hateth
all the workers of iniquity.[177] He that turneth away his ear from
hearing (that is, obeying) the law, even his prayer is abominable. To
the wicked saith God, What hast thou to do to take my covenant into
thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and hast cast my words
behind thee? Obedience is better than sacrifice. He that nameth the
name of Christ must depart from iniquity, or else God will not find
his mark upon him, nor take him to be one of his. Christ's sheep know
his voice and follow him, and to them he will give eternal life. But
if you had preached or done miracles in his name, he will say to you,
"Depart from me, I know you not," if ye be workers of iniquity. Look
therefore to your foot (to your heart and life) when you go to the
house of God, and be more ready to hear (his law that must govern you,
that you may know his will and do it) than to offer the sacrifice of
fools, (that is, disobedient sinners,) that think by sacrifices and
outside worship to get pardon for an unholy life, and to reconcile God
to them in their sins, not knowing that thus they add sin to sin.[178]
If you seek God daily, and delight to know his ways, as a nation that
did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God; if you
ask of him the ordinances of justice, (sound doctrine, regular
worship, strict discipline,) and take delight in approaching to God;
if you humble your souls with frequent fasts; and yet live in a course
of wilful disobedience, you labour in vain, and aggravate your sins,
and preachers had need to lift up their voices and be louder trumpets
to tell you of your sins, than to other men.[179] But if ye will wash
you, and make you clean, and put away the evil of your doings, cease
to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,
&c.; you may then come with boldness and confidence unto God.
Otherwise to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices? your
oblations will be vain, and your incense abominable. If ye be willing
and obedient, you shall be blessed; but if ye refuse and rebel you
shall be destroyed, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.[180] If
you do well shall you not be accepted? but if ye do evil, sin lieth at
the door. Let your profession be never so great, and your parts and
expressions never so seraphical, sin is a reproach to any people; and
if you would hide yourselves from justice in the purest church, among
the holiest people, and the most numerous and longest prayers, be sure
that your sin will find you out.[181] Your secret lust, your covetous
over-reaching, your secret gluttony or tippling, much more your
crimson sins, will surely find you out.[182]
Alas! what then will those miscreants do, whose sins are scarlet,
bloody persecutions, under pretence of promoting unity, and obedience,
and the catholic church, while the cloak or cover of it is but the
thin, transparent spider-web of human traditions, and numerous
ceremonies, and childish complimenting with God; and when they have
nothing but the prayers of a long liturgy, to cover the effects of
their earthly, sensual, and diabolical zeal and wisdom, (as St. James
calls it, chap. iii. 15, 16,) and to concoct the widows' houses which
they devour, and to put a reverence upon the office and work, which
they labour all the week to render reproachful, by a sensual,
luxurious, idle life, and by perfidious making merchandise of
souls.[183]
As ever you care what becometh of your souls, take heed lest sin grow
bold under prayers, and grow familiar and contemptuous of sermons and
holy speeches, and lest you keep a custom of religious exercises and
wilful sins. For oh, how doth this harden now, and wound hereafter! He
is the best hearer, that is the holiest liver, and faithfullest
obeyer.
_Direct._ XIV. Be not a bare hearer of the prayers of the pastor,
whether it be by liturgy or without. For that is but hypocrisy, and a
sin of omission; you come not thither only to hear prayers, but to
pray; and kneeling is not praying; but it is a profession that you
pray. And will you be prayerless even in the house of prayer, and when
you profess and seem to pray, and so add hypocrisy to impiety? I fear
many that seem religious, and would have those kept from the sacrament
that pray not in their families, do very ordinarily tolerate
themselves in this gross omission, and mocking of God, and are
prayerless themselves even when they seem to pray.
_Direct._ XV. Stir up your hearts in an especial manner to the
greatest alacrity and joy, in speaking and singing the praises of God.
The Lord's day is a day of joy and thanksgiving, and the praises of
God are the highest and holiest employment upon earth. And if ever you
should do any thing with all your might, and with a joyful and
triumphing frame of soul, it is this. Be glad that you may join with
the sacred assemblies, in heart and voice, in so heavenly a work. And
do not as some humoursome, peevish persons (that know not the danger
of that proud disease) fall to quarrelling with David's Psalms, as
unsuitable to some of the hearers, or to nauseate every failing in the
metre, so as to turn so holy a duty into neglect or scorn; (for alas!
such there are near me where I dwell;) nor let prejudice against
melody, or church music (if you dwell where it is used) possess you
with a splenetic disgust of that which should be your most joyful
work. And if you know how much the incorporate soul must make use of
the body in harmony, and in the joyful praises of Jehovah, do not then
quarrel with lawful helps, because they are sensible and corporeal.
_Direct._ XVI. Be very considerate and serious in sacramental
renewings of your covenant with God.[184] O think what great things
you come thither to receive! And think what a holy work you have to
do! And think what a life it is that you must promise! So solemn a
covenanting with God, and of so great importance, requireth a most
holy, reverent, and serious frame of soul. But yet let not the
unwarrantable differencing this ordinance from God's praises and the
rest, seduce you into the common errors of the times: I mean, 1. Of
those that hence are brought to think that the sacrament should never
be received without a preparatory day of humiliation, above the
preparation for an ordinary Lord's day's work. 2. And therefore
receive it seldom; whereas the primitive churches never spent a Lord's
day together without it. 3. Those that turn it into a perplexing,
terrifying thing, for fear of being unprepared, when it should be
their greatest comfort, and when they are not so perplexed about their
unpreparedness to any other duty. 4. Those that make so great a
difference betwixt this and church prayers, praises, and other church
worship, as that they take this sacrament only for the proper work and
privilege of church members; and thereupon turn it into an occasion of
our great contentions and divisions, while they fly from sacramental
communion with others, more than from communion in the other church
worship. Oh what hath our subtle enemy done against the love, peace,
and unity of christians, especially in England, under pretence of
sacramental purity!
_Direct._ XVII. Perform all your worship to God, as in heart-communion
with all Christ's churches upon earth; even those that are faulty,
though not with their faults. Though you can be present but with one,
yet consent as present in spirit with all, and separate not in heart
from any one, any further than they separate from Christ.
_Direct._ XVIII. Accordingly let the interest of the church of Christ
be very much upon your heart, and pray as hard for it as for yourself.
_Direct._ XIX. Yea, remember in all, what relation you have to the
heavenly society and choir, and think how they worship God in heaven,
that you may strive to imitate them in your degree. Of which more
anon.
_Direct._ XX. Let your whole course of life after, savour of a church
frame; live as the servants of that God whom you worship, and as ever
before him. Live in the love of those christians with whom you have
communion, and do not quarrel with them at home; nor despise, nor
persecute them with whom you join in the worshipping of God. And do
not needlessly open the weaknesses of the minister to prejudice others
against him and the worship. And be not religious at the church alone,
for then you are not truly religious at all.
[174] See my "Treatise of the Lord's Day," and my "Cure of Church
Divisions."
[175] Eccl. v. 1-4; 1 Pet. ii. 1, 2; Prov. i. 20, to the end.
[176] Psal. i. 2, 3; xii. 6, 7; xix. 7-9.
[177] Acts x. 33; 1 Sam. iii. 9, 10; Prov. viii. 34; Ezek. xxxiii. 4;
Psal. lxvi. 18; v. 5.
[178] Dan. iv. 27; Prov. x. 29; xxviii. 9; Psal. l. 16-18; cxxv. 5; 1
Sam. xv. 22; 2 Tim. ii. 19; Matt. vii. 23; Luke xiii. 27; John x. 3,
4, 27; Eccles. v. 1-4.
[179] Isa. lviii. 1-3.
[180] Isa. i. 10-20.
[181] Gen. iv. 7; Prov. xiv. 34; Numb. xxxii. 23.
[182] James i. 22; Rom. ii. 13.
[183] Ezek. vii. 19; Jer. vii. 23; xi. 4, 7; xxvi. 13; Matt. xxiii.
14; Mark xii. 40; Exod. vi. 30; Deut. vii. 12; xi. 13; xiii. 18; xv.
5; xxvi. 17; xxviii. 1; Psal. lxxi. 8-12.
[184] See Mr. Rawlet's Book of Sacramental Covenanting.