No cross, no crown

by William Penn

VIII. But without the preparation and consecration of this power, no man is fit to come before God; else it were matter of less holiness and reverence to worship God under the gospel, than it was in the times of the law, when all sacrifices were sprinkled before offered; the people consecrated that offered them, before they presented themselves before the Lord. (Numb. viii., xix.; 2 Chron. xxix. 36; xxx. 16, 17.) If the touching of a dead or unclean beast then made people unfit for temple or sacrifice, yea, society with the clean, till first sprinkled and sanctified, how can we think so meanly of the worship that is instituted by Christ in gospel times, as that it should admit of unprepared and unsanctified offerings? Or, allow that those, who either in thoughts, words, or deeds, do daily touch that which is morally unclean, can, without coming to the blood of Jesus, that sprinkles the conscience from dead works, acceptably worship the pure God: it is a downright contradiction to good sense: the unclean cannot acceptably worship that which is holy; the impure that which is perfect. There is a holy intercourse and communion betwixt Christ and his followers; but none at all betwixt Christ and Belial; between him and those that disobey his commandments, and live not the life of his blessed cross and self-denial. (2 Cor. vi. 15, 16.)

IX. But as sin, so formality cannot worship God; no, though the manner were of his own ordination. Which made the prophet, personating one in a great strait, cry out, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed, thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah, vi. 6-8.) The royal prophet, sensible of this, calls thus also upon God; "O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." (Psalm li. 15-17.) He did not dare open his own lips, he knew that could not praise God; and why? "for thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it:" if my formal offerings would serve, thou shouldst not want them; thou delightest not in burnt-offerings. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise:" and why? because this is God's work, the effect of his power; and his own works praise him. To the same purpose doth God himself speak by the mouth of Isaiah, in opposition to the formalities and lip-worship of the degenerate Jews: "Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool, where is the house that ye build to me? and where is the place of my rest? For all these things hath my hand made. But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." (Isaiah, lxvi. 1, 2.) O behold the true worshipper! one of God's preparing, circumcised in heart and ear, that resists not the Holy Spirit, as those lofty professing Jews did. Was this so then, even in the time of the law, which was the dispensation of external and shadowy performances: and can we now expect acceptance without the preparation of the Spirit of the Lord in these gospel times, which are the proper times for the effusion of the Spirit? By no means: God is what he was; and none else are his true worshippers, but such as worship him in his own spirit: these he tenders as the apple of his eye; the rest do but mock him, and he despises them. Hear what follows to that people, for it is the state and portion of Christendom at this day; "He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations." (Isaiah, lxvi. 3.) Let none say, we offer not these kinds of oblations, for that is not the matter; God was not offended with the offerings, but offerers. These were the legal forms of sacrifice by God appointed; but they not presenting them in that frame of spirit, and under that right disposition of soul that was required, God declares his abhorrence, and that with great aggravation; and elsewhere, by the same prophet, forbids them to bring any more vain oblations before him; "incense," saith God, "is an abomination to me: your sabbaths and calling of assemblies I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." And "when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; when you make many prayers, I will not hear you." (Isaiah, i. 13-18.) A most terrible renunciation of their worship; and why? Because their hearts were polluted; they loved not the Lord with their whole hearts, but broke his law, and rebelled against his Spirit, and did not that which was right in his sight. The cause is plain, by the amendment He requires; "Wash ye," says the Lord, "make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes: cease to do evil, learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." Upon these terms, and nothing short, He bids them come to Him, and tells them, that "though their sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; and though they be as crimson, they shall be white as wool."

So true is that notable passage of the Psalmist, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul: I cried to him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But verily God hath heard me: he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me." (Psalm lxvi. 16, 20.)

X. Much of this kind might be cited, to show the displeasure of God against even his own forms of worship, when performed without his own Spirit, and that necessary preparation of the heart in man, that nothing else can work or give: which above all other penmen of sacred writ, is most frequently and emphatically recommended to us by the example of the Psalmist, who ever and anon calling to mind his own great slips, and the cause of them, and the way by which he came to be accepted of God, and to obtain strength and comfort from him, reminds himself to wait upon God. "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day long." (Psalm xxv. 5.) His soul looked to God for salvation, to be delivered from the snares and evils of the world. This shows an inward exercise, and a spiritual attendance, that stood not in external forms, but in inward divine aid.

And truly, David had great encouragement so to do; the goodness of God invited him to it and strengthened him in it. For says he, "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock." (Psalm xl. 1, 2.) That is, the Lord appeared inwardly to console David's soul, that waited for his help, and to deliver it from the temptations and afflictions that were ready to overwhelm it, and gave him security and peace. Therefore, he says, "The Lord hath established my goings;" that is, fixed his mind in righteousness. Before, every step he took bemired him, and he was scarcely able to go without falling: temptation on all hands; but he waited patiently upon God: his mind retired, watchful, and intent to his law and Spirit; and he felt the Lord to incline to him. His needy and sensible cry entered heaven, and prevailed; then came deliverance and rescue to David, in God's time, not David's strength to go through his exercises, and surmount all his troubles. For which he tells us, a new song was put into his mouth, even praises to his God. (Psalm xl. 3.) But it was of God's making and putting, and not his own.

Another time, we have him crying thus: "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" This goes beyond formality, and can be tied to no lesson. But we may by this see, that true worship is an inward work; that the soul must be touched and raised in its heavenly desires by the heavenly Spirit, and that the true worship is in God's presence. When shall I come and appear? Not in the temple, nor with outward sacrifices, but before God in his presence. So that souls of true worshippers see God, make their appearance before him; and this they wait, they pant, they thirst for. O how is the greater part of Christendom degenerated from David's example! No wonder therefore that this good man tells us, "Truly my soul waiteth upon God;" and that he gives it in charge to his soul so to do; "O my soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." As if he had said, None else can prepare my heart, or supply my wants; so that my expectation is not from my own voluntary performance, or the bodily worship I can give him; they are of no value; they can neither help me, nor please him. But I wait upon him for strength and power to present myself so before him, as may be most pleasing to him; for he that prepares the sacrifice will certainly accept it. Wherefore in two verses he repeats it thrice; "I wait for the Lord—My soul doth wait—My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning." Yea, so intently, and with that unweariedness of soul, that he says in one place, "Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God." (Psalm lxix. 3.) He was not contented with so many prayers, such a set worship, or limited repetition: no; he leaves not till he finds the Lord, that is, the comforts of his presence: which brings the answer of love and peace to his soul. Nor was this his practice only, as a man more than ordinarily inspired; for he speaks of it as the way of worship, then amongst the true people of God, the spiritual Israel, and circumcision in heart, of that day: "Behold," says he, "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 he have mercy on us." (Psalm cxxiii. 2.) In another place, "Our soul waiteth for the Lord; he is our help and our shield." (Psalm xxxiii. 20.) "I will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy saints." (Psalm lii. 9.) It was in request with the truly godly in that day, and the way they came to enjoy God, and worship him acceptably. And from his own experience of the benefit of waiting upon God, and the saints' practice of those times, he recommends it to others: "Wait upon the Lord: be of good courage, and he will strengthen thy heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." (Psalm xxvii. 14.) That is, wait in faith and patience, and he will come to save thee. Again, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently upon him." That is, cast thyself upon him; be contented, and wait for him to help thee in thy wants; thou canst not think how near he is to help those that wait upon him: O try and have faith. Yet again, he bids us, "Wait upon the Lord, and keep his way." (Psalm xxxvii. 34.) Behold the reason why so few profit! they are out of his way; and such can never wait rightly upon him. Great reason had David for what he said, who had with so much comfort and advantage met the Lord in his blessed way.

XI. The prophet Isaiah tells us, that though the chastisements of the Lord were sore upon the people for their backslidings, yet in the way of his judgments, in the way of his rebukes and displeasure, they waited for him, and the desire of their soul, that is the great point, was to his name, and the remembrance of him. (Isaiah, xxvi. 8.) They were contented to be chid and chastised, for they had sinned; and the knowledge of him so was very desirable to them. But what! did he not come at last, and that in mercy too? Yes, he did, and they knew him when he came, a doctrine the brutish world knows not, "This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us." (Isaiah, xxv. 9.) O blessed enjoyment! O precious confidence! here is a waiting in faith which prevailed. All worship not in faith is fruitless to the worshipper, as well as displeasing to God: and this faith is the gift of God, and the nature of it is to purify the heart, and give such as truly believe victory over the world. Well, but they go on: "We have waited for him; we will be glad, and rejoice in his salvation." The prophet adds, "Blessed are all they that wait upon God:" and why? for "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;" they shall never faint, never be weary: (Isaiah, xxx. 18; xl. 31:) the encouragement is great. O hear him once more: "For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God! besides thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him." (Isaiah, lxiv. 4.) Behold the inward life and joy of the righteous, the true worshippers; those whose spirits bowed to the appearance of God's Spirit in them, leaving and forsaking all it appeared against, and embracing whatever it led them to. In Jeremiah's time, the true worshippers also waited upon God: (Jer. xiv. 22:) and he assures us, that "The Lord is good to them that wait for them to the soul that seeketh him." (Lam. iii. 25.) Hence it is, that the prophet Hosea exhorts the church then to turn and wait upon God. "Therefore turn thou to thy God; keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually." (Hos. xii. 6.) And Micah is very zealous and resolute in this good exercise: "I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me." (Mic. vii. 7.) Thus did the children of the Spirit, that thirsted after an inward sense of him. The wicked cannot say so; nor they that pray, unless they wait. It is charged upon Israel in the wilderness, as the cause of their disobedience and ingratitude to God, that they waited not for his counsels. We may be sure it is our duty, and expected from us; for God requires it in Zephaniah: "Therefore wait upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I arise," &c. (Zeph. iii. 8.) O that all who profess the name of God, would wait so, and not offer to arise to worship without him. And they would feel his stirrings and arisings in them to help and prepare, and sanctify them. Christ expressly charged his disciples, "They should not stir from Jerusalem, but wait till they had received the promise of the Father, the baptism of the Holy Ghost," (Acts, i. 4, 8,) in order to their preparation for the preaching of the glorious gospel of Christ to the world. And though that were an extraordinary effusion for an extraordinary work, yet the degree does not change the kind; on the contrary, if so much waiting and preparation by the Spirit was requisite to fit them to preach to man; some, at least, may be needful to fit us to speak to God.

XII. I will close this great Scripture doctrine of waiting, with that passage in John about the pool of Bethesda: "There is at Jerusalem, by the sheep-market, a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches; in these lay a great multitude of impotent folks, of blind, halt, and withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." (John, v. 2-4.) A most exact representation of what is intended by all that has been said upon the subject of waiting. For as there was then an outward and legal, so there is now a gospel and spiritual Jerusalem, the church of God; consisting of the faithful. The pool in that old Jerusalem, in some sort, represented that fountain, which is now set open in this new Jerusalem. That pool was for those that were under infirmities of body; this fountain for all that are impotent in soul. There was an angel then that moved the water, to render it beneficial; it is God's angel now, the great angel of his presence, that blesseth this fountain with success. They that then went in before, and did not watch the angel, and take advantage of his motion, found no benefit of their stepping in: those that now wait not the moving of God's angel, but by the devotion of their own forming and timing, rush before God, as the horse into the battle, and hope for success, are sure to miscarry in their expectation. Therefore, as then they waited with all patience and attention upon the angel's motion, that wanted and desired to be cured; so do the true worshippers of God now, that need and pray for his presence, which is the life of their souls, as the sun is to the plants of the field. They have often tried the unprofitableness of their own work, and are now come to the sabbath indeed. They dare not put up a device of their own, or offer an unsanctified request, much less obtrude bodily worship, where the soul is really insensible or unprepared by the Lord. In the light of Jesus they ever wait to be prepared, retired, and recluse from all thoughts that cause the least distraction and discomposure in the mind, till they see the angel move, and till their beloved please to awake: nor dare they call him before his time. And they fear to make a devotion in his absence; for they know it is not only unprofitable, but reprovable: "Who has required this at your hands?" "He that believes, makes not haste." (Isaiah, i. 12; xxviii. 16.) They that worship with their own, can only do as the Israelites, turn their earrings into a molten image, and be cursed for their pains. Nor fared they better, "that gathered sticks of old, and kindled a fire, and compassed themselves about with the sparks that they had kindled;" (Isaiah, l. 11) for God told them, "they should lie down in sorrow." It should not only be of no advantage, and do them no good, but incur a judgment from him: sorrow and anguish of soul should be their portion. Alas! flesh and blood would fain pray, though it cannot wait; and be a saint, though it cannot abide to do or suffer the will of God; with the tongue it blesses God, and with the tongue it curses men, made in his similitude. It calls Jesus LORD, but not by the Holy Ghost; and often names the name of Jesus, yea, bows the knee to it too; but departs not from iniquity: this is abominable to God.

XIII. In short, there are four things so necessary to worshipping God aright, and which put its performance beyond man's power, that there seems little more needed than the naming of them. The first is, the sanctification of the worshipper. Secondly, the consecration of the offering; which has been spoken to before somewhat largely. Thirdly, what to pray for; which no man knows that prays not by the aid of God's Spirit; and therefore without that Spirit no man can truly pray. This the apostle puts beyond dispute; "We know not," says he, "what we would pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities." (Rom. viii. 26.) Men unacquainted with the work and power of the Holy Spirit, are ignorant of the mind of God; and those, certainly, can never please him with their prayers. It is not enough to know we want; but we should learn whether it be not sent as a blessing, disappointments to the proud, losses to the covetous, and to the negligent stripes; to remove these, were to secure the destruction, not help the salvation of the soul.