quities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his ftripes we are healed. Al we like loft fheep have gone aftray: we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all," faith the prophet in the name of the elect, Ifa. liii. 5. 6. If you be unbelievers, then you do not believe the witnefs that Chrift gave of himself, that he is the Son of God; and therefore do practically declare him an impoftor, and worthy of death, and fo may fay of yourselves, with respect to the Jew's cruelty, that when they condemned him, they had your confent to what they did. Now, what think ye, O criminals! when we have, in thefe eight different glaffes, given you a prospect of the crime we implead you of? Is it not a fearful one? If you be not strangely ftupified, fure you must own it fo. But leaft there fhould be any fo blind, as not to difcern what it is we accufe them of, we fhall, adly, Proceed to mention fome great evils that are all implied in the leaft fin, in every provocation. This charge which we intend against you is no mean thing. For, 1. It has atheism in it. An atheift, who denies the being of a God, is a monster in nature; a creature fo extremely degenerate, that fome have doubted, whether there ever was, or could be, any of the fons of Adam fo debauched as in principle to avouch this monftrous untruth. But there are practical atheists, fuch as the apostle mentions and characterises, Tit. i. 16. " who profess to know God, but in works deny him, being abominable and difobedient ;" or, as it is in the first language, "Children of unperfuafion, or unperfuadable, and to every good work reprobate." That there are fuch, none can deny, fince every finner is in fome fort fuch, for every fin has atheifm in it. In the 14th and 53d pfalms, we have a defcription of the natural state of man; and look to the fpring of all the impieties, ver. 1. "The fool hath faid in his heart, There is no God ;" and then a train of lamentable practical impieties follow ; they are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doth good." The Pfalmift doth not there difcourse of some profligate wretches among the Jews, or of the Gentiles who knew not God, but of the whole race of Adam, Jew and Gentile, as the apostle proves, in the 10th, 11th, and and 12th verfes of this chapter, wherein our text lies, when he adduces teftimonies from this pfalm, to prove all and every one to have finned and come thort of the glory of God. And indeed the thing proves itself. What! do not we deny his fovereignty, when we violate his laws? Do not we deny and difgrace his holinefs, when we cast our filth before his face? And we difparage his wifdom, when we fet up our own will as the rule and guide of our actions. We deny his fufficiency, when we profefs that we find more in fin, or in the creature, than in him. In fine, every fin is a denial of all God's attributes, one way or other; and therefore every fin has atheism in it: fo that our charge against you runs very high, it amounts to no less than an impeachment for atheism: A crime, than which there is not, nor indeed can there be any more odi eus for all other diftempers naturally fall in here; they all iffue themselves into this affection: and hence is it, that the atheift is generally fo odious and hateful; and yet even they who hate the atheist most, want not atheism ; and they who will be moft forward to question this truth, that all finners are guilty of atheism, are, it is like, most guilty. This, then, is one branch of the charge laid against you; but it is not all. For, 2.. We charge you all with idolatry. Sinners you are, and every fin hath idolatry in it. How can this be? will you fay, we never worthipped an idol in all our life, we never bowed at the name of a strange god? we blefs God we were better taught than fo; we were not bred papists nor pagans, but reformed Chriftians, who renounce all idols, and plead for the worship of one God alone. Well, notwithstanding of all this, idolaters you are. What! do you think that only the mere gross act of idolatry is reputed fuch by the holy God? This certainly flows from your ig norance of him, and of his law. Did you understand either, you would never attempt your own juftification. There is not only outward and grofs idolatry, but there is a more fecret and inward fort of it. A fet of men there were with whom the prophet Ezekiel had to do, who were as formal and punctual in their attendance upon duties, I mean the external duties of religion, as you are: externally in covenant with God they were, as you are: nor is it improbable that they had now abandoned all external idolatry; idolatry; for the Jews, after the Babylonifh captivity, in the time of which Ezekiel lived, never more followed idols as before. And yet hear the message these men have fent to them by the prophet, in the 14th chapter of his prophecies," Son of man," fays God to him," thefe men have fet up their idols in their heart, and put the ftumbling-block of their iniquity before their face:" and fo he proceeds in the fequel of the chapter, from the 3d verfe and downwards, to threaten them with grievous and terrible punishments. Every one that fets up any thing in that room in his heart which is God's due, is an idola. ter, for idolatry is the transferring that love, esteem, confidence, truft, fear, reverence, or obedience, which is due to God, to any creature. Now, who is not guilty of this, when he ferves fin? doth he not obey either his own will, or the devil, in oppofition to the command of God, and thereby substitutes either himself or Satan into God's room? Think, O think! upon this part of your charge, and tremble! But to proceed, 3. Every fin has blafphemy in it, it reproaches God. They are not only the blafphemers, who, in reproachful fpeeches belch out againft Heaven, and as the Pfalmift expreffes it, Pfal. lxxii. 10. "Set their mouth against the heaven, and with their tongue walk through the earth," fparing neither God nor man; but these also are blafphemers, who do in their actions reproach God, Numb. xv. 30, 31. "The foul that doth ought prefumptuously, the fame reproacheth the Lord; and that foul fhall be cut off from among his people, because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment; that foul fhall be utterly cut off his ini. quity fhall be upon him." Is it a fmall thing to you, O finners, that you have broken the command of God? It may be light and eafy in your eyes, but fee to it whether God's word or yours fhall stand. You call it a light thing; but God looks upon himself as reproached by it: and indeed he justly looks upon it as a reproach; for every fin charges him, (1.) With folly. God, in giving laws. to men to walk by, defigned the manifeftation of his wif dom, in making fuch laws as became the infinite wisdom of the fupreme Governor of the world: but the finner by every sin says practically, that God's laws are not wife; E 2 his his own will, which he follows in the commiffion of fin, he thinks better. (2.) It reproaches his goodness. The finner fays, by his practice, that neither God's laws nor himself are good, but that God has, either through ignorance, or folly, or malice, retrenched him of what might have conduced to his good; that his laws are not calculated to the advantage and real good of his fubjects. (3.) He hereby likewife reproaches the righteousness and holiness of God, in as far as these are ftamped upon the law, which he not only rejects, but tramples upon, as one that "believes not God, calls him a liar," 1 John v. 10. So he that obeys him not, accufes him either of unrighteoufaefs or folly. Now, this branch of the charge rifes higher than avowed atheifm; for the atheift entirely difowns God, and fo entertains not fuch unfuitable thoughts of him as he doth who owns him, and yet accufes him, by his practice, of ignorance, folly, and impurity. But this is not all that is in the crime laid against you: For, 1. Every fin hath robbery in it. It is a rape committed, an endeavour to carry away fome one or other of the crown-jewels of heaven. God has faid, "He will not give his glory to another ;" and one darling part of this glory is that of his abfolute dominion. Now, every finner endea vours to rob God of this, and that to clothe either Satan or fin with it. The commanding power it would have taken from God, and given to itfelf, or fome other, than which there can be no greater robbery. Again, the glory of God's fovereignty is due to him, in a punctual obedience to every one of his commands. He that obeys the command, gives God the glory of his authority, and owns him governor of the world; and this is a part of God's property; it is the revenue that he requires of the world; and the finner, by every fin he commits, attempts to rob him of this glory, invades his property. We find God himself managing the charge of robbery against a people called by his name, Mal. iii. 8. 9. "Will a man rob God? yet ye have robbed me: but ye fay, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are curfed with a curfe; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." So I fay to you, You have robbed God but you will fay, Wherein have we robbed him? I answer, In that which is far more valuable than tithes and offer ings;" you have robbed him, and in every fin do rob him, of that obedience which to him is better than facrifice.". "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and facrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than facrifice, and to hearken than the fat 1 Sam. xv. 22. But this yet is not all; we of rams, charge you, 5. With rebellion. Every finner is a rebel against God; he casts off the yoke of God, burfts the bonds of obedience, and takes up rebellious arms against God, the great fovereign of the world. Rebellion is a thing fo odious, that the unjuft imputation of it has been made frequently, like the wild beafts fkins with which fome primitive perfecutors clothed the faints of the Most High, that thereby they might fet upon them the dogs to tear them. Men have been termed rebels, and had this note of infamy put upon them, for difobeying the unlawful and impious commands of men; while difobedience to the commands of God has got a more mild and favourable name; while duty has been called rebellion; the highest acts of rebellion against the most high God, poffeffor of heaven and earth, fuch as drunkenness, fwearing, perfecution, have been horribly mifcalled by the appropriation of foft names; the drunkard has been called a good-fellow, the fwearer a gentleman, and the perfecutor a loyalift. But God will take care to have these abuses rectified, and to have things called by their right names, and then fin, and only fin, will be found to be rebellion; and this we charge upon you. And that we have ground to affert every fin rebellion, you may foon fee, if you confider, that, 1 Sam. xii. 14, 15. "If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye, and also the king that reigneth over you, continue following the Lord your God. But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then fhall the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers." Thus you fee, obeying and not rebelling, difobeying and rebelling, are plainly the fame thing in God's account: God ufes them fo; if you obey and rebel not, if you difobey and rebel. This then is one branch of the charge we now manage against you. In God's name, we accufe you of rebellion, when |