God cannot approve of any thing but what is in itself Right, Fit, Just.
We should worship and endeavour to obey Him with this Consciousness and
Recollection. To endeavour to please a man merely, is a different thing
from endeavouring to please him as a wise and good man, _i.e._
endeavouring to please him in the particular way, of behaving towards him
as we think the relations we stand in to him, and the intercourse we have
with him, require.
Almighty God is to be sure infinitely removed from all those human
weaknesses which we express by the words, captious, apt to take offence,
&c. But an unthinking world does not consider what may be absolutely due
to Him from all Creatures capable of considering themselves as His
Creatures. Recollect the idea, inadequate as it is, which we have of
God, and the idea of ourselves, and carelessness with regard to Him,
whether we are to worship Him at all, whether we worship Him in a right
manner, or conceited confidence that we do so, will seem to imply
unspeakable Presumption. Neither do we know what necessary, unalterable
connexion there may be, between moral right and happiness, moral wrong
and misery.
Sincerity is doubtless the thing, and not whether we hit the right
manner, &c. But a sense of the imperfection of our worship, apprehension
that it may be, and a degree of fear that it is, in some respects
erroneous, may perhaps be a temper of mind not unbecoming such poor
creatures as we are, in our addresses to God. In proportion as we are
assured that we are honest and sincere, we may rest satisfied that God
cannot be offended with us, but indifference whether what we do be
materially, or in the nature of the thing abstracted from our way of
considering it, Good and Right,--such indifference is utterly
inconsistent with Sincerity.
No person who has just notions of God can be afraid of His displeasure
any further than as he is afraid of his own Character, whether it be what
it ought: but so far as a man has reason to fear his own character, so
far there must be reason to fear God's displeasure, or disapprobation;
not from any doubt of His Perfection and Goodness, but merely from the
belief of it.
Is it possible that people can be Scepticks in _Opinion_, and yet without
any doubtfulness, or solicitude about their _Actions_ and _Behaviour_?