Exposition on the Ten Commandments, Commentary on commandments · Commandment 1 (3 of 3)

Exposition on the Ten Commandments · Commentary on commandments · Commandment 1 (3 of 3)

p. 80And therefore we find that those who in their prosperity have lived most regardless of a Deity, yet when their Conscience hath been awakened by Dangers, or Sickness, or any surprizing Accident, the apprehensions of a God have then strongly returned upon them, and filled them with Amazement and Confusion.**Nam qui Deos tantoperè contemneret, ad minima tonitrua & fulgura connivere, caput obvolvere; ad verò majora, proripere se è strato sub lectumque condere solebat. Suet. in Cal. cap. 51. Thus the Historian reports of that mad wicked Emperour Caligula, who made an open mock and scorn of Religion, yet when it thundred would creep under his Bed to hide himself from the Vengeance of that Jupiter, whom at other times he would not spare to deride and**Cum Jove Capitolino secreto fabulabatur— nèc sine jurgiis, nam vox comminantu audita est foreign. Id. c. 22. threaten. And therefore certainly if there be any such thing as natural Conscience in all Men, it will necessarily follow that there must be a God; for were there no God, there would be no Conscience.

And thus I have given you these six rational Demonstrations, that there is such a Supream and Infinite Being as a Deity. Many others might be added; but these I account sufficient to convince any Atheist, who will indeed be swayed by that Reason which he so much deifies and adores, that there is another GOD besides and above it.

Well then, what remains, but that as we have evinced the Folly and Unreasonableness of Speculative Atheism, p. 81so we condemn the Impiety of Practical Atheism; the Prophaneness and Irreligon of those, that as the Apostle speaks, live as without God in the World; that live as though there were no God, nor Devil, nor Heaven, nor Hell, nor future State, nor any distribution of Rewards in it: Indeed every wicked Man is in this sence an Atheist, and such the Apostle hath condemned, Tit. 1.16. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate. Did they really and cordially believe, that there is a Just and Holy God that takes notice of all their Actions, a Great and terrible Majesty, who will call them to a strict account for all their Cogitations, all their Discourses, and all their Works; an Almighty God who hath prepared Wrath and Vengeance to inflict on all those who despise his Authority, and transgress his Law; would they dare to prophane his glorious and reverend Name by impertinent using of it in their trivial talk? would they dare to rend and tare it by their Oaths and Blasphemies, and hellish Execrations and Curses? Did they believe, that he hath prepared Tophet of old, that the pile thereof is Fire and much Wood, and that all the Wicked of the World shall be cast into it, and there be made an everlasting Burnt-sacrifice to the incensed Wrath of the great God: Did Men believe the horrours and torments of the Fire and Sulphur, the stench and darkness, the burning chains and fiery whips, the woes and anguish of the Damned in Hell, which are as far from being utterable, as they are from being tolerable; did they but as certainly believe these things, as it is certain that if they believe them not, they shall eternally feel them, would they dare still venture on to treasure up to themselves Wrath against the Day of Wrath? would Swearing, and Lying, and Stealing, and Drunkenness, p. 82and Uncleanness so generally reign among us as they do? Indeed we perswade ourselves that we do believe these things, we profess that there is a God, and that God infinitely Holy, and infinitely Just; and that he will recompence Tribulation, Anguish, and Wrath upon every Soul of Man that doth evil. But alas, this is only a Verbal Belief, contradicted and born down by a Practical Atheism. The little influence that the Belief of an Holy and Just God hath upon us, to regulate our actions, and to cause us to walk in an holy awe and dread of his Divine Majesty, clearly evinceth, that we may possibly fancy these things, but do not believe them: for if thou didst seriously and heartily believe that there is a Great and a Jealous God who hath said, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it; what is there in the World that could perswade thee to offend Him?

Possibly, though thou believest that there is a God, yet thou art not fully perswaded that he is so Holy, nor so Just as his Word declares him to be; not so holy in hating thy … sins, nor so just in punishing them. But if thou reliest on this confidence, know,

1First, That this is only to hope in his Mercy in spight of his Truth. He hath sworn that he will take Vengeance on all impenitent Wretches, and wound the hairy Scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his sins. And God will be true to his Threatnings, as well as to his Promises, although thou, and ten thousand others like thyself, eternally perish.

2Nay, secondly, If thou believest there is a God, and yet thinkest that this God will spare thee, though thou go on in the presumption of thy heart, to add Iniquity unto Sin, thou art far worse than an Atheist: for it is p. 83better to have no Opinion of God at all, than to have such an Opinion as is unworthy of him; for the one is but Infidelity, the other is Contumely.**foreign, &c. Plut. foreign. Even Plutarch, an Heathen, could say, That it were far less injurious to him, if any should deny that there is such a Man in the World as Plutarch, than if he should grant, that such an one indeed there is, but that he is Faithless, Inconstant, Cruel, or Revengeful. So it is not so heinous an Affront against the Divine Majesty, to deny that there is any such Supream Being, as to acknowledge that there is indeed a God, but this God is not either infinitely holy in hating thy Sins, or infinitely true to his Threatnings, or infinitely just in punishing Mens Impenitency and Disobedience. This is a degree of Impiety worse than Atheism; and yet this, are all ungodly Sinners guilty of.

Know then, O Sinner, and tremble, that there is a God who sees and observes all thy Actions, who writes them down in the Book of his Remembrance, and will call thee to a strict account for them: God will then judge thee out of thine own mouth, thou wicked Servant. Thou believest that there is a God, why dost thou not then fear and serve him? Thou believest that there is an Heaven, and an Hell, and an Eternity to come, why then dost thou not live answerably to this Belief? Either blot it out of your Creed, and avow that you do not believe in God the Father Almighty, or else live as those should do, who own so Great and Terrible, so Pure and Holy a God. For a Speculative Atheist to be prophane and wicked, is but consonant to his Principles: p. 84For wherefore should not he gratifie all his lusts and sensual desires, whose only hope is in this Life, and who doth not look upon himself as accountable for any thing hereafter? But for thee who acknowledgest a Deity, to live as without God in the World, to break his Laws, to slight his Promises, to despise his Threatnings, is the greatest and most desperate Madness in the World: Thou shewest thyself hereby to be worse not only than an Atheist, but worse then a Devil; for the very Devils believe and tremble, and yet thou who professest thyself to believe, dost not tremble.

If therefore we would not be inexcusable, since we know God, let us glorifie him as God, yeilding all holy Obedience to his Laws, and humble Submission to his Will; conforming ourselves to his Purity, depending upon his Power and Providence, and trusting in his infinite Mercy and Goodness, till we at last arrive unto that state of perfect Bliss and Felicity, where we shall fully know the ineffable Mystery of the Deity, see Him that is now invisible, and live there as much by Sence and Sight, as here we do by Faith and Expectation.

And thus much for the first Sin forbidden in this first Commandment, which is Atheism.

2ly.The second Sin that it forbids, is, Ignorance of the true God. For this Precept which requires us to have the Lord Jehovah for our God, as well includes the having of him in our understandings, by knowing him aright, as in our wills and affections, by loving, fearing, and worshipping him; the right Worship of God must of necessity presuppose the knowledge of the Object to which we direct that Worship, or otherwise we do but erect an Alter to the unknown God, and all our Adoration is but Superstition; yea, and we ourselves are but p. 85Idolaters, although we worship the true Deity: for all that Service which is not directed to the Supream Essence, whom we conceive to be the infinitely and eternally Holy, Just, Merciful, and Glorious, beyond what we can conceive, is not tendered to the true God, but to an Idol of our own making, shaped out in the Ignorance and Blindness of our Minds. And therefore our Saviour Christ lays this as a black Brand upon the Samaritan Worship, John 4.22. Ye worship ye know not what; and that because with other Gods they worshipped the true God, under a confused Notion of the God of the Land, as you may read 2 Kings 17.26. without any distinct knowledge of his Nature, Will, and Attributes.

It hath been a Proverbial Speech, That Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion; but certainly such a blind Mother must needs bring forth a blind and deformed Daughter; a Devotion more rightly called Superstition than Devotion; a Devotion shaped only by the Fancy, and imposed by irrational Fear or Humor.

Now because the Being and Existance of a Deity, is a Notion so common and natural to Mankind, as I have already demonstrated; and that we are strongly inclined to the worship of a God, it will be necessary rightly to know that God, to whom this Homage of our Souls, and all our Affection and Veneration is due. For while we remain ignorant of this, it is impossible but that we should be Idolaters, giving that which is proper to God alone, to some vain created Fiction of our own deluded Understandings.

Idolatry therefore is a Sin more common among us then we imagine. For as many ignorant Persons as there are, so many Idolaters there are, who though they fall not down before Stocks and Stones, yet form such uncouth p. 86Idea's and strange Images of God in their minds, that no more represent his infinite Perfections and Excellencies, than those dumb Idols that the Heathens worship.

In prosecution of this General, I shall lay down these following Propositions:

1First, That it is a very hard and difficult matter to have right and genuine Conceptions of the Divine Majesty, when we address ourselves unto him to worship him. I think I may here appeal to the common Experience of Christians, whether their most difficult part of their Duties be not rightly to apprehend the Object of them. Our Fancy is bold and busie, and still ready to make too much use of its Pencil, and to delineate a God in some shape or other, before whom we present our Services; so that when we should be wholly intent upon our Adoration, we must necessarily be ingaged in Reformation; to pull down, and break in pieces those false Images that we had set up: And yet as soon as we have done this, our Imagination falls to work again, makes new Pictures of a God, and sets them full before our eyes, as so many Idols for us to worship. And although both Reason and Religion endeavour to correct these bold attempts of Fancy, yet it is a mighty distraction in our Duty, to be then disputing the Object, when we should be adoring it. I shall only instance in one Duty, and that is Prayer: How few are there that do not fashion God in some bodily shape, when they come to pray unto him! We are too apt to Figure out his Limbs, and to conceive him a Man like ourselves. All the proportions that Fancy hath to draw with are Corporeal; and whensoever we frame a Notion of Angels, or God, or any spiritual Substance, we do it by sensible Resemblances. p. 87Now this is infinitely derogatory to God who is a Spirit; and therefore cannot be represented in any Form without a vast incongruity: and he is the Father of Spirits, infinitely more spiritual than Spirits themselves, in comparison with whom Angels and the Souls of Men are but drossie and feculent Beings, and therefore cannot be worshipped under any Form without Idolatry: for that is not a God which we can shape and mould in our Imaginations.

We read how jealous God is least any Resemblance should be made of him, Deut. 4.15, 16. Take the good heed unto yourselves (for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of the fire) lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure. And certainly if the erecting of a visible Image of God be gross Idolatry, it is no less than a mental and spiritual Idolatry, to frame an invisible Image of God in our Fancy and Conceptions.

And therefore although the Scripture frequently ascribes to God the members and lineaments of a Man, as eyes, and mouth, and ears, and hands, and feet, &c. yet we must not be so stupidly ignorant as to believe that these are properly appertaining to the Divine Essence, (which was the old exploded Heresy of the Anthropomorphitae) but these descriptions are given us only in condescension to our Weaknesses and Infirmities; and though they are spoken foreign, after the manner of Men, yet they must be understood foreign, after such a manner as becomes the Majesty of the Divine Nature: And by such expressions the Scripture only means, that all those powers and faculties which are in us, are likewise to be found, although in an infinite and transcendent p. 88eminency in the Being of God. He hears and sees, and is able to effect whatsoever he pleaseth; and that without any configuration of Parts, or Organs, which are utterly repugnant to the Simplicity and Spirituality of his Essence. And therefore to shape and fashion out such a God in our thoughts, when we pray unto him, is but to make and worship an Idol: And unless Faith and Religion demolish such Images which we set up in our Fancy, the Worship which we direct unto them, is hardly to be esteemed the Worship of the true God, but the worshipping the Work of our own making, and a Creature of our own Imagination.

And yet unless we do represent God to ourselves, when we worship him, it is very hard, if not altogether impossible, to keep up the intention of our Spirit, and to hinder our Mind from straying and gadding. Therefore,

2Secondly, The right way to attain unto a true Notion, and a sound Understanding of the Divine Nature, is by a serious consideration of his Attributes. For these are his very Nature; and when we know them, we know as much of God as can be known by us in this our weak and imperfect Estate. These Attributes of the Divine Nature are manifold, and commonly are distinguished into Negative, Relative, and Positive; I shall onelyonly enumerate the chief of them, Simplicity, Eternity, Unchangeableness, Immensity, Dominion, All-sufficiency, Holiness, Truth, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Justice, and Mercy: Of which the principal, and that most respect us, are Mercy and Justice; all the other are declared to us in order to the Illustration of these. For the glory of these hath God created the World, and all things in it; especially those two capital kinds of Creatures, Angels p. 89and Men: for these hath he permitted Sin, which is so odious and detestable to his infinite Purity: for these hath he sent his Son into the World to taste of Death for every Creature: for these hath he proclaimed his Law, and declared his Gospel, the Threatnings of the one, and the Promises of the other: for these hath he appointed a Day, and will erect a Tribunal of Judgment, that he may make the Glory of his Mercy, and of his Justice conspicuous; his Justice in the eternal Damnation of impenitent Wretches, who are Vessels of Wrath fitted by their own sins for destruction; his Mercy in the Salvation of penitent and believing Souls, who are Vessels of Mercy fitted by his Grace for eternal Glory. All other Attributes, I say, serve to illustrate these two; and as we conjoyn them either to Mercy or Justice, so they are most inforcing Motives either of Hope or Fear: it is a mighty support to our Hope, when we reflect upon the Mercy of God accompanied with the Attributes of Eternity, Immutability, Truth, and Omnipotence. And again, it will affect us with a profound Fear and Dread of this Great and Glorious God, to consider that the same Attributes attend on his Justice; so that both are Almighty; the one to save, the other to destroy.

Now if we would conceive aright of God, when we come to worship him, let us not frame any Idea of him in our Imaginations, (for all such Representations are false and foolish,) but labour to possess our hearts with an awful esteem of his Attributes; and when we have with all possible reverence collected our thoughts, and fixt them upon the Contemplation of infinite Justice, infinite Mercy, infinite Truth, infinite Power, and the rest, let us then fall prostrate, and adore it, for this is our God: And therefore the Apostle tells us, 1 John 4.8. God is p. 90love; not only loving, but Love itself in the abstract. And 1 John 1.5. God is light.

3Thirdly, All the knowledge that we have, or can have of God here, is collected from what he hath been pleased to discover of himself, either in his Works, or in his Word.

We have but two Books to instruct us; the Book of the Creatures, and the Book of the Scriptures. From the Works of Creation and Providence, we may come to know much of God, even his eternal Being and Godhead; and the Lectures which are read out of this Book, are so convincing and demonstrative of many of the glorious Attributes of God, that the Apostle tells us, the very Heathens themselves were left without Excuse, because they did not worship him as God, when by the things which they saw, they knew him to be God, Rom. 1.21.

But to us God hath vouchsafed more clear and lively Discoveries of himself; declaring to us those Attributes by his Word, the knowledge of which we could never have attained by his Works alone. And therefore the Scriptures are called the lively Oracles of God, Acts 7.38. And they are the Glass wherein with open face we behold the Glory of the Lord, 2 Corinth. 3.18.

4Fourthly, When we have improved our understandings to the highest advantage, and stretcht them to the largest and most comprehensive size, yet still we shall be left in the dark, and it will be utterly impossible to know God as he is in himself: He dwelleth in that Light to which no mortal Eye can approach; he hides and veils himself with Light and Glory: it is his alone p. 91Priviledge and Prerogative, as to love, so to know himself, for nothing better can be loved, nothing greater can be known. God is incomprehensible to all his Creatures, but is comprehended by himself; and that Ever Blessed Essence which is Infinite to all others, is yet Finite to its own view and measure. All the Discoveries we receive of God, are not so much to satisfie an inquisitive Curiosity, as to excite pious Affections and Devotion. For Reason, which is the eye of the intellectual Soul, glimmers and is dazled when it attempts to look stedfastly on Him who is the Father of Lights; and its weakness is such, that that Light which makes it see, doth also strike it blind. Yea, our Faith which is a stronger Eye than that of Reason, and given us that we might see Him who is invisible, yet here in this life it hath so much dust and ashes in it, that it discerns but imperfectly, and receives the Discoveries of a Deity refracted through the Glass of the Scriptures, so allayed and attemper'd, that though they are not most expressive of his Glory, yet they are fittest for our Capacity. The full manifestation of his Brightness, is reserved for Heaven: This beatifical Vision is the Happiness and Perfection of Saints and Angels, on whom the Godhead displays itself in its clearest Rays. There we shall see him as he is, and know him as we are known by him. Here we could not subsist, if God should let out upon us the full Beams of his excessive Light and Glory. And therefore we read in Scripture what dreadful apprehensions the best of God's Saints have been possest withal, after some extraordinary Discoveries that God had made of himself unto them. Thus Isaiah cries out, Isai. 6.5. Wo is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. And when our Saviour Christ put p. 92forth his Divine Power but in the working of a Miracle, the Glory of it was so terrible and insupportable, even to Holy Peter, that he crys out, Luke 6.8. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Though God be the very life of our Souls, and the manifestations of his Love and Favour better than Life itself; yet such is our limitted Estate here in this World, that we cannot see God and live. Frail Nature is too weak to contain its own Happiness, until Heaven and eternal Glory inlarge; and then it shall see those inconceivable Mysteries of the Trinity in Unity, the Hypostatical Union of the Humane Nature with the Divine; then it shall view and surround the incomprehensible God, and be able to bear the unchecked Rays of the Deity beating full upon it. In the mean time we must humbly content our selves with those imperfect Discoveries that God is pleased to allow us, still breathing after that Estate where we shall enjoy perfect Vision, and in it an intire Satisfaction and Happiness.

Let us then most earnestly covet the knowledge of God, and endeavour to make ourselves here as like to what we hope to be hereafter, as the frailty of Humane Condition will permit. This is the chief glory of a Man, one of the highest Ornaments and Perfections of a rational Soul; that which doth in some sort repair the Decays of our fallen Estate, and renews those Primitive Characters which Ignorance and Errour have obliterated in our Souls. And indeed without the knowledge of God, we can never be brought to love him, to trust and confide in him, nor to serve him as we ought: And although there may be a great deal of Zeal in ignorant Persons, yet Zeal without Knowledge, is but a religious Frenzy; it is Religion frighted out of its wits. A Man that knows not the bounds of Sin and Duty, is a fit p. 93Subject for the Devil to work upon, who will be sure so to manage him, that he shall do a great deal of mischief very honestly, and with very good intentions.

Thirdly, A third heinous Violation of this first Command, 3ly.is by Prophaneness. Now Prophaneness may be taken either in a more large and general, or in a more proper and restrained sence; if we take it properly, so it signifies only the neglect, or despising of Spiritual Things: for in a strict acceptation he is a prophane Person, who either slights the Duties of God's Service, or the Priviledges of God's Servants. But in the larger and more common sence of the word, every ungodly Sinner who gives up himself to work Wickedness, and lives in a course of infamous and flagitious Crimes, is called and reputed a prophane Person. And indeed such an one is prophane in the highest degree, that not only neglects the more spiritual Duties of Religion, but the natural Duties of Moral Honesty, Temperance, and Sobriety: For as there are but two things in Practicals, which make an excellent and accomplisht Christian, Religion and Vertue; the one directing our Worship towards God, the other our Conversation towards Men: so on the contrary, the despising of Religion, and neglect of Vertue, make up that consummate and accomplisht Prophaneness which we see so common and prevalent in the World.

But concerning the Wickednesses which usually meet together, and are concerned in this sort of prophane Persons, I shall not now speak, reserving them to be treated of in their proper place, when I come to insist on those Commands which each of their Sins transgresseth.

At present I shall only take notice of that which is p. 94properly called Prophaneness, and speak of it as a distinct Sin, distinctly prohibited in this Precept. And here I shall first give you some account of the Name, and then of the Thing.

**Profanum omnes penè eonsentiunt idesse quod extra fanaticam causam sit, quasi porro à fano, & a religione secretum. Macrob. Saturnal. lib. 3. cap. 3.Prophane hath its Notion or Etymology, Quasi porrò, or procùl a fano; which signifies far from the Temple.

Now because their Temples were the usual places wherein they solemnly worshipped, therefore the word Prophane is transferred to denote those who neglect and put far from them the Worship of God: and so according to this propriety of signification, many others besides lewd and debaucht Wretches, will be found to be Profane: For not only those who let loose the rains to all manner of Villanies, but even those whose Morality is unblameable, and perhaps exemplary; who lead a sober and rational life, and scorn a vitious Action, as a baseness below the Nature, and unworthy the Spirit of a Man; yet such grave, prudent, and honest Persons do, too many of them, especially in these our days, deserve the Censure and black Brand of being Prophane. And therefore that we may the better Judge who are the Prophane, and on whom that Imputation justly lies, let us consider first, What the Sin of Prophaneness is; and secondly, What are the true and proper Characters of a prophane Person.

First, What Prophaneness is? I answer in the general, IProphaneness is the slighting and neglecting of Things holy and sacred; an undervalluing and contemning of those Things that are spiritual and excellent. And whosoever is guilty of this, let his outward Demeanour in the World be as fair and plausible as Morality p. 95or Hypocrisy can adorn it, yet he is a prophane Person; and heinously violates this first Command which injoyns us to worship, reverence, and honour the most high God, whom we profess to own.

Now the spiritual and sacred Things are,

First, God himself in his Nature and Essence, whom we prophane, whensoever we entertain any blasphemous 1or unworthy thoughts of him, derogatory to his infinite Perfections.

Secondly, God in his Name; which we prophane when in our trivial and impertinent Discourses we rashly boult 2out that great and terrible Name, at which all the Powers of Heaven and Hell tremble: And how much more do we prophane it by Oaths and Execrations; which are now grown the familliar Dialect of every Mouth, and lookt on only as a Grace and Ornament of speaking! Scarce can we hear any Discourse, but these Flowers are sprinkled among it; and the Name of God must be brought in either as an Expletive, or an Oath: And what doth sadly fore-bode the growing Prophaneness of the next Age, Children are taught or suffered to call upon God in their Play, before they are taught to call upon him in their Prayers.

Thirdly, God in his Attributes; which we then prophane, when our affections or actions are opposite or unsuitable 3unto them. We prophane his Holiness by our impurity; his Omnipotence by our dispondency; his Omniscience by our hypocrisie; his Mercy by our despair; his Justice by our presumption; his Wisdom by our sinful policy; his Truth our by security, notwithstanding his Threatnings; and our sloathfulness notwithstanding his Promises. And in this sence every sin that we commit is a kind of Prophaneness, as it manifests a contempt of the infinite Perfections and Excellencies of the Deity: p. 96for there is no Man whose heart is possessed with a reverential and due Esteem of the great God, that can be induced by any Temptations to sin against him, and provoke him. Every sin is a slighting of God, either a slighting of his Justice, or Mercy, or Holiness, or Power, or all of them: For what dost thou else when thou sinnest but prefer some base Pleasure, or some sordid Advantage, before the Great God of Heaven? The Devil represents the Delights of Sin, or the Profits of the World unto thee to intice thee; but thy Conscience represents unto thee the everlasting Wrath of the great God if thou consentest; his Justice ready to sentence thee to everlasting Torments, and his Power arm'd to inflict them. Now if thou yeildest, what dost thou but vilifie and despise the Almighty God, as if his dread Power and severe Justice were not so considerable as to out-weigh either the impure pleasures of a vile Lust, or the sordid gain and advantage of a little transitory Pelf? Nay, couldst thou by one act of Sin make all the Treasures and Delights of the whole World tributary to thee; should the Devil take thee when he tempts, as he took Christ, and shew thee all the Kingdoms of the World, and the Glory of them, and promise to instate it all upon thee; yet to prefer the whole World before the Authority of God, who hath strictly forbidden thee to think any thing in it worth the venturing upon his Displeasure, and the hazarding his Wrath and Vengeance, is a most notorious slighting and contemning the great God, and argues a prophane Spirit: How much more then when we sin against God for nothing, and defie his Wrath and Justice, without being provoked to it by any Temptation? We find how heinously God takes it, and speaks of it as a mighty Affront and Indignity, that our Lord Christ should be so undervalued as to be sold for thirty Pieces of Silver; for p. 97it argued not only Treason but Contempt; Zech. 11.13. A goodly price that I was prized at by them. And yet truly Judas was a very thrifty Sinner in comparison with many among us, who not only betray Christ to the mocks and injuries of others, but crucifie him daily, and put him to an open shame for far less. Yea, there are many that would not suffer so much as an hair of their heads to be twicht off for that for which they will not stick to lie, and swear, and blaspheme. What should tempt the impious Buffoon to deride Religion, travest the Holy Scriptures, and turn whatsoever is Sacred and Venerable, into Burlesque and Drollery; but only that he may gain a little grimning and snearing Applause to his Wit, from a company of mad Fools like himself? Or what should tempt the cheap Swearer to open his black Throat as wide as Hell, and to belch out his Blasphemies against Heaven, and the God of Heaven, but only that he fancies that a well-mouth'd Oath will make his Speech the more stately and gentile? And are these Matters of such consequence, as to be called or accounted Temptations? Certainly there can be nothing else in these sins besides a meer mad humour of sinning; which declares a most wretched Contempt of God, when we do that for nothing which his Soul hates, and his Law forbids; and a most prophane Spirit, in making that common and trivial, which is infinitely holy and sacred.

Thus you see how God is prophaned in his Nature, in his Name, and in his Attributes.

Fourthly, The Time which God hath set apart and consecrated 4for his own Worship and Service, is sacred and holy; which we prophane when we imploy any part of it in the unnecessary Affairs of this Life, but much more in the service of Sin. This is a sacrilegious robbing God of what is dedicated intirely to him; and that either p. 98by his immediate appointment, as the Sabbath; or by the appointment of those whom God hath set over us, and intrusted not only to preserve our Rights and Properties, but also his Worship inviolate, as special Days of Joy or Mourning, Thanksgiving or Humiliation.

5Fifthly, The Ordinances of Jesus Christ are holy and sacred; which we prophane when either we neglect them, or are remiss and careless in our attendance on them. But of this I shall speak more anon.

Thus I have shewn you what Prophaneness is; it is a slighting and despising of spiritual and sacred Things, such as are holy originally, as God, his Name and Attributes; and such as are holy by Institution, as his Sabbaths and Ordinances.

By what we have thus spoken concerning Prophaneness, we may the easier dispatch the second General propounded, IIwhich was, To give you some particular Characters of a prophane Person; that we may be the better able to look into our own hearts and lives, and both observe and correct that Prophaneness which resides there.

1First, Therefore, he is a prophane Person that thinks and speaks but slightly of Religion. Religion is the highest Perfection of Humane Nature; by it he differs more from brute Beasts, than he doth by his Reason; for brute Creatures have some notable resemblances and hints of Reason, but none at all of Religion. They Glorify God as all the Works of the Creation do, by shewing forth his infinite Attributes in their frame and production; but they cannot Adore nor Worship him: This is a Pre-eminence peculiar to the most perfect Pieces of the Creation, Men and Angels. For as it is a Perfection of the Deity to be the Object of Worship, to whom all Adoration both in Heaven and Earth ought to be directed, so it is the Perfection of rational Creatures to ascribe Honour, p. 99and Glory, and Praise, and Worship to Him who sitteth upon the Throne, and the Lamb for ever and ever. And therefore they who despise Religion, despise that which is their own chiefest Excellency, and prophane that which is the very Crown of their Natures and Beings.

But alas, have we not many such prophane Persons among us, who deride Piety, and make a scoff of Religion, that look upon it only as a Politick Invention to keep the rude and ignorant Vulgar in awe.

Yea, and those who take up their Religion, not by choice, but meerly by chance, either as a Patrimony left them by their Fathers, or as a received Custom of the Country wherein they were born, never troubling themselves to examine the reasonableness and certainty of it; these likewise are prophane spirited Men, who do not believe Religion to be a matter of that concernment as to require their exactest study and industry in searching into its Grounds and Principles, but think that any may suffice, whatsoever it be.

Again, those who do secretly despise the holiness and strictness of others, and think they are too precise, and make more adoe to get to Heaven than needs. But indeed they are not too precise, but these are too prophane, who thus contemn Religion as unnecessary and superfluous.

Secondly, He is a prophane Person who neglects the 2publick Worship and Service of God, when he hath opportunity and ability to frequent it. And alas, how many such are there, who yet think it soul scorn to have this black Name fixt upon them? yea, and are the readiest in the World to brand others with it, that are not of their Way and sentiments. But let them be who they will that despise and forsake the solemn Assemblies, they do interpretatively despise and forsake God, whose especial p. 100Presence is only in two places, Heaven and the Church, in the one by his Glory, in the other by his Presence.

Now these are of two sorts; some that absent themselves out of a wretched Sloath, and Contempt of the Word and Ordinances of Jesus Christ; others that withdraw themselves out of a pretended Dissatisfaction and Scruple of Conscience. Both are Prophane; but the one sort strangely mingles Prophaneness and Hypocrisie togegether; and the other is Prophane out of Ignorance or Atheism.

1First, Some are negligently Prophane, and absent themselves from the Ordinances of Jesus Christ, and the solemn Worship of God, upon meer Sloath and Reachlesness. And how many such carelesly prophane are in these Parts, the Thinness of our Congregations doth too evidently declare. If we should now go from House to House, should we not find the far greater part of the Inhabitants idly lolling at Home? who after they had snorted out the Forenoon in their Beds, and thereby perhaps digested their last Night's Drunkenness, spend the Afternoon in their Chappel, the Chimny, either with vain Chat, or intemperate Cups, and sacrifice to their God, their Belly, while they should be worshipping the great God of Heaven: Possibly a fair Day, or want of other Diversion, may sometimes bring these Droans to Church, yet this is so seldom, that we may well suspect they come, not indeed for Custom sake, but rather out of Novelty, than Devotion: But if it prove a wet or louring Day, these tender People, whom neither Rain nor Cold can prejudice at a Fair or Market, dare not stir out of their Doors, nor step over their own Threshold into God's, lest they should hazard their Health, instead of gaining their Salvation. What shall I say to such Brutes and Heathens as these are, who not only deny the Power, but p. 101the very Form of Godliness, (some few of them may perhaps be now present to hear me, and may my Word, nay, not mine, but the Word of the Living God strike them:) God will pour out his wrath upon the heathen, and upon the families that call not on his name.

Secondly, Some again are humoursomely Prophane, 2who withdraw themselves from the publick Worship of God, meerly upon pretended Scruple and Dissatisfaction. I think it is no Uncharitableness to say, That where Scruple at the Administration of Ordinances, is only pretended to colour Contempt of the Ordinances, their Religion is only made a Masque and Vizer for Hypocrisie: for he that shall scruple to pray by a set Form, and yet not scruple to swear Extempore; he that shall scruple to eat and drink at the Lord's Table kneeling, and yet not scruple to drink at his own Table, or at an Ale-bench, till he cannot stand; he that shall scruple the Cross in Baptism, and yet not scruple the breaking his Baptismal Vow; he that shall scruple Obedience to Mans Laws, and yet not scruple Disobedience to God's, but shall lie, and defraud, and perjure, and oppress, and look upon it as the priviledge of his Perversness and Contradiction, to do so; I shall make no scruple to call such a scrupulous Swearer, or Drunkard, or Cheat, a gross and prophane Hypocrite.

I do not, I dare not say, that all those that seperate from our Communion, are of this Note, no more than that all who joyn with us, are free from these Crimes: no, I believe, and know the contrary; and that very many who have in the simplicity of their hearts followed Absolom in a Rebellion,2 Sam. 15.11.2 Sam 15:11 do now likewise follow Corah in a Schism. Towards such I would take up words of Meekness, and in the bowels of Love expostulate with them; but alas, they do not, they will not hear me: p. 103I would beseech them to account of us as Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the Mysteries of God, as well as others: And if they cannot deny that we are so, will they deny us Audience when we come as Ambassadours from the great King of Heaven, to deliver his Message to them in his Name? Do we not preach the same Truths, and exhort you as far as we are able, to the practice of the same Holiness? Do we not Administer the same Sacraments wherein are represented and sealed to all believing Partakers the Benefits of the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ? What is it then? are we therefore rejected because as we have our Commission from God, so we have our Mission by Law and Authority from Men? If it be so, this is not Zeal, but Contumacy and Perversness; or are they our own personal Faults and Miscarriages, the neglect of our Ministry, or the scandal of our Lives, that makes Men to abhor the Offerings of the Lord, and forsake his Tabernacle? Indeed I had much rather deplore than excuse them. Yet since this Imputation cannot without great Wrong and Injustice be laid upon all, why is the Defection from all? why are godly, laborious, and consciencious Ministers forsaken and despised as well as the rest? But suppose they were all as black as Aspersions and Calumnies would render them; yet certainly they cannot be thought worse than the Scribes and Pharisees, who were not only vicious in their Lives, but corrupt in many principal parts of their Doctrine; yet such was the Authority and Reverence of Moses's Chair, that our Lord Christ himself, who was the great Teacher of the World, sends his own Scholars to learn of them; only because they were the allowed and authorized Instructers of the People; Matth. 23.2. The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their p. 102works: for they say, and do not. Or finally, is it that that the Ordinances of Jesus Christ are (as they say) burdened with some Observances which they cannot so well digest and comply with? Not now to defend these Things in particular, let me only say, That they nothing hinder the Energy of the Gospel, where it is attended on with an humble submiss Soul, and tractable and docil Affections: And what slight Opinions soever the overweaning Fancies of the Men of this Generation may have taken up concerning our way of Worship, yet I am sure that many thousand of Souls have been converted and saved since our happy and blessed Reformation from Popery, by the Ordinances of Jesus Christ, administred with all the same Observances which are now so much villified and condemned. And I pray God Profaneness be not laid to the charge of a great many who not only neglect, but deride and despise that Worship which God hath accepted and rewarded; and that way of Administration which he hath sanctified in the Conversion, and sealed in the Salvation of many blessed and glorious Saints now in Heaven.

Yet I do not think all those who do as yet refrain from our publick Assemblies meerly out of the Dissatisfaction of their Consciences, who do desire and endeavour to be satisfied, and would willingly close with their Duty as soon as it is discovered to them, without sticking at the Examples of others, or their own former contrary Practice; I dare not, I say, think them guilty of Prophaneness; although for the present they may be very much misguided.

But for others, that either absent themselves out of meer Carelesness, and a wretched Neglect of the Commands of Christ, or only out of Humour and Frowardness, and because they have been of another Way, therefore p. 104they will stiffly and pertinaciously maintain it; and cast all the Odium they can devise, and all the Dirt they can rake together, though it be with Lyes and Slanders, upon us; such as search for all manner of Arguments, not so much to satisfie their Consciences, as meerly to cavil against our Worship; and when they can neither condemn it by Scripture nor Reason, do it by bitter Invectives, odious Reflections, and a scoffing Contempt, on purpose to make it both hateful and ridiculous to the People; such I shall be bold in the Lord to pronounce Prophane and Irreligious Wretches. And whereas they cry out upon the Prophaneness of others, and make that a Pretence why they separate, and rend the Body of Christ into Schisms, they themselves are most prophane, despising the Holy Ordinances of Jesus Christ, and thereby making themselves unworthy to be admitted to such Holy Mysteries, and worthy to be excluded, and not only by their own voluntary Obstinacy, but by a judicial Censure.

So much for the second Character of a prophane Person.

3Thirdly, He is also a prophane Person who neglects the performance of religious Duties in private. Every House ought to be a Temple dedicated to God, and every Master a Priest, who should offer unto God the daily Sacrifices of Prayers and Praises. But alas, how many prophane Persons have we, and how many prophane Families, who scarce ever make mention of God but in an Oath, nor never call upon his Name but when they impricate some Curse upon others? How many who wholly neglect the Duty of Prayer, and think they sufficiently …charge their Trust, if they provide for the Temporal Subsist…nce of their Families, though they utterly neglect the Care of their Souls, and their Spiritual Concernments? Such prophane p. 105Families as these,Jer. 10.25.Jer 10:25 God ranks with Infidels and Heathens, and devotes them to the same common Destruction.

Nor ought our Family Duties to be seldomer performed by us than Morning and Evening. In the Morning Prayer is the Key that opens unto us the Treasury of God's Mercies and Blessings: in the Evening it is the Key that shuts us up under his Protection and Safe-guard. God is the great Lord of the whole Family both in Heaven and Earth; other Masters are but under him entrusted to see that those who belong to their Charge, perform their Duties both to him and them. One of the greatest Services that we can do for God, is to pray unto him, and praise him: And how unjust and tyrannical is it for a Master of a Family to exact Service to himself, when he takes no care to do Service to his great Lord and Master, to whom it is infinitely more due?

Neither is there any Excuse that can prevail to take off your Obligation from this Duty.

Not that thou art ignorant, and knowest not how to pray; for many are the Helps that God hath afforded thee: Do but bring Breath and holy Affections, others have already brought to thy hands Words and Expressions proper enough for the Concerns of most Families: and besides, use and common practice will facilitate this Duty, and by an incessant consciencious performance of it, thou wilt thorough the promised assistance of the Holy Ghost, be soon able to suite thy Affections with pertinent Expressions, and to present both in a becoming manner unto the Throne of Grace.

Not the multiplicity and incumbrance of thine Affairs: For the more, and the weightier they are, the more need hast thou to ask counsel and direction of God, and to beg his blessing upon thee in them; without which thou wilt but labour in the fire, and weary thyself for very vanity.

p. 106Not thy Bashfulness and Modesty: For will it not be a far greater shame to thee, that those whom thou governest, and perhaps over-awest even by thy rash and unreasonable Passions, should be able to over-awe thee from so excellent and necessary a Duty. Be ashamed to sin before them; be ashamed to talk loosly, to prophane the Name of God, to be intemperate, or unjust before them, to defile thy mouth and their ears with unclean and scurrilous Discourses; be ashamed to neglect thy Duty; but be not ashamed to pray; for our Saviour hath told us, Mark 8.38. That whosoever shall be ashamed of him in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with his holy angels. And therefore since there is no just Reason why thou shouldst refrain Prayer from the Almighty, whosoever thou art that doest so, be thy Conversation in all other respects never so blameless, (which yet is not very probable that it should be, when thou beggest not Grace from God to direct it) thou art a prophane Person, and declarest thyself to be so by thy neglect of the most Holy and Spiritual of all those Duties wherein we are to draw nigh unto God.

4Fourthly, He is a prophane Person, that performs holy Duties slightly and superficially: All our Duties ought to be warmed with Zeal, wing'd with Affection, and shot up to Heaven from the whole bent of the Soul. Our whole hearts must go into them; and the strength and vigour of our spirits must diffuse themselves into every part of them, to animate and quicken them: And therefore the Apostle commands us, Rom. 12.11. To be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Sacrifices (which under the Jewish Oeconomy were the greatest part of God's solemn Worship) were commanded to be offered up with Fire; and no other fire could sanctifie them, but that which miraculously shot itself down from Heaven, or from the presence of God in the Sanctuary,Lev. 9.24. Lev. 6.4.Lev 9:24Lev 6:4 which was ever after kept burning p. 107for that very use: So truly all our Christian Sacrifices both of Praise and of Prayer, must be offer'd up unto God with fire; and that fire which alone can sanctifie them, must be darted down from Heaven; the celestial flame of Zeal and Love, which comes down from Heaven, and hath a natural tendency to ascend thither again, and to carry up our Hearts and Souls upon its wings with it.

But indeed commonly our Duties are either, first, offered 1up with strange unhallow'd fire; they are fired by some unruly passion of hatred, or self-love, or pride and vain glory.Luke 9.54.Luke 9:54 Like those cholerick Disciples that presently would command fire to come down from Heaven to consume those who had affronted them by refusing to give them entertainment; only that God by such a severe Miracle might vindicate their Reputation, and revenge the Contumely that was done them. But this is a fire kindled from beneath, and smells strong of Brimstone; and therefore our Saviour himself sharply checks their furious Zeal, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Luke 9.55.Luke 9:55And certainly whensoever we pray thus in the bitterness of our Spirits, devoting our Enemies to destruction, and that because they are ours, rather than God's, when we pour out a great deal of Gall mingled with our Petitions, such a Prayer cannot be from the Dove-like Spirit of God, which is meek and gentle; and makes those so who are lead and inspired by him. Every party and perswasion of Men is very ready boldly to prescribe unto God those Ways and Methods by which he ought to be glorified; and if any shall but question their Principles, or oppose their rash and unwarrantable Proceedings, their touchy Zeal is straight kindled, and nothing less than solemn Prayers must be made, to devote such an one to ruine and destruction, as an Enemy to God and to Religion. Here's fire indeed! but it is Wild-fire kindled from beneath, the Fewel of it is Faction, Popularity, Pride, Contention, and vain Glory; and it sends forth a p. 108great deal of smoak from corrupt and inordinate Passions.

2Or secondly, If there be none of the former Incentives to heat them, then our Duties are commonly very cold and heartless; our Prayers are dull and yawning, and drop over our Lips without any spirit or life in them: How often do we beg God to hear us, when we scarce hear our selves; and to grant us an answer, when we scarce know what it is that we have askt? We make our Requests so coldly and indifferently, as if we only begg'd a Denial. So likewise in our hearing of the Word, we bring with us very slight and prophane Spirits to those holy and lively Oracles: what else means the vagrancy and wanderings of our Thoughts, our lazy and unbeseeming Postures, which would be counted rude and unmannerly to be used in the presence of some of those that are here with us, were they any where else but in the Church? What means our weariness, our watching every Sand that runs, our despising the Simplicity of the Gospel, our prizing the sound of Words more than the weight of Things, but especially our indulged Sloath and Drowziness? a Sin that I have observed too common in this place. What, cannot you watch with God one hour? Do we speak Poppy and Opium to you? Or do you expect that God will now reveal himself to you in Dreams? Have ye not Houses, have ye not Beds to sleep in; or do you despise the Church of Christ? Certainly God requires our most wakeful and vigilent Attention when he delivers to us the most important things of his Law, and of our Salvation. These and many other things which to particularize, would perhaps be to descend below the Majesty of this Work, do too evidently declare, that the precious Truths of the Gospel are grown vile among us, that we have taken a Surfeit of this heavenly Manna, this Bread of Life, and now begin to loath it. Beware least this Surfeit bring not a Famine after it.

It plainly argues much Prophaneness in our Spirits, when p. 109we bring only our outward Man, our dull and heavy Carcasses to attend upon God, while our Hearts and Minds are straying and wandering from him: This is a sign that we despise God, and account any thing good enough, the Lame and the Blind to be offer'd up unto him. Against such God hath thundered out a most dreadful Curse,Malac. 1.14.Mal 1:14 Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing; for I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful. Thou who sufferest thy Thoughts or thine Eyes, which are the Index of them, to rove in Prayer, or to be seal'd up with sleep in hearing, thou despisest the great God before whom thou appearest, and thinkest it enough if thou affordest him thy bodily presence, although thy heart be with the eyes of the Fools in the ends of the Earth: for such a Service is but Mockery; and it is less irrision to tender God no Service, than to perform it slightly and perfunctarily; the one is Disobedience, but the other is Contempt.

This is a fourth Character of a prophane Person.

Fifthly, He is a prophane Person that performs holy Duties 5for worldly Ends and Advantages: For what greater contempt of God can there be, than to make his Service truckle under the base and low designs of this present Life? This is to make Religion tributary to Interest, and God himself an Homage to Mammon. And this all Hypocrites are guilty of; though they masque their Designs with specious Pretences, and draw the Veil of Religion over their sorded and wicked Contrivances: yet they cry out with Jehu, Come see my zeal for the Lord of hosts; when he drove on so furiously only for the Kingdom.

Indeed an Hypocrite (though he be not commonly so esteemed) is the most prophane Wretch that lives; the gross profligate Sinner offers not half so much Indignity to Religion as he doth; For,

p. 1101First, The Hypocrite calls in God to be a Complice and Partaker with him in his Crimes, and intitles his Majesty who is infinitely pure and holy, to the Wickedness he commits, as if they were done for his sake, and meerly upon his account; and so makes God to be the Patron of Sin, who will be the Judge and Condemner of Sinners. All his Injustice, Rapine, and Rebellion, are coloured over with the fair pretences of the Glory of God, the Interest of the Kingdom of Christ, the Advancement of the Power of Godliness, Reformation of Idolatry and Superstition, &c. and there is no act of Fraud or Violence, Faction or Sedition, but he thinks it justified and hollowed by these glorious Names; which is nothing else but to rob Men, and make God the Receiver, who is the Detester, and will be the Punisher of such Crimes. Now the open and flagitious Wretch, although he hates God as much as the Hypocrite, yet he doth not so much deride him; his Wickednesses are plain and avowed; and every one may see from whence they proceed, and whither they tend, that they come from Hell, and directly tend thither: Religion is not at all concerned to colour, but only to condemn them. And judge ye, which doth most despise God and Godliness, either he who professeth it not at all, or he who professeth it only that he may abuse and abase it, and make it subservient to such vile and sordid ends as are infinitely unworthy of it.

2Secondly, The wound that Religion receives from Hypocrites is far more dangerous and incurable, than that which the open and scandalous Sinner inflicts upon it. For Religion is never brought into question by the ennormous Vices of an infamous Person: all see, and all abhor his Lewdness. But when a Man shall have his mouth full of Piety, and hands full of Wickedness, when he shall speak Scripture, and live Devilism, Profess strictly and Walk loosly; this lays a grievous Stumbling-block in the way of others, and tempts them to think that all Religion is but Mockery, p. 111and that the Professours of it are but Hypocrites, and so imbitters their hearts against it, as a solemn Cheat put upon the credulous World. Certainly such Men are the causes of all that Contempt which is cast upon the Ways and Ordinances of God; and their secret Prophaneness hath given occasion to the gross and open Prophaneness that now abounds in the World; and the Hypocrisy of former Years, hath too fatally introduced the Atheism of these.

Nay, an Hypocrite must needs be an Atheist, and in his heart deny many of God's glorious Attributes, but especially his Omniscience, and say within himself as those, Ps. 73.11. Tush, God shall not know; and is their knowledge in the most High? For did they but believe that God looks through all their Disguises, and that his Eye, which is Light unto itself, pierceth into their very Souls; did they but seriously consider that all things are naked and before him; that he knows our thoughts afar off, and is privy to our closest designs, they would not certainly be either so daringly wicked, or so childishly foolish, as to plot upon God, and seek to cozen and delude Omniscience.

Now this Prophaneness of the Hypocrite in seeking Temporal Things by Spiritual Pretences, is much more abominable than the Prophaneness of others who seek them by unjust and unlawful means; for the one only makes Impiety, but the other Piety itself an Instrument of his vile and sorded Profit, than which there cannot be a greater scorn and contempt put upon Religion.

Sixthly, He is a prophane Person who makes what God 6hath sanctified common and unhollowed: And have we not many such prophane Persons among us? Many that abuse the holy and reverend Name of God, which ought to be had in the highest esteem ad veneration, about light and frivilous matters; who only make mention of him in their idle Chat, but are mute and dumb when any thing should p. 112be spoken to his praise; many that prophane his Sabbaths, and although God hath liberally allowed them six Days for the Affairs of Earth, yet will not spare the seventh for the Affairs of Heaven, but impiously invade what he hath set apart and consecrated for himself, and his own immediate Worship and Service. Many that never speak Scripture, but when they abuse it, making the Bible their Jest-book, and prostituting those Phrases and Expressions, which God hath sanctified to convey unto us the knowledge of himself, and eternal Life, to the Laughter and Mirth of their loose Companions: So that those very words which the Holy Ghost inspired into the Pen-men of the sacred Scriptures, for the Edification of the Church, the Devil inspires into these Wretches for their own Damnation, and the Damnation of those that have pleasure in such horrid Prophaneness.

7Seventhly, He is a prophane Person who despiseth Spiritual Priviledges and Enjoyments: Upon this very account the Scripture sets that black and indelible Brand upon Esau, Lest there be any prophane persons among you, Heb. 12.16.Heb 12:16as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right. And why is Esau stigmatized as prophane for selling his Birth-right, but because in those first Ages of the World, the First-born or Eldest of the Family was a Priest, and that sacred Function by right of Primogeniture belonged unto him. And therefore we read that the Tribe of Levi were taken by God to be his Priests and Ministers, in exchange for the First-born: Now to slight and undervalue an Office so holy and sacred, a Priviledge so eminent, a Dignity so sublime and spiritual, to part with it only for the satisfying of his Hunger, was a sign of a prophane Spirit, in preferring the God his Belly, before the God of Heaven, and for ever renouncing his Right of Sacrificing to the true God, only that he might Sacrifice one pleasant Morsel to his impatient Appetite.

p. 113And certainly if it were so prophane in Esau to slight and contemn the Priestood in himself, they are also prophane who vilifie it in others, and make those the Objects of their lowest Scorn and Contempt, whose Office it is to Stand and Minister before God and Christ. Certainly if a Dishonour done to an Ambassadour, reflects upon the Prince that sent him, will not Christ account it as an Affront and Injury done unto him, when you affront and injure those his Messengers and Ambassadours whom he hath sent to treat with you in his Name, and about the Concernments of his Kingdom.

But not to speak more of this, least we should be thought to plead for ourselves: Are not those prophane who despise and contemn the high Priviledges and Dignity of the Children of God; who despise those whom God so highly honours as to adopt them into his own Family, admit them into near Communion and Indearments with himself, to make them his own Sons, and give them the Priviledge of Heirs of eternal Glory? Doubtless he who despiseth him that is begotten, despiseth him likewise that begetteth; and the common Disrespect which is shewn to the Servants and Children of God, argues a secret Contempt of him who is their Master and their Father.

Now lay these things to your own Hearts, and bring them home to your own Consciences, and see whether you are in none of these particulars guilty of Prophaneness: Do none of you think slightly of Religion, accounting it either a Politick Design, or a Needless Preciseness? Are none of you negligent in the publick Worship and Service of God; nor yet in Private and Family Duties; or if you perform them, is it not very carelesly and perfunctorily; or if you seem zealous in them, is it not your Zeal excited by some Temporal Advantages, and low base Worldly Ends and Designs? Do you not make that Common and unhollowed, which God hath made holy, either by abusing his p. 114Name, polluting his Sabbaths, or vilifying his Word in your ordinary Rallery; and lastly, do none of you despise Spiritual Priviledges and Enjoyments, and those likewise who are invested with them? If so, how fair and specious soever your Lives and Actions may be, altho' you may think the rude debaucht Sinner at a vast distance from yourselves, and account him the only prophane Person, yet certainly this black Stile belongs as properly to you, and you are prophane Violaters of this first Command which requires you to take the Lord for your God, and accordingly to honour and reverence him, and whatsoever appertains unto him.

And thus much for the third notable Transgression of this Command, Prophaneness.

4ly.The fourth and last breach of this Command is by Idolatry, Thou shalt have no other gods besides me; which they transgress who set up any other God besides the Lord Jehovah. Idolatry according to its Etymology and use, signifies a serving of Images, or Idols; now, an Idol, though it properly signifies an artificial Effigies or Resemblance made to represent any thing or person, yet in Divinity it signifies any thing besides the true God, unto which we ascribe Divine Honour and Worship.

And as an Idol is twofold, one internal in the fiction and imagination of the Mind; another external and visible, either the Work of Mens hands, as Statues and Images, or else the Work of God's hands, as the Sun, Moon and Stars, or any other Creature; so there is a twofold Idolatry, the one Internal, when in our Minds and Affections we honour and venerate that as God which indeed is not so, but is either a Creature of the true God, or a Fiction of a deluded Fancy: the other External, which we are then guilty of when we express the inward Veneration of our Souls, by outward Acts of Adoration. As for instance: Whosoever shall believe the consecrated Bread in the Sacrament to be p. 115transubstantiated and changed into the true and proper Body of Jesus Christ, and upon this belief, shall in his mind revere and honour it as his God (as the Papists do) he is guilty of internal Idolatry: but if to this internal Veneration, he add any external Rites of Worship, as Prostration, Invocation, &c. he is then likewise guilty of internal Idolatry.

It is the former of these two kinds of Idolatry, which is here prohibited in this first Commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods before me; that is, thou shalt not give unto any thing either in Heaven or Earth, that inward Heart-worship of Affiance, Love, Fear, Veneration, and Dependance, which is due only to the true God, the Lord Jehovah: The imperate Acts, or outward Expressions of this inward Worship, is that which we call external Idolatry, which is specially forbidden in the second Commandment, of which I shall treat in its place and order.

Now concerning this Internal Idolatry, observe these following Propositions:

First, Whosoever acknowledgeth, and in his heart worshippeth 1another God different from that God who hath revealed himself unto us in his holy Scriptures, he is guilty of this Internal Idolatry, and the breach of this first Commandment. And therefore not only those miserable Creatures who worship the Devil, or those that have recourse to Diabolical Arts and Charms, or those who worship Men whose Vices were their foreign, and their Crimes their Consecration, as Bacchus, and Venus, and others of the Heathenish Gods; nor those who worshipt Men famous for their Vertues, as the Heathens did their Hero's, and the Papists do their Saints; or those who worship any of the Creatures of God, as the Host of Heaven, Fire as the Persians, or Water as the Aegyptians, or the Creatures of Art,Aug. de Civ. Dei. l. 8. c. 23. as Statues and Images, as if possest and animated by their Deities; in which respect Trismegistus called Images the Bodies of the Gods: And with the same Madness are the Papists possest, p. 116who are perswaded that God and Christ, and the Saints dwell in certain Images made to represent them, and by those Images give answers to their Votaries, and perform many wonderful and miraculous Works: whereas if there be any Spirit that possesseth them (as perhaps there may) we have reason to believe that since their Worship of them is the very same with the Heathens, those Spirits are likewise the same, viz. not God, nor Saints, but Devils and damned Spirits. But I say, not only these are Idolaters and Transgressors of this first Command, but those also who compound a God partly out of the figment of their own erroneous Minds, and partly out of his own Infinite Attributes: And thus are all Arians, Socinians, and Antitrinitarians guilty of Idolatry; for they acknowledge one Infinite and Eternal Being, but denying the Persons of the Son and the Holy Ghost, they worship an Idol, and not the true God, for the only true God, is both Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

2Secondly, Whosoever acknowledgeth, and in his heart worshippeth more Gods than the only Lord Jehovah, is guilty of Idolatry, and the Violation of this first Commandment. Thus was the Idolatry of those Nations which the King of Assyria planted in Israel after he had carried away the ten Tribes into Captivity; for it is said, 2 Kings 17.33. That they feared the Lord, and served their own gods. And upon this account also are all Arians and Socinians, who deny the Natural Divinity of Jesus Christ, justly charged with Idolatry; for since they say that Christ is God, and do worship him as God, yet deny that he is of the same Nature and Substance with the Lord Jehova, they must of necessity make more Gods than one, and those of a divers Essence and Being; and therefore are not only guilty of Blasphemy, but Idolatry; of Blasphemy in robbing Christ of his Eternal Sonship and the Divine Nature; of Idolatry in attributing Divine Honor and Worship unto him p. 117whom they believe to be but a Creature, and not God by Nature.

Thirdly, Whosoever doth ascribe or render to any Creature, 3that which is proper and due only unto God, he is an Idolater, and guilty of the Transgression of this first Commandment. Now this Attribution of the Divine Properties to the Creatures, is either Explicite or Implicite, Explicite when we do avow the Attributes of the Divine Nature to be in those things which are not capable of them; as those who hold the Body of Christ to be Omnipresent. Implicite when we render unto any Creature that inward Worship, Esteem, and Affection which is due only unto the infinite Perfections of the Deity. And although our Reformed Religion be very well purged from the former Idolatry, yet certainly the Professours of it are not well purged from this latter Idolatry; for even among Protestants themselves we shall find very many that are in this sence Idolaters: For,

First, Whosoever chiefly and supreamly loves any Creature, 1is an Idolater; because our chiefest love is due only unto God. Hence the covetous Person is expresly called an Idolater, and Covetousness Idolatry, Col. 3.5. Mortify your earthly members, uncleanness, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. And the sensual Epicure is likewise an Idolater, Phil. 3.19. His Belly, saith the Apostle, is his God: The proud Person is an Idolater, for he loves himself supreamly, sets up himself for his own Idol, and falls prostrate before that Image which he hath pourtrayed of his own Perfections in his own Fancy and Imagination. And generally all such who love and admire any thing above God, or esteem any thing so dear that they would not willingly part with it for his sake, they have set up another God before him, to which they give that Service and Respect which is due only to the great God of Heaven.

p. 1182Secondly, Whosoever puts his trust and confidence in any Creature more than in God, is guilty of this inward Heart-Idolatry; as when we depend upon Interest, or Power, or Policy for our safe-guard and success, more than on that God, who is able both with and without created helps and means to relieve us: And that we do so appears, when we are secure and confident in the enjoyment of such created Comforts and Supports; but altogether disfident and dejected when we are deprived of them: For since God is always the same, we should likewise have the same courage and spirit, did we place our whole affiance in him.

3Thirdly, He is an Idolater, and a very gross one, who sets up any Creature in his heart, whether Saint or Angel, to pray unto it, and to betake himself unto that vain Refuge in our straights and necessities: for Invocation properly belongs to God alone, as an Act of Worship which he hath challenged to himself, and the highest Glory that we can give to his Divine Majesty: And therefore he hath commanded us, Psal. 50.15. Call upon me, not upon any Saint or Angel, in the time of trouble, and I will deliver thee. And therefore the Papists are most gross and stupid Idolaters, who direct their Petitions not unto God, but unto Saints and Angels; which is nothing else but to advance them in his Throne, and to ascribe unto them his infinite Perfections; for Prayer and Adoration supposeth the Object of it to be Omnipresent and Omnipotent; Omnipresent to hear, and Omnipotent to save, or else they are in vain.

Thus much for the First Commandment.