Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

The acting for a sensitive end, is not a rational, much less can it be a spiritual service; though the Act may be good in it self, yet not good in the Agent, because he wants a due end: We are then spiritual, when we have the same end in our redeemed services, as God had in his redeeming love, viz. his own Glory.

12. Spiritual service is offered to God in the name of Christ. Those are only spiritual Sacrifices, that are offered up to God by Jesus Christ^*, that are the fruits of the Sanctification of the Spirit, and offered in the mediation of the Son: As the Altar sanctifies the gift, so doth Christ spiritualize our services for Gods acceptation; as the Fire upon the Altar separated the airy and finer parts of the sacrifice from the terrene and earthly: This is the Golden Altar upon which the Prayers of the Saints are offered up before the Throne^*. As all that we have from God streams through his blood: so all that we give to God ascends by virtue of his merits. All the blessings God gave to the Israelites came out of Zion^*, that is, from the Gospel hid under the Law; all the duties we present to God are to be presented in Zion, in an evangelical manner: All our worship must be bottomed on Christ. God hath intended that we should honour the Son as we honour the Father: As we honour the Father by offering our service only to him, so we are to honour the Son by offering it only in his name: In him alone God is well pleased, because in him alone he finds our services spiritual and worthy of acceptation: We must therefore take fast hold of him with our Spirits, and the faster we hold him, the more spiritual is our worship. To do any thing in the name of Christ, is not to believe the worship shall be accepted for it self, but to have our eye fixed upon Christ for the acceptance of it, and not to rest upon the work done as carnal people are apt to do. The Creatures present their acknowledgements ⟨p. 155⟩