92SermonsofJonathanEdwards
— that we can make up for one debt by paying another. But it is still more absurd to suppose that we can make up for the whole debt without paying anything, but by continuing still to withhold all that is required. As to external things without the heart, God speaks of them as not being the things that he has required (Isa. 1:12), and demands that the heart be given to him, if we would have the external offering accepted.
4. If we make a great show of respect and love to God, in the outward actions, while there is no sincerity in the heart, it is but hypocrisy and practical lying unto the Holy One. — To pretend to such respect and love, when it is not felt in the heart, is to act as if we thought we could deceive God. It is to do as Israel did in the desert, after they had been delivered from Egypt, when they are said to have "lied unto God with their mouth, and to have flattered him with their tongues" (Psa. 78:36). But surely it is as absurd to suppose that we can make up for the want of sincere respect by flattery and guile, as to suppose we can make up for the want of truth by falsehood and lying.
5. Whatever may be done or suffered, if there be no sincerity in the heart, it is all but an offering to some idol. — As observed before, there is nothing, in the case supposed, really offered to God, and therefore it will follow, that it is offered to some other being, or object, or end, and whatever that may be, it is what the Scriptures call an idol. In all such offerings, something is virtually worshipped; and whatever it is, be itself, or our fellowmen, or the world, that is allowed to usurp the place that should be given to God, and to receive the offerings that should be made to him. And how absurd to suppose we can make up for withholding from God that which is his due, by offering something to our idol! It is as absurd as it is to suppose that the wife can make up for want of love to her husband, by giving that affection which is due to him to another man who is a stranger; or that she can make up for her want of faithfulness to him, by the guilt of adultery.
In the application of this subject, it becomes us to use it,