Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

(8.) 'Tis against the Holiness of God. To alienate our Spirits, is to offend him while we pretend to worship him; Though we may be mighty officious in the external part, yet our base and carnal affections make all our worship but as a heap of Dung; and who would not look upon it as an affront, to lay Dung before a Prince's Throne? Pro. 21.27. The Sacrifice of the Wicked, is an abomination: How much more when he brings it with a wicked mind? A putrefied Carcass under the Law, had not been so great an affront to the Holiness of God, as a frothy unmelted heart, and a wanton fancy in a time of worship. God is so holy, that if we could offer the worship of Angels, and the quintessence of our Souls in his service, it would be beneath his infinite purity: How unworthy then are they of him, when they are presented not only without the sense of our uncleanness, but sullied with the fumes and exhalations of our corrupt affections, which are as so many Plague spots upon our duties, contrary to the unspotted purity of the Divine Nature? Is not this an unworthy conceit of God, and injurious to his infinite Holiness?

(8.) 'Tis against the Holiness of God. To alienate our Spirits, is to offend him while we pretend to worship him; Though we may be mighty officious in the external part, yet our base and carnal affections make all our worship but as a heap of Dung; and who would not look upon it as an affront, to lay Dung before a Prince's Throne? Pro. 21.27. The Sacrifice of the Wicked, is an abomination: How much more when he brings it with a wicked mind? A putrified Carcass under the Law, had not been so great an affront to the Holiness of God, as a frothy unmelted heart, and a wanton fancy in a time of worship. God is so holy, that if we could offer the worship of Angels, and the quintessence of our Souls in his service, it would be beneath his infinite purity: How unworthy then are they of him, when they are presented not only without the sense of our uncleaness, but sullied with the fumes and exhalations of our corrupt affections, which are as so many Plague spots upon our duties, contrary to the unspotted purity of the Divine Nature? Is not this an unworthy conceit of God, and injurious to his infinite Holiness?