Thomas Hall on the purity of worshippers

[Seeking_Thy_Kingdom]

“Fifthly, It informs us that the persons must be pure: As the worship must be pure, so must the worshippers; The God of purity must have pure servants, the fountain of holinesse will have none but holy followers. It is a disgrace to an eminent holy man to have a bastard lay claim to him. Psal. 50. 16. To the wicked saith God, What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes? When ever we come to worship this glorious God, we must wash our hands in innocency, Psal. 26.6 and purge our families from sin, as Jacob did his from Idols before he went to Bethel, Gen. 35. 1, 2, 3. The people must be sanctified & prepared, before the Lord will deliver his holy Law unto them; then and not tell then doth God speak, Exod 19. 14, 15. compared with 20. 1. He will not take a wicked man by the hand. What communion hath light with darknesse, Purity with impurity, Vertue with vice, beauty with deformity, life with death, or the chiefest good with the foulest evil? There must be alwaies a purging of our hearts from sin before we draw nigh to God in praying, hearing, Sacraments, &c. else the Lord will abhorre both us and our duties, and will answer us according to our Idols, Ezek 14. 3, 4. Under the Law, if any man came to offer a sacrifice with his uncleannesse on him, he must be cut off; there must be washing and cleansing before he came; so in all our approaches to God in duty, there must be not only a habituall, but also an actuall fitting and preparing of our selves for the work. Therefore when James (4. 8.) had commanded us to draw nigh to God, he presently adds, Cleanse your hands ye sinners, and purifie your hearts. Our hearts are not fit to serve the living God, till they be purged from dead works, Heb. 9. 14, God will not vouchsafe to reason with us, nor to have any communion with us, till we have first washt our selves and made us clean, Isa. 1. 16, 17, 18. Then come let us reason together. The Lord will be worshipped in the beauty of holinesse or not at all, Psal. 96. 9. there is no pleasing him without it, and none that ever had it in truth but pleased him.”

Excerpt From: Thomas, Hall. “The beauty of holiness, or, A description of the excellency, amiablenes, comfort, and content which is to be found in wayes of purity and holinesse where you have that glorious attribute of Gods holinesse exactly setforth : together with the absolute necessity of our resembling him therein ... / by Thomas Hall.” University of Oxford Text Archive, 1655. iBooks.
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