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 own honor 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 (Psalm l. 21):
“Thou thoughtest I was such a one as thyself;” that God and they were
exactly alike as two tallies. “Our wilful misapprehensions of God are
the cause of our misbehavior in all his worship. Our slovenly and lazy
services tell him to his face what slight thoughts and apprehensions
we have of him.”[282] Compare these two together. Superstition
ariseth from terrifying misapprehensions of God: presumption 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
humors. 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 insignificant 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,
2. A vilifying of him. Debasing the Creator to be a creature of their
own fancies; putting their own stamp upon him; and fashioning him not
according to that beautiful image he impressed upon {a158} 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 honor 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. “_Dignius
credimus non esse, quodcunque non ita fuerit, ut esse deberet_,”[283]
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 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 being
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 forever 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.
3. 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 distance from God; and every new act of gross sin estrangeth us more
from him, and indisposeth us more for him: it makes us {a159} both
afraid and ashamed to be near him. Sensual men were of this frame
that Job discourseth of (ch. xxi. 7‒9, 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 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’ face scared the Israelites; they who had 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.[284] 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 God made unto them; as if they
wished him more remote from them. Vileness cannot endure the splendor
of majesty, nor guilt the glory of a judge.
We have naturally, 1. No desire of remembrance of him, 2. Or converse
with him, 3. Or thorough return to him, 4. Or close imitation of him:
as if there were not any 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 shows himself to us in every creature, in the
meanest weed as well as the highest heavens, and is more apparent in
them to our reasons than themselves 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,[285] 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 bye 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 {a160} they have broke in upon us, bid them depart
from us,[286] 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 a grateful remembrance of him; as though
they were none of his gift, but our own acquisition; 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, that love 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 apprehensions 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 command
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 everyone may subscribe to the
speech of the apostle, that “when we would do good, evil is present
with them.” No reason of this can be rendered, 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
reflections upon our guilt, which may render God terrible to us as
an offended judge. Are we not often 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.[287] 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 necessities 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
{a161} from God rather than a suppliant to him; when by faith in, and
application of the promised Redeemer, 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.”[288] 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.[289] 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.[290] 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 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 full of excuses; Divine love offers,
and carnal self‑love rejects. Nothing so pleases us as when we are
farthest 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?” (Mal. 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 loth to be like God in holiness, as Adam, after his
creation, was desirous to be like God in knowledge; his posterity 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? For the use of this:――
_Use I._ It serves 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
{a162} forbears the punishment, and an infinite goodness relieves our
wants: the more we had merited his justice and forfeited his favor,
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 threatening which was set to defend his law, with the grace of a
promise to relieve and recover his rebellious creature.[291] Who would
have looked for anything but tearing thunders, sweeping judgments,
to raze up the foundations 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 honor, 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 endeavored 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
honor, 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 honor, but by the same act
he promotes himself and his own happiness? so loth is God to give
any just occasion of dissatisfaction to his creature, as well as
dishonor to 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.[292] What rebels in
actual arms against their prince, aiming at his life, ever found that
favor 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.[293]
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 accusing any acts of his vengeance. What can be too
sharp a recompense 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
{a163} good, and so foolish as to invade the rights of one infinitely
powerful? It is no injustice for a creature to be forever 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 it is 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 ourselves
according to the will of God, we are desirous to “fulfil the wills of
the flesh:”[294] there is a necessity of some other principle in us
to make us fulfil the will of God, since 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 inclination 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;[295] 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;”[296] from wrong notions of
God, wrong notions of duty, or corrupt motives. All the pretences 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 {a164} 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 honor 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.[297] 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 employed 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.