A Body of Practical Divinity

3. It must be done to a right End: Finis specificat actionem; The end of Obedience is glorifying God. That which hath spoiled many glorious Services, is when the end hath been wrong: Matth. 6.2. When thou dost thine alms do not sound a trumpet as the hypocrites do, that they may have glory of men. Good Works should shine, but not blaze. If I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing, 1 Cor. 13.3. The same I may say of a sincere aim; if I obey never so much, and have not a sincere Aim, it profits me nothing. True Obedience looks at God in all, Phil. 1.20. That Christ may be magnified. Though a Child of God shoots short, yet he takes a right Aim.

3. It must be done to a right End: Finis specificat actionem; The end of Obedience is glorifying God. That which hath spoil'd many glorious Services, is when the end hath been wrong: Matth. 6.2. When thou dost thine alms do not sound a trumpet as the hypocrites do, that they may have glory of men. Good Works should shine, but not blaze. If I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing, 1 Cor. 13.3. The same I may say of a sincere aim; if I obey never so much, and have not a sincere Aim, it profits me nothing. True Obedience looks at God in all, Phil. 1.20. That Christ may be magnified. Though a Child of God shoots short, yet he takes a right Aim.

2. True Child-like Obedience is Uniform: A Child of God makes Conscience of one Command as well as another: Quicquid propter Deum fit aequaliter fit.—All God's Commands have the same Stamp of Divine Authority upon them; and if I obey one Precept because my Heavenly Father commands me, then by the same Rule I must obey all: As the Blood runs through all the Veins of the Body; and the Sun in the Firmament runs through all the Signs of the Zodiac; so true Child-like Obedience runs through the First and Second Table,