A29686:323
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...
London : Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock ..., 1669
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Fifthly, If your obedience springs from faith, then you will labour, not only to obey God in the matter, but also in the manner of the command, not only in the substance of the command, but also in the circumstance of the command. God requires the manner as well as the matter; and God looks upon that work as not done, that is not done in a right manner. Did not the Lord command sacrifice? and did not Cain offer sacrifice?1 and yet God had no respect to him, nor to his offering, because his sacrifice was not offered up in a right manner, his offering was not offered up by a hand of faith; he offered his offering, but because he did not offer himself as an offering to God, his offering was rejected by God. A work may be materially good,2 ⟨p. 141⟩that is not formally and eventually good, and this was Cain's curse. How frequently did God command the Jews to pray?3 and yet he plainly tells them, When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. He commanded them to sacrifice, and yet he saith, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices? 4and all because they did not manage their prayers, nor sacrifices, in a right manner; their hands were full of blood, and their hearts were full of sins, and their lives were full of lewdness; and therefore all their services were vain oblations, yea, an abomination to God. An unsound heart looks no further than to the substance of the command; if he has heard, and prayed, and fasted, and read, and repeated, and given alms, and received the Lord's Supper, he strokes himself, and blesses himself, and hugs himself, and thinks all is well, and so he looks no further: But now a sound sincere Christian, he looks to the circumstance as well as the substance, to the manner as well as to the matter of the command; when he prays, he labours to pray fervently, earnestly,5 he labours to get his heart into his prayers; when he hears, he will hear with attention and intention of spirit; when he walks,