2. It informs us, that diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in. *Men may attend all their days on worship, with a juiceless heart and unquickened frame, and think to compensate the neglect of the manner, with abundance of the matter of service. Outward expressions are but the badges and liveries of service, not the service it self. As the strength of Sin lies in the inward frame of the heart, so the strength of worship in the inward complexion and temper of the Soul. What do a thousand services avail, without cutting the throat of our carnal affections? What are loud Prayers, but as sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals, without Divine Charity? A Pharisaical diligence in outward forms without inward Spirit, had no better a title vouchsafed by our Saviour, than that of hypocritical. God desires not Sacrifices, nor delights in burnt Offerings: Shadows are not to be offered instead of Substance. God required the heart of man for it self; but commanded outward Ceremonies, as subservient to inward worship, and goads and spurs unto it: They were never appointed as the substance of Religion, but auxiliaries to it. What value had the Offering of the human nature of Christ been of, if he had not had a divine nature to qualify him to be the Priest? And what is the oblation of ⟨p. 162⟩our Bodies, without a Priestly act of the Spirit in the presentation of it? Could the Israelites have called themselves Worshippers of God according to his Order, if they had brought a thousand Lambs that had died in a Ditch, or been killed at home? They were to be brought living to the Altar; the blood shed at the foot of it: A thousand Sacrifices killed without, had not been so valuable as one brought alive to the place of Offering: One sound Sacrifice is better than a thousand rotten ones. As God took no pleasure in the blood of Beasts without its relation to the Antitype; So he takes no pleasure in the outward rites of worship, without Faith in the Redeemer. To offer a Body with a sapless Spirit, is a Sacrilege of the same nature with that of the Israelites when they offered dead Beasts. A man without spiritual worship is dead whiles he worships, though by his diligence in the externals of it he may like the Angel of the Church of Sardis, have a name to live*. What security can we expect from a multitude of dead services?
2. It informs us, that diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in. *Men may attend all their days on worship, with a juiceless heart and unquickned frame, and think to compensate the neglect of the manner, with abundance of the matter of service. Outward expressions are but the badges and liveries of service, not the service it self. As the strength of Sin lies in the inward frame of the heart, so the strength of worship in the inward complexion and temper of the Soul. What do a thousand services avail, without cutting the throat of our carnal affections? What are loud Prayers, but as sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals, without Divine Charity? A Pharisaical diligence in outward forms without inward Spirit, had no better a title vouchsafed by our Saviour, than that of hypocritical. God desires not Sacrifices, nor delights in burnt Offerings: Shadows are not to be offered instead of Substance. God required the heart of man for it self; but commanded outward Ceremonies, as subservient to inward worship, and goads and spurs unto it: They were never appointed as the substance of Religion, but auxiliaries to it. What value had the Offering of the human nature of Christ been of, if he had not had a divine nature to qualifie him to be the Priest? And what is the oblation of ⟨p. 162⟩our Bodies, without a Priestly act of the Spirit in the presentation of it? Could the Israelites have called themselves Worshippers of God according to his Order, if they had brought a thousand Lambs that had died in a Ditch, or been killed at home? They were to be brought living to the Altar; the blood shed at the foot of it: A thousand Sacrifices killed without, had not been so valuable as one brought alive to the place of Offering: One sound Sacrifice is better than a thousand rotten ones. As God took no pleasure in the blood of Beasts without its relation to the Antitype; So he takes no pleasure in the outward rites of worship, without Faith in the Redeemer. To offer a Body with a sapless Spirit, is a Sacriledge of the same nature with that of the Israelites when they offered dead Beasts. A man without spiritual worship is dead whiles he worships, though by his diligence in the externals of it he may like the Angel of the Church of Sardis, have a name to live*. What security can we expect from a multitude of dead services?
- *Daily melange. des Sermon: Ser. 2.Daille melange. des Sermon: Ser. 2.
- *Revel. 3.1.
