Deuteronomy 12

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XII.—Abominable to God is all will worship. And it is impossible to reconcile the worship of God and mammon—of Christ and Behal. But in the best ordered churches on earth, something will still be defective. Perfect purity is reserved for the heavenly Canaan: and therefore in cases of necessity, some ordinances of worship may be omitted, which in other circumstances would render us highly culpable. The excellency of worship lies not in any pompous form, but in its exact correspondence with God’s prescriptions. Let me then not merely cease from evil, but learn to do well. Let me attend to, and improve, every instituted ordinance of fellowship with God. Let his institutions, not any custom or law of men, whether under the best or the worst of governments, be the standard of my religious observances. Let not only my solemn eating and drinking at his table, but even my ordinary refreshments, be conducted according to his prescriptions, and intended chiefly for his glory. And never should his ministers be straitened, or his poor starved, while I am able to relieve them