But one God
with the sun. To speak fair to one's face, and not to mean what one speaks, is no better than a lie: Ps. 55:21., "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart." Some have an art at this, they can flatter and hate. Hierom, speaking of the Arians, saith, "they pretended friendship, they kissed my hands, but plotted mischief against me." Prov. 29:5., "A man that flattereth his neighbour, spreadeth a net for his feet." Impia subdulci melle venena latent,—falsehood in friendship is a lie. Counterfeiting of friendship is worse than counterfeiting of money. This is contrary to God who is a God of truth.
2. We must be true in our profession of religion. Let practice go along with profession, Eph. 4:24., "Righteousness and true holiness."
Hypocrisy in religion is a lie; the hypocrite is like a face in a glass, there is the show of a face, but no true face, so he makes show of holiness, but hath no truth of it, it is but the face in the glass.
Ephraim pretended to be that which he was not; and what saith God of him? Hos. 11:12., "Ephraim compasseth me about with lies." By a lie in our words we deny the truth; by a lie in our profession we disgrace it. Not to be what we profess to God, is telling a lie; and the scripture makes it little better than blasphemy, Rev. 2:9., "I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and are not." O! I beseech you, labour in this to be like God; he is a God of truth; he can as well part with his Deity as his verity; be, I say, like God, be true in your words, be true in your profession; God's children are children that will not lie, Ps. 51:6. When God sees "Truth in the inward parts," and "lips in which is no guile," now he sees his own image in you; this draws God's heart towards you; likeness draws love.
BUT ONE GOD
QUEST. V. The fifth question is, Are there more Gods than one?
Ans. There is but one only, the living and true God.
That there is a God hath been proved; and those that will not believe the verity of his essence, shall feel the severity of his wrath, Deut.
6:4., "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." He is the 'only God,' Deut. 4:39., "Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else." Isa. 45:21., "A just God and a Saviour; there is none besides me." There are many titular gods; kings represent God; their regal sceptre is an emblem of his power and authority. Judges are called 'gods,' Ps. 82:6., "I have said, ye are gods," viz. set in God's place to do justice; but dying gods, v. 7., "Ye shall die like men." 1 Cor. 8:5, 6., "There be that are called gods;"
"but to us there is but one God."
Argument 1. There is but one First Cause that hath its being of itself, and on which all other beings depend. As in the heavens, the primum mobile moves all the other orbs, so God gives life and motion to every thing existent. There can be but one God, because there is but one First Cause.
2. There is but one infinite Being, therefore there is but one God.
There cannot be two infinites: Jer. 23:24., "Do not I fill heaven and earth," saith the Lord? If there be one infinite, filling all places at once, how can there be any room for another infinite to subsist?
3. There is but one Omnipotent Power. If there be two Omnipotents, then we must always suppose a content between these two; that which one would do, the other power being equal, would oppose, and so all things would be brought into confusion. If a ship should have two pilots of equal power, one would be ever crossing the other;
when one would sail, the other would cast anchor, here were a confusion, and the ship must needs perish. The order and harmony in the world, the constant and uniform government of all things, is a clear argument that there is but one Omnipotent, one God that rules all: Isa. 44:6., "I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God."
Use 1st. Of information. If there be but one God, then (1.) it excludes all other gods. Some have feigned that there were two gods: so the Valentinians; others, that there were many gods: so the Polytheists.
The Persians worshipped the sun; the Egyptians the lion and elephant; the Grecians worshipped Jupiter; these, I may say, "err, not knowing the scriptures," Mat. 22:29. Their faith is a fable. God hath given them up to strong delusions, to believe a lie, that they may be damned, 2 Thess. 2:11.—2. If there be but one God, then there can be but one true religion in the world, Eph. 4:5., "One Lord, one faith." If there were many gods, then there might be many religions, every god would be worshipped in his way; but if there be but one
God, there is but one religion; one Lord, one faith. Some say, we may be saved in any religion. It is absurd to imagine that God who is One in essence, should appoint several religions in which he will be worshipped. It is as dangerous to set up a false religion as to set up a false god. There are many ways to hell; men may go thither which way their fancy leads them; but there is but one direct road to heaven, viz. faith and holiness. There is no way to be saved but this: as there is but one God, so there is but one true religion.—3. If there be but one God, then you have but One that you need chiefly to study to please, and that is God. If there were divers gods, we should be hard put to it how to please them all; one would command one thing, another the quite contrary, and to please two contrary masters, is impossible; but there is but one God, therefore you have but One to please. As in a kingdom there is but one king, therefore every one
seeks to ingratiate himself into his favour, Prov. 19:6., so there is but one true God; therefore here lies our main work to please him. Be sure to please God, whoever else you displease. This was Enoch's wisdom, Heb. 11:5., he had this testimony before he died, that "he pleased God."
QUEST. What doth this pleasing God imply?
Ans. 1. We please God when we comply with his will. It was Christ's meat and drink to do his Father's will, John 4:34., and so he pleased him: Mat. 3:17., "A voice came from heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." It is the will of God that we should be holy, 1 Thess. 4:11. Now, when we are bespangled with holiness, our lives are walking Bibles; this is according to God's will and it pleaseth him.
A. 2. We please God, when we do the work that he sets us about, John 17:4., "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do," viz. my mediatory work. Many finish their lives, but do not finish their work. Our work God hath cut out for us is to observe the first and second tables. In the first, is set down our duty towards God; in the second our duty towards man. Such as make morality the chief and sole part of religion, set the second table above the first; nay, they take away the first table; for, if prudence, justice, temperance, be enough to save, then what needs the first table? and so our worship towards God shall be quite left out. But those two tables which God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
A. 3. We please God, when we dedicate our heart to give him the best of every thing. Abel gave God the fat of the offering, Gen. 4:4.
Domitian would not have his image carved in wood, or iron, but in gold. Then we please God, when we serve him with love, fervency, alacrity; we give him golden services, here lies our wisdom and piety,
to please God. There is but one God, therefore there is but One whom we have chiefly to please, namely, God.
A. 4. If there be but one God, then we must pray to none but God.
The Papists pray to saints and angels: 1. To saints. A Popish writer saith, "when we pray to the saints departed, they being touched with compassion, say the like to God for us, as the disciples did to Christ for the Canaanitish woman, Mat. 15:23., 'Send her away, for she crieth after us.' " The saints above know not our wants, Isa. 63:16.,
Abraham is ignorant of us; or, if they did, we we have no warrant to pray to them. Prayer is a part of divine worship, which must only be given to God. 2. They pray to angels. Angel-worship is forbidden, Col.
2:18, 19.; and that we may not pray to angels, is clear from Rom.
10:14., "How shall they call then on him in whom they have not believed?" We may not pray to any but whom we may believe in; but we may not believe in any angel, therefore we may not pray to him.
There is but one God, and it is a sin to invoke any but only God.
A. 5. If there be but one God, who is 'above all,' Eph. 4:6., then he must be loved above all. 1. We must love him with a love of appreciation; set the highest estimate on him, who is the only fountain of being and bliss.—2. We must love him with a love of complacency: amor est complacentia amantis is amato, ACQUIN.
Our love to other things must be more indifferent; some drops of love may run beside to the creature, but the full stream must run towards God; the creature may have the milk of our love, but we must keep the cream of our love for God; God who is above all, must be loved above all, Ps. 73:25., "There is none upon earth that I desire besides thee."
Use 2d. Of Caution. If there be but one God, then let us take heed of setting up more gods than one: Ps. 16:4., "Their sorrows shall be
multiplied, that hasten after another God; their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips." God is a jealous God, and he will not endure that we should have other gods.
It is easy to commit idolatry with the creature: 1. Some make a god of pleasure, 2 Tim. 3:4., "Lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God."
Whatever we love more than God, we make a god.—2. Others make money their god; the covetous man worships the image of gold, therefore he is called an idolater, Eph. 5:5. That which a man trusts to, he makes his god; but he makes the wedge of gold his hope, he makes money his creator, redeemer and comforter. It is his creator,— if he hath money, then he thinks he is made; it is his redeemer,—if he be in danger, he trusts in his money to redeem him out; it is his comforter,—if at any time he be sad, the golden harp drives away the evil spirit; so that money is his god. God made man of the the dust of the earth, and man makes a god of the dust of the earth.—3. Another makes a god of his child, sets his child in God's room, and so provokes God to take it away. If you lean too hard upon a glass, it will break; many break their children by leaning too hard upon them.—4.
Others make a god of their belly, Phil. 3:19., "Whose god is their belly." Clemens Alexandrinus writes of a fish that hath its heart in its belly,—an emblem of epicures, their heart is in their belly, they mind nothing but indulging the sensual appetite; they do sacrificari lari,— their belly is their god, and to this they pour drink-offerings. Thus men make many gods. The apostle names the wicked man's trinity, 1
John 2:16., "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life;" the lust of the flesh,—pleasure; the lust of the eye,—money; pride of life,—honour. O take heed of this! Whatever you deify besides God, will prove a bramble; and fire will come out of this bramble and devour you, Judg. 9:15.
Use 3d. Of reproof. If the Lord Jehovah be the only true God, then it reproves those who renounce the true God, I mean, such as seek to
familiar spirits. This is too much practised among them that call themselves Christians. It is a sin condemned by the law of God, Deut.
18:10, 11., "There shall not be found among you any one that consults with familiar spirits." How ordinary is this? If people have lost any of their goods, they send to wizards to know how they may come by their goods again. What is this but consulting with the devil? And so you renounce God and your baptism? What! because you have lost your goods, will you lose your souls too? 2 Kings 1:6., "Thus saith the Lord, is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to inquire of Beelzebub?" So, is it not because you think there is not a God in heaven, that ye ask counsel of the devil? If any here be guilty, be deeply humbled, ye have renounced the true God; better be without the goods ye have lost than have the devil help you to them again.
Use 4th. Of Exhortation. If there be but one God, as God is one, so let them that serve him be one. This is what Christ prayed so heartily for, John 17:21., "That they all may be one." Christians should be one,
1. In judgment; the apostle exhorts to be all of one mind, 1 Cor. 1:18.
How sad is it to see religion wearing a coat of divers colours; to see Christians of so many opinions, and going so many different ways? It is Satan hath sown these tares of division, Mat. 13:39. He first divided men from God, and now divides one man from another.—2.
One in affection. They should have one heart, Acts 4:32., "The multitude of them that believed, were of one heart, and of one soul."
As in music, though there be several strings of a viol, yet all make one sweet harmony: so, though there are several Christians, yet there should be one sweet harmony of affection among them. There is but one God, and they that serve him should be one. There is nothing would render the true religion more lovely, or make more proselytes to it, than to see the professors of it tied together with the heartstrings of love, Ps. 133:1., "Behold how good and how pleasant a