A Body of Divinity

Contained In Sermons Upon The Westminster Assembly's Catechism

By Thomas Watson

Contents

1. Brief Memoir Of Thomas Watson

2. A Preliminary Discourse To Catechising

3. Introduction

3.1. Man’s Chief End

3.2. The Scriptures

4. God and his creation

4.1. The Being Of God

4.2. The Knowledge Of God

4.3. The Eternity Of God

4.4. The Unchangeableness Of God

4.5. The Wisdom Of God

4.6. The Power Of God

4.7. The Holiness Of God

4.8. The Justice Of God

4.9. The Mercy Of God

4.10. The Truth Of God

4.11. The Unity Of God

4.12. The Trinity

4.13. The Creation

4.14. The Providence Of God

5. The fall

5.1. The Covenant Of Works

5.2. Adam’s Sin

5.3. Original Sin

5.4. Man's Misery By The Fall

6. The covenant of grace and its mediator

6.1. The Covenant Of Grace

6.2. Christ The Mediator Of The Covenant

6.3. Christ's Prophetic Office

6.4. Christ's Priestly Office

6.5. Christ's Kingly Office

6.6. Christ’s Humiliation In His Incarnation

6.7. Christ’s Exaltation

6.8. Christ The Redeemer

7. The application of redemption

7.1. Faith

7.2. Effectual Calling

7.3. Justification

7.4. Adoption

7.5. Sanctification

7.6. Assurance

7.7. Peace

7.8. Joy

7.9. Growth In Grace

7.10. Perseverance

8. Death and the last day

8.1. The Death Of The Righteous

8.2. A Believer’s Privilege At Death

8.3. The Resurrection

 

 

1. Brief Memoir Of Thomas Watson

   Compiled by C. H. Spurgeon

   Thomas Watson’s Body of Practical Divinity is one of the most precious of the peerless works of the Puritans; and those best acquainted with it prize it most. Watson was one of the most concise, racy, illustrative, and suggestive of those eminent divines who made the Puritan age the Augustan period of evangelical literature. There is a happy union of sound doctrine, heart-searching experience and practical wisdom throughout all his works, and his Body of Divinity is, beyond all the rest, useful to the student and the minister. Although Thomas Watson issued several most valuable books, comparatively little is known of him - even the dates of his birth and death are unknown. His writings are his best memorial; perhaps he needed no other, and therefore providence forbade the superfluity. We shall not attempt to discover his pedigree, and, after the manner of antiquarians, derive his family from a certain famous Wat, whose son distinguished himself in the Crusades, or in some other insane enterprise; whether blue blood was in his veins or no is of small consequence, since we know that he was the seed-royal of the redeemed of the Lord. Some men are their own ancestors, and, for ought we know, Thomas Watson’s genealogy reflected no fame upon him, but derived all its lustre from his achievements. He had the happiness to be educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, which in those days deserved to be called the School of Saints, the nursing mother of gigantic evangelical divines. In Kennet’s 'Register and Chronicle,' is a list of eighty-seven names of Puritan ministers, including many well-known and loved as preachers and commentators; such as Anth. Burgess, W. Jenkyn, Ralph Venning, Thomas Brooks, T. White, Samuel Slater, Thomas Watson, John Rowe, Dr. W. Bates, Stephen Charnock, Samuel Clarke, Nathaniel Vincent, Dr John Collings, William Bridge, Samuel Hildersam, Adoniram Bifield, followed by this remark, 'These are most of them mentioned in the list of sufferers for Nonconformity, and appear upon the registers to have been all of Emmanuel College, beside great numbers, no doubt of the same society, who were forward preachers up of the unhappy changes of 1641,' etc. In the margin of the book is the following observation on the foregoing: 'It may not be improper to observe how much young students, in both Universities, fell in with the prejudices of their governors and tutors. This was the reason that this single College of Emmanuel, in Cambridge, bred more of the Puritans and Nonconformists than perhaps any seven of the other Colleges or Halls in either University." Such a fact as this should attract the prayers of all believers to our seminaries for the sons of the prophets, since upon the manner in which these institutions are conducted will depend under God the future well-being of our churches. The Pastors, College, for the use of whose students this work is published, earnestly petitions for a place in the intercessions of the saints.

   We are not at all surprised to learn that Thomas Watson enjoyed the repute, while at Cambridge, of being a most laborious student; the great Puritanic authors must have been most industrious workers at the university, or they never would have become such pre-eminent masters in Israel. The conscientious student is the most likely man to become a successful preacher. After completing his course with honour, Watson became rector of St Stephen’s, Walbrook, where in the very heart of London he executed for nearly sixteen years the office of a faithful pastor with great diligence and assiduity. Happy were the citizens who regularly attended so instructive and spiritual a ministry. The church was constantly filled, for the fame and popularity of the preacher were deservedly great. Going in and out among his flock, fired with holy zeal for their eternal welfare, his years rolled on pleasantly enough amid the growing respect of all who knew him. Calamy, in his Nonconformist Memorial, says of him: - 'He was so well known in the city for his piety and usefulness, that though he was singled out by the Friendly Debate, he yet carried a general respect from all sober persons along with him to his grave. He was a man of considerable reaming, a popular, but judicious preacher (if one may judge from his writings), and eminent in the gift of prayer. Of this, the following anecdote is a sufficient proof. Once on a lecture day, before the Bartholomew Act took place, the learned Bishop Richardson came to hear him at St Stephen’s, who was much pleased with his sermon, but especially with his prayer after it, so that he followed him home to give him thanks, and earnestly desired a copy of his prayer. "Alas!" (said Mr Watson) "that is what I cannot give, for I do not use to pen my prayers; it was no studied thing, but uttered, pro re nata, as God enabled me, from the abundance of my heart and affections." Upon which the good Bishop went away wondering that any man could pray in that manner extempore.

   But the hand which of old had oppressed the church was again stretched forth to vex certain of the saints. The most learned, holy, and zealous of the clergy of the Church of England found that the Act of Uniformity would not allow them to preserve a clean conscience and retain their livings, and therefore they submitted to the loss of all things for Christ's sake. Thomas Watson did not hesitate as to the course he should pursue. He was not a factious hater of royalty, a red republican, or fifth monarchy-man; in fact, he had in Cromwell's day been all too loyal to the house of Stuart; he had protested against the execution of the King, and had joined in Love's plot for the bringing in of Charles II; yet all this availed nothing, he was a Puritan, and therefore must not be tolerated by the bitter spirits then dominant in the Establishment. What seeds of discord were sown on that black Bartholomew history has not had space to record; yet the ultimate results have been fraught with results scarcely then imaginable. Comprehension might have hindered truth; the crown rights of King Jesus might have lacked advocates had monarchs and priests been more tolerant; as it was good men were forced into a truer position than they would otherwise have occupied, and the beginning of a real reformation was inaugurated. From that commencement in suffering what progress has been made! Every day the cause of the ejected gathers force and pushes on its adversary towards the brink of the precipice, a down which all establishments must fall.

   With many tears and lamentations the congregation of St Stephen's saw their shepherd about to be removed from his flock, and with aching hearts they listened to his parting words. He himself speaking as one bereaved of his dearest delight, and yet suffering joyfully the loss of all things, bade them adieu, and went forth 'not knowing whither he went.'

   In the collection of Farewell Sermons there are three by Mr Watson, viz.: two delivered August 17th, and the third on the Tuesday following. The first, preached in the forenoon, is on John 13: 34. 'A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.' It discovers much of the spirit of the gospel, particularly in recommending love to enemies and persecutors. The second, preached in the afternoon, is on 2 Corinthians 7: 1. 'Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.' In the former part of it, he insists largely on 'the ardent affections of a right gospel minister towards his people.' This head he closes thus: 'I have now exercised my ministry among you for almost sixteen years; and I rejoice and bless God that I cannot say, the more I love you, the less I am loved: I have received many signal demonstrations of love from you. Though other parishes have exceeded you in number of houses, yet, I think, none for strength of affection. I have with much comfort observed your reverent attention to the word preached; you rejoice in this light, not for a season, but to this day. I have observed your zeal against error in a critical time, your unity and amity. This is your honour. If there should be any interruption in my ministry among you, though I should not be permitted to preach to you again, yet I shall not cease to love you, and to pray for you. But why should there be any interruption made? Where is the crime? Some, indeed, say that we are disloyal and seditious. Beloved, what my actions and sufferings for his Majesty have been is known to not a few of you. However, we must go to heaven through good report and bad report; and it is well if we can get to glory, though we press through the pikes. I shall endeavour that I may still approve the sincerity of my love to you. I will not promise that I shall still preach among you, nor will I say that I shall not. I desire to be guided by the silver thread of God’s word and providence. My heart is towards you. There is, you know, an expression in the late Act, "that we shall now shortly be as if we were naturally dead;’’ and if I must die, let me leave some legacy with you. Then follow twenty admirable directions, well worthy the fervent perusal of every Christian. He closes them thus: 'I beseech you treasure them up as so many jewels in the cabinet of your breasts. Did you carry them about you, they would be an antidote to keep you from sin, and a means to preserve the zeal of piety flaming upon the altar of your hearts. I have many things yet to say to you, but I know not whether God will give another opportunity. My strength is now almost gone. I beseech you, let these things make deep impressions on all your souls. Consider what has been said, and the Lord give you understanding in all things.’

   The last discourse, August 19th, is on Isaiah 3: 10, 11. 'Say ye t0 the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him.’

   After his ejectment, Watson preached occasionally whenever he could do so with safety. Fines and imprisonments were insufficient to close the mouths of the witnesses of Jesus. In barns, kitchens, outhouses, or dells and woods, the faithful few gathered to hear the message of eternal life. Those little secret assemblies were doubtless charming occasions for devout minds: the word of the Lord was precious in those days. Bread eaten in secret is proverbially sweet, and the word of God in persecution is peculiarly delightful. Little can we realise the joyful anticipation which preceded the appointed meetings, or the lingering memories which clung to them long after they were over. After the great fire in 1666, when the churches were burned, Mr Watson and several other Nonconformists fitted up large rooms for those who had an inclination to attend. Upon the Indulgence, in 1672, he licensed the great hall in Crosby House, on the east side of Bishopsgatestreet, then belonging to Sir John Langham (a Nonconformist). It was a happy circumstance that the worthy baronet favoured the cause of Nonconformity, and that so noble a chamber was at his disposal. Here Watson preached for several years. Rev Stephen Charnock, B.D.’ became joint pastor with him at Crosby Hall in 1675, and continued so till his death in 1680. What two shepherds for the flock! Men of such most extraordinary gifts and graces were seldom if ever united in one pastorate. They both attempted a Body of Divinity, and the goodly volume on the Divine Attributes was Charnock’s first stone of a colossal structure which he was not spared to complete. Our author was more modest in his attempt and the present volume shows how he succeeded.

   Mr Watson at length returned to Essex, where he died suddenly, in his closet at prayer, as is supposed, about 1689 or 1690. The time either of his birth or death is nowhere mentioned.

   In the life of Colonel James Gardiner, there is this remarkable account: 'In July, 1719, he had spent the evening, which was the Sabbath, in some gay company, and had an unhappy assignation with a married lady, whom he was to attend exactly at twelve. The company broke up about eleven, and he went into his chamber to kill the tedious hour. It happened that he took up a religious book, which his good mother or aunt had, without his knowledge, slipped into his portmanteau, called, "The Christian Soldier," written by Mr Watson. Guessing by the title that he should find some phrases of his own profession spiritualised in a manner which might afford him some diversion, he resolved to dip into it: while this book was in his hand, an impression was made upon his mind, which drew after it a train of the most important consequences. Suddenly he thought he saw an unusual blaze of light fall on the book while he was reading, and lifting up his eyes, he apprehended, to his extreme amazement, that there was before him, as it were suspended in the air, a visible representation of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, surrounded with a glory, and was impressed as if a voice had come to him, to this effect: "O sinner, did I suffer this for thee, and are these thy returns?" He sunk down in his chair, and continued for some time insensible. He then arose in a tumult of passions, and walked to and fro in his chamber, till he was ready to drop, in unutterable astonishment and agony of heart, which continued until the October following, when his terrors were turned into unutterable joy.’

   Mr Watson published a variety of books upon practical subjects, and of a useful nature, for the titles of which, see foot-note.* But his principal work was a body of divinity, in one hundred and seventy-six sermons, upon the Assembly’s Catechism, which did not appear till after his death. It was published in one volume folio, in 1692, and accompanied with a portrait of the author, by Sturt; together with a recommendatory preface by the Rev William Lorimer, and the attestation of twenty-five other ministers of principal note in that day. For many a year this volume continued to train the common people in theology, and it may still tee found very commonly in the cottages of the Scottish peasantry. Rev George Rogers, Principal of the Pastors, College, has carefully superintended the issue of this present edition, and in a note to us he writes: 'I know of no work with so much sermon matter within the same compass. In Howe, and Charnock, and Owen, we must often read much before we are tempted to close the book and think out a whole sermon, but Watson teaches us to make short work of it. The whole may be utilised. On this account it would be, I think, of great value to all our students who have pastorates. It is for their benefit, I suppose, you wished the reprint. As several select sermons, which are usually bound up with this work, will appear with his whole works, after a time, in Nichol’s series, they are not included here. This is a distinct work by itself and complete. All editions extant which we have seen, abound in errors and imperfections. These have been rectified, not entirely we fear, but in a degree as nearly approaching to accuracy as in revision of another's composition could be expected. No alteration of sentiment has been made, but every shade of the author's meaning has been scrupulously retained. The style has been modernised, so far as could be done without detracting from its own peculiar characteristics. Long sentences have been divided into two or three, where it could be done without injury to the clearness or force of the signification. Modern words have been substituted for such as had become obsolete; Latin quotations restored to their correct form, as far as their sources could be ascertained; and divisions of subjects more perspicuously arranged. The whole, in fact, has been rendered more readable, and consequently more attractive and intelligible, which in our estimation far outweighs all the supposed advantages that could arise from perpetuating the crudities and vulgarities, as they now appear to us, of former times. By popularising ancient works, their readers are multiplied and their meaning may often be more readily apprehended'.

   * The following are the tides of the principal works of Thomas Watson: viz. Three treatises: 1. 'The Christian's Charter.' 2. 'The Art of Divine Contentment.' 3. 'A Discourse of Meditation,' to which is added several sermons, 1660. This volume contains, besides the three treatises, the following, viz.: 'God's Anatomy upon Man's Heart,' 'The Saint's Delight,' 'A Christian on Earth still in Heaven,' 'Christ's Loveliness,' 'The Upright Man's Character and Crown,' 'The One Thing Necessary,' 'The Holy Longing; or, the Saint's Desire to be with Christ,' 'Beatitudes; or, a Discourse upon part of Christ's Famous Sermon upon the Mount,' 1660, 'A Body of Practical Divinity,' etc.’ with a supplement of some sermons, 'A Divine Cordial," The Holy Eucharist,' 'Heaven taken by Storm,' etc.’ etc.

2. A Preliminary Discourse To Catechising

   'If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled.’ - Col 1: 23.

   Intending next Lord’s day to enter upon the work of catechising, it will not be amiss to give you a preliminary discourse, to show you how needful it is for Christians to be well instructed in the grounds of religion. 'If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled.’

   I. It is the duty of Christians to be settled in the doctrine of faith.

   II. The best way for Christians to be settled is to be well grounded.

   I. It is the duty of Christians to be settled in the doctrine of faith. It is the apostle’s prayer, I Pet 5: 10, 'The God of all grace stablish, strengthen, settle you.’ That is, that they might not be meteors in the air, but fixed stars. The apostle Jude speaks of 'wandering stars, in verse 13. They are called wandering stars, because, as Aristotle says, 'They do leap up and down, and wander into several parts of the heaven; and being but dry exhalations, not made of that pure celestial matter as the fixed stars are, they often fall to the earth.’ Now, such as are not settled in religion, will, at one time or other, prove wandering stars; they will lose their former steadfastness, and wander from one opinion to another. Such as are unsettled are of the tribe of Reuben, 'unstable as water,’ Gen 49: 4; like a ship without ballast, overturned with every wind of doctrine. Beza writes of one Belfectius, that his religion changed as the moon. The Arians had every year a new faith. These are not pillars in the temple of God, but reeds shaken every way. The apostle calls them 'damnable heresies.’ 2 Pet 2: 1. A man may go to hell as well for heresy as adultery. To be unsettled in religion, argues want of judgement. If their heads were not giddy, men would not reel so fast from one opinion to another. It argues lightness. As feathers will be blown every way, so will feathery Christians. Triticum non rapit ventus inanes palae jactantur. Cyprian. Therefore such are compared to children. Eph 4: 14. 'That we be no more children, tossed to and fro.’ Children are fickle sometimes of one mind sometimes of another, nothing pleases them long; so unsettled Christians are childish; the truths they embrace at one time, they reject at another; sometimes they like the Protestant religion, and soon after they have a good mind to turn Papists.

   [I] It is the great end of the word preached, to bring us to a settlement in religion. Eph 4: 11, 12, 14. 'And he gave some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the edifying of the body of Christ; that we henceforth be no more children.’ The word is called a hammer. Jer 23: 29. Every blow of the hammer is to fasten the nails of the building; so the preacher’s words are to fasten you the more to Christ; they weaken themselves to strengthen and settle you. This is the grand design of preaching, not only for the enlightening, but for the establishing of souls; not only to guide them in the right way, but to keep them in it. Now, if you be not settled, you do not answer God’s end in giving you the ministry.

   [2] To be settled in religion is both a Christian’s excellence and honour. It is his excellence. When the milk is settled it turns to cream; now he will be zealous for the truth, and walk in close communion with God. And his honour. Prov 16: 3I. 'The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.’ It is one of the best sights to see an old disciple; to see silver hairs adorned with golden virtues.

   [3] Such as are not settled in the faith can never suffer for it. Sceptics in religion hardly ever prove martyrs. They that are not settled hang in suspense; when they think of the joys of heaven they will espouse the gospel, but when they think of persecution they desert it. Unsettled Christians do not consult what is best, but what is safest. 'The apostate (says Tertullian) seems to put God and Satan in balance, and having weighed both their services, prefers the devil’s service, and proclaims him to be the best master: and, in this sense, may be said to put Christ to open shame.’ Heb 6: 6. He will never suffer for the truth, but be as a soldier that leaves his colours, and runs over to the enemy’s side; he will fight on the devil’s side for pay.

   [4] Not to be settled in the faith is provoking to God. To espouse the truth, and then to fall away, brings an ill report upon the gospel, which will not go unpunished. Psa 78: 57, 59. 'They turned back, and dealt unfaithfully. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel.’ The apostate drops as a wind-fall into the devil's mouth.

   [5] If ye are not settled in religion, you will never grow. We are commanded 'to grow up into the head, even Christ.’ Eph 4: I5. But if we are unsettled there is no growing: 'the plant which is continually removing never thrives.' He can no more grow in godliness, who is unsettled, than a bone can grow in the body that is out of joint.

   [6] There is great need to be settled, because there are so many things to unsettle us. Seducers are abroad, whose work is to draw away people from the principles of religion. I John 2: 26. 'These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.’ Seducers are the devil’s factors; they are of all others the greatest felons that would rob you of the truth. Seducers have silver tongues, that can put off bad wares; they have a sleight to deceive. Eph 4: I4. The Greek word there is taken from those that can throw dice, and cast them for the best advantage. So seducers are impostors, they can throw a dice; they can so dissemble and sophisticate the truth, that they can deceive others. Seducers deceive by wisdom of words. Rom 16: 18. 'By good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple.’ They have fine elegant phrases, flattering language, whereby they work on the weaker sort. Another sleight is a pretence of extraordinary piety, that so people may admire them, and suck in their doctrine. They seem to be men of zeal and sanctity, and to be divinely inspired, and pretend to new revelations. A third cheat of seducers is, labouring to vilify and nullify sound orthodox teachers. They would eclipse those that bring the truth, like black vapours that darken the light of heaven; they would defame others, that they themselves may be more admired. Thus the false teachers cried down Paul, that they might be received, Gal 4: I7. The fourth cheat of seducers is, to preach the doctrine of liberty; as though men are freed from the moral law, the rule as well as the curse, and Christ has done all for them, and they need to do nothing. Thus they make the doctrine of free grace a key to open the door to all licentiousness. Another means is, to unsettle Christians by persecution. 2 Tim 3: I2. The gospel is a rose that cannot be plucked without prickles. The legacy Christ has bequeathed is the CROSS. While there is a devil and a wicked man in the world, never expect a charter of exemption from trouble. How many fall away in an hour of persecution! Rev 12: 4. 'There appeared a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns; and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven.’ The red dragon, by his power and subtilty, drew away stars, or eminent professors, that seemed to shine as stars in the firmament of the church.

   To be unsettled in good is the sin of the devils. Jude 6. They are called, 'morning stars,’ Job 38: 7, but 'falling stars;’ they were holy, but mutable. As the vessel is overturned with the sail, so their sails being swelled with pride, they were overturned. I Tim 3: 6. By unsettledness, men imitate lapsed angels. The devil was the first apostate. The sons of Sion should be like mount Sion, which cannot be removed.

   II. The second proposition is, that the way for Christians to be settled is to be well grounded. 'If ye continue grounded and settled.’ The Greek word for grounded is a metaphor which alludes to a building that has the foundation well laid. So Christians should be grounded in the essential points of religion, and have their foundation well laid.

   Here let me speak to two things:

   [I] That we should be grounded in the knowledge of fundamentals. The apostle speaks of 'the first principles of the oracles of God.’ Heb 5: I2. In all arts and sciences, logic, physic, mathematics, there are some praecognita, some rules and principles that must necessarily be known for the practice of those arts; so, in divinity, there must be the first principles laid down. The knowledge of the grounds and principles of religion is exceedingly useful.

   (I.) Else we cannot serve God aright. We can never worship God acceptably, unless we worship him regularly; and how can we do that, if we are ignorant of the rules and elements of religion? We are to give God a 'reasonable service.’ Rom 12: 1: If we understand not the grounds of religion, how can it be a reasonable service?

   (2.) Knowledge of the grounds of religion much enriches the mind. It is a lamp to our feet; it directs us in the whole course of Christianity, as the eye directs the body. Knowledge of fundamentals is the golden key that opens the chief mysteries of religion; it gives us a whole system and body of divinity, exactly drawn in all its lineaments and lively colours; it helps us to understand many of those difficult things which occur in the reading of the word; it helps to untie many Scripture knots.

   (3.) It furnishes us with armour of proof; weapons to fight against the adversaries of the truth.

   (4.) It is the holy seed of which grace is formed. It is semen fidei, the seed of faith. Psa 9: IO. It is radix amoris, the root of love. Eph 3: I7. 'Being rooted and grounded in love.’ The knowledge of principles conduces to the making of a complete Christian.

   [2] This grounding is the best way to being settled: 'grounded and settled.’ A tree, that it may be well settled, must be well rooted; so, if you would be well settled in religion, you must be rooted in its principles. We read in Plutarch of one who set up a dead man, and he would not stand. 'Oh,’ said he, 'there should be something within.’ So, that we may stand in shaking times, there must be a principle of knowledge within; first grounded, and then settled. That the ship may be kept from overturning, it must have its anchor fastened. Knowledge of principles is to the soul as the anchor to the ship, that holds it steady in the midst of the rolling waves of error, or the violent winds of persecution. First grounded and then settled.

   Use one: See the reason why so many people are unsettled, ready to embrace every novel opinion, and dress themselves in as many religions as fashions; it is because they are ungrounded. See how the apostle joins these two together, 'unlearned and unstable.’ 2 Pet 3: I6. Such as are unlearned in the main points of divinity are unstable. As the body cannot be strong that has the sinews shrunk; so neither can that Christian be strong in religion who wants the grounds of knowledge, which are the sinews to strengthen and stablish him.

   Use two: See what great necessity there is of laying down the main grounds of religion in a way of catechising, that the weakest judgement may be instructed in the knowledge of the truth, and strengthened in the love of it. Catechising is the best expedient for the grounding and settling of people. I fear one reason why there has been no more good done by preaching, has been because the chief heads and articles in religion have not been explained in a catechistical way. Catechising is laying the foundation. Heb 6: 1: To preach and not to catechise is to build without foundation. This way of catechising is not novel, it is apostolic. The primitive church had their forms of catechism, as those phrases imply, a 'form of sound words,’ 2 Tim 1: I3, end 'the first principles of the oracles of God,' Heb 5: I2. The church had its catechumenoi, as Grotius and Erasmus observe. Many of the ancient fathers have written for it, as Fulgentius, Austin, Theodoret, Lactantius, and others. God has given great success to it. By thus laying down the grounds of religion catechistically, Christians have been clearly instructed and wondrously built up in the Christian faith, insomuch that Julian the apostate, seeing the great success of catechising, put down all schools and places of public literature, and instructing of youth. It is my design, therefore (with the blessing of God); to begin this work of catechising the next Sabbath day; and I intend every other Sabbath, in the afternoon, to make it my whole work to lay down the grounds and fundamentals of religion in a catechistical way. If I am hindered in this work by men, or taken away by death, I hope God will raise up some other labourer in the vineyard among you, that may perfect the work which I am now beginning.

3. Introduction

   1. Man’s Chief End

      Q-I: WHAT IS THE CHIEF END OF MAN?

      A: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

      Here are two ends of life specified. 1: The glorifying of God. 2: The enjoying of God.

      I. The glorifying of God, I Pet 4: 2: 'That God in all things may be glorified.' The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. I Cor 10: 3I. 'Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; now, man being a rational creature, must propose some end to himself, and that should be, that he may lift up God in the world. He had better lose his life than the end of his living. The great truth is asserted, that the end of every man's living should be to glorify God. Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father who gave us life; God the Son, who lost his life for us; and God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory to the whole Trinity.

      When we speak of God's glory, the question will be moved, What are we to understand by God’s glory?

      There is a twofold glory: [I] The glory that God has in himself, his intrinsic glory. Glory is essential to the Godhead, as light is to the sun: he is called the 'God of Glory.’ Acts 7: 2. Glory is the sparkling of the Deity; it is so co-natural to the Godhead, that God cannot be God without it. The creature’s honour is not essential to his being. A king is a man without his regal ornaments, when his crown and royal robes are taken away; but God’s glory is such an essential part of his being, that he cannot be God without it. God’s very life lies in his glory. This glory can receive no addition, because it is infinite; it is that which God is most tender of, and which he will not part with. Isa 48: 2: 'My glory I will not give to another.' God will give temporal blessings to his children, such as wisdom, riches, honour; he will give them spiritual blessings, he will give them grace, he will give them his love, he will give them heaven; but his essential glory he will not give to another. King Pharaoh parted with a ring off his finger to Joseph, and a gold chain, but he would not part with his throne. Gen 41: 40. 'Only in the throne will I be greater than thou.’ So God will do much for his people; he will give them the inheritance; he will put some of Christ’s glory, as mediator, upon them; but his essential glory he will not part with; 'in the throne he will be greater.’ [2] The glory which is ascribed to God, or which his creatures labour to bring to him. I Chron 16: 29. 'Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.’ And, I Cor 6: 20. 'Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit.’ The glory we give God is nothing else but our lifting up his name in the world, and magnifying him in the eyes of others. Phil 1: 20. 'Christ shall be magnified in my body.’

      What is it to glorify God?

      Glorifying God consists in four things: 1: Appreciation, 2. Adoration, 3. Affection, 4. Subjection. This is the yearly rent we pay to the crown of heaven.

      [I] Appreciation. To glorify God is to set God highest in our thoughts, and to have a venerable esteem of him. Psa 92: 8. 'Thou, Lord, art most high for evermore.’ Psa 97: 9. 'Thou art exalted far above all gods.’ There is in God all that may draw forth both wonder and delight; there is a constellation of all beauties; he is prima causa, the original and springhead of being, who sheds a glory upon the creature. We glorify God, when we are God-admirers; admire his attributes, which are the glistering beams by which the divine nature shines forth; his promises which are the charter of free grace, and the spiritual cabinet where the pearl of price is hid; the noble effects of his power and wisdom in making the world, which is called 'the work of his fingers.’ Psa 8: 3. To glorify God is to have God-admiring thoughts; to esteem him most excellent, and search for diamonds in this rock only.

      [2] Glorifying God consists in adoration, or worship. Psa 29: 2. 'Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.’ There is a twofold worship: (I.) A civil reverence which we give to persons of honour. Gen 23: 7. 'Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the children of Heth.’ Piety is no enemy to courtesy. (2.) A divine worship which we give to God as his royal prerogative. Neh 8: 6. 'They bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces towards the ground.' This divine worship God is very jealous of; it is the apple of his eye, the pearl of his crown; which he guards, as he did the tree of life, with cherubims and a flaming sword, that no man may come near it to violate it. Divine worship must be such as God himself has appointed, else it is offering strange fire. Lev 10: 1: The Lord would have Moses make the tabernacle, 'according to the pattern in the mount.’ Exod 25: 40. He must not leave out anything in the pattern, nor add to it. If God was so exact and curious about the place of worship, how exact will he be about the matter of his worship! Surely here everything must be according to the pattern prescribed in his word.

      [3] Affection. This is part of the glory we give to God, who counts himself glorified when he is loved. Deut 6: 5. 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.’ There is a twofold love: (1.) Amor concupiscentiae, a love of concupiscence, which is self-love; as when we love another, because he does us a good turn. A wicked man may be said to love God, because he has given him a good harvest, or filled his cup with wine. This is rather to love God’s blessing than to love God. (2.) Amor amicitiae, a love of delight, as a man takes delight in a friend. This is to love God indeed; the heart is set upon God, as a man’s heart is set upon his treasure. This love is exuberant, not a few drops, but a stream. It is superlative; we give God the best of our love, the cream of it. Cant 8: 2. 'I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.’ If the spouse had a cup more juicy and spiced, Christ must drink of it. It is intense and ardent. True saints are seraphims, burning in holy love to God. The spouse was amore perculsa, in fainting fits, 'sick of love.’ Cant 2: 5. Thus to love God is to glorify him. He who is the chief of our happiness has the chief of our affections.

      [4] Subjection. This is when we dedicate ourselves to God, and stand ready dressed for his service. Thus the angels in heaven glorify him; they wait on his throne, and are ready to take a commission from him; therefore they are represented by the cherubims with wings displayed, to show how swift they are in their obedience. We glorify God when we are devoted to his service; our head studies for him, our tongue pleads for him, and our hands relieve his members. The wise men that came to Christ did not only bow the knee to him, but presented him with gold and myrrh. Matt 2: 2: So we must not only bow the knee, give God worship, but bring presents of golden obedience. We glorify God when we stick at no service, when we fight under the banner of his gospel against an enemy, and say to him as David to King Saul, 'Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’ I Sam 17: 32.

      A good Christian is like the sun, which not only sends forth heat, but goes its circuit round the world. Thus, he who glorifies God, has not only his affections heated with love to God, but he goes his circuit too; he moves vigorously in the sphere of obedience.

      Why must we glorify God?

      [I] Because he gives us our being. Psa 100: 3. 'It is he that made us.’ We think it a great kindness in a man to spare our life, but what kindness is it in God to give us our life! We draw our breath from him; and as life, so all the comforts of life are from him. He gives us health, which is the sauce to sweeten our life; and food, which is the oil that nourishes the lamp of life. If all we receive is from his bounty, is it not reasonable we should glorify him? Should we not live to him, seeing we live by him? Rom 11: 36. 'For of him, and through him, are all things.' All we have is of his fulness, all we have is through his free grace; and therefore to him should be all. It follows, therefore, 'To him be glory for ever.’ God is not our benefactor only, but our founder, as rivers that come from the sea empty their silver streams into the sea again.

      [2] Because God has made all things for his own glory. Prov 16: 4. 'The Lord has made all things for himself:' that is, 'for his glory.’ As a king has excise out of commodities, so God will have glory out of everything. He will have glory out of the wicked. If they will not give him glory, he will get glory upon them. Exod 14: I7. 'I will get me honour upon Pharaoh.’ But especially has he made the godly for his glory; they are the lively organs of his praise. Isa 43: 21. 'This people have I formed for myself, and they shall shew forth my praise.’ It is true, they cannot add to his glory, but they may exalt it; they cannot raise him in heaven, but they may raise him in the esteem of others here. God has adopted the saints into his family, and made them a royal priesthood, that they should show forth the praise of him who has called them. I Pet 2: 9.

      [3] Because the glory of God has intrinsic value and excellence; it transcends the thoughts of men, and the tongues of angels. His glory is his treasure, all his riches lie here; as Micah said. Judges 18: 24. 'What have I more?' So, what has God more? God's glory is more worth than heaven, and more worth than the salvation of all men's souls. Better kingdoms be thrown down, better men and angels be annihilated, than God should lose one jewel of his crown, one beam of his glory.

      [4] Creatures below us, and above us, bring glory to God; and do we think to sit rent free? Shall everything glorify God but man? It is a pity then that man was ever made. (I.) Creatures below us glorify God, the inanimate creatures and the heavens glorify God. 'The heavens declare the glory of God.’ Psa 19: 1: The curious workmanship of heaven sets forth the glory of its Maker; the firmament is beautified and pencilled out in blue and azure colours, where the power and wisdom of God may be clearly seen. 'The heavens declare his glory:, we may see the glory of God blazing in the sun, and twinkling in the stars. Look into the air, the birds, with their chirping music, sing hymns of praise to God. Every beast in its kind glorifies God. Isa 43: 20. 'The beast of the field shall honour me.’ (2.) Creatures above us glorify God: 'the angels are ministering spirits.’ Heb 1: I4. They are still waiting on God’s throne, and bring some revenues of glory into the exchequer of heaven. Surely man should be much more studious of God’s glory than the angels; for God has honoured him more than the angels, in that Christ took man’s nature upon him, and not the angels, Though, in regard of creation, God made man 'a little lower than the angels,’ Heb 2: 7, yet in regard of redemption, God has set him higher than the angels. He has married mankind to himself; the angels are Christ’s friends, not his spouse. He has covered us with the purple robe of righteousness, which is a better righteousness than the angels have. 2 Cor 5: 2I. If then the angels bring glory to God, much more should we, being dignified with honour above angelic spirits.

      [5] We must bring glory to God, because all our hopes hang upon him. Psa 39: 7. 'My hope is in thee.’ And Psa 62: 5. 'My expectation is from him;’ I expect a kingdom from him. A child that is good-natured will honour his parent, by expecting all he needs from him. Psa 87: 7. 'All my springs are in thee.’ The silver springs of grace, and the golden springs of glory are in him.

      In how many ways may we glorify God?

      [I] It is glorifying God when we aim purely at his glory. It is one thing to advance God’s glory, another thing to aim at it. God must be the Terminus ad quem, the ultimate end of all actions. Thus Christ, John 8: 50, 'I seek not mine own glory, but the glory of him that sent me.’ A hypocrite has a squint eye, for he looks more to his own glory than God’s. Our Saviour deciphers such, and gives a caveat against them in Matthew 6: 2, 'When thou givest alms, do not sound a trumpet.' A stranger would ask, 'What means the noise of this trumpet?’ It was answered, 'They are going to give to the poor.' And so they did not give alms, but sell them for honour and applause, that they might have glory of men; the breath of men was the wind that blew the sails of their charity; 'verily they have their reward.’ The hypocrite may make his acquittance and write, 'received in full payment.’ Chrysostom calls vain-glory one of the devil's great nets to catch men. And Cyprian says, 'Whom Satan cannot prevail against by intemperance, those he prevails against by pride and vainglory.' Oh let us take heed of self-worshipping! Aim purely at God’s glory. We do this,

      (I.) When we prefer God’s glory above all other things; above credit, estate, relations; when the glory of God coming in competition with them, we prefer his glory before them. If relations lie in our way to heaven, we must either leap over them, or tread upon them. A child must unchild himself, and forget he is a child; he must know neither father nor mother in God’s cause. Deut 33: 9. 'Who said unto his father and mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren.' This is to aim at God’s glory.

      (2.) We aim at God’s glory, when we are content that God’s will should take place, though it may cross ours. Lord, I am content to be a loser, if thou be a gainer; to have less health, if I have more grace, and thou more glory. Let it be food or bitter physic if thou givest it me. Lord, I desire that which may be most for thy glory. Our blessed Saviour said, 'Not as I will, but as thou wilt.' Matt 26: 39. If God might have more glory by his sufferings, he was content to suffer. John 12: 28. 'Father, glorify thy name.'

      (3.) We aim at God’s glory when we are content to be outshined by others in gifts and esteem, so that his glory may be increased. A man that has God in his heart, and God’s glory in his eye, desires that God should be exalted; and if this be effected, let who will be the instrument, he rejoices. Phil 1: I5. 'Some preach Christ of envy: notwithstanding, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice’; they preached Christ of envy, they envied Paul that concourse of people, and they preached that they might outshine him in gifts, and get away some of his hearers: well, says Paul, Christ is preached, and God is like to have the glory, therefore I rejoice; let my candle go out, if the Sun of Righteousness may but shine.

      [2] We glorify God by an ingenuous confession of sin. The thief on the cross had dishonoured God in his life, but at his death he brought glory to God by confession of sin. Luke 23: 4I. 'We indeed suffer justly.' He acknowledged he deserved not only crucifixion, but damnation. Josh 7: I9. 'My son, give, I pray thee, glory to God, and make confession unto him.' A humble confession exalts God. How is God’s free grace magnified in crowning those who deserve to be condemned! The excusing and mincing of sin casts a reproach upon God. Adam denied not that he tasted the forbidden fruit, but, instead of a full confession, he taxed God. Gen 3: 12. 'The woman whom thou gavest me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat;’ if thou hadst not given me the woman to be a tempter, I had not sinned. Confession glorifies God, because it clears him; it acknowledges that he is holy and righteous, whatever he does. Nehemiah vindicates God’s righteousness; chap 9: 33. 'Thou art just in all that is brought upon us.’ A confession is ingenuous when it is free, not forced. Luke 15: 18. 'I have sinned against heaven and before thee.’ The prodigal charged himself with sin before his father charged him with it.

      [3] We glorify God by believing. Rom 4: 20. 'Abraham was strong in faith, giving glory to God.’ Unbelief affronts God, it gives him the lie; 'he that believeth not, maketh God a liar.’ I John 5: 10. But faith brings glory to God; it sets to its seal that God is true. John 3: 33. He that believes flies to God’s mercy and truth, as to an altar of refuge; he engarrisons himself in the promises, and trusts all he has with God. Psa 31: 5. 'Into thy hands I commit my spirit.’ This is a great way of bringing glory to God, and God honours faith, because faith honours him. It is a great honour we do to a man when we trust him with all we have, when we put our lives and estates into his hand; it is a sign we have a good opinion of him. The three children glorified God by believing. 'The God whom we serve is able to deliver us, and will deliver us.’ Dan 3: I7. Faith knows there are no impossibilities with God, and will trust him where it cannot trace him.

      [4] We glorify God, by being tender of his glory. God’s glory is dear to him as the apple of his eye. An ingenuous child weeps to see a disgrace done to his father. Psa 69: 9. 'The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.’ When we hear God reproached, it is as if we were reproached; when God's glory suffers, it is as if we suffered. This is to be tender of God’s glory.

      [5] We glorify God by fruitfulness. John 15: 8. 'Hereby is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.’ As it is dishonouring God to be barren, so fruitfulness honours him. Phil 1: 2: 'Filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are to the praise of his glory.' We must not be like the fig tree in the gospel, which had nothing but leaves, but like the pomecitron, that is continually either mellowing or blossoming, and is never without fruit. It is not profession, but fruit that glorifies God. God expects to have his glory from us in this way. I Cor 9: 7. 'Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit of it?' Trees in the forest may be barren, but trees in the garden are fruitful. We must bring forth the fruits of love and good works. Matt 5: I6. 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.' Faith sanctifies our works, and works testify our faith; to be doing good to others, to be eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, much glorifies God. Thus Christ glorified his Father; 'he went about doing good.’ Acts 10: 38. By being fruitful, we are fair in God’s eyes. Jer 11: I6. 'The Lord called thy name a green olive-tree, fair and of goodly fruit.’ And we must bear much fruit; it is muchness of fruit that glorifies God: 'if ye bear much fruit.’ The spouse’s breasts are compared to clusters of grapes, to show how fertile she was. Cant 7: 7. Though the lowest degree of grace may bring salvation to you, yet it will not bring much glory to God. It was not a spark of love Christ commended in Mary, but much love; 'she loved much.’ Luke 7: 47.

      [6] We glorify God, by being contented in that state in which Providence has placed us. We give God the glory of his wisdom, when we rest satisfied with what he carves out to us. Thus Paul glorified God. The Lord cast him into as great variety of conditions as any man, 'in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft,' 2 Cor 11: 23, yet he had learned to be content. Paul could sail either in a storm or a calm; he could be anything that God would have him; he could either want or abound. Phil 4: I3. A good Christian argues thus: It is God that has put me in this condition; he could have raised me higher, if he pleased, but that might have been a snare to me: he has done it in wisdom and love; therefore I will sit down satisfied with my condition. Surely this glorifies God much; God counts himself much honoured by such a Christian. Here, says God, is one after mine own heart; let me do what I will with him, I hear no murmuring, he is content. This shows abundance of grace. When grace is crowning, it is not so much to be content; but when grace is conflicting with inconveniences, then to be content is a glorious thing indeed. For one to be content when he is in heaven is no wonder; but to be content under the cross is like a Christian. This man must needs bring glory to God; for he shows to all the world, that though he has little meal in his barrel, yet he has enough in God to make him content: he says, as David, Psa 16: 5, 'The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance; the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places.’

      [7] We glorify God by working out our own salvation. God has twisted together his glory and our good. We glorify him by promoting our own salvation. It is a glory to God to have multitudes of converts; now, his design of free grace takes, and God has the glory of his mercy; so that, while we are endeavouring our salvation, we are honouring God. What an encouragement is this to the service of God, to think, while I am hearing and praying, I am glorifying God; while I am furthering my own glory in heaven, I am increasing God’s glory. Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say to him, You will honour and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry away? So, for God to say, Go to the ordinances, get as much grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can; and the more happiness you have, the more I shall count myself glorified.

      [8] We glorify God by living to God. 2 Cor 5: 15. 'That they which live should not live to themselves, but unto him who died for them.' Rom 14: 8. 'Whether we live, we live unto the Lord.’ The Mammonist lives to his money, the Epicure lives to his belly; the design of a sinner’s life is to gratify lust, but we glorify God when we live to God. We live to God when we live to his service, and lay ourselves out wholly for God. The Lord has sent us into the world, as a merchant sends his factor beyond the seas to trade for him. We live to God when we trade for his interest, and propagate his gospel. God has given every man a talent; and when a man does not hide it in a napkin, but improves it for God, he lives to God. When a master in a family, by counsel and good example, labours to bring his servants to Christ; when a minister spends himself, and is spent, that he may win souls to Christ, and make the crown flourish upon Christ’s head; when the magistrate does not wear the sword in vain, but labours to cut down sin, and to suppress vice; this is to live to God, and this is glorifying God. Phil 1: 20. 'That Christ might be magnified, whether by life or by death.’ Three wishes Paul had, and they were all about Christ; that he might be found in Christ, be with Christ, and magnify Christ.

      [9] We glorify God by walking cheerfully. It brings glory to God, when the world sees a Christian has that within him that can make him cheerful in the worst times; that can enable him, with the nightingale, to sing with a thorn at his breast. The people of God have ground for cheerfulness. They are justified and adopted, and this creates inward peace; it makes music within, whatever storms are without. 2 Cor 1: 4. I Thess 1: 6. If we consider what Christ has wrought for us by his blood, and wrought in us by his Spirit, it is a ground of great cheerfulness, and this cheerfulness glorifies God. It reflects upon a master when the servant is always drooping and sad; sure he is kept to hard commons, his master does not give him what is fitting; so, when God’s people hang their heads, it looks as if they did not serve a good master, or repented of their choice, which reflects dishonour on God. As the gross sins of the wicked bring a scandal on the gospel, so do the uncheerful lives of the godly. Ps 100: 2. 'Serve the Lord with gladness.’ Your serving him does not glorify him, unless it be with gladness. A Christian’s cheerful looks glorify God; religion does not take away our joy, but refines it; it does not break our viol, but tunes it, and makes the music sweeter.

      [10] We glorify God, by standing up for his truths. Much of God’s glory lies in his truth. God has intrusted us with his truth, as a master intrusts his servant with his purse to keep. We have not a richer jewel to trust God with than our souls, nor has God a richer jewel to trust us with than his truth. Truth is a beam that shines from God. Much of his glory lies in his truth. When we are advocates for truth we glorify God. Jude 3. 'That ye should contend earnestly for the truth.’ The Greek word to contend signifies great contending, as one would contend for his land, and not suffer his right to be taken from him; so we should contend for the truth. Were there more of this holy contention God would have more glory. Some contend earnestly for trifles and ceremonies, but not for the truth. We should count him indiscreet that would contend more for a picture than for his inheritance; for a box of counters than for his box of title deeds.

      [II] We glorify God, by praising him. Doxology, or praise, is a God-exalting work. Psa 1 23. 'Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.’ The Hebrew word Bara, to create, and Barak, to praise, are little different, because the end of creation is to praise God. David was called the sweet singer of Israel, and his praising God was called glorifying God. Psa 86: I2. 'I will praise thee, O Lord my God, and I will glorify thy name.’ Though nothing can add to God’s essential glory, yet praise exalts him in the eyes of others. When we praise God, we spread his fame and renown, we display the trophies of his excellency. In this manner the angels glorify him; they are the choristers of heaven, and do trumpet forth his praise. Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels. Believers are called 'temples of God.’ I Cor 3: I6. When our tongues praise, then the organs in God’s spiritual temple are sounding. How sad is it that God has no more glory from us in this way! Many are full of murmuring and discontent, but seldom bring glory to God, by giving him the praise due to his name. We read of the saints having harps in their hands, the emblems of praise. Many have tears in their eyes, and complaints in their mouth, but few have harps in their hand, blessing and glorifying God. Let us honour God this way. Praise is the quit-rent we pay to God: while God renews our lease, we must renew our rent.

      [I2] We glorify God, by being zealous for his name. Numb 25: 2: 'Phinehas has turned my wrath away, while he was zealous for my sake.' Zeal is a mixed affection, a compound of love and anger; it carries forth our love to God, and our anger against sin in an intense degree. Zeal is impatient of God’s dishonour; a Christian fired with zeal, takes a dishonour done to God worse than an injury done to himself. Rev 2: 2. 'Thou canst not bear them that are evil.’ Our Saviour Christ thus glorified his Father; he, being baptized with a spirit of zeal, drove the money-changers out of the temple. John 2: I4 - I7. 'The zeal of thine house has eaten me up.

      [13] We glorify God, when we have an eye to God in our natural and in our civil actions. In our natural actions; in eating and drinking. I Cor 10: 3I. 'Whether therefore ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God.’ A gracious person holds the golden bridle of temperance; he takes his meat as a medicine to heal the decays of nature, that he may be the fitter, by the strength he receives, for the service of God; he makes his food, not fuel for lust, but help to duty. In buying and selling, we do all to the glory of God. The wicked live upon unjust gain, by falsifying the balances, as in Hosea 12: 7. 'The balances of deceit are in his hands;' and thus while men make their weights lighter, they make their sins heavier, when by exacting more than the commodity is worth, they do not for fourscore write down fifty, but for fifty four-score; when they exact double the price that a thing is worth. We buy and sell to the glory of God, when we observe that golden maxim, 'To do to others as we would have them do to us;’ so that when we sell our commodities, we do not sell our consciences also. Acts 24: I6. 'Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards men.’ We glorify God, when we have an eye to God in all our civil and natural actions, and do nothing that may reflect any blemish on religion.

      [14] We glorify God by labouring to draw others to God; by seeking to convert others, and so make them instruments of glorifying God. We should be both diamonds and loadstones; diamonds for the lustre of grace, and loadstones for attractive virtue in drawing others to Christ. Gal 4: I9. 'My little children, of whom I travail,' &c. It is a great way of glorifying God, when we break open the devil's prison, and turn men from the power of Satan to God.

      [I5] We glorify God in a high degree when we suffer for God, and seal the gospel with our blood. John 21: I8, I9. 'When thou shalt be old, another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not: this spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.’ God’s glory shines in the ashes of his martyrs. Isa 24: I5. 'Wherefore glorify the Lord in the fires.’ Micaiah was in the prison, Isaiah was sawn asunder, Paul beheaded, Luke hanged on an olive tree; thus did they, by their death, glorify God. The sufferings of the primitive saints did honour to God, and made the gospel famous in the world. What would others say? See what a good master they serve, and how they love him, that they will venture the loss of all in his service. The glory of Christ's kingdom does not stand in worldly pomp and grandeur, as other kings'; but it is seen in the cheerful sufferings of his people. The saints of old 'loved not their lives to the death.’ Rev 12: 2: They embraced torments as so many crowns. God grant we may thus glorify him, if he calls us to it. Many pray, 'Let this cup pass away,’ but few, 'Thy will be done.’

      [I6] We glorify God, when we give God the glory of all that we do. When Herod had made an oration, and the people gave a shout, saying, 'It is the voice of a God, and not of a man,’ he took the glory to himself; the text says, 'Immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms.’ Acts 12: 23. We glorify God, when we sacrifice the praise and glory of all to God. I Cor 15: 10. 'I laboured more abundantly than they all,’ a speech, one would think, savoured of pride; but the apostle pulls the crown from his own head, and sets it upon the head of free grace: 'yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.' As Joab, when he fought against Rabbah, sent for King David, that he might carry away the crown of the victory, 2 Sam 12: 28, so a Christian, when he has gotten power over any corruption or temptation, sends for Christ, that he may carry away the crown of the victory. As the silkworm, when she weaves her curious work, hides herself under the silk, and is not seen; so when we have done anything praiseworthy, we must hide ourselves under the veil of humility, and transfer the glory of all we have done to God. As Constantine used to write the name of Christ over his door, so should we write the name of Christ over our duties. Let him wear the garland of praise.

      [I7] We glorify God by a holy life. A bad life dishonours God. I Pet 2: 9. 'Ye are an holy nation, that ye should shew forth the praises of him that has called you.’ Rom 2: 24. 'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.’ Epiphanius says, 'That the looseness of some Christians in his time made many of the heathens shun their company, and would not be drawn to hear their sermons.’ By our exact Bible-conversation we glorify God. Though the main work of religion lies in the heart, yet our light must so shine that others may behold it. The safety of a building is the foundation, but the glory of it is in the frontispiece; so the beauty of faith is in the conversation. When the saints, who are called jewels, cast a sparkling lustre of holiness in the eyes of the world, then they 'walk as Christ walked.’ I John 2: 6. When they live as if they had seen the Lord with bodily eyes, and been with him upon the mount, they adorn religion, and bring revenues of glory to the crown of heaven.

      Use one: This subject shows us that our chief end should not be to get great estates, not to lay up treasures upon earth; which is the degeneracy of mankind since the fall. Sometimes they never arrive at an estate, they do not get the venison they hunt for; or if they do, what have they? that which will not fill the heart any more than the mariner’s breath will fill the sails of the ship. They spend their time, as Israel, in gathering straw, but remember not, that the end of living is to glorify God. Eccles 5: I6. 'What profit has he that laboureth for the wind?’ These things are soon gone.

      Use two: It reproves such, (I.) As bring no glory to God; who do not answer the end of their creation; whose time is not time lived, but time lost; who are like the wood of the vine, Ezek 15: 2; whose lives are, as St Bernard speaks 'either sinfulness or barrenness. A useless burden on the earth.’ God will one day ask such a question as King Ahasuerus did, Esth 6: 3. 'What honour and dignity has been done to Mordecai?’ What honour has been done to me? what revenues of glory have you brought into my exchequer? There is no one here present but God has put in some capacity of glorifying him; the health he has given you, the parts, estate, seasons of grace, all are opportunities put into your hand to glorify him; and, be assured, he will call you to account, to know what you have done with the mercies he has entrusted you with, what glory you have brought to him. The parable of the talents, where the men with the five talents and the two talents are brought to a reckoning, evidently shows that God will call you to a strict account, to know how you have traded with your talents, and what glory you have brought to him. Now, how sad will it be with them who hide their talents in a napkin, that bring God no glory at all! Matt 25: 30. 'Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.’ It is not enough for you to say, that you have not dishonoured God, you have not lived in gross sin; but what good have you done? what glory have you brought to God? It is not enough for the servant of the vineyard that he does no hurt in the vineyard, that he does not break the trees, or destroy the hedges; if he does not do service in the vineyard, he loses his pay; so, if you do not good in your place, do not glorify God, you will lose your pay, you will miss of salvation. Oh, think of this, all you that live unserviceable! Christ cursed the barren fig tree.

      (2.) It reproves such as are so far from bringing glory to God, that they rob God of his glory. Mal 3: 8. 'Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.’ They rob God, who take the glory due to God to themselves. 1: If they have gotten an estate, they ascribe all to their own wit and industry, they set the crown upon their own head, not considering that, Deut 8: I8, 'Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.’ 2. If they do any duty of religion, they look to their own glory. Matt 6: 5. 'That they may be seen of men;’ that they may be set upon a theatre for others to admire and canonise them. The oil of vainglory feeds their lamp. How many by the wind of popular breath have been blown to hell! Whom the devil cannot destroy by intemperance, he does by vainglory.

      (3.) It reproves those who fight against God’s glory. Acts 5: 39. 'Lest ye be found to fight against God.’ Such as oppose that whereby God’s glory is promoted fight against God’s glory. His glory is much promoted by the preaching of the word, which is his engine whereby he converts souls. Now, such as would hinder the preaching of the word fight against God’s glory. I Thess 3: I6. 'Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved.' Diocletian, who raised the tenth persecution against the Christians, prohibited church meetings, and would have the temples of the Christians to be razed down. Such as hinder preaching, as the Philistines that stopped the wells, stop the well of the water of life. They take away the physicians that should heal sin-sick souls. Ministers are lights, Matt 5: I4, and who but thieves hate the light? They directly strike at God’s glory; and what an account will they have to give to God, when he shall charge the blood of men’s souls upon them! Luke 11: 52. 'Ye have taken away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.’ If there be either justice in heaven, or fire in hell, they shall not go unpunished.

      Use three: Exhortation. Let every one of us, in our place, make it our chief end and design to glorify God. (I.) Let me speak to magistrates. God has put much glory upon them. Psa 82: 6. 'I have said, Ye are Gods;’ and will they not glorify him who has put so much glory upon them? (2.) Ministers should study to promote God’s glory. God has entrusted them with two of the most precious things, his truth, and the souls of his people. Ministers, by virtue of their office, are to glorify God. They must glorify God, by labouring in the word and doctrine. 2 Tim 4: 1: 'I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead: preach the word, be instant in season, out of season,’ etc. It was Augustine’s wish, 'that Christ, at his coming, might find him either praying or preaching.’ Ministers must glorify God by their zeal and sanctity. The priests under the law, before they served at the altar, washed in the laver; so, such as serve in the Lord's house, must first be washed from gross sin in the laver of repentance. It is matter of grief and shame to think how many, who call themselves ministers, instead of bringing glory to God, dishonour him. 2 Chron 11: I5. Their lives, as well as their doctrines, are heterodox; they are not free from the sins which they reprove in others. Plutarch’s servant upbraided him, by saying, 'he has written a book against anger, et ipse mihi irascitur, yet he falls into a passion of anger with me.’ So is a minister who preaches against drunkenness, yet he himself is drunk; he preaches against swearing, yet he himself swears! (3.) Masters of families must glorify God, must season their children and servants with the knowledge of the Lord; their houses should be little churches. Gen 18: I9. 'I know that Abraham will command his children, that they may keep the way of the Lord.’ You that are masters have a charge of souls. For want of the bridle of family discipline youth runs wild.

      It will be a great comfort in a dying hour, to think we have glorified God in our lives. It was Christ’s comfort before his death: John 17: 4. 'I have glorified thee on the earth.’ At the hour of death, all your earthly comforts will vanish: if you think how rich you have been, what pleasures you have had on earth; this will be so far from comforting you, that it will torment you the more. What is one the better for an estate that is spent? But to have conscience telling you, that you have glorified God on the earth, what sweet comfort and peace will this let into your soul! how will it make you long for death! The servant that has been all day working in the vineyard longs till evening comes, when he shall receive his pay. How can they who have lived, and brought no glory to God, think of dying with comfort? They cannot expect a harvest where they sowed no seed. How can they expect glory from God, who never brought any glory to him? Oh in what horror will they be at death! The worm of conscience will gnaw their souls, before the worms can gnaw their bodies.

      If we glorify God, he will glorify our souls for ever. By raising God’s glory, we increase our own: by glorifying God, we come at last to the blessed enjoyment of him.

      II. Man’s chief end is to enjoy God for ever. Psalm 73: 25. 'Whom have I in heaven but thee?’ That is, What is there in heaven I desire to enjoy but thee? There is a twofold fruition or enjoying of God; the one is in this life, the other in the life to come.

      [I] The enjoyment of God in this life. It is a great matter to enjoy God's ordinances, but to enjoy God's presence in the ordinances is that which a gracious heart aspires after. Psalm 63: 2. 'To see thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.' This sweet enjoyment of God, is, when we feel his Spirit co-operating with the ordinance, and distilling grace upon our hearts, when in the Word the Spirit quickens and raises the affections, Luke 24: 32, 'Did not our hearts burn within us?', when the Spirit transforms the heart, leaving an impress of holiness upon it. 2 Cor 3: I8. 'We are changed into the same image, from glory to glory.' When the Spirit revives the heart with comfort, it comes not only with its anointing, but with its seal; it sheds God's love abroad in the heart. Rom 5: 5. 'Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.' I John 1: 3. In the Word we hear God's voice, in the sacrament we have his kiss. The heart being warmed and inflamed in a duty is God's answering by fire. The sweet communications of God's Spirit are the first-fruits of glory. Now Christ has pulled off his veil, and showed his smiling face; now he has led a believer into the banqueting-house, and given him of the spiced wine of his love to drink; he has put in his finger at the hole of the door; he has touched the heart, and made it leap for joy. Oh how sweet is it thus to enjoy God! The godly have, in ordinances, had such divine raptures of joy, and soul transfigurations, that they have been carried above the world, and have despised all things here below.

      Use one: Is the enjoyment of God in this life so sweet? How wicked are they who prefer the enjoyment of their lusts before the enjoyment of God! 2 Pet 3: 3. 'The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life,' is the Trinity they worship. Lust is an inordinate desire or impulse, provoking the soul to that which is evil. There is the revengeful lust, and the wanton lust. Lust, like a feverish heat, puts the soul into a flame. Aristotle calls sensual lusts brutish, because, when any lust is violent, reason or conscience cannot be heard. These lusts besot and brutalise the man. Hos 4: 11. 'Whoredom and wine take away the heart;' the heart for anything that is good. How many make it their chief end, not to enjoy God, but to enjoy their lusts!; as that cardinal who said, 'Let him but keep his cardinalship of Paris, and he was content to lose his part in Paradise.' Lust first bewitches with pleasure, and then comes the fatal dart. Prov 7: 23. 'Till a dart strike through his liver.' This should be as a flaming sword to stop men in the way of their carnal delights. Who for a drop of pleasure would drink a sea of wrath?

      Use two: Let it be our great care to enjoy God's sweet presence in his ordinances. Enjoying spiritual communion with God is a riddle and mystery to most people. Every one that hangs about the court does not speak with the king. We may approach God in ordinances, and hang about the court of heaven, yet not enjoy communion with God. We may have the letter without the Spirit, the visible sign without the invisible grace. It is the enjoyment of God in a duty that we should chiefly look at. Psa 13: 2. 'My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.’ Alas! what are all our worldly enjoyments without the enjoyment of God! What is it to enjoy good health, a brave estate, and not to enjoy God? Job 30: 28. 'I went mourning without the sun.’ So mayest thou say in the enjoyment of all creatures without God, 'I went mourning without the sun.’ I have the starlight of outward enjoyments, but I want the Sun of Righteousness. 'I went mourning without the sun.' It should be our great design, not only to have the ordinances of God, but the God of the ordinances. The enjoyment of God's sweet presence here is the most contented life: he is a hive of sweetness, a magazine of riches, a fountain of delight. Psalm 36: 8, 9. The higher the lark flies the sweeter it sings: and the higher we fly by the wings of faith, the more we enjoy of God. How is the heart inflamed in prayer and meditation! What joy and peace is there in believing! Is it not comfortable being in heaven? He that enjoys much of God in this life carries heaven about him. Oh let this be the thing we are chiefly ambitious of, the enjoyment of God in his ordinances! The enjoyment of God's sweet presence here is an earnest of our enjoying him in heaven.

      This brings us to the second thing:

      [2] The enjoyment of God in the life to come. Man’s chief end is to enjoy God for ever. Before the plenary fruition of God in heaven, there must be something previous and antecedent; and that is, our being in a state of grace. We must have conformity to him in grace, before we can have communion with him in glory. Grace and glory are linked and chained together. Grace precedes glory, as the morning star ushers in the sun. God will have us qualified and fitted for a state of blessedness. Drunkards and swearers are not fit to enjoy God in glory; the Lord will not lay such vipers in his bosom. Only the 'pure in heart shall see God.' We must first be, as the king's daughter, glorious within, before we are clothed with the robes of glory. As King Ahasuerus first caused the virgins to be purified and anointed, and they had their sweet odours to perfume them, and then went to stand before the king, Esth 2: 12, so must we have the anointing of God, and be perfumed with the graces of the Spirit, those sweet odours, and then we shall stand before the king of heaven. Being thus divinely qualified by grace, we shall be taken up to the mount of vision, and enjoy God for ever; and what is enjoying God for ever but to be put in a state of happiness? As the body cannot have life but by having communion with the soul, so the soul cannot have blessedness but by having immediate communion with God. God is the summum bonum, the chief good; therefore the enjoyment of him is the highest felicity.

      He is a universal good; bonum in quo omnia bona, 'a good, in which are all goods.’ The excellencies of the creature are limited. A man may have health, not beauty, learning, not parentage, riches, not wisdom; but in God are contained all excellencies. He is a good, commensurate fully to the soul; a sun, a portion, a horn of salvation; in whom dwells 'all fulness.’ Col 1: I9. God is an unmixed good. There is no condition in this life but has its mixture; for every drop of honey there is a drop of gall. Solomon, who gave himself to find out the philosopher’s stone, to search out for happiness here below, found nothing but vanity and vexation. Eccl 1: 2. God is perfect, the quintessence of good. He is sweetness in the flower. God is a satisfying good. The soul cries out, I have enough. Psalm 17: I5. 'I shall be satisfied with thy likeness.’ Let a man who is thirsty be brought to an ocean of pure water, and he has enough. If there be enough in God to satisfy the angels, then sure there is enough to satisfy us. The soul is but finite, but God is infinite. Though God be a good that satisfies, yet he does not surfeit. Fresh joys spring continually from his face; and he is as much to be desired after millions of years by glorified souls as at the first moment. There is a fulness in God that satisfies, and yet so much sweetness, that the soul still desires. God is a delicious good. That which is the chief good must ravish the soul with pleasure; there must be in it rapturous delight and quintessence of joy. In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur anima immo rapitur [There is a certain sweetness about God’s person which delights, nay, rather, ravishes the soul]: The love of God drops such infinite suavity into the soul as is unspeakable and full of glory. If there be so much delight in God, when we see him only by faith, I Pet 1: 8, what will the joy of vision be, when we shall see him face to face! If the saints have found so much delight in God while they were suffering, oh what joy and delight will they have when they are being crowned! If flames are beds of roses, what will it be to lean on the bosom of Jesus! What a bed of roses that will be! God is a superlative good. He is better than anything you can put in competition with him: he is better than health, riches, honour. Other things maintain life, he gives life. Who would put anything in balance with the Deity? Who would weigh a feather against a mountain of gold? God excels all other things more infinitely than the sun the light of a taper. God is an eternal good. He is the Ancient of days, yet never decays, nor waxes old. Dan 7: 9. The joy he gives is eternal, the crown fadeth not away. I Pet 5: 4. The glorified soul shall be ever solacing itself in God, feasting on his love, and sunning itself in the light of his countenance. We read of the river of pleasure at God's right hand; but will not this in time be dried up? No! There is a fountain at the bottom which feeds it. Psa 36: 9. 'With the Lord is the fountain of life.' Thus God is the chief good, and the enjoyment of God for ever is the highest felicity of which the soul is capable.

      Use one: Let it be the chief end of our living to enjoy this chief good hereafter. Augustine reckons up 288 opinions among philosophers about happiness, but all were short of the mark. The highest elevation of a reasonable soul is to enjoy God for ever. It is the enjoyment of God that makes heaven. I Thess 4: I7. 'Then shall we ever be with the Lord.' The soul trembles as the needle in the compass, and is never at rest till it comes to God. To set out this excellent state of a glorified soul’s enjoyment of God: (I.) It must not be understood in a sensual manner: we must not conceive any carnal pleasures in heaven. The Turks, in their Koran, speak of a paradise of pleasure, where they have riches in abundance, and red wine served in golden chalices. The epicures of this age would like such a heaven when they die. Though the state of glory be compared to a feast, and is set out by pearls and precious stones, yet these metaphors are only helps to our faith, and to show us that there is superabundant joy and felicity in the highest heaven; but they are not carnal but spiritual delights. Our enjoyment will be in the perfection of holiness, in seeing the pure face of Christ, in feeling the love of God, in conversing with heavenly spirits; which will be proper for the soul, and infinitely exceed all carnal voluptuous delights. (2.) We shall have a lively sense of this glorious estate. A man in a lethargy, though alive, is as good as dead, because he is not sensible, nor does he take any pleasure in his life; but we shall have a quick and lively sense of the infinite pleasure which arises from the enjoyment of God: we shall know ourselves to be happy; we shall reflect with joy upon our dignity and felicity; we shall taste every crumb of that sweetness, every drop of that pleasure which flows from God. (3.) We shall be made able to bear a sight of that glory. We could not now bear that glory, it would overwhelm us, as a weak eye cannot behold the sun; but God will capacitate us for glory; our souls shall be so heavenly, and perfected with holiness, that they may be able to enjoy the blessed vision of God. Moses in a cleft of the rock saw the glory of God passing by. Exod 33: 22. From our blessed rock Christ, we shall behold the beatific sight of God. (4.) This enjoyment of God shall be more than a bare contemplation of him. Some of the learned move the question, Whether the enjoyment of God shall be by way of contemplation only. That is something, but it is one half of heaven only; there shall be a loving of God, an acquiescence in him, a tasting his sweetness; not only inspection but possession. John 17: 24. 'That they may behold my glory;' there is inspection: Verse 22. 'And the glory thou hast given me, I have given them;' there is possession. 'Glory shall be revealed in us,' Rom 8: I8; not only revealed to us, but in us. To behold God's glory, there is glory revealed to us; but, to partake of his glory, there is glory revealed in us. As the sponge sucks in the wine, so shall we suck in glory. (5.) There is no intermission in this state of glory. We shall not only have God's glorious presence at certain special seasons; but we shall be continually in his presence, continually under divine raptures of joy. There shall not be one minute in heaven, wherein a glorified soul may say, I do not enjoy happiness. The streams of glory are not like the water of a conduit, often stopped, so that we cannot have one drop of water; but those heavenly streams of joy are continually running. Oh how should we despise this valley of tears where we now are, for the mount of transfiguration! how should we long for the full enjoyment of God in Paradise! Had we a sight of that land of promise, we should need patience to be content to live here any longer.

      Use two: Let this be a spur to duty. How diligent and zealous should we be in glorifying God, that we may come at last to enjoy him! If Tully, Demosthenes, and Plato, who had but the dim watch-light of reason to see by, fancied an elysium and happiness after this life, and took such Herculean pains to enjoy it, oh how should Christians, who have the light of Scripture to see b