r the worshipper
thus fervent in spirit to serve the Lord?

The reason is obvious--they are not required--yea, they are
forbidden of the divine Sovereign. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and him _only_ shalt thou serve. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven
above, or in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the
earth--I the Lord thy God am a jealous God."--

Pretending to honor God by direct disobedience is peculiarly
affrontive. Such worshippers "provoke him to his face. Their
offerings his soul hateth. They are a smoke in his nose, and a fire
that burneth all the day." Every thing of this nature, whatever may
be its design, is rebellion against God. Against no other sin hath he
manifested greater indignation.

No instance can be adduced of such homage being accepted, or of good
resulting from such worship. Yea, it hath commonly been followed with
the severest marks of the divine resentment. Witness the evils which
came upon Israel when they made the golden calf, to help their
devotions. Witness those which fell on the family and kingdom of
Jeroboam, when he forsook the appointed worship of God, and the
ministry of the Levites whom God had appointed to wait at the altar.
Jeroboam did not introduce the worship of Baal, or the other heathen
gods. This was done afterwards by the influence of Jezebel. He only
appointed other places of worship, beside that which God had chosen,
and consecrated others to minister who had not the attachments of the
Levites to the house of David and city of Zion, and made images to
help the devotion of his people; and lo! his family perish; a brand of
infamy is set on his name; and because his people walk in his ways,
they are finally "broken and cease to be a people!"

The divine resentment of attempts to change the ordinances of God, or
make innovations in his worship even where they seem _to have been
done out of concern for his honor_, is left on record in his word.
Saul once offered sacrifice. The necessity of his affairs seemed to
require it. He professed to have done it with reluctance, but to have
thought it his duty--"I said the Philistines will come down upon me,
and I have not made supplication unto the Lord: I forced myself
therefore, and offered a burnt offering." But Saul was not of the
family of Aaron, to whom the right of sacrificing solely appertained
by divine appointment. Hence instead of concili