Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

Nor let any neglect worship, because they cannot find their hearts spiritual in it. The further we are from God, the more carnal shall we be. No man can expect heat by a distance from the Sun beams, or other means of warmth. Though God commanded a circumcised heart in the Jewish services; yet he did not warrant a neglect of the outward testimonies of Religion he had then appointed: He expected according to his Command, that they should offer the Sacrifices, and practise the legal Purifications he had commanded; he would have them diligently observed, though he had declared that he imposed them only for a time. And our Saviour ordered the practise of those positive rites as long as the law remained unrepealed, as in the Case of the Leper^*. 'Tis an injustice to refuse the offering our selves to God according to the manner he hath in his Wisdom prescribed and required.

1. *Mark 14.4.

If spiritual worship be required by God; then

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