(2.) Those who are servants of men, instead of serving God: 1 Cor. vii. 23, "Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men" they subject themselves to men's lusts, subjecting their faith to other men's notions, and suiting their practice to other men's lusts. Thus they make idols of them, putting them in God's room: Matth. xxiii. 9, "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Thus persons are time-servers, turning with the wind, according as the times turn, who think it their wisdom not to follow truth too hard at the heels, lest it dash out their brains. And such are company-servers, who will change themselves into any complexion in which the company is.

(3.) Those who are servants of sin: Rom. vi. 20, “For when yo were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness." The saints indeed often sin; but they are not the servants of sin. Whoso are such are none of Christ's, but they serve the devil and their lusts. They sin against the gospel-remedy, going on in a state of unbelief and impenitency. They are not only infected with the plague of sin, but they slight the Physician with his remedies, namely, his blood and Spirit; they will not have this man to reign over them. Luke xix. 14, "Sin regins in them like a king; they readily obey it in the lusts thereof," Rom. vi. 16, and fairly yield themselves to it. They are in the snare of the devil, and are taken captive by him at his will. Do not think you can be servants to God, who are thus situated. No man can serve two masters.

Lastly, Those who make the Lord's service but their by-hand work, not their chief employ. These are religion's chance-customers, who will never enrich themselves with it. And such are these who never make religion their predominant concern. The chief stream of their care and anxiety runs in another channel than the grand inquiry, What shall I do to be saved? The things of time lie nearest their heart, not the matters of eternity.-Those who follow religion no farther than their other ends will allow of, who make it yield to their temporal interests, and embrace it only when those do not interfere with it, like the allowance Pharaoh made for religion, by calling idleness the spring of it, Exod. v. 17.-Those who confine their religion to their religious duties, and do not weave it into the whole of their conversation. Suppose one to be very exact in a due performance of secret and family duties; yet if he do not walk with God in the interval of duties, and carry his religion through his worldly business, God's service is not his business. I would now improve this subject,

2. In an use of trial.

You may and should try yourselves, whether you be the Lord's or not. If you can say, "It is God whom I serve," ye may say, "It is God's whose I am." If religion be your business, you are God's servants, and he will own you to be so. A servant of God moves two steps, by which he advances beyond others.

(1.) He serves God, and so goes beyond the profane careless generation in the world, who mind nothing but the world, the profits and pleasures which are in it: Phil. iii. 19, "Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, and who mind earthly things." As for the service of God, they are free of it, they are sons of Belial, and go without a yoke; they are the serpent's seed, on their belly they go, and dust is their only meat; the duties of religion they make no conscience of.

(2.) He makes God's service his business, and so goes beyond the formalist who serves God, but makes not God's service his chief work. The hypocrite has always one thing which goes above all other things with him; but that is the world, or some one lust or other, not the one thing needful, which is the chief thing the servant of God is ever in quest of.

We have heard already the marks of a person who makes religion his business. Try yourselves by these, whether God's service be your grand object in the world, and if you serve him with the whole man, &c., as described in the second head. I come now,

3. To an use of exhortation.-I exhort you to evidence yourselves to be the Lord's servants, by serving him.-And with this design I beseech you,

(1.) To enter to his service, and serve him. Serve him in your salvation and generation work, in external and internal service, in stated and continual service, in doing or suffering service, in ordinary and extraordinary service. Put your hand and heart to the several pieces of service to which he calls you. And I would recommend in this case to you,

[1.] Be attentive to your Master's orders, and labour to know his mind, as to what may be your duty; Psalm cxxiii. 2, "Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us." Consult his word, which contains his orders to his servants, and read the Bible as the book of your instructions. Take the providential hints of duty he gives you: for he has said, Psalm xxxii. 8, "I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye." Be always willing to know his will, and make application to him by prayer, for the discovery of it in

particular cases, especially such as are difficult: do nothing with a doubting conscience.

[2.] Be willing servants, not refractory and wilful. Follow the example of Abraham, who obeyed, and went out, not knowing whither he went, Heb. xi. 8. The Master's orders being known, do not dispute them, but readily obey them. Choose not the work you will do, whether it be suffering or doing work, whatever the burden be which he lays on you, bow your shoulders to bear it; the cross he lays down, do you be ready to take it up. For it becomes him to command, and us to obey.

[3.] Weary not of your work: James i. 4, "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." However hard you apprehend your task to be, give not way to wearying of it: Gal. vi. 9, "And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." We should think all light while we are out of hell. Impatience betrays us into the hands of the adversary, who is ready to offer his hellish help to those who are weary of the task God has laid on them; of which we have dreadful instances, which may make all of us tremble, and resolve through grace to bear till himself give deliverance.

[4.] When you are checked for your mismanagements, or corrected on account of them, learn this property of a good servant, not to answer again, Tit. ii. 9. Murmuring under the rebukes of providence is very unbecoming, and highly provoking in God's sight: Lam. iii. 39, "Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?" They who enter into the family of God, must not think it strange that they have to submit to the discipline of the house.I would exhort you,

(2.) To hold by his service, as the great business which you have to do in the world. Never give it over, but pursue it as the grand business of your life, for doing which you were sent into the world. You have many things to do: but this is the one thing above all other things; O give it the preference in your hearts and lives. Never reckon that your other business goes well, when this does not; nor ill, when this goes well. Hold on it, till death loose you, and you have accomplished, as an hireling, your days.-As to this I will recommend to you,

[1] Serve him honestly and uprightly: Joshua xxiv. 14, “Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth." Let him be your only Lord and Master; and while you profess to serve God, give not a secret service to any idol; for there is no hiding the matter from your heavenly Master. You are in God's account, what you are inwardly in heart.

[2.] Serve him cheerfully with heart and good-will. He is the best of masters, and desires none to serve him for nought. To be heartless in his service, as if it were a drudgery, is very displeasing to him: Deut. xxviii. 47, 48, "Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee in hunger and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee."

[3] Serve him fervently and zealously: Rom. xii. 11, "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Our God is the living God, and he requires his servants to be lively, their hearts stirring within them in his service. The greatest love which ever appeared being shewed by our Lord, this doubtless requires such a return.

[4.] Serve him diligently and laboriously: Acts xxvi. 7, “Unto which hope, our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come." Why should we grudge pains for him who thought not his own life too much for us? The servants of sin and Satan are indefatigable, alas! that the servants of God should be so slothful. To prevail with you in complying with this exhortation, I shall lay before you the following motives :

Mor. 1. If you be not the servants of God, you are the servants of the devil: John viii. 44, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." There is never a spare servant in this case. If the sinner depart from God, whose he is, and whom he ought to serve, presently Satan picks him up as a stray, and sets him to his work; and his service is sad service. To make this appear, you may consider,-(1.) His work is sin. Satan is the Egyptian task-master, who seduces poor mortals, who will not work out their own salvation. He puts another task in their hand, to work out their own ruin and destruction. And is not this the work about which most of the world are busy, who are twisting cords of guilt every day to bind their souls under God's wrath ?-(2.) His wages is death, eternal death: "For the wages of sin is death," Rom. vi. 22. Satan goes about, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He is the father of lies, has had a long trade of it, deceiving poor sinners, catching some with one bait, some with another; that first he may be a prevailing tempter, and then a cruel tormentor, who, because he is beyond hope himself, would wish to have all the world as miserable as himself.

Mor. 2. God is the best of Masters, and his service is the best of service. This have all the saints witnessed, and so shall all of you, upon a full trial of it.-To make this good, consider,

(1.) That it is the most honourable service. He who serves God, serves him who is the fountain of all honour: Psalm xxxvi. 9, "For with thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light." Surely it is far more honourable to be a servant of the Lord, than to be a mighty king. What great work is there at times to get into the service of great men, especially of kings and princes! but O! why so little to get into the service of the King of kings?— Consider,

(2.) That it is the most rational service: Rom. xii. 1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Is he not our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier, our universal Benefactor, and our covenanted God? Is there any who has that right to our service which he has? Can it be our interest so much to be in the service of any other as it is to be in his service?-Consider,

(3.) That it is the most pleasant and comfortable service; Prov. iii. 17, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. There is a joy in the service of God, even the hardest of it all, which, whoso tastes of, will not exchange Christ's cross for the world's crown. Hear the Psalmist's judgment of it: Psalm lxxxiv. 10, "For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." How did Hannah rejoice after a prayer! the eunuch after a sealing ordinance! If some find it not to be so pleasant, it is either because their nature is not renewed at all, or grace is low, and corruption strong.

(4.) Consider that it is the most advantageous service. Never was service so rewarded as God's service is. There is a reward in hand, which accompanies the work: Psalm xix. 11, "In keeping of thy commandments, there is a great reward." There is also a reward in hope, the eternal weight of glory. They shall be courtiers of the King of heaven in glory for evermore: Rev. xxii. 3, " And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him and they shall see his face; and his name shall be on their foreheads." Amen.