A32723:784
Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God
Several discourses upon the existence and attributes of God by that late eminent minister in Christ, Mr. Stephen Charnocke ...
London: printed for D. Newman, 1682
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.
Reason 1. The best we have is to be presented to God in worship. For
1. Since God is the most excellent Being, he is to be served by us with the most excellent thing we have, and with the choicest veneration. God is so incomprehensibly excellent, that we cannot render him what he deserves; We must render him what we are able to offer; the best of our affections; the flower of our strength; the Cream and Top of our Spirits. By the same reason that we are bound to give to God the best worship, we must offer it to him in the best manner. We cannot give to God any thing too good for so blessed a Being: God being a great King, slight services become not his Majesty*: 'Tis unbecoming the Majesty of God, and the reason of a Creature, to give him a trivial thing: 'Tis unworthy to bestow the best of our strength on our Lust, and the worst and weakest in the service of God. An infinite Spirit, should have affections as near to infinite as we can: As he is a Spirit without bounds, so he should have a service without limits: When we have given him all, we cannot serve him according to the excellency of his nature*; and shall we give him less than all? His infinite excellency and our dependence on him as Creatures, demands the choicest adoration: Our Spirits being the noblest part of our nature, are as due to him, as the service of our bodies which are the vilest: To serve him with the worst only, is to diminish his honour.
1. Since God is the most excellent Being, he is to be served by us with the most excellent thing we have, and with the choicest veneration. God is so incomprehensibly excellent, that we cannot render him what he deserves; We must render him what we are able to offer; the best of our affiections; the flower of our strength; the Cream and Top of our Spirits. By the same reason that we are bound to give to God the best worship, we must offer it to him in the best manner. We cannot give to God any thing too good for so blessed a Being: God being a great King, slight services become not his Majesty