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B09543
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The great sin of formality in God's worship: or, The formal worshipper proved a lyar and deceiver. Being the subject of a sermon preacht on the weekly lecture in Boston. / By Joshua Moodey ...
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Moodey, Joshua, 1633?-1697.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing M2522; ESTC W24941
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19,180
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50
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Heathen that never performed any duty of Worship to God in their lives While some Drink and Swear and Curse and Damn themselves to Hell others pray and â—ear themselves thither and into a deeper and hotter Hell too then others arrive at For men to-destroy themselves with a great deal of pains labour cost splendor and grandeur is the worst kind of Destruction Your Lying Deceitful Services and Performances are both the pretences that you Compass God with and the sparks that you Compass and comfort your selves with but the Reward you will receive at the hands of God will be to lye down in sorrow Isa 50. ult Such Worshippers of God are nevertheless counted forgotters of God and their Doom is To be Torn in Pieces without any to deliver them Psal 50 22. The Benefit of True and Sincere Worshipping of God This is a large Theam I shall but glance at a few hints What is said of keeping Gods Commandments in General Great is the Reward Psa 9. 11. is eminently true of the second Commandment which gives direction about Instituted Worship see Exod. 20. 6. And if you referr it to the Third Commandment where the Lord threatens the Breaker of it Not to â—old him guilâ—less it is a Meiosis and sorest wrath is intended therein and on the other-hand all manner of blessings are designed for the keeper of that Command If the Deceiver in Worship be Cursed Mala. 1 11. Then the sincere Worshiper is blessed Blessed with all spiritual blessings God accepts his Services remembers his Offerings will give him pardon peace joy the strength of his Right Hand c. see Psal 20. 1 6. He shall see the Lords goings in his Sanctuary And shall be able to attest to Davids Experience Psal 84. 10 One day in Gods House is worth a Thousand Blessed with all outward blessings also Seeking the Kingdom of God first of which no small part lies in a right performing the worship of the Kingdom has a promise of the Addition of all other things Mâ—â— 6. 33. God deâ—ls wiâ—h a professing people as they deal with him in his Worship If we Compass him with hearty sincere service he will Compasâ—â—â— with favour as with a Shield Psal â— 12 Mercy shall Compass us no good thing shall be waâ—â—ing to us While such kind of formal worshippers of whom we have been speaking say as they feel that it is in vain to serve God we shall speak as we find That it is good for us to draw near unto God Psal 23. 28. Directions for the Cure of this Malady 1. Be sure we fix upon the right and there is but one right Object of Worship Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Mat. 4. 10. The great God is the sole Object of Worship Let us not make our Bellies our God Gold our Hope the World our portion nor our own Righteousness Wisdom or Strength our Idol nor our selves our Saviours Sacrifice not to our own Net nor burn Incense to our own Drag Hab. 1. 16. 2. Be well acquainted with the Person whom we Worship and that will oblige us what we may to study a proportion between our Worship and the Object of our Worship The Knowledge of God will teach us that he is to be Worshipped and also how he is to be Worshipped will make us fear to neglect it and assist us in the due performance of it To cure the Deceiver that had a Male in his flock but offered a corrupt thing the Lord gives him to understand and wills him to consider that he was a Great King and had a Dreadful Name even the Lord of Hosts Mal. 1. 14. His being a Spirit will tell us that he is to be Worshipped in Spirit and Truth not after a carnal and lying manner Consider him as the first Being chiefest Good thence learn that the first best of our Hearts Abilities Time Spirits Souls are his due and that lame blind heartless lifeless Services are very much unbecoming him His Soveraignty as it commands Devotion so it will guard us from snuffing at his Service or sâ—ubbering over his Worship His Omnipresence will beget Reverence and promote Sincerity It 's no great matter how men carry it before an Idol that has no eyes but Reason much more Religion will direct us to look to our selves when we have such an eye upon us and will be useful to prevent that commonness of Heart and Carriage so unsuitable for his Presence His Omniscience will assure us that he will not be shamm'd nor imposed upon there 's no mocking him with shadows or pretences he is not to be treated after that manner He will say to every Hypocrite tho' under the greatest disguise why feignest thou thy self to be another person I have heavy Tidings for thee and a Curse upon the Deceiver is heavy Tidings His Omnipotence will represent him as a person that has in a readiness wherewith to avenge all Affronts and to assist all the Humble Souls that desire to serve him better His Holiness tells us that we must lift up holy hands and hearts before him and purge our selves in order to our being Vessels fitâ—ed for our Masters use His Justice will caution us from taking his Name in vain because he will not holâ— us Guiltless and when we take up his Worship without spirit heart life care labour seriousness we take his Name in vain His Bounty and Goodness will quicken us to serve him with Enlargedness of Heart who hath such a liberal hand to reward all his Servants His Truth and Faithfulness as they will put us beyond dispute about the certainty of the Reward if we serve him well so of the Punishment if trifling and slightly therein Thus right Conceptions of God will notably influence you into right Worship a due performance of it 3. Study well the right way in which God will be Worshipped and his own way is the only right way He hath plainly told us in his Word how he will be Worshipped if we bring him any other Worship than that of his own prescribing he will call it lying and deceit Beware therefore that none spoil you through vain deceit after the Traditions of men Col. 2. 8. A very good caution for Traditions of men in the Worship of God will spoil our Worship and spoil us also aand are rightly called deceitful and vain because they take us off from the only true acceptable and profitable Service of God Resolve upon it either Bible-Worship or none at all all other being as yea worse than none It 's lying worship if not warranted by God's Word whatever pretences it may make to Decency in it self or Authority from men Traditions from our Fore-fathers or the Commands of the Church God will say of it Bring no more vain oblations who has required these things at your hands Nor will God take it as an answer if we say that Ecclesiastical Authority enjoyned it
endure to come to it ask to have sin pardoned when they cannot part with it purged while they hold fast their deceit and refuse to let it go this is downright lying before God Jer. 8. 5. Thus we pray for the Sanctifying of his Name Coming of his Kingdom doing of his Will but in heart we are for neither of them Of such kind of addressing God in a Time of Affliction the Lord pronounces that it is but flattering and lying and that because the Heart is not right with God Psa 78. 34. 37. And so of our Thanksgiving which is also a part of Prayer when we say in words Lord we bless and praise thy Name but our hearts are not fixed to that work nor do we take due care to order our whole Conversation so as may be most for his Service and Glory Verbal praising of God with practical dishonouring of him is plain lying So when we promise to him what we never intend to perform at least never duly care to perform they that make solemn vows in the days of their distress but forget to pay them in the days of their enlargement are but lyars and deceivers 2. Of the Lying and Deceit in Hearing the Word When men hear but bare hearing is all they do Hear with the ear but never set the heart to all those things that are testified which Moses advises them unto Deut. 32. 46. Hear but not as the Word of God Acts 10. 33. Hear but do not take care and heed how they hear Hear but the heart goes after their Covetousness Ezek. 33. 31. Hear but gaze and wander the while and it may be fall fast asleep too And by the way sleeping at Meeting is visible and palpable lying especially if allowed and not to the utmost resisted and striven against Eutychus was taken in the manner Acts 20. 9. and made a solemn Monitor to waken all sleepers Hear but come with an Idol in their heart hear and go forth immediately and all they hear is lost the Word choakt and so their labour proves in vain To hear without an unfeigned Resolution to no as well as hear together with a sincere endeavour to perform what they resolve is lying and deceitful Hearing 3. At a Sacrâ—ment men lye to God When they do not discern the Lords Body do not make it their business to see and converse with a Crucified Christ that is there held forth When they come to a Feast but come not with an appetite to a Wedding Feast but not with a Wedding Garment come to receive a Gift but either bring or put forth no hand of Faith to take it When at the beholding of a Crucified Christ there is no mourning over him nor for their sins that Crucified him no activity of Faith though the Lord Jesus be evidently set forth as Crucified for the drawing forth of their Faith on him no inflaming of their Love by the dying Love of a dear Saviour which they are then called to a fixed meditation on the failure here speaks the neglect of what is the principal end of a Sacrament and therefore is no less than lying and deceit in Gods account however the external Deportment may appear fair and commendable before men that can only judge by the seeing of the eye and hearing of the ear 4. So we may say of the Sabbath Which is a special season for the attending on Instituted Worship If it be not kept according to the Law of the Sabbath if we do not Sanctifie the Sabbath that God may Sanctifie us on and by the Sabbath Ezek. 20. 12. If the Sabbath be not remembred and prepared for and sanctified as an Holy Rest with and unto God we do but mock God and deceive our selves If our Sabbath keeping be not a Delight it is a cheaâ— If we only cease from servile labour but not from speaking our own words and following our carnal and sinful pleasures or if we account only that part of the day to be Sabbath which we spend in the Publick Worship and the residue of the time both before after and in the intervals of Worship be spent as common time the whole of our Sabbath keeping is Sabbath breaking and our pretences fallacious and deceitful These are some hints which the serious Hearer may easily enlarge in his Meditations I should have added here something 1. Of the greatness of this sin 2. Of the soreness of its punishment But that I chuse to bring them in either as Motives to incline us to a true and right performance of the Duties of Worship Or as Disswasives from this sin of Lying therein By way of Application First I shall draw some Inferences from the Doctrine 1. If there be such a thing as Lying and Deceitful Dealing in Gods Worship Then we have the less cause to wonder that there is so much Lying and Deceit among men in their converse with each other It 's a very lying Age that we live in Men lye one to another in falsifying their words breaking their promises yea and more solemn Obligations Men lye one of another by scandalous Reports which they raise and broach very much to the detriment of their Neighbours and reproach of Religion Yea there are that make it no small part of their business to invent frame Lies and seatter them abroad to amuse the World withal and to draw forth mens sentiments of which they make their Remarks and of which they make matter of Accusation There is also much Deceiving and Over-reaching one another in Dealing the weakest though the honeâ—â—est goes to the wall I say there is much of this among men Think it not strange while there is so much dissembling with God himself you may look to meet with the like among men And it arises from the same principle the Atheism that is in all Mankind that which makes them dare to lie to God will not let them stick at lying to men Look for nothing but falshood and mischief from him that makes no Conscience of essaying to put his cheats upon the Great God He that will adventure to lye to God directly will not stick more remotely to lye to him as all lying to men is all sin being finally against God 2. See what little cause we have to boast of any merit in any of our Services where there is so much deceit there can be no Merit Outward Performances if they be only such are meer lies and therefore rather provocations unto God than obligations upon him Hence when they trusted to the Temple of the Lord and to their Services and Sacrifices there the Lord tells them they trusted in lying words Jer. 7. 4 8 But suppose they be sincere performances worship done in spirit and truth there will be no room for trusting in or boasting of them for the sincerity of the heart is Grace that Grace tho inherent â—et is infused Grace the exercise of that sincerity in Worship is exciting Grace