3. To give religious worship to the creatures, it is without com- mand, without promise, and without examples, and therefore without any faith in the worshipper, or acceptance of God. Where is there any command or direction, or approved example, of this in scrip- ture ? God will accept only what he commanded, and without a promise it will be unprofitable to us : and it is a superstitious inno- vation of our own to devise any religious worship for which there is no example at all whereby it may be recommended to us. Cer- tainly no action can be commended to us as godly which is not pre- scribed of God, by whose word and institution every action is sanctified, which otherwise would be common ; and no action can be profitable to us which God hath not promised to accept, or hath accepted from his people. But giving religious worship to a creature is of this nature.
320 Christ's temptation. [Ser. VI.
4. It is against the express command of God, the threatening of scripture, and the examples recorded in the word. Against the express command of God — both the first and second commandments, the one respecting the object, the other the means ; that we must not serve other gods, nor go after them, nor bow down unto them. It is against the threatenings of the word in all those places where God is said to be ' a jealous God.' God is said to ' put on jealousy as a cloak,' Isa. lix. 17 ; that is, the upper and outmost garment. He will be known, and plainly profess himself to be so. So Exod. xxxiv. 14, ' The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God,' Things are distinguished from the same kind by their names, as from different kinds by their natures. Now, from the Xeyo/jievot Oeot, God will be distinguished by his jealousy, that he will not endure any partners in his worship. It is against ex- amples : Eev. xix. 10, and xxii. 8, ' When I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he said unto me. See thou do it not,' &c. The argument is, ' I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book : worship God.'
Use 1. To condemn those who do not make conscience of the wor- ship of God. There are an irreligious sort of men that never call upon him, in public or in private, in the family or in the closet ; but wholly forget the God that made them, at whose expense they are maintained and kept. Wherefore had you reasonable souls, but to praise, honour, and glorify your Creator ? Surely if God be your God, that is, your Crea- tor and preserver, the duty will presently fall upon you : ' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God.' If you believe there is a God, why do not you call upon him ? The neglect of his worship argueth doubting thoughts of his being ; for if there be such a supreme Lord, to whom one day you must give an account, how dare you live without him in the world ? All the creatures glorify him passively, but you have a heart and a tongue to glorify him actually. Man is the mouth of the creation, to return to God the praise of all that wisdom, goodness, and power which is seen in the things that are made. Now you should make one among the worshippers of God. A heathen could say. Si essem luscinia, &c. Are you a Christian, and have such advantages to know more of God, and will you be dumb and tongue-tied in his praises ?
2. To condemn the idolatry of the Papists. Synesius said that the devil is iiScoXo')(^apr]<;, that he rejoiceth in idols. Here we see what was the upshot of his temptations, even to bring men to worship and bow down before something that is not God. Herein he was gratified by the heathen nations, and no less by the Papists. Witness their worshipping of images, their invocation of the Virgin Mary and other saints, the adoring before the bread in the Eucharist, &c. I know they have many evasions ; but yet the stain of idolatry sticketh so close to them, that all the water in the sea will not wash them clean from it. This text clearly stareth them in the face, ' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.' Not saints, not angels, not images, &c. They say, Moses only said, and Christ repeateth it from him, ' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God ;' but not onlt/, so that the last clause is restrictive, not the first, but some worship may be given to the creature. Civil, we grant, but not religious ; and
Mat. IV. 10.] Christ's temptation. 321
worship is the most important word. They distinguish of Aarpeia and Aovkeia. The devil demanded of Christ only irpoa-Kvvtjaai, ' fall down and worship me ;' not as the supreme author of all God's gifts, but as subordinate : ' all these things are delivered unto me.' But then Christ's words were not apposite to refute the tempter's impu- dency. Besides, for the distinction of AovXela and Aarpeia, the words are promiscuously used ; so their distinction of absolute and relative worship ; besides that they are groundless, they are unknown to the vulgar, who promiscuously give worship to God, saints, images, relics. Some of the learned of them have confessed this abuse, and bewailed it : — Espenca3us, a Sorbonnist: ' Are they well and godly brought up, who, being children of an hundred year old, that is, ancient Christians, do no less attribute to the saints, and trust in them, than to God him- self, and that God himself is harder to be pleased and entreated than they?' So George Cassander : ' This false, pernicious opinion is too well known to have prevailed among the vulgar, while wicked men, persevering in their naughtiness, are persuaded that only by the inter- cession of the saints whom they have chosen to be their patrons, and worship with cold and profane ceremonies, they have pardon and grace prepared them with God ; which pernicious opinion, as much as was possible, hath been confirmed by them by lying miracles. And other men, not so evil, have chosen certain saints to be their patrons and helpers, have put more confidence in their merits and intercession than in the merits of Christ, and have substituted into his place the saints and Virgin mother. Ludovicus Vives : ' There are many Christians which worship saints, both men and women, no otherwise than they worship God ; and I cannot see any difference between the opinion they had of their saints, and that the Gentiles had of their gods.' Thus far he, and yet Kome will not be purged.