Part 17
them, and make provision for them : * Israel is an empty vine,' Hos. x. 1 ; a vine, say some, with large branches and few clusters, but ' brings forth fruit to himself,' while they professed love to God with their lips. It was that God should promote their covetous designs, and preserve their wealth and grandeur, Ezek. xxxiii. 31 ; in which respect an hypocrite may be well termed a religious atheist, an atheist masked with religion. The chief arguments which prevail with many men to perform some duties, and appear
* Trap, on Gen. p. 148.
PS. XIV. 1.] PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 237
religious, are the same that Hamor and Shechem used to the people of their city to submit to circumcision, viz., the engrossing of more wealth :
Gen. xxxiv. 21, 22, ' If every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised, shall not their cattle and their substance, and every beast of
theirs, be ours ? ' This is seen,
(1.) In unweildiness to religious duties where self is not concerned. With what lively thoughts will many approach to God when a revenue may be brought in to support their own ends ? But when the concerns of God only are in it, the duty is not the delight but the clog ; such feeble devotions that warm not the soul, unless there be something of self to give strength and heat to them. Jonah was sick of his work, and ran from God, because he
thought he should get no honour by his message ; God's mercy will dis credit his prophecy, Jonah iv. 2. Thoughts of disadvantage cut the very sinews of service. You may as well persuade a merchant to venture all his estate upon the inconstant waves, without hopes of gain, as prevail with a natural man to be serious in duty, without expectation of some warm advan tage. ' What profit should we have if we pray to him ? ' is the natural question, Job xxi. 15. ' What profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin ? ' Job xxxv. 3. I shall have more good by my sin than by my service. It is for God that I dance before the ark, saith David, therefore « I will be more vile,' 2 Sam. vi. 22. It is for self that I pray, saith a natural man, therefore I will be more warm and quick. Ordinances of God are observed only as a point of interest, and prayer is often most fervent when it is least godly, and most selfish; carnal ends and affections will pour out lively expressions. If there be no delight in the means that lead to God, there is no delight in God himself, because love is appetitus unionis, a desire of union ; and where the object is desirable, the means that brings us to it would be delightful too.
(2.) In calling upon God only in a time of necessity. How officious will men be in affliction to that God whom they neglect in their prosperity !
1 When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and inquired after God ; and they remembered that God was their rock,' Ps. Ixxviii. 34. They remembered him under the scourge, and forgat him under his smiles.
They visit the throne of grace, knock loud at heaven's gates, and give God no rest for their early and importunate devotions when under distress ; but when their desires are answered, and the rod removed, they stand aloof from
him, and rest upon their own bottom ; as Jer. ii. 81, ' We are lords, we will come no more unto thee.' When we have need of him, he shall find us clients at his gate ; and when we have served our turn, he hears no more of
us ; like Noah's dove sent out of the ark, that returned to him when she found no rest on the earth, but came not back when she found a footing else where. How often do men apply themselves to God when they have some business for him to do for them ! And then, too, they are loath to put it solely into his hand, to manage it for his own honour ; but they presume to be his directors, that he may manage it for their glory. Self spurs men on to the throne of grace ; they desire to be furnished with some mercy they want, or to have the clouds of some judgments which they fear blown over. This is not affection to God, but to ourselves ; as the Romans worshipped a
quartane ague as a goddess, and Timorem et Pallorem, fear and paleness, as gods, not out of any affection they had to the disease or the passion, but for fear to receive any hurt by them.
Again, when we have gained the mercy we need, how little do we warm our souls with the consideration of that God that gave it, or lay out the
238 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
mercy in his service ! We are importunate to have him our friend in our necessities, and are ungratefully careless of him, and his injuries he suffers by us or others. When he hath discharged us from the rock where we stuck, we leave him, as having no more need of him, and able to do well enough without him, as if we were petty gods ourselves, and only wanted a lift from him at first. This is not to glorify God as God, but as our servant ; not an
honouring of God, but a self-seeking. He would hardly beg at God's door if he could pleasure himself without him.
(3.) In begging his assistance to our own projects. When we lay the plot of our own affairs, and then come to God, not for counsel but blessing, self only shall give us counsel how to act ; but because we believe there is a God that governs the world, we will desire him to contribute success. God is not consulted with till the counsel of self be fixed ; then God must be the executor of our will. Self must be the principal, and God the instrument to hatch what we have contrived. It is worse when we beg of God to favour
some sinful aim ; the psalmist implies this, Ps. Ixvi. 18, 'If I regard ini quity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.' Iniquity regarded as the aim in prayer renders the prayer successless, and the suppliant an atheist in debasing God to back his lust by his holy providence.
The disciples had determined revenge, and because they could not act it without their master, they would have him be their second in their vindic
tive passion : Luke ix. 55, ' Call for fire from heaven.' We scarce seek God till we have modelled the whole contrivance in our own brains, and resolved upon the methods of performance, as though there were not a fulness of wisdom in God to guide us in resolves, as well as power to breathe success upon them.
(4.) In impatience upon the refusal of our desires. How often do men's spirits rise against God, when he steps not in with the assistance they want ! If the glory of God swayed more with them than their private interest, they would let God be judge of his own glory, and rather magnify his wisdom than complain of his want of goodness. Selfish hearts will charge God with neglect of them, if he be not as quick in their supplies as they are in their
desires, like those in Isa. Iviii. 3, ' Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not ? wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and thou takest no
knowledge ? ' When we aim at God's glory in our importunities, we shall fall down in humble submissions when he denies us ; whereas self riseth up in bold expostulations, as if God were our servant, and had neglected the service he owed us, not to come at our call. We overvalue the satisfactions of self above the honour of God. Besides, if what we desire be a sin, our impatience at a refusal is more intolerable. It is an anger, that God will not lay aside his holiness to serve our corruption.
5. In the actual aims men have in their duties. In prayer for temporal things, when we desire health for our own ease, wealth for our own sensu ality, strength for our revenge, children for the increase of our family, gifts for our applause, as Simon Magus did the Holy Ghost, or when some of those ends are aimed at, this is to desire God not to serve himself of us, but to be a servant to our worldly interest, our vain glory, the greatening of our names, &c. In spiritual mercies begged for, when pardon of sin is desired only for our own security from eternal vengeance; sanctification desired only to make us fit for everlasting blessedness ; peace of conscience only that we may lead our lives more comfortably in the world ; when we have not actual intentions for the glory of God, or when our thoughts of
God's honour are overtopped by the aims of selfad vantage. Not but that as God hath pressed us to those things by motives drawn from the blessedness
PS. XIV. 1.] PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 239
derived to ourselves by them, so we may desire them with a respect to our selves ; but this respect must be contained within the due banks, in subordi nation to the glory of God, not above it, nor in an equal balance with it.* That which is nourishing or medicinal in the first or second degree, is in the fourth or fifth degree mere destructive poison.
Let us consider it seriously ; though a duty be heavenly, doth not some base end smut us in it ?
[1.] How is it with our confessions of sin ? Are they not more to pro cure our pardon than to shame ourselves before God, or to be freed from the chains that hinder us from bringing him the glory for which we were created ; or more to partake of his benefits than to honour him in acknow ledging the rights of his justice ? Do we not bewail sin as it hath ruined us, not as it opposed the holiness of God ? Do we not shuffle with God, and confess our f sin, while we reserve another, as if we would allure God, by declaring our dislike of one, to give us liberty to commit wantonness with another ; not to abhor ourselves, but to daub with God ?
[2.] Is it any better in our private and family worship ? Are not such assemblies frequented by some, when some upon whom they have a depen dence may eye them, and have a better opinion of them and affection to them ? If God were the sole end of our hearts, would they not be as glow ing under the sole eye of God as our tongues or carriages are seemingly serious under the eye of man ? Are not family duties performed by somo that their voices may be heard, and their reputation supported among godly neighbours ?
[3.] Is not the charity of many men tainted with this end, self? Mat. vi. 1, as the Pharisees were while they set the miserable object before them, but not the Lord, bestowing alms, not so much upon the necessities of the people, as the friendship we owe them for some particular respects ; or casting our bread upon those waters which stream down in the sight of the world, that our doles may be visible to them and commended by them ; or when we think to oblige God to pardon our transgressions, as if we merited it and heaven too at his hands, by bestowing a few pence upon indigent persons. And,
[4.] Is it not the same with the reproofs of men ? Is not heat and anger carried out with full sail when our worldly interest is prejudiced, and be calmed in the concerns of God ? Do not masters reprove their servants with more vehemency, for the neglect of their trade and business, than the neglect of divine duties, and that upon religious arguments, pretending the honour of God, that they may mind their own interest ? But when they are negligent in what they owe to God no noise is made, they pass without rebuke. Is not this to make God and religion a stale to their own ends? It is a part of atheism, not to regard the injuries done to
God, as Tiberius.! Let God's wrongs be looked to, or cared for by himself.
[5.] Is it not thus in our seeming zeal for religion ? As Demetrius and the craftsmen at Ephesus cried up aloud the greatness of Diana of the Ephesians, not out of any true zeal they had for her, but their gain, which was increased by the confluence of her worshippers, and the sale of her. own shrines, Acts xix. 24, 28.
[6.] In making use of the name of God to countenance our sin. When we set up an opinion that is a friend to our lusts, and then dig deep into the Scripture to find crutches to support it, and authorise our practices ; when
* Gnrnall, part iii. p. 337. t Dei injuria Deo CUTSB. •f Qu. ' one ' ? — ED.
240 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
men will thank God for what they have got by unlawful means, fathering the fruit of their cheating craft, and the simplicity of their chapmen upon
God ; crediting their cozenage by his name, as men do brass money, with a thin plate of silver and the stamp and image of the prince. The Jews urge the law of God for the crucifying his Son : John xix. 7, ' We have a law, and by that law he is to die ; ' and would make him a party in their private revenge.* Thus often when we have faltered in some actions we wipe our mouths, as if we sought God more than our own interest, prostitut ing the sacred name and honour of God, either to hatch or defend some unworthy lust against his word.
Is not all this a high degree of atheism ? 1. It is a vilifying God, an abuse of the highest good. Other sins sub ject the creature and outward things to them ; but acting in religious services
for self subjects not only the highest concernments of men's souls, but the Creator himself to the creature, nay, to make God contribute to that which is the pleasure of the devil ; a greater slight than to cast the gifts of a prince to a herd of nasty swine. It were more excusable to serve ourselves of God upon the higher accounts, such that materially conduced to his glory, but it is an intolerable wrong to make him and his ordinances caterers for our own bellies, as they did, Hosea viii. 13. t They sacrificed the O*HrQn of which the offerer might eat, not of out of any reference to God, but love to their gluttony ; not please him, but feast themselves. The belly was truly made the god, when God was served only in order to the belly : as though the blessed God had his being, and his ordinances were enjoined to pleasure
their foolish and wanton appetites ; as though the work of God were only to patronise unrighteous ends, and be as bad as themselves, and become a pander to their corrupt affections.
2. Because it is a vilifying of God, it is an undeifying or dethroning God. It is an acting as if we were the lords, and God our vassal ; a setting up those secular ends in the place of God, who ought to be our ultimate end in every action ; to whom a glory is as due as his mercy to us is utterly unmerited by us. He that thinks to cheat and put the fool upon God by his pretences, doth not heartily believe there is such a being. He could not have the notion of a God without that of omniscience and justice ; an eye to see the cheat, and an arm to punish it. The notion of the one would direct him in the manner of his services, and the sense of the other would scare him from the cherishing his unworthy ends. He that serves God with a
sole respect to himself is prepared for any idolatry ; his religion shall warp with the times and his interest ; he shall deny the true God for an idol, when his worldly interest shall advise him to it, and pay the same reverence to the basest image which he pretends now to pay to God ; as the Israelites were as real for idolatry under their basest princes as they were pretenders to the true religion under those that were pious.
Before I come to the use of this, give me leave to evince this practical atheism by two other considerations.
1. Unworthy imaginations of God.
* The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God ; ' that is, he is not such a God as you report him to be ; this is meant by their being corrupt, in the second verse corrupt being taken for playing the idolaters, Exod. xxxii. 7. We cannot comprehend God ; if we could, we should cease to be finite ; and because we cannot comprehend him, we erect strange images of him in our fancies and affections. And since guilt came upon us, because we cannot root out the notions of God, we would debase the majesty and
* Sanderson's Sermons, part ii. p. 158. f Vid. Cocc. in locum.
PS. XIV. l.J PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 241
nature of God, that we may have some ease in our consciences, and lie down with some comfort in the sparks of our own kindling.
This is universal in men by nature. « God is not in all his thoughts,' Ps. x. 4. Not in any of his thoughts, according to the excellency of his nature, and greatness of his majesty. As the heathen did not glorify God as God, so neither do they conceive of God as God. They are all infected with some one or other ill opinion of him, thinking him not so holy, powerful, just, good as he is, and as the natural force of a human under standing might arrive to. We join a new notion of God in our vain fancies, and represent him not as he is, but as we would have him to be, fit for our own use, and suited to our own pleasure. We set that active power of imagination on work, and there comes out a god (a calf), whom we own for a notion of God.
Adam cast him into so narrow a mould as to think that himself, who had newly sprouted up by his almighty power, was fit to be his corival in know ledge, and had vain hopes to grasp as much as infiniteness. If he in his first declining began to have such a conceit, it is no doubt but we have as bad under a mass of corruption. When holy Agur speaks of God, he cries
out that he had not « the understanding of a man, nor the knowledge of the holy,' Prov. xxx. 2, 3. He did not think rationally of God as man might by his strength at his first creation. There are as many carved images of God as there are minds of men, and as monstrous shapes as. those corruptions into which they would transform him.
Hence sprang,
1. Idolatry. Vain imaginations first set afloat "and kept up this in the world. Vain imaginations of the God ' whose glory they changed into the image of corruptible man,' Rom. i. 21, 23. They had set up vain images of him in their fancy, before they set up idolatrous representations of him in their temples ; the likening him to those idols of wood and stone, and various metals, were the fruit of an idea erected in their own minds. This is a mighty debasing the divine nature, and rendering him no better than that base and stupid matter they make the visible object of their adoration, equalling him with those base creatures they think worthy to be the repre sentations of him. Yet how far did this crime spread itself in all corners of the world, not only among the more barbarous and ignorant, but the more polished and civilized nations ! Judea only, where God had placed the ark of his presence, being free from it in some intervals of time only, after some sweeping judgment. And though they vomited up their idols under some sharp scourge, they licked them up again after the heavens were cleared over their heads. The whole book of Judges makes mention of it. And though an evangelical light hath chased that idolatry away from a great part of the world, yet the principle remaining, coins more spiritual idols in the heart, which are brought before God in acts of worship.
2. Hence all superstition received its rise and growth. When we mint a God according to our own complexion, like to us in mutable and various passions, soon angry and soon appeased, it is no wonder that we invent ways of pleasing him after we have offended him, and think to expiate the sin of our souls by some melancholy devotions and selfchastisements. Supersti tion is nothing else but an unscriptural and unrevealed dread of God,
Aftr/da/juoy/a. When they imagine him a rigorous, and severe master, they cast about for ways to mitigate him whom they thought so hard to be pleased. A very mean thought of him, as if a slight and pompous devotion could as easily bribe and flatter him out of his rigours, as a few good words or babbling rattles could please and quiet little children, and whatsoever
VOL. i. Q
242 CHAKNOCK'S WOKKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
pleased us could please a God infinitely above us. Such narrow conceits had the Philistines, when they thought to still the anger of the God of Israel, whom they thought they possessed in the ark, with the present of a few golden mice, 1 Sam. vi. 3, 4. All the superstition this day living in the world is built upon this foundation ; so natural it is to man to pull God down to his own imaginations, rather than raise up his imaginations up to God. Hence doth arise also the diffidence of his mercy, though they repent, measuring God by the contracted models of their own spirits, as though his nature were as difficult to pardon their offences against him, as they are to remit wrongs done to themselves.
3. Hence springs all presumption, the common disease of the world. All the wickedness in the world, which is nothing else but presuming upon God, rises from the ill interpretations of the goodness of God, breaking out upon
them in the works of creation and providence. The corruption of man's nature engendered by those notions of goodness a monstrous birth of vain
imaginations, not of themselves primarily, but of God; whence arose all that folly and darkness in their minds and conversations : Rom. i. 20, 21,
• They glorified him not as God,' but according to themselves imagined him good that themselves might be bad, fancied him so indulgent as to neglect his honour for their sensuality. How doth the unclean person represent him to his own thoughts but as a goat, the murderer as a tiger, the sensual person as a swine, while they fancy a god indulgent to their crimes without their repentance ! As the image on the seal is stamped upon the wax, so
the thoughts of the heart are printed upon the actions. God's patience is apprehended to be an approbation of their vices, and from the consideration of his forbearance they fashion a god that they believe will smile upon their crimes ; they imagine a god that plays with them, and though he threatens, doth it only to scare, but means not as he speaks ; a god they fancy like themselves, that would do as they would do, not be angry for what they
count a light offence : Ps. 1. 21, ' Thou thoughtest I was such a one as thy
self; ' that God and they were exactly alike, as two tallies. ' Our wilful mis apprehensions of God are the cause of our misbehaviour in all his worship ; our slovenly and lazy services tell him to his face what slight thoughts and
appprehensions we have of him.'* Compare these two together. Superstition ariseth from terrifying misapprehensions of God; pre sumption from self-pleasing thoughts. One represents him only rigorous, and the other careless ; one makes us over-officious in serving him by our own rules, and the other over-bold in offending him according to our humours. The want of a true notion of God's justice makes some men slight him ; and the want of a true apprehension of his goodness makes others too servile in their approaches to him. One makes us careless of duties, and the other makes us look on them rather as physic than food ; an unsupportable penance than a desirable privilege. In this case hell is the principle of duty performed to heaven. The superstitious man believes God hath scarce mercy to pardon ; the presumptuous man believes he hath no such perfection as justice to punish. The one makes him insignificant to what he desires, kindness and goodness ; the other renders him insig nificant to what he fears, his vindictive justice. What between the idolater, the superstitious, the presumptuous person, God should look like no God in the world.
These unworthy imaginations of God are likewise, A vilifying of him, debasing the Creator to be a creature of their own
* Gurnal, part ii. p. 245, 246.
PS. XIV. 1.] PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 248
fancies, putting their own stamp upon him, and fashioning him not accord ing to that beautiful image he impressed upon them by creation, but the defaced image they inherit by their fall, and which is worse, the image of the devil which spread itself over them at their revolt and apostasy. Were it possible to see a picture of God, according to the fancies of men, it would be the most monstrous being, such a god that never was, nor ever can be.
We honour God when we have worthy opinions of him suitable to his nature ; when we conceive of him as a being of unbounded loveliness and perfection. We detract from him when we ascribe to him such qualities as would be a horrible disgrace to a wise and good man, as injustice and impurity. Thus men debase God when they invert his order, and would create him according to their image, as he first created them according to his own ; and think him not worthy to be a God, unless he fully answer the mould they would cast him into, and be what is unworthy of his nature. Men do not conceive of God as he would have them, but he must be what they would have him, one of their own shaping.
(1.) This is worse than idolatry. The grossest idolater commits not a crime so heinous, by changing his glory into the image of creeping things and senseless creatures, as the imagining God to be as one of our sinful selves, and likening him to those filthy images we erect in our fancies ; one makes him an earthly God, like an earthly creature ; the other fancies him an unjust and impure God, like a wicked creature : one sets up an image of him in the earth, which is his footstool ; the other sets up an image of him in the heart, which ought to be his throne.
(2.) It is worse than absolute atheism or a denial of God. Difjnius credimiis non esse, quodcunque non itafuerit, ut esse debebit, was the opinion
of Tertullian.* It is more commendable to think him not to be, than to think him such a one as is inconsistent with his nature. Better to deny his existence than to deny his perfection. No wise man but would rather have his memory rot than be accounted infamous, and would be more obliged to him that should deny that ever he had a baing in the world, than to say he did indeed live, but he was a sot, a debauched person, and a man not to be trusted. When we apprehend God deceitful in his promises, unrighteous in his threatenings, unwilling to pardon upon repentance, or resolved to pardon notwithstanding impenitency, these are things either unworthy of the nature of God , or contrary to that revelation he hath given of himself. Better for a man never to have been born than be for ever miserable ; so better to be thought no God than represented impotent or negligent, unjust or deceitful, which are more contrary to the nature of God than hell can be to the greatest criminal. In this sense perhaps the apostle affirms the
Gentiles, Eph. ii. 12, to be such as are * without God in the world,' as being more atheists in adoring God under such notions as they commonly did, than if they had acknowledged no God at all.J
2. This is evident by our natural desire to be distant from him, and unwillingness to have any acquaintance with him. Sin set us first at a dis tance from God ; and every new act of gross sin estrangeth us more from him, and indisposeth us more for him : it makes us both afraid and ashamed to be near him. Sensual men were of this frame that Job discourseth of: Job
xxi. 7-9, and 14, 15. Where grace reigns, the nearer to God, the more vigorous the motion ; the nearer anything approaches to us that is the object of our desires, the more eagerly do we press forward to it ; but our blood riseth at the approaches of anything to which we have an aversion. We
* Tertul. cont. Marcion, lib. i. cap. 2.
244 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIY. 1.
have naturally a loathing of God's coming to us, or our return to him ; we seek not after him as our happiness ; and when he offers himself, we like it not, but put a disgrace upon him in choosing other things before him. God and we are naturally at as great a distance as light and darkness, life and death, heaven and hell. The stronger impression of God anything hath, the more we fly from it. The glory of God in reflection upon Moses his face scared the Israelites ; they who desired God to speak to them by Moses, when they saw a signal impression of God upon his countenance, were afraid
to come near him, as they were before unwilling to come near to God, Exod. xxxiv. 30. Not that the blessed God is in his own nature a frightful object, but our own guilt renders him so to us, and ourselves indisposed to converse with him ; as the light of the sun is as irksome to a distempered eye as it is in its own nature desirable to a sound one. The saints themselves have had so much frailty, that they have cried out that they were undone, if they had any more than ordinary discoveries of a God made unto them ; as if they wished him more remote from them. Vileness cannot endure the splen dour of majesty, nor guilt the glory of a judge.
We have naturally, (1.) No desire of remembrance of him ; (2.) or con verse with him ; (8.) or thorough return to him ; (4.) or close imitation of him : as if there were not such being as God in the world ; or as if we wished there were none at all ; so feeble and spiritless are our thoughts of the being of a God.
(1.) No desire for the remembrance of him. How delightful are other things in our minds ! How burdensome the memorials of God, from whom we have our being ! With what pleasure do we contemplate the nature of creatures, even of flies and toads ; while our minds tire in the search of him who hath bestowed upon us our knowing and meditating faculties ! Though God shews himself to us in every creature, in the meanest weed as well as in the highest heavens, and is more apparent in them to our reasons than them
selves can be to our sense, yet though we see them, we will not behold God in them. We will view them to please our sense, to improve our reason in
their natural perfections ; but pass by the consideration of God's perfections so visibly beaming from them. Thus we play the beasts and atheists in the very exercise of reason, and neglect our Creator to gratify our sense ; as though the pleasure of that were more desirable than the knowledge of God. The desire of our souls is not ' towards his name and the remembrance of
him,' Isa. xxvi. 8, when we set not ourselves in a posture to feast our souls with deep and serious meditations of him ; have a thought of him only by the by and away, as if we were afraid of too intimate acquaintance with him.
Are not the thoughts of God rather our invaders than our guests, seldom invited to reside and take up their home in our hearts ? Have we not, when
they have broken in upon us, bid them ' depart from us,' Job xxii. 17, and warned them to come no more upon our ground ; sent them packing as soon as we could, and were glad when they were gone ? And when they have departed, have we not often been afraid they should return again upon us, and therefore looked about for other inmates, things not good ; or if good, infinitely below God, to possess the room of our hearts before any thoughts of him should appear again ? Have we not often been glad of excuses to shake off present thoughts of him ; and when we have wanted real ones, found out pretences to keep God and our hearts at a distance ? Is not this a part of atheism, to be so unwilling to employ our faculties about the giver of them, to refuse to exercise them in a way of grateful remembrance of him, as though they were none of his gift, but our own acquisition ;
PS. XIV. 1.] PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 245
as though the God that truly gave them had no right to them, and he that thinks on us every day in a way of providence, were not worthy to be thought on by us in a way of special remembrance ?
Do not the best, thatjlove the remembrance of him, and abhor this natural averseness, find that when they would think of God, many things tempt them and turn them to think elsewhere ? Do they not find their apprehen sions too feeble, their motions too dull, and the impressions too slight ? This natural atheism is spread over human nature.
(2.) No desire of converse with him. The word remember, in the com mand for keeping holy the Sabbath-day, including all the duties of the day, and the choicest of our lives, implies our natural unwillingness to them, and
forgetfulness of them. God's pressing this command with more reasons than the rest, manifests that man hath no heart for spiritual duties. No spiritual duty, which sets us immediately face to face with God, but in the attempts of it we find naturally a resistance from some powerful principle ;
so that every one may subscribe to the speech of the apostle, that ' when we would do good, evil is present with us.' No reason of this can be ren dered but the natural temper of our souls, and an affecting a distance from God under any consideration ; for though our guilt first made the breach, yet this aversion to a converse with him steps up without any actual reflec tions upon our guilt, which may render God terrible to us as an offended judge. Are we not also, in our attendance upon him, more pleased with the
modes of worship which gratify our fancy, than to have our souls inwardly delighted with the object of worship himself ?
This is a part of our natural atheism. To cast such duties off by total neglect, or in part, by affecting a coldness in them, is to cast off the fear of the Lord, Job xv. 4. Not to call upon God, and not to know him, are one and the same thing, Jer. x. 25. Either we think there is no such being in the world, or that he is so slight a one, that he deserves not the respect he calls for ; or so impotent and poor, that he cannot supply what our necessi ties require.
(3.) No desire of a thorough return to him. The first man fled from him after his defection, though he had no refuge to fly to but the grace of his Creator. Cain went from his presence, would be a fugitive from God, rather than a supplicant to him ; when by faith in, and application of the promised Kedeemer, he might have escaped the wrath to come for his brother's blood, and mitigated the sorrows he was justly sentenced to bear in the world. Nothing will separate prodigal man from commoning with swine, and make him return to his father, but an empty trough ; have we but husks to feed
on, we shall never think of a father's presence. It were well if our sores and indigence would drive us to him ; but when our « strength is devoured,' we will not ' return to the Lord our God, nor seek him for all this,' Hosea vii. 10. Not his drawn sword as a God of judgment, nor his mighty power as a Lord, nor his open arms as the Lord their God, could move them to turn their eyes and their hearts towards him. The more he invites us to partake of his grace, the further we run from him to provoke his wrath : the louder God called them by his prophets, the closer they stuck to their Baal, Hosea xi. 2. We turn our backs when he stretches out his hand, stop our ears when he lifts up his voice ; we fly from him when he courts us, and shelter ourselves in any bush from his merciful hand, that would lay hold upon us ; nor will
we set our faces towards him, till our ' way be hedged up with thorns,' and not a gap left to creep out any by-way, Hosea ii. 6, 7. Whosoever is brought to a return, puts the Holy Ghost to the pain of striving ; he is not easily brought to a spiritual subjection to God, nor persuaded to a surrender
246 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
at a summons, but sweetly overpowered by storm, and victoriously drawn into the arms of God. God stands ready, but the heart stands off: grace is full of entreaties, and the soul fall of excuses ; divine love offers, and carnal self-love rejects. Nothing so pleases us, as when we are furthest from him ; as if anything were more amiable, anything more desirable than himself.
(4.) No desire of any close imitation of him. When our Saviour was
to come as a refiner's fire to purify the sons of Levi, the cry is, * Who shall abide the day of his coming ?' Mai. iii. 2, 3. Since we are alienated from the life of God, we desire no more naturally to live the life of God, than a toad or any other animal desires to live the life of a man. No heart that knows God but hath a holy ambition to imitate him ; no soul that refuseth him for a copy, but is ignorant of his excellency ; of this temper is all mankind naturally. Man in corruption is as loath to be like God in holiness, as Adam after his creation was desirous to be like God in knowledge ; his pos terity are like their father, who soon turned his back upon his original copy.
What can be worse than this ? Can the denial of his being be a greater injury than this contempt of him ; as if he had not goodness to deserve our remembrance, nor amiableness fit for our converse ; as if he were not a Lord fit for our subjection, nor had a holiness that deserved our imitation ?
IV. For the use of this. It serves,
'•• 1. For information.
(1.) It gives us occasion to admire the wonderful patience and mercy of God. How many millions of practical atheists breathe every day in his air, and live upon his bounty, who deserve to be inhabitants in hell, rather than possessors of the earth ! An infinite holiness is offended, an infinite justice is provoked ; yet, an infinite patience forbears the punishment, and
an infinite goodness relieves our wants. The more we had merited his jus tice and forfeited his favour, the more is his affection enhanced, which makes his hand so liberal to us.
At the first invasion of his rights, he mitigates the terror of the threaten ing, which was set to defend his law, with the grace of a promise to relieve and recover his rebellious creature, Gen. iii. 15. Who would have looked
for anything but tearing thunders, sweeping judgments, to rase up the foun dations of the apostate world ? But oh, how great are his bowels to his aspiring competitors ! Have we not experimented his contrivances for our good, though we have refused him for our happiness ? Has he not opened his arms, when we spurned with our feet ; held out his alluring mercy, when we have brandished against him a rebellious sword ? Has he not entreated us while we have invaded him, as if he were unwilling to lose us, who are ambitious to destroy ourselves? Has he yet denied us the care of his providence, while we have denied him the rights of his honour, and would appropriate them to ourselves ? Has the sun forborne shining upon us, though we have shot our arrows against him ? Have not our beings been supported by his goodness, while we . have endeavoured to climb up to his throne ; and his mercies continued to charm us, while we have used them as weapons to injure him ? Our own necessities might excite us to own him as our happiness, but he adds his invitations to the voice of our wants. Has he not promised a kingdom to those that would strip him of his crown,
and proclaimed pardon, upon repentance, to those that would take away his glory ? and hath so twisted together his own end, which is his honour,
and man's true end, which is his salvation, that a man cannot truly mind himself and his own salvation, but he must mind God's glory; and cannot be intent upon God's honour but by the same act he promotes himself and
PS. XIV. l.J PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 247
his own happiness ; so loath is God to give any just occasion of dissatisfac tion to his creature, as well as dishonour himself. All those wonders of his mercy are enhanced by the heinousness of our atheism, a multitude of gracious thoughts from him above the multitude of contempts from us, Ps. cvi. 7. t What rebels in actual arms against their prince, aiming at his life, ever found that favour from him, to have all their necessaries richly afforded them, without which they would starve, and without which they would be unable to manage their attempts, as we have received from God ?
Had not God had ' riches of goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering,' and infinite riches too, the despite the world had done him in refusing him as their rule, happiness, and end, would have emptied him long ago, Bom. ii. 4.
(2.) It brings in a justification of the exercise of his justice. If it gives us occasion loudly to praise his patience, it also stops our mouths from accus ing any acts of his vengeance. What can be too sharp a recompence for the despising and disgracing so great a being? The highest contempt merits the greatest anger, and when we will not own him for our happiness, it is equal we should feel the misery of separation from him. If he that is guilty of treason deserves to lose his life, what punishment can be thought great enough for him that is so disingenuous as to prefer himself before a
God so infinitely good, and so foolish as to invade the rights of one infinitely powerful ? It is no injustice for a creature to be for ever left to himself, to see what advantage he can make of that self he was so busily employed to set up in the place of his Creator. The soul of man deserves an infinite punishment for despising an infinite good. And is it not unequitable that that self, which man makes his rule and happiness above God, should become his torment and misery by the righteousness of that God whom he despised.
(3.) Hence ariseth a necessity of a new state and frame of soul, to alter an atheistical nature. We forget God, think of him with reluctancy, have no respect to God in our course and acts. This cannot be our original state. God being infinitely good, never let man come out of his hands with this actual unwillingness to acknowledge and serve him. He never intended to dethrone himself for the work of his hands, or that the creature should have any other end than that of his Creator. As the apostle saith in the case of
the Galatians' error, Gal. v. 8, ' This persuasion came not of him that called you,' so this frame comes not from him that created you. How much, therefore, do we need a restoring principle in us ! Instead of ordering our selves according to the \vill of God, we are desirous to * fulfil the wills of
the flesh,' Eph. ii. 3. There is a necessity of some other principle in us to make us fulfil the will of God, sines we were created for God, not for the flesh.
We can no more be voluntarily serviceable to God while our serpentine nature and devilish habits remain in us, than we can suppose the devil can be willing to glorify God while the nature he contracted by his fall abides powerfully in him. Our nature and will must be changed, that our actions may regard God as our end, that we may delightfully meditate on him, and draw the motives of our obedience from him. Since this atheism is seated in nature, the change must be in our nature. Since our first aspirings to
the rights of God were the fruits of the serpent's breath, which tainted our nature, there must be a removal of this taint, whereby our natures may be on the side of God against Satan, as they were before on the side of Satan against God. There must be a supernatural principle before we can live a supernatural life, i.e., live to God, since we are naturally alienated from the
life of God.' The aversion of our natures from God is as strong as our
248 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
inclinations to evil ; we are disgusted with one, and pressed with the other ; we have no will, no heart to come to God in any service. This nature must be broken in pieces, and new moulded, before we can make God our rule
and our end. While men's deeds are evil, they cannot comply with God, John iii. 19, 20, much less while their natures are evil. Till this be done,
all the service a man performs riseth from some evil imagination of the heart, which is evil, only evil, and that continually, Gen. vi. 5, from wrong notions of God, wrong notions of duty, or corrupt motives. All the pre tences of devotion to God are but the adoration of some golden image. Prayers to God for the ends of self, are like those of the devil to our Saviour, when he asked leave to go into the herd of swine. The object was right, Christ ; the end was the destruction of the swine, and the satisfaction of their malice to the owners. There is a necessity, then, that depraved ends
should be removed, that that which was God's end in our framing may be our end in our acting, viz., his glory, which cannot be without a change of nature. We can never honour him supremely whom we do not supremely love. Till this be, we cannot glorify God as God, though we do things by his command and order, no more than when God employed the devil in afflicting Job, chap. i. His performance cannot be said to be good, because his end was not the same with God's. He acted out of malice what God commanded out of sovereignty, and for gracious designs. Had God em ployed an holy angel in his design upon Job, the action had been good in the affliction, because his nature was holy, and therefore his ends holy ; but bad in the devil, because his ends were base and unworthy.
(4.) We may gather from hence the difficulty of conversion, and mortifica tion to follow thereupon. What is the reason men receive no more impres sion from the voice of God and the light of his truth, than a dead man in the grave doth from the roaring thunder, or a blind mole from the light of the sun ? It is because our atheism is as great as the deadness of the one or the blindness of the other. The principle in the heart is strong to shut
the door both of the' thoughts and affections against God. If a friend oblige us, we shall act for him as for ourselves. We are won by entreaties ; soft words overcome us ; but our hearts are as deaf as the hardest rock at the call of God. Neither the joys of heaven proposed by him can allure us, nor the flashed terrors of hell affright us to him ; as if we conceived God unable to bestow the one or execute the other. The true reason is, God and self contest for the deity. The law of sin is, God must be at the footstool ; the law of God is, sin must be utterly deposed. Now it is difficult to leave a law beloved for a law long ago discarded. The mind of man will hunt after anything, the will of man embrace anything ; upon the proposal of mean objects, the spirit of man spreads its wings, flies to catch them, be comes one with them ; but attempt to bring it under the power of God, the wings flag, the creature looks lifeless, as though there were no spring of motion in it. It is as much crucified to God as the holy apostle was to the world. The sin of the heart discovers its strength the more God discovers the holiness of his will, Rom. vii. 9-12. The love of sin hath been predo minant in our nature, has quashed a love to God, if not extinguished it.
Hence also is the difficulty of mortification. This is a work tending to the honour of God, the abasing of that inordinately aspiring humour in our selves. If the nature of man be inclined to sin, as it is, it must needs be bent against anything that opposes it. It is impossible to strike any true blow at any lust, till the true sense of God be reentertained in the soil where it ought to grow. Who can be naturally willing to crucify what is incor porated with him, his flesh ; what is dearest to him, himself ? Is it an
PS. XIV. 1.] PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 249
easy thing for man, the competitor with God, to turn his arms against him self, that self should overthrow its own empire, lay aside all its pretensions to and designs for a godhead ; to hew off its own members and subdue its own affections ? It is the nature of man to cover his sin, to hide it in his
bosom, — Job xxxi. 33, 'If I cover my transgression, as Adam,' — not to des troy it, and as unwillingly part with his carnal affections as the legion of devils were with the man that had been long possessed. And when he is forced and fired from one, he will endeavour to espouse some other lust, as those devils desired to possess swine, when they were chased from their pos session of that man.
(5.) Here we see the reason of unbelief. That which hath most of God in it meets with most aversion from us ; that which hath least of God finds better and stronger inclinations in us. What is the reason that the heart of man is more unwilling to embrace the gospel than acknowledge the equity
of the law ? Because there is more of God's nature and perfection evident in the gospel than in the law ; besides, there is more reliance on God and distance from self commanded in the gospel. The law puts a man upon his own strength, the gospel takes him off from his own bottom. The law acknowledges him to have a power in himself, and to act for his own reward ; the gospel strips him of all his proud and towering thoughts, 2 Cor. x. 5, brings him to his due place, the foot of God, orders him to deny himself as his own rule, righteousness, and end, and henceforth not to live to himself, 2 Cor. v. 15. This is the true reason why men are more against the gospel than against the law, because it doth more deify God and debase man. Hence it is easier to reduce men to some moral virtue than to faith ; to make men blush at their outward vices, but not at the inward impurity of their natures. Hence it is observed that those that assert that all happiness
did arise from something in a man's self, as the Stoics and Epicureans did, and that a wise man was equal with God, were greater enemies to the truths of the gospel than others, Acts xvii. 18, because it lays the axe to the root of their principal opinion ; takes the one from their self-sufficiency, and the other from their selfgratification. It opposeth the brutish principle of the one, which placed happiness in the pleasures of the body, and the more noble principle of the other, which placed happiness in the virtue of the mind. The one was for a sensual, the other for a moral self, both disowned by the doctrine of the gospel.
(6.) It informs us, consequently, who can be the author of grace and con version, and every other good work. No practical atheist ever yet turned to God but was turned by God ; and not to acknowledge it to God is a part of this atheism, since it is a robbing God of the honour of one of his most glorious works. If this practical atheism be natural to man ever since the first taint of nature in paradise, what can be expected from it but a resisting of the work of God, and setting up all the forces of nature against the operations of grace, till a day of power dawn and clear up upon the soul ? Ps. ex. 3. Not all the angels inheaven, or men upon earth, can be imagined to be able to persuade a man to fall out with himself ; nothing can turn^the tide of nature, but a power above nature. God took away the sanctifying Spirit from man, as a penalty for the first sin ; who can regain it but by his will and pleasure ? Who can restore it but he that removed it ? Since every man hath the same fundamental atheism in him by nature, and would be a rule to himself, and his own end, he is so far from dethroning himself that all the strength of his corrupted nature is alarmed up to stand to their arms, upon any attempt God makes to regain the fort. The will is so strong against God, that it is like many wills twisted together: Eph. ii. 3,
250 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
' wills of the flesh,' we translate it the ' desires of the flesh.' Like many threads twisted in a cahle, never to be snapped asunder by a human arm, a power and will above ours can only untwist so many wills in a knot. Man cannot rise to an acknowledgment of God without God. Hell may as well become heaven, the devil be changed into an angel of light. The devil cannot but desire happiness, he knows the misery into which he is fallen ; he cannot be desirous of that punishment he knows is reserved for him. Why doth he not sanctify God and glorify his Creator, wherein there is abundantly more pleasure than in his malicious course ? Why doth he not petition to recover his ancient standing ? He will not, there are chains of darkness upon his faculties ; he will not be otherwise than he is. His desire to be god of the world sways him against his own interest, and out of love to his malice he will not sin at a less rate to make a diminution of
his punishment. Man, if God utterly refuseth to work upon him, is no better, and to maintain his atheism would venture a hell. How is it pos sible for a man to turn himself to that God, against whom he hath a quarrel in his nature, the most rooted and settled habit in him being to set himself in the place of God ? An atheist by nature can no more alter his own temper, and engrave in himself the divine nature, than a rock can carve itself into the statue of a man, or a serpent, that is an enemy to man, could or would raise itself to the nobility of the human nature. That soul that by nature would strip God of his rights, cannot, without a divine power, be made conformable to him, and acknowledge sincerely and cordially the rights and glory of God.
(7.) We may here see the reason why there can be no justification by the best and strongest works of nature. Can that which hath atheism at the root justify either the action or person ? What strength can those works
have which have neither God's law for their rule, nor his glory for their end, that are not wrought by any spiritual strength for him, nor tend with any spiritual affection to him ? Can these be a foundation for the most holy God to pronounce a creature righteous ? They will justify his justice in condemning, but cannot sway his justice to an absolution. Every natural man in his works picks and chooses ; he owns the will of God no further than he can wring it to suit the law of his members, and minds not the honour of God, but as it justles not with his own glory and secular ends. Can he be righteous that prefers his own will and his own honour before
the will and honour of the Creator? However men's actions may be bene ficial to others, what reason hath God to esteem them, wherein there is no respect to him but themselves, whereby they dethrone him in their thoughts,
while they seem to own him in their religious works ? Every day reproves us with something different from the rule, thousands of wanderings offer themselves to our eyes. Can justification be expected from that which in itself is matter of despair ?
(8.) See here the cause of all the apostasy in the world. Practical atheism
was never conquered in such, they are still ' alienated from the life of God,' and will not live to God, as he lives to himself and his own honour, Eph. iv. 17, 18. Ihey loathe his rule and distaste his glory; are loath to step out of themselves to promote the ends of another ; find not the satisfaction in him as they do in themselves. They will be judges of what is good for them and righteous in itself, rather than admit of God to judge for them. When men draw back from truth to error, it is to such opinions which may serve more to foment and cherish their ambition, covetousness, or some beloved lust that disputes with God for precedency, and is designed to be
served before him : John xii. 42, 43, ' They love the praise of men more
PS. XIV. 1.] PRACTICAL ATHEISM. " 251
than the praise of God.' A preferring man before God was the reason they would not confess Christ, and God in him.
(9.) This shews us the excellency of the gospel and Christian religion. It sets man in his due place, and gives to God what the excellency of his nature requires. It lays man in the dust from whence he was taken, and sets God upon that throne where he ought to sit. Man by nature would annihilate God and deify himself; the gospel glorifies God and annihilates man. In our first revolt we would be like him in knowledge ; in the means he hath provided for our recovery he designs to make us like him in grace. The gospel shews ourselves to be an object of humiliation, and God to be a glorious object for our imitation. The light of nature tells us there is a God ; the gospel gives us a more magnificent report of him. The light of nature condemns gross atheism, and that of the gospel condemns and conquers spiritual atheism in the hearts of men.
Use 2. Of exhortation.
(1.) Let us labour to be sensible of this atheism in our nature, and be humbled for it. How should we lie in the dust, and go bowing under the humbling thoughts of it all our days ! Shall we not be sensible of that whereby we spill the blood of our souls, and give a stab to the heart of our own salvation ? Shall we be worse than any creature, not to bewail that which tends to our destruction ? He that doth not lament it cannot chal lenge the character of a Christian, hath nothing of the divine life and love planted in his soul. Not a man but shall one day be sensible, when the eternal God shall call him out to examination, and charge his conscience to discover every crime, which will then own the authority whereby it acted ; when the heart shall be torn open, and the secrets of it brought to public view, and the world and man himself shall see what a viperous brood of corrupt principles and ends nested in his heart. Let us, therefore, be truly sensible of it, till the consideration draws tears from our eyes and sor row from our souls. Let us urge the thoughts of it upon our hearts, till the core of that pride be eaten out, and our stubbornness changed into humility ; till our heads become waters, and our eyes fountains of tears, and be a spring of prayer to God, to change the heart and mortify the atheism in it, and con sider what a sad thing it is to be a practical atheist ; and who is not so by nature ?
Let us be sensible of it in ourselves. Have any of our hearts been a soil wherein the fear and reverence of God hath naturally grown ? Have we a desire to know him, or a will to embrace him ? Do we delight in his will, and love the remembrance of his name ? Are our respects to him as God equal to the speculative knowledge we have of his nature ? Is the heart, wherein he hath stamped his image, reserved for his residence ? Is not the world more affected than the Creator of the world, as though that could con tribute to us a greater happiness than the author of it ? Have not creatures as much of our love, fear, trust, nay, more than God, that framed both them and thus ? Have we not too often relied upon our own strength, and made a calf of our own wisdom, and said of God as the Israelites of Moses, « As for this Moses, we wot not what is become of him,' Exod. xxxii. 1 ; and given offcener the glory of our good success to our drag and our net, to our craft and our industry, than to the wisdom and blessing of God ? Are we then
free from this sort of atheism ? * It is as impossible to have two gods at one time in one heart as to have two kings at one time in full power in one kingdom. Have there not been frequent neglects of God ? Have we not been deaf whilst he hath knocked at our doors, slept when he hath sounded
* Lawson, Body of Divinity, p. 153, 154.
252 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIY. 1.
in our ears, as if there had been no such being as a God in the world ; how many stragglings have been against our approaches to him ? Hath not folly often been committed with vain imaginations starting up in the time of religious
service, which we would scarce vouchsafe a look to at another time, and in another business, but would have thrust them away with indignation ? Had they stepped in to interrupt our worldly affairs, they would have been trouble some intruders, but while we are with God they are acceptable guests. How unwilling have our hearts been to fortify themselves with strong and in fluencing considerations of God before we addressed to him ? Is it not too often that our lifelessness in prayer proceeds from this atheism, a neglect of seeing what arguments and pleas may be drawn from the divine perfections, to second our suit in hand, and quicken our hearts in the service ? Whence
are those indispositions to any spiritual duty, but because we have not due thoughts of the majesty, holiness, goodness, and excellency of God ? Is there any duty which leads to a more particular inquiry after him, or a more
clear vision of him, but our hearts have been ready to rise up and call it cursed rather than blessed ? Are not our minds bemisted with an ignorance of him, our wills drawn by aversion from him, our affections rising in dis taste of him ? More willing to know anything than his nature, and more industrious to do anything than his will ? Do we not all fall under some one or other of these considerations ? Is it not fit then that we should have
a sense of them ? It is to be bewailed by us that so little of God is in our hearts, vshen so many evidences of the love of God are in the creatures, that God should be so little our end who hath been so much our benefactor, that he should be so little in our thoughts who sparkles in everything which pre sents itself to our eyes.
(2.) Let us be sensible of it in others. We ought to have a just execration of the too open iniquity in the midst of us, and imitate holy David, whose
tears plentifully gushed out, « because men kept not God's law,' Ps. cxix. 136. And is it not a time to exercise this pious lamentation ? Hath the wicked atheism of any age been greater, or can you find worse in hell than we may hear of, and behold on earth ? How is the excellent majesty of God adored by the angels in heaven, despised and reproached by men on earth, as if his name were published to be matter of their sport ! What a gasping thing is a natural sense of God among men in the world ! Is not the law of God, accompanied with such dreadful threatenings and curses, made light of, as if men would place their honour in being above or beyond any sense of that glorious majesty ? How many wallow in pleasures, as if they had been made men only to turn brutes, and their souls given them only for salt to keep their bodies from putrefying ? It is as well a part of atheism not to be
sensible of the abuses of God's name and laws by others, as to violate them ourselves. What is the language of a stupid senselessness of them, but that there is no God in the world, whose glory is worth a vindication, and deserves our regards ?
That we may be sensible of the unworthiness of neglecting God as our rule and end, consider,
1. The unreasonableness of it as it concerns God.
(1.) First, It is a high contempt of God. It is an inverting the order of things, a making God the highest to become the lowest, and self the lowest to become the highest ; to be guided by every base companion, some idle vanity, some carnal interest, is to acknowledge an excellency abounding in
them which is wanting in God ; an equity in their orders and none in God's precepts ; a goodness in their promises and a falsity in God's, as if infinite excellency were a mere vanity, and to act for God were the debasement of
PS. XIV. 1.] PKACTICAL ATHEISM. 253
our reason ; to act for self, or some pitiful creature, or sordid lust, were the glory and advancement of it. To prefer any one sin before the honour of God is as if that sin had been our creator and benefactor, as if it were the original cause of our being and support. Do not men pay as great a homage to that as they do to God ? Do not their minds eagerly pursue it ? Are not the revolvings of it in their fancies as delightful to them as the remem brance of God to a holy soul ? Do any obey the commands of God with more readiness than they do the orders of their base affections ? Did Peter leap more readily into the sea to meet his master than many into the jaws of hell to meet their Delilahs ? How cheerfully did the Israelites part with their ornaments for the sake of an idol, who would not have spared a moiety for the honour of their deliverer ! Exod. xxxii. 3, ' All the people brake off the golden earrings.' If to make God our end is the principal duty in nature, then to make ourselves or anything else our end is the greatest vice in the rank of evils.