ave so much
confidence in them, and put them not upon Christ as filthy rags, or do not
cover them with his righteousness, as well as your wickedness. I know ye
will say, that ye are not satisfied with them, and that is still the
matter of your exercise. Well, I affirm, in the Lord's name, from that
ground, that ye have confidence in them, for if your diffidence and
disquietness arise from it, your confidence and peace must come from it
also. Is there any almost that maintain faith, except when their own
conditions please them well? And that faith I may call no faith, at least
not pure and cleanly entire faith. As for the multitude of you, you must
know this, that God is not pleased with your prayers, and fasting, and
hearing, &c. because ye have such an esteem of them, because ye can settle
yourselves against all threatenings, and never once remember of Jesus
Christ, or consider the end of his coming into the world; because ye find
no necessity of pardon for your prayers and righteousness, but stretch the
garment of these over the uncleanness of your practices. What delight hath
the Lord in them, when they are put in his Son's place? Will he not be
jealous that his Son's glory be not given to another?

In the _second_ place, the Lord rejects their performances, because there
was nothing but a mere shadow of service, and no worshipping of God in the
Spirit. Ye know what Christ saith, "God is a Spirit, and he that worships
him must do it in spirit and in truth," John iv. 24. It is the heart and
soul that God delights in, "My son, give me thy heart," for if thou give
not thy heart, I care for nothing else. The heart is the whole man. What a
man's affection is, that he is. Light is not so,--it brings not the man
alongst with it. Christ Jesus hath given himself for us, and he requires
that we offer ourselves to him. If we offer a body to frequent his house,
our feet to tread in his courts, our ears to hear his word, what cares he
for it, as long as the soul doth not offer itself up in prayer or hearing?
And this was the sin of this people, Isaiah xxix. 13. "They draw near with
the lips, and their heart is far from the Lord." Now are we not their
children, and have succeeded to this? Is there any thing almost in our
public services, but what is public? Is there any thing but what is seen
of men? Ye come to hear, ye sit and hear, and is there any more? The most
part have their minds wandering, no thoughts present; for your thoug