ANSW. The sins forbidden in the first Commandment, are, Atheism, in
denying, or not having a God; idolatry, in having, or worshipping
more gods than one, or any with, or instead of the true God; the not
having and avouching him for God, and our God; the omission or
neglect of any thing due to him required in this Commandment,
ignorance, forgetfulness, misapprehensions, false opinions, unworthy
and wicked thoughts of him, bold and curious searching into his
secrets, all profaneness, hatred of God, self-love, self-seeking,
and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will,
or affections upon other things, and taking them off from him, in
whole or in part; vain credulity, unbelief, heresy, misbelief,
distrust, despair, incorrigibleness, insensibleness under judgments,
hardness of heart, pride, presumption, carnal security, tempting of
God, using unlawful means, and trusting in lawful means, carnal
delights and joys; corrupt, blind, and indiscreet zeal,
lukewarmness, and deadness in the things of God, estranging
ourselves, and apostatizing from God, praying, or giving any
religious worship to saints, angels, or any other creatures, all
compacts, and consulting with the devil, and hearkening to his
suggestions, making men the lords of our faith and conscience,
slighting and despising God and his commandments, resisting and
grieving of his Spirit, discontent, and impatience at his
dispensations, charging him foolishly for the evils he inflicts on
us, and ascribing the praise of any good we either are, have, or can
do, to fortune, idols, ourselves, or any other creature.
QUEST. CVI. _What are we especially taught by these words_ (before
me) _in the first Commandment?_
ANSW. These words _before me_, or before my face, in the first
Commandment, teach us, that God who seeth all things, takes special
notice of, and is much displeased with the sin of having any other
god; that so it may be an argument to dissuade from it, and to
aggravate it, as a most impudent provocation, as also to persuade us
to do, as in his sight, whatever we do in his service.
The sins forbidden in this Commandment may be reduced to two general
heads, Atheism and Idolatry.
_First_, Atheism; whereby men are so far from taking God for their God,
that they deny that there is a God; or, at least, that he is what he has
revealed himself to be. Thus the wicked man, who is styled a _fool_, is
represented as _saying in his heart, There is no God_. Psal. xiv. 1.
This Atheism is either speculative or practical. The former of these is
that which is seated in the minds and consciences of men; who are so far
blinded, perverted, and deluded, as to think that there is no God.
Though, indeed, there are very few among these who are so bold and
profane as to deny this truth when they attend to the dictates of
nature, or duly exercise those reasoning faculties with which God has
endowed them; which, if they neglect to do, they must be reckoned but
one remove from brutes. Some, indeed, are ready to wish that there were
no God, or inclined to deny those divine perfections that are essential
to him, cast contempt on his government, or, it may be, deny a
providence; which is, in effect, to deny that there is a God. Though it
must be observed, that none proceed to this degree of wickedness, till,
by a long continuance in sin, they are given up to judicial hardness of
heart, and blindness of mind, Rom. i. 28. Eph. iv. 17-20. And even these
have been forced, at some times, to confess that there is a God, with
whom is terrible majesty; when he has broken in on their consciences,
and filled them with the dreadful apprehensions of his wrath, as a
sin-revenging Judge. But where there is one speculative Atheist, there
are a thousand practical ones, who live without God in the world; and
these are described in this answer, as being guilty of those sins which
none who duly consider his divine perfections would venture to commit.
To enlarge on every one of those instances, particularly mentioned in
this answer, in which this sin is supposed to consist, would require a
distinct treatise, and be inconsistent with our designed brevity in
explaining the Ten Commandments. All that we shall therefore attempt at
present, shall be to consider some instances, in which practical Atheism
discovers itself, together with the aggravations of this sin; and then
we shall enquire what judgment we are to pass concerning those who
complain of atheistical and blasphemous thoughts; and consider whether
this be a degree of that Atheism which we are speaking of; together with
the causes of this sin, and the remedies against it.