Splendid sins!

[b]Splendid sins![/b]

(Thomas Brooks, "The Privy Key of Heaven" 1665)

Prayers which are not directed to the glory of God . . .
never reach the ear of God,
nor delight the heart of God.

The end must be as noble as the means, or else
a man may be undone after all his doings. A man's
most splendid actions will at last be found to be
but splendid sins, if he has made himself, and
not the glory of God, the end of those actions.