Man's Chief End to Glorify God

Quest. 1. What is the chief end of man?

Resp. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever.

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

First, I begin with the first, the glorifying of God (1 Peter 4:11): That God in all things may be glorified; the glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions (1 Corinthians 10:31): Whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Every thing works to some end in things natural and artificial; now man being a rational creature, must propose some end to himself, and that is, that he may lift up God in the world, and better lose his life, than lose the end of his living. So then the great truth asserted is this, that the end of every man living is to glorify God; this is the yearly rent paid to the crown of heaven. Glorifying of God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father, who gave us our life; it respects God the Son, who lost his life for us; it respects 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?

Resp. There is a twofold glory: 1. 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; glory is so co-natural to the Godhead, that God cannot be God without it. The creature's honor is not essential to his being; a king is a man without his regal ornaments, when his crown and royal robe 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. His glory can receive no addition, because it is infinite; this glory is that which God is most tender of, and which he will not part with (Isaiah 42:8): My glory I will not give to another. God will give temporal blessings to his children, wisdom, riches, honor; 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 (Genesis 41:40): Only in the throne will I be greater than you. 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 labor to bring to him (1 Chronicles 16:29): Give to the Lord the glory due to his name. And (1 Corinthians 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 (Philippians 1:20): Christ shall be magnified in my body.

Quest. What is it to glorify God, or in what does it consist?

Resp. Glorifying of 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.

1. Appreciation: To glorify God is to set God highest in our thoughts, to have a venerable esteem of him (Psalm 92:8): You, Lord, are most high forevermore. (Psalm 97:9): You are exalted far above all gods. There is in God all that may draw forth both wonder and delight; he is [illegible], there is in him a constellation of all beauties; he is Prima Causa, the original and spring-head of being, who sheds a glory upon the creature. This is to glorify God when we are God-admirers; we admire God in his attributes, which are the glistering beams by which the divine nature shines forth; we admire him in his promises, which are the charter of free grace, and the spiritual cabinet where the pearl of price is hid; we admire God in the noble effects of his power and wisdom, namely, the making of the world; this is called the work of his fingers (Psalm 8:3), such curious needlework it was that none but a God could work. This is to glorify God, to have God-admiring thoughts; we esteem him most excellent, and search for diamonds only in this rock.

2. Glorifying of God consists in adoration, or worship (Psalm 29:2): Give to the Lord the glory due to his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: there is a twofold worship, 1. A civil reverence we give to persons of honor (Genesis 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, is his prerogative-royal (Nehemiah 8:6): They bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces towards the ground. This divine worship God is very jealous of; this is the apple of his eye, this is the pearl of his crown which he guards as he did the tree of life, with cherubim and a flaming sword, that no man may come near to violate it: divine worship must be such as God himself has appointed, else it is offering strange fire (Leviticus 10:2). The Lord would have Moses make the Tabernacle [illegible], according to the pattern in the mount (Exodus 25:40); he must not leave out anything in the pattern, nor add to it; if God was so exact and careful about the place of his worship, how exact will he be about the manner of his worship; surely here everything must be according to the pattern prescribed in his Word.

3. Affection: This is a part of the glory we give to God; God counts himself glorified when he is loved (Deuteronomy 6:5). You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. There is a twofold love: 1. Amor Concupiscentiae, a love of concupiscence, which is a self-love, when we love another because he does us a good turn: thus a wicked man may be said to love God, because he has given him a good crop, or filled his cup with wine, and to speak properly, this is rather to love God's blessings than to love God. 2. Amor Amicitiae, a love of delight, as a man takes delight in a friend; this is indeed to love God, the heart is set upon God, as a man's heart is set upon his treasure. And this love is: 1. Exuberant, not a few drops but a stream. 2. It is superlative, we give God the best of our love, the cream of it (Song of Solomon 8:2). I would cause you 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. 3. It is intense and ardent; true saints are seraphims burning in holy love to God. The spouse was Amore perculsa, in [reconstructed: fainting] fits sick of love (Song of Solomon 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: When we dedicate ourselves to God, and stand ready prepared 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 resembled by the cherubims with their wings displayed to show how swift the angels are in their obedience. This is to glorify God when we are devoted to his service, our head studies for God, our tongue pleads for him, 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 (Matthew 2:11). So we must not only bow the knee, give God worship, but bring presents, golden obedience. This is to glorify God when we stick at no service, we will fight under the banner of his gospel against regiments, and we say to him as David to King Saul (1 Samuel 17:32), "Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." Thus you see wherein the glorifying of God does consist, in appreciation, adoration, affection, subjection.

A good Christian is like the sun which does not only send 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.

Question: Why we must glorify God?

Response: 1. Because he gives us our being (Psalm 100:3). It is he that has 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 God: he gives us health, which is the sauce to sweeten our life; he gives us food, which is the oil that nourishes the lamp of life: now if all we receive is from the hand of his bounty, is it not good reason we should glorify him, and live to him, seeing we live by him (Romans 11:36). For of him and through him are all things. Of him are all — all we have is of his fullness; through him are all — all we have is through his free grace; and therefore to him should be all, so it follows, to him be glory forever. God is not only our benefactor, but our founder; the rivers come from the sea, and they empty their silver streams into the sea again.

2. Because God has made all things for his own glory (Proverbs 16:4). The Lord has made all things for himself; that is, for his glory. As a king has excise out of commodities, God will have his glory out of every thing; he will have glory out of the wicked, the glory of his justice; they will not give him glory, but he will get his glory upon them (Exodus 14:17). I will get me honor upon Pharaoh. But especially he has made the godly for his glory, they are the living organs of his praise (Isaiah 43:21). This people have I formed for myself, and they shall show 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. God has adopted the saints into his family, and made them a royal priesthood that they should show forth the praises of him who has called them (1 Peter 2:9).

3. Because the glory of God has so much intrinsic value and excellence in it; it transcends the thoughts of men, and the tongue of angels. God's glory is his treasure, all his riches lie here, as Mica said (Judges 18:24), "What have I more?" So of God, what has God more? God's glory is more worth than heaven, 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 every thing glorify God but man? It is pity then that ever man was made! 1. Creatures below us glorify God, the inanimate creatures; the heavens glorify God (Psalm 19:1). The heavens declare the glory of God. The curious workmanship of heaven sets forth the glory of its Maker; the firmament is beautified and penciled out in blue and azure colors, 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, twinkling in the stars. 2. Look into the air, the birds with their chirping music sing hymns of praise to God, says Anselm. Every beast does in its kind glorify God (Isaiah 43:20). The beasts of the field shall honor me. 2. Creatures above us glorify God: the angels are ministering spirits (Hebrews 1:14). They are still waiting on God's throne, and bring some revenues of glory into the exchequer of heaven: then surely man should be much more studious of God's glory than the angels, for God has honored him more than the angels, in that Christ took man's nature upon him, and not the angels; say though in regard of creation God has made man a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 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, but not his spouse; he has covered us with the purple robe of his righteousness, which is a better righteousness than the angels have (2 Corinthians 5:20). So that if the angels bring glory to God, much more should we, being dignified with honor above the angelical spirits.

5. Response. We must bring glory to God, because all our hopes hang upon him (Psalm 39:7). My hope is in you. And (Psalm 62:5), my expectation is from him; I expect a kingdom from him. A child that is good natured will honor his parent, as expecting all that ever he is like to be worth from him (Psalm 87:8). All my fresh springs are in you. The silver springs of grace, the golden springs of glory.

Question. How many ways may we glorify God?

Response. 1. It is a glorifying God when we aim purely at God's 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 our actions; thus Christ (John 8:50): I seek not my own glory, but the glory of him that sent me. It is the mark of a hypocrite, he has a squint eye, he looks more to his own glory than God's glory. Our Savior deciphers such, and gives a warning against them (Matthew 6:2). When you give alms do not sound a trumpet. A stranger would ask, What means the noise of this trumpet? Then it was answered, They are going to give to the poor. And so they did not give alms, but sell them for honor and applause, that they may 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 receipt, and write, Received in full payment. Vainglory Chrysostome calls one of the devil's great nets to catch men. And Cyprian, Quem non gula [illegible] superavit: Whom Satan cannot prevail against by intemperance, those he prevails against by pride and vainglory. O let us take heed of this [illegible], self-worship! Aim purely at God's glory.

Question. How shall we know we aim at God's glory?

Response. 1. When we prefer God's glory above all other things; above credit, estate, relations; when the glory of God comes 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 (Deuteronomy 33:9). Who said to his father and his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brothers. This is to aim at God's glory.

2. Then we aim at God's glory when we can be content that God's will should take place though it cross ours: Lord I am content to be a loser if you a gainer; to have less health, if I may have more grace, and you more glory; whether it be food or bitter medicine you give me, Lord I desire that which may be most for your glory: thus our blessed Savior, Not as I will, but as you will (Matthew 26:39). So God might have more glory by his sufferings, he was content to suffer (John 12:28). Father, glorify your name.

3. Then we aim at God's glory, when we can be content to be outshined by others in gifts and esteem, so God's 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. (Philippians 1:15.) Some preach Christ of envy, notwithstanding Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, 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 likely to have 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 dishonored God in his life, but at his death he brings glory to God by confession of sin (Luke 23:41). We indeed suffer justly. He acknowledged he deserved not only crucifixion but damnation (Joshua 7:19). My son, give, I pray you, glory to God, and make confession to him. A humble confession exalts God; how is God's free grace magnified in crowning those who deserve to be condemned; as the excusing and mincing of sin does cast a reproach upon God, Adam denies not he did taste the forbidden fruit, but instead of a full confession, he accuses God, [reconstructed: Inscripsere Deos sceleri] (Genesis 3:12). The woman whom you gave me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. It is because of you, if you had not given me the woman to be a tempter, I had not sinned. So confession glorifies God, it clears, it acknowledges he is holy and righteous whatever he does. Nehemiah vindicates God's righteousness (Nehemiah 9:33). You are just in all that is brought upon us. And confession then is ingenuous when it is free not forced (Luke 15:18). I have sinned against heaven, and before you; he charges himself with sin before ever his father charges him with it.

3. We glorify God by believing (Romans 4:20): Abraham was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Unbelief affronts God, it gives him the lie; he that believes not, makes God a liar (1 John 5:10). So 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 does garrison himself in the promises, he trusts all he has with God (Psalm 31:5): Into your hands I commit my spirit. This is a great way of bringing glory to God, therefore God honors faith, because faith honors God. It is a great honor we do to a man when we trust him with all we have, we put our lives and estates into his hand; 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 (Daniel 3:17). Faith knows there are no impossibles with God, and will trust him where it cannot trace him.

4. We glorify God by being tender of God's glory; God's glory is dear to him as the apple of his eye. Now when we are tender of his glory by laying to heart his dishonors, this is a glorifying of him. An ingenuous child weeps to see a disgrace done to his father (Psalm 69:9): The reproaches of them that reproach you 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, if you bring forth much fruit. As it is a dishonor to God to be barren, so fruitfulness does honor him (Philippians 1:11): 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 Pomocitron, that is continually either mellowing or blossoming, it is never without fruit. It is not profession but fruit that glorifies God; God expects to have his glory from us this way (1 Corinthians 9:7): Who plants a vineyard and eats 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 (Matthew 5:16): Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Faith does sanctify our works, and works do testify our faith: to be doing good to others, to be eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, does much glorify God. And thus Christ did glorify his Father, He went about doing good (Acts 10:38). By being fruitful we are fair in God's eyes (Jeremiah 11:16): The Lord called your 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 you bear much fruit. The Spouse's breasts are compared to clusters of grapes (Song of Solomon 7:7), to show how fertile she was. Though the lowest degree of grace may bring salvation to you, yet not so much glory to God: it was not a spark of love Christ commended in Mary, but much love, [illegible], she loved much (Luke 7:47).

6. We glorify God by being contented in that state where his providence has set us; we give God the glory of his wisdom in that we rest satisfied with what he carves out to us. Thus did holy Paul glorify God; the Lord had cast him into as great variety of condition as any man, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often (2 Corinthians 11:23), yet he had learned to be content. Saint 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 (Philippians 4:13). A good Christian argues thus: It is God who has put me in this condition; he could have raised me higher if he pleased, but that might have been a snare to me; God has done it in wisdom and love, therefore I will sit down satisfied with my condition. Surely this does much glorify God; God counts himself much honored by such a Christian; says God, Here is one after my 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 barrel, yet he has enough in God to make him content; he says as David (Psalm 16:5): The Lord is the portion of my inheritance, the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places.

7. We glorify God in working out our own salvation: God has twisted these two together, his glory and our good; we glorify him by promoting our own salvation. It is a glory to God to have a multitude of converts; now his design of free grace takes, and God has the glory of his mercy. So that while we are endeavoring our salvation, we are honoring 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 honor and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig out 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 Corinthians 5:15): That they which live should not live to themselves, but to him who died for them. (Romans 14:8): Whether we live we live to 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 then we glorify God when we live to God.

Question: What is it to live to God?

When we live to his service, and lay out ourselves wholly for God: the Lord has sent us into the world, as a merchant sends his factor beyond the seas to trade for him. Then we live to God when we trade for his interest, and propagate his Gospel; God has given every man a talent: now when he does not hide it in a napkin, but improves it for God, this is to live to God. When a master in a family, by counsel and good example, labors to bring his servants to Christ, when a minister does exhaust himself in the labors of his holy calling, when he 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 bear the sword in vain, but labors to cut down sin, and suppress vice; this is to live to God, and this a glorifying of God (Philippians 1:20): that Christ may be magnified, whether by life or by death. Three wishes Saint Paul had, and they were all about Christ, that he might be found in Christ, be with Christ, and that he might magnify Christ.

9. We glorify God by walking cheerfully: it is a glory to God when the world sees a Christian has that within him that can make him cheerful in the worst times: he can with the nightingale sing with a thorn at his breast. The people of God have ground of cheerfulness, they are justified, and instated into adoption, and this creates inward peace; it makes music within, whatever storms are without (2 Corinthians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 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 harps on willows, sure they do not serve a good master, repent of their choice, this reflects dishonor on God; as the gross sins of the wicked bring a scandal on the Gospel, so do the uncheerful lives of the godly (Psalm 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 refine and clarify 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 entrusted us with his truth, as a master entrusts 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; now when we are advocates for truth, this is to glorify God, so Athanasius, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], the bulwark of truth (Jude 3): that you should contend earnestly for the faith; namely, the doctrine of faith. The Greek word [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], to contend, signifies a 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 can contend earnestly for trifles and ceremonies, but not for the truth: we should count him indiscreet that should contend more for a picture than for his land of inheritance, a box of counters, than for his box of evidences.

11. We glorify God by praising of him; doxology or praise is a God-exalting work (Psalm 50:23): whoso offers praise glorifies 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 a glorifying of God (Psalm 86:12): I will praise you, O Lord my God, and I will glorify your 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 excellence: in this manner the angels glorify God, they are the choristers of heaven, and do trumpet forth God's praise; and praising of God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion; in prayer we act like men, in praise we act like angels; this is a high degree of glorifying God. Believers are called temples of God (1 Corinthians 3:16): when our tongues praise God, then the organs in God's spiritual temple are going. How sad is it that God has no more of his glory from us this way. Many are full of murmurings and discontents, but seldom do they bring glory to God by giving him the praise due to his name. We read of the saints having harps in their hand (Revelation 5:8): the emblem of praise: many have tears in their eyes, and complaints in their mouth, but few have harps in their hand, blessing and glorifying of God; let us honor God this way. Praise is the quit-rent we pay to God; while God renews our lease, we must renew our rent.

12. We glorify God by being zealous for his name (Numbers 25:11): 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 anger against sin in a most intense manner: zeal is impatient of God's dishonor; a Christian fired with zeal takes a dishonor done to God worse than an injury done to himself (Revelation 2:2): you cannot bear them that are evil. Our Savior Christ did thus glorify his Father; he being baptized with a spirit of zeal, drove the money-changers out of the temple (John 2:14, 17): the zeal of your house has eaten me up.

13. We glorify God when we have an eye at God, both in our natural and in our civil actions: 1. In our natural actions, in eating and drinking (1 Corinthians 10:31): Whether therefore you 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, and 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. 2. In buying and selling, we do all to the glory of God; the wicked live upon unjust gain, either by falsifying the balance (Hosea 12:7): The balances of deceit are in his hand: while men make their weights lighter, they make their sins heavier, or by exacting more than the commodity is worth, they do not for eighty write down fifty, but for fifty eighty; they exact double the price that a thing is worth. But then we buy and sell to the glory of God, when in our buying and selling we observe that golden maxim, to do to others as we would have them do to us (Matthew 7:12). When we so sell our commodities that we do not sell our conscience (Acts 24:16): Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence towards God, and toward men. This is to glorify God, when we have an eye at God in all our civil and natural actions, and will do nothing that may reflect any blemish on religion.

14. We glorify God by laboring to draw others to God; we convert others, and so make them instruments of glorifying God. We should be both diamonds and lodestones, diamonds for the luster of grace, and lodestones for our attractive virtue in drawing others to Christ (Galatians 4:19): My little children, of whom I travail, etc. This is a great way of glorifying God, when we break the Devil's prison, and turn men from the power of Satan to God.

15. We glorify God in a high manner when we suffer for God, and seal the Gospel with our blood (John 21:18-19): When you shall be old, another shall gird you and carry you where you would not: This he spoke, signifying by what death he should glorify God. God's glory shines in the ashes of his martyrs (Isaiah 24:15): Therefore glorify the Lord in the fires. Micaiah was in the prison, Isaiah 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 honor God, and make 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 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 (Revelation 12:11). They snatched up 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 not, Your will be done.

16. We glorify God when we give God the glory of all we do: Herod when he had made an oration, and the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a God, and not of a man; and he took this 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). Then we glorify God when we sacrifice the praise and glory of all to God (1 Corinthians 15:10): I labor more abundantly than they all. A speech one would think savored 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 Samuel 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, she 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. Constantine did use 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.

17. We glorify God by a holy life: Christianorum religio haec sine macula vivere lactant; As a bad life does dishonor God (1 Peter 2:9): You are a holy nation, that you should show forth the praises of him that has called you. Romans 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 heathen shun the company of the Christians, and would not be drawn to hear their sermons. So 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 chief of building is in foundation, yet the glory of it is in frontispiece, so beauty in the conversation: when the saints who are called jewels, cast a sparkling luster of holiness in the eyes of the world; when they walk as Christ walked (1 John 2:6), when they live as if they had seen the Lord with bodily eyes, and been with him upon the mount; then they adorn religion, and bring revenues of glory to the crown of heaven.

Use 1. It shows us what should not be our chief end, not to get great estates, not to lay up treasures upon earth: this is the degeneracy of mankind since the Fall, their great design is to compass the earth, and grow rich, and this they make their Finis ultimus, their chief end: Cassa & caduca pluris faciunt quam coelestia Cavidro: these never think of glorifying God, they trade for the world, but are not factors for heaven (Ecclesiastes 9:3): Madness is in their heart while they live; sometimes they never arrive at an estate, they do not get the venison they hunt for; or though they do, what have they? That which will not fill the heart any more than the mariner's breath will fix the sails of a ship; like a fair picture drawn on the ice, and to spend all one's time as Israel in gathering straw, but remember not the end of living to glorify God (Ecclesiastes 5:16): What profit has he that labored for the wind? And these things are soon gone.

Use 2. It reproves such, 1. as bring no glory to God: They do not answer the end of their creation, their time is not truly lived, but time lost; they are like the wood of the vine (Ezekiel 15:2). Their lives are as Saint Bernard speaks, Aut peccatum aut sterilitas; Either sinfulness or barrenness. Telluris inutile pondus — God will one day ask such a question as King Ahasuerus did (Esther 6:3). What honor and dignity has been done to Mordecai? So will the Lord say, What honor has been done to me? What revenues of glory have you brought into my exchequer? There is none here present, but God has put you in some capacity of glorifying him; the health he has given you, the parts, estate, seasons of grace, these all are opportunities put into your hand to glorify him; and be assured God will call you to account to know what you have done with the mercies he has entrusted you with, and what glory you have brought to him. The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:15), where the man with the five talents, and the two talents are brought to a reckoning, does evidently show 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 that hide their talent in a napkin, that bring God no glory at all; verse 30: Cast you the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. It is not enough for you to say, that you have not dishonored 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, he does not break the trees, or destroy the hedges, if he does not do service in the vineyard, he loses his pay. If you do not good in your place, not glorify God, you will lose your pay, miss of salvation. Oh think of this all you that live unserviceably! 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 (Malachi 3:8). Will a man rob God, yet you 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 (Deuteronomy 8:18): You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he that gives you power to get wealth. 2. If they do any duty of religion, they look asquint to their own glory (Matthew 6:5), that they may be seen of men; [illegible], that they may be set upon a theatre, that others may admire and canonize them. The oil of vain-glory feeds their lamp: how many has the wind of popular breath blown to Hell? Quos non gula [illegible] superavit, Cyprian. Whom the Devil could not destroy by intemperance, he has by vain-glory.

3. It reproves them who fight against God's glory (Acts 5:39): Lest you be found to fight against God.

Quest. But who do fight against God's glory?

Resp. Such as do oppose that whereby God's glory is promoted. God's glory is much promoted in the preaching of the word, because it is his engine whereby he converts souls. Now, such as would hinder the preaching of the word, these fight against God's glory (1 Thessalonians 2:16): Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved. Diocletian who raised the tenth persecution against the Christians, did prohibit church-meetings, and would have the temples of the Christians to be razed down. Such as hinder preaching, do as the Philistines that stopped the wells, they stop the well of the water of life; they take away the physicians that should heal sin-sick souls. Ministers are lights (Matthew 5:14), and who but thieves hate the light? These persons do 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): You have taken away the key of knowledge; you entered not in yourselves, and they that were entering in you hindered. If there be either justice in Heaven, or fire in Hell, they shall not go unpunished.

Use 4. Exhortation: Let us every one in our place make this our chief end and design, to glorify God. 1. Let me speak to magistrates; God has put much glory upon them (Psalm 82:6): I have said you are gods; and will not they glorify him whom he has put so much glory upon? Magistrates should be zealous for God's worship and day, they should not let the sword rust in the scabbard, but draw it out for the cutting down of sin. 2. Ministers, how should they study to promote God's glory; God has entrusted them with two the most precious things, his truths and the souls of his people. Ministers are by virtue of their office to glorify God. 1. They must glorify God by laboring in the word and doctrine (2 Timothy 4:1): I charge you 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 Saint Augustine's wish, That Christ at his coming might find him, Aut Precantem aut Praedicantem, either praying or preaching. 2. Ministers must glorify God by their zeal and sanctity: The priests under the law, before they served at the altar, did wash in the laver. 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, do instead of apparently bringing glory to God, dishonor God; their lives as well as doctrines are heterodox, they are not free from the sins which they reprove in others. Plutarch's servant upbraided him, It is not as my master Plutarch says, he has written a book against wrath, anger, Et ipse mihi irascitur, yet he falls into a passion of anger with me. So this minister preaches against drunkenness, yet he will be drunk, he preaches against swearing, yet he will swear; this reproaches God, and makes the offering of the Lord to be abhorred. 3. Masters of families, do you glorify God, season your children and servants with the knowledge of the Lord, your houses should be little churches (Genesis 18:19): I know that Abraham will command his children, that they keep the way of the Lord. You that are masters, know you have a charge of souls under you; for want of the bridle of family-discipline youth runs wild. Well, let me lay down some motives to glorify God.

1st Motive: 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 17:3): "I have glorified you on 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 but torment you the more. What is one the better for an estate that is spent? But now to have conscience telling you, that you have glorified God on earth, what sweet comfort and peace will this let into your soul! How will this 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. They who have lived and brought no glory to God, how can they think of dying with comfort; they cannot expect a harvest that never sowed any seed. How can they expect glory from God, that never brought any glory to him? O, in what horror will they be at death! The worm of conscience will gnaw their souls, before the worms are gnawing their bodies.

2nd Motive: If we glorify God, he will glorify our souls forever; by raising God's glory we increase our own; by glorifying God we come at last to the blessed enjoying of him, and that brings me to the second point — the enjoying of God.

Secondly, man's chief end is to enjoy God forever (Psalm 73:25): "Whom have I in heaven but you?" Quasi, "What is there in heaven I desire to enjoy but you?" Ibi Angeli musculus. There is a twofold fruition, or enjoying of God; the one is in this life, the other in the life to come.

First, an enjoying of God here in this life: the enjoying of God's presence; it is a great matter to enjoy God's ordinances (a mercy that some do envy us), but to enjoy God's presence in the ordinances, is that which a gracious heart aspires after (Psalm 63:2): "To see your glory so as I have seen you in the sanctuary." This sweet enjoying of God is when we feel his Spirit cooperating with the ordinance, and distilling grace upon our hearts. First, when in the word the Spirit does quicken and raise the affections (Luke 24:32): "Did not our hearts burn within us?" Second, when the Spirit does transform the heart, leaving an impress of holiness upon it (2 Corinthians 3:8): "We are changed into the same image, from glory to glory." Third, when the Spirit does refresh the heart with comfort, it comes not only with its anointing, but its seal; it sheds God's love abroad in the heart (Romans 5:5) — this is to enjoy God in an ordinance. (1 John 1:3): "Our fellowship is with the Father and his son Jesus." In the word we hear God's voice, and in the sacrament we have his kiss; this is enjoying of God. And what infinite content does a gracious soul find in this? The heart being warmed and inflamed in a duty, this is God's answering by fire. When a Christian has the sweet illapses of God's Spirit, these are the first fruits of glory, when God comes down to the soul in an ordinance. 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 the use of the ordinances had such divine raptures of joy and soul-transfigurations, that they have been carried above the world, and despised all things here below.

Use 1: Is the enjoying God in this life so sweet — how prodigiously wicked are they that prefer the enjoying of their lusts before the enjoying of God (2 Peter 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 is like a feverish heat, it puts the soul into a flame. Aristotle calls sensual lusts brutish, because when any lust is violent, reason or conscience cannot be heard — the beast rides the man. These lusts when they are enjoyed do besot and dispirit persons (Hosea 4:11): "Whoredom and wine take away the heart." They have no 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 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 (Proverbs 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 would for a drop of pleasure drink a sea of wrath?

Use 2. Let it be our great care to enjoy God's sweet presence here, which is the beauty and comfort of the ordinance. Enjoying spiritual communion with God is a riddle and mystery to most people: everyone that hangs about the court does not speak with the king. We may approach to God in ordinances, and as it were hang about the court of Heaven, yet not enjoy communion with God; we may have the letter without Spirit, the visible sign without the invisible grace: it is the enjoying of God in a duty we should chiefly look at (Psalm 42:2). My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Alas, what are all our worldly enjoyments without the enjoying of God? What is it to enjoy a great deal of health, a brave estate, and not to enjoy God: (Job 30:28). I went mourning without the sun. So may you say in the enjoyment of all creatures without God, I went mourning without the sun; I have the starlight of outward enjoyments, but I cannot enjoy God, I want the Sun of Righteousness, I went mourning without the sun. This should be our great design, not only to have the ordinances of God, but the God of the ordinances. The enjoying of God's sweet presence with us 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 wing of faith, the more of God we enjoy, the sweeter delight we feel in our souls: how is the heart inflamed in prayer and meditation, what joy and peace in believing? Is it not comfortable being in Heaven? He that enjoys much of God in this life carries Heaven about him: O let this be the thing we are chiefly ambitious of, the enjoying of God in his ordinances: remember, the enjoying of God's sweet presence here is an earnest of our enjoying him in Heaven — and that brings me to the second thing, which is,

Second, the enjoying of God in the life to come: man's chief end is to enjoy God forever; before this 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 inter se connexae, 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 Ahashuerus first caused the virgins to be purified and anointed, and they had their sweet odors to perfume them, and then they were to stand before the king (Esther 2:12). So must we, we must have the anointing of God, and be perfumed with the graces of the Spirit, those sweet odors, and then we shall stand before the King of Heaven: now, being thus divinely qualified by grace, we shall be taken up into the mount of vision, and enjoy God forever. This enjoying God forever is nothing else but to be put into 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 enjoying of him is the highest felicity. He is, I say, the chief good.

1. He is a universal good; Bonum in quo omnia Bona. The excellencies of the creature are limited. A man may have health, not beauty; learning, not parentage; riches, not wisdom: but in God are eminently contained all excellencies: he is a good commensurate fully to the soul; he is a sun, a portion, a horn of salvation; in him dwells [illegible] all fullness (Colossians 1:19). 2. God is an unmixed good: 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 this Philosopher's Stone — to search out for a happiness here below, he found vanity and vexation (Ecclesiastes 1:2). But God is a perfect, quintessential good. He is sweetness in the flower. 3. God is a satisfying good. The soul cries out, I have enough (Psalm 17:15). I shall be satisfied with your likeness; a man that is thirsty, bring him to the ocean, and he has enough. If there be enough in God to satisfy the angels, then sure enough to satisfy us. The soul is but finite, but God is an [reconstructed: ever-increasing] infinite good. And yet though God be such a good as does satisfy, yet not surfeit. Fresh joys spring continually from God's face; and God is as much desired after millions of years by glorified souls, as at the first moment. There is so much fullness in God as satisfies, yet so much sweetness that the soul still desires; it is satisfaction without surfeit. 4. God is a delicious good. That which is the chief good must ravish the soul with pleasure; there must be in it spirits of delight, and quintessence of joy; and this is to be enjoyed only in God. In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur anima immo rapitur; 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 (1 Peter 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, O then what joy and delight will they have when they are crowning? If flames are beds of roses, O then what will it be to lean on the bosom of Jesus, what a bed of roses will that be? 5. God is a superlative good. He is better than anything you can put in competition with him; he is better than health, riches, honor. Other things maintain life, he gives life. But who would go to put anything in balance with the Deity? Who would weigh a feather with a mountain of gold? God excels all other things more infinitely than the sun the light of a taper. 6. God is an eternal good. He is the ancient of days (Daniel 7:9), yet never decays, or waxes old. The joy he gives is eternal, the crown he gives fades not away (1 Peter 5:4). The glorified soul shall be ever solacing itself in God; it shall be 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's a fountain at the bottom which feeds it (Psalm 36:9). With the Lord is the fountain of life. Thus God is the chief good, and the enjoying God for ever is the supreme felicity the soul is capable of.

1. Use of Exhortation. Let it be the chief end of our living to enjoy this chief good hereafter; this is that will crown us with happiness. Austin reckons up two hundred eighty eight opinions among the philosophers about happiness, but all did shoot short of the mark. The highest elevation of a reasonable soul, is to enjoy God for ever. It is the enjoying God, makes heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:17). 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 enjoying God; 1. This enjoying of God must not be understood in a sensual manner; we must not conceive any carnal pleasures in heaven. The Turks in their Alcoran speak of a paradise of pleasure, where they have riches in abundance, and red wine served in golden chalices. Here is a heaven consisting of pleasures for the body; the epicures of this age would like such a heaven when they die. Though indeed the state of glory be compared to a feast, and is set out by pearls and precious stones, yet these metaphors are only to be helps to our faith, and to show us that there is superabundant joy and felicity in the Empyrean Heaven; but those are not carnal, but sacred delights. As our employments shall be spiritual, it will consist in adoring and praising of God: so our enjoyment shall be spiritual, it shall consist in the having the perfection of holiness, in seeing the pure face of Christ, in feeling the love of God, in conversing with heavenly spirits; these delights will be more adequate and 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 he be alive, yet he is as good as dead, because he is not sensible, nor does he take any pleasure in his life; we shall have a quick and lively sense of the infinite pleasure which arises from 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. We shall be made able to bear a sight of that glory. We could not now bear that glory, it would overwhelm us; sensibile fortè destruit sensum, 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 clift of the rock saw the glory of God passing by (Exodus 33:22). Through that 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 only by way of contemplation? Answer: That is something, but it is but one half of heaven; 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 you have given me, I have given them; there is possession. Glory shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18), 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 we shall 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, that we cannot have one drop of water; but those heavenly streams of joy are continually running. O 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.

2. Let this be a spur to duty. How diligent and zealous should we be in glorifying God, that we come at last to enjoy him. If Tully, Demosthenes, Plato, who had but the dim watch-light of reason to see by, and did but fancy an Elysium and happiness after this life, did take such Herculean pains to enjoy it, O then, how should Christians, who have the light of Scripture to see by, bestir themselves, that they may arrive at the eternal fruition of God and glory. If anything may make us rise off our bed of sloth, and serve God with all our might, it should be this, the hope of our full enjoyment of God for ever. What made Paul so active in the sphere of religion (1 Corinthians 15:10), I laboured [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩] more abundantly than they all. His obedience did not move slow, as the sun on the dial, but swift as the sun in the firmament. Why was he so zealous in glorifying God, but that he might at last center and terminate in him? (1 Thessalonians 4:17) Then shall we be ever with the Lord.

3. Use of Consolation. Let this comfort the godly in all the present miseries they feel. You complain (Christian) you do not enjoy yourself, fears disquiet you, wants perplex you; in the day you cannot enjoy ease, in the night you cannot enjoy sleep. You do not enjoy the comforts of your life, let this revive you, that shortly you shall enjoy God, and then you shall have more than you can ask or think; you shall have angels' joy, glory without intermission and expiration. We shall never enjoy ourselves fully, till we enjoy God eternally.