Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

If thou art not born again, (1.) All thy reformation is naught in the sight of God. Thou hast shut the door, but the thief is still in the house. It may be thou art not what once thou wast, yet thou art not what thou must be, if ever thou seest heaven; for, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, John iii. 3. (2.) Thy prayers are an abomination to the Lord, Prov xv. 8. It may be, others admire thy seriousness; thou criest as for thy life: but God accounts of the opening of thy mouth, as one would account of the opening of a grave full of rottenness, Rom. iii. 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre. Others are affected with thy prayers; which seem to them, as if thy would rend the heavens: but God accounts them as the howling of a dog: They have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds, Hos. vii. 14. Others take thee for a wrestler and prevailer with God; but he can take no delight with thee, nor thy prayers neither, Isa. lxvi. 3. He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man: he that sacrificeth a lamb, is as if he cut off a dog's neck,—he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Why not? Because thou art yet in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity. (3.) All thou hast done for God and his cause in the world, though it may be followed with temporal rewards, yet is lost as to divine acceptance. This is clear from the case of Jehu; who was indeed rewarded with a kingdom, for his executing due vengeance upon the house of Ahab; as being a work good, for the matter of it, because it was commanded of God, as you may see, 2 Kings x. 13. Yet he was punished for it in has posterity, because he did it not in a right manner, Hos i. 4. I will ⟨p. 159⟩avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. God looks mainly to the heart: and if so, truly albeit thy outward appearance be fairer than that of many others, yet the hidden man of thy heart, is loathsome; thou lookest well before men, but art thou, as Moses was, fair to God, as the margin hath it, Acts vii 20 O what a difference is there betwixt the characters of Asa and Amaziah: The high places were not removed: nevertheless, Asa his heart was perfect with the Lord all his days,