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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 are you; nor is it im probable that they had now abandoned all external idolatry; for the Jews after the Babylonish captivity, in the time of which Ezekiel lived, never more followed idols as before. And yet hear the meffage these men have fent to them by the prophet in that xiv. chap. of his prophecies, Son of man, fays God to him, Thefe men have fet up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face and fo he proceeds in the fequel of the chapter from the 3 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 idolater; for idolatry is the transferring that love,efteem, confidence, truft, fear, reverence or obedience which is due to God, on 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 substitute 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 the only blafphemers, who in reproachful fpeeches belch out against heaven, and as the Pfalmift expreffes it, Pfal. lxxiii. 19. Set their mouth against the heaven, and with their D 4 tongue

tongue walk through the earth, fparing neither God nor man; but these alfo are blafphemers, who do in their actions reproach God, Numb. xv. 30, 31. The foul that doth ought presumptuously, the fame reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among bis people, because he hath defpifed the word of the Lord, and hath broken his com mandment; that foul shall be utterly cut off his iniquity 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 easy in your eyes, but fee to it, whether God's word or yours fhall ftand. You call it a light thing; but God looks upon himself as reproached by it; and indeed he juftly looks upon it as a reproach; for every fin charges him, (1.) with folly. God in giving laws to men to walk by, designed the manifeftation of his wifdom in making fuch laws as became the infinite wifdom of the fupreme gover. nor of the world: but the finner by every fin fays practically, that God's laws are not wife; his own will which he follows in the commiffion of fin he thinks better. (2.) It reproaches his goodnefs. 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 ma lice, retrenched him of what might have conduced to his good; that his laws are not calculate to the advantage and real good of his fubjects. (3.) He hereby likewife reproaches the righteousness and holinefs of God, in as far as thefe are ftampt 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 unrighteoufnefs or folly. Now this branch of the charge rifes higher than avowed

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atheifm; for the atheist intirely difowns God, and fo entertains not fuch unfuitable thoughts of him as he doth who owns him, and yet accuf es him by his practice, of ignorance, folly and impurity. But this is not all that is in the crime laid against you: For,

4. Every fin has 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 endeavours 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 itself, 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 himfelf 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 rubbed 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 anfwer, In that which is far more valuable than tithes and offerings; you have robbed him, and in every fin do rob him, of that obedience which to him is better than facrifice. Hath

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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 of rams, 1 Sam. xv. 22. But this yet is not all we charge you,

5. With rebellion. Every finner is a rebel againft God, he cafts off the yoke of God, bursts the bonds of obedience, and takes up rebellious arms against God the great Sovereign of the world. Rebellion is a name fo odious, that the unjuft imputation of it has been made frequently like the wild beafts fkins with which fome primitive perfe cutors clothed the faints of the moft 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 higheft acts of rebellion against the moft high God, poffeffor of heaven and earth; fuch as drunkenness, fwearing, perfecution, have been horribly mif called by the appropriation of foft names; the drunkard has been called a good-fellow, the fwearer a gentleman, and the perfecutor a loyalist. But God will take care to have thefe abufes rectified, and to have things called by their right names, and then fin, and only fin will be found to be re bellion; 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. iii. 14, 15. If ye will fear the Lord, and ferve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment. of the Lord, then fhall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you, continue following the Lord

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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 ye 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 we accufe you of fin; for as you have juft now heard, rebellion or fin is in feripture account, and therefore in God's account, one and the fame, and how hainous this crime is, we find the fpirit of God telling us in that 1 Sam. xv. 23. Rebellion is as the fin of witchcraft. Once more,

6. We charge murder upon you. An hard charge, will you fay, if it be well proven. A charge, which if it be made good against us, we deferve by the law of God and man to die. Well, as difficult as you may think it, we shall make it good against every foul of you, and that after this manner. You have finned, and every finner is a murderer; and that the worft of murderers. Well might the wife man fay, Ecclef. ix. 18. One finner deftroyeth much god: For, (1.) he murders bis own foul by it. What is faid of adultery is indeed applicable to every fin, Prov. xvi. 32. He that doth it deftrayeth his own foul, and fo is guilty of that worft of wickednefs felf-murder. He Hays a foul and not a body only, who commits fin. (2.) He is in his difpofition a murderer of God, who commits fin; this is plain if you confider two feriptures, 1 Johra iii. 5. it is afferted that hatred is murder, Whofoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murder

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