A SERMON PREACHED AT ST. JAMES'S CHAPEL, IN THE YEAR 1711-12. EXTERNAL WORSHIP NOT SUFFICIENT ALONE. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, unto God in the heavens.-LAMENT. iii. 14. 41. THESE are the words of Jeremiah, spoken to the Jews of his time, who were very exact and punctual in the outward ceremonies and performances of religion, but very deficient in the inward life and reality of it. They resorted to the temple constantly, and were careful to practise the various rites which the law of Moses prescribed but they did not bring along with them a disposition of soul suitable to those solemnities; their mind was alienated from the service, even while they were performing it. The prophet, sensible of this great defect in their way of worship, thus exhorts them to the cure of it. Let us lift up our hearts (says he) with our hands, unto God in the heavens. Which words refer to the Jews, as performing the public service of their church in the temple or the synagogue; and imply, that the devotion of the hand, without that of the heart, is of no acceptance with God ; that bodily exercise (in this sense of the word) profiteth but little, 1 Tim. iv. 8, unless accompanied with an holy warmth and elevation of mind. This is a very plain but unregarded truth: many Christians there are, who seem not to be thoroughly convinced of it; and the best of us, God knows, (such is the infirmity of our nature,) want sometimes to be awakened into a vigorous and lively sense of it. Many frequenters of such religious assemblies as these, think their duty sufficiently discharged by a punctual and regular attendance upon them. If they are present during the time of divine service, if they take their share in the several parts of it, join in the hymns and the responses, add their Amen to the prayers; if their outward behaviour be every way decent, and agreeable to the holy usages of the church; though they are inwardly absent from the duty, wherein they seem to be engaged, and their wandering thoughts are employed all the while on foreign and vain objects; yet shall they go away satisfied and justified in their own conceit, as if they had performed the whole of their reasonable service, and not offered the sacrifice of fools, Eccl. v. 1.; forgetting the reproof which Esaias first gave to the whole Jewish nation, and which our Saviour applied particularly to the Scribes and Pharisees: this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouths, and honoureth me with their lips ; but their heart is far from me. Matt. xv. 8. That such a mock worship as this, such a mere face and form of devotion, is not what God requires, what he will hearken to, or reward, give me leave briefly to shew, by observing how unproportioned it is to the divine nature, and our own, to the great end and design of prayer, and to those mighty blessings and benefits, with which, when duly performed, it is certainly attended. The object of our religious addresses is God; that God, who is a spirit; and who, therefore, will be worshipped in spirit (as our Saviour argues, John iv. 24.) with all the faculties and powers of our mind, with the utmost intension and vigour of thought: and he, therefore, who lifts up his hands to him, without any elevation of his. heart, affronts him instead of adoring him. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Psal. ciii. 1., says good David. He summons every faculty and affection of his soul, all that is within him to do homage to God, as knowing that the mere outward homage unaccompanied by the inward, would be a lifeless and useless performance. What! do we hope to impose upon God, as we sometimes do upon men, by a mere form of godliness, without the power of it? Do we think, that he requires our adoration and homage for his own sake; and therefore contents himself with the honours that are done him by outward shews and appearances? He, who requireth truth in the inward parts, Psal. li. 6, to whom all things are naked and open, Heb. iv. 13, and who trieth the very hearts and reins ! Psal. vii. 9. He, whose language in Holy Writ is, My son, give me thy heart! give me thy heart, Prov. xxiii. 26, whilst thou art performing any part of thy duty that relates either to me, thyself, or thy neighbour; but chiefly give me thy heart, whilst thou art immediately addressing thyself to me by prayer and praise; whilst thou art actually conversing with me, entreating and adoring me: give me thy heart at such a time; or else all that thou givest me besides, will prove a vain oblation. Again, Let us consider our own nature as well as that of the divine Being. Are we not reasonable creatures? And ought not a reasonable creature to pay an entire and reasonable service? How can we be said to worship God, while the better half of us is unconcerned in the act? It is the mind chiefly, that is the man; and where the mind therefore is absent, the man is not present : he offers not a living and a breathing victim, but a dead and lifeless carcase; and with such a sacrifice how can God be well pleased? What is prayer, but an ascent of the mind towards God? an holy engine, by which we lift up our spirits to the great Father of spirits, maintain a sweet intercourse with him, and breathe out, from the bottom of our hearts, our common desires and acknowledgments to him? And what is there of this, in coming unto him, as his people cometh, in sitting before him as his people sitteth; in shewing much love with our mouth, while our heart goeth after its covetousness? Ezek. xxxiii. 31. Wondrous is the efficacy of prayer, as represented in Scripture; mighty things are there said to have been done in virtue of it. But how were they done? By the mere bending of the knees, and uttering of words and syllables? No! but by the attention of the heart, by zeal, and fervency. It is only the fervent prayer of a righteous man, that availeth much: James v. 16. And when Elias, by his prevalent interposition with God, shut up or opened the heavens, brought drought or rain upon the earth, it is said of him, προσευχῇ προσήυξατο, that he prayed ardently and earnestly, James v. 17. Indeed this qualification of prayer is enjoined us by God; not only as a becoming expression of our religious reverence towards him; but as a proper and natural means of working in our souls those good dispositions, which his blessed Spirit delights in, and delights to reward. We are directed to ask with a fixed and fervent mind, because such a manner of asking fits and qualifies us for receiving; makes us humble, submissive, dependant, affects us with a deep sense of our own insufficiency and unworthiness, and of the divine bounty and goodness; suspends the evil motions and desires of our hearts for a time; and produces in us an heavenly frame and temper of soul. This is the nearest and most immediate effect of prayer, which must first be obtained, in order to the obtaining of our requests. And how therefore can he, who is a stranger to the one of these, ever hope to arrive at the other? Can we imagine that pardon of sin, and peace of conscience; the fruits of the Spirit, and support against temptations; in a word, the blessings of this world and the next, with which God has promised to reward our prayers, should be purchased at the cheap expense of forms and appearances? That those devotions which affect not us first, should affect God afterwards? That he should attend to, or regard such requests, as we neither regard, nor attend to ourselves? Let us then not mock God and deceive ourselves? Let us not think we have fulfilled our duty merely by resorting to the church, and adding one to the number of the congregation; by doing as other men do, and saying as other men say there; nor hope to atone by an outwardly decent behaviour, for an inwardly-alienated mind. But let us, under a due sense of the preceding reflections, whenever we come to the house of God, not fail to come whole and entire; to "offer and present unto God". (as the Liturgy speaks)" ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to him:" let us resolve to worship him, not with our lips and knees only, but (as we are obliged to love him), even with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength, Mark xi. 30. God be thanked, by whose good providence we are members of a church, where the public offices of religion are so modelled and contrived, as to be apt, in every part of them, to raise the attention and kindle an holy flame in the breasts of all sincere worshippers. I cannot better spend the remaining part of my time, than in pointing out to you the great advantages which we, in this respect, enjoy, and by that means shewing you, how inexcusable we are if we neglect to improve them, more inexcusable than the members of any other church, or communion in the christian world. For, 1. The language, wherein our service is performed, cannot but be of use to fix and keep alive our attention. 'Tis our own mother tongue, what all of us are acquainted with; and can therefore listen to with ease and delight, because we understand it. There is a church, whose public prayers are put up'in a language unknown to the greatest part of those who are to join in them. But how can the heart be affected by the mere sound of words, while it is utterly a stranger to their meaning? The public devotions, therefore, of an unlettered papist, |