Secondly, You must conceive of him aright, and according as he hath revealed himself ; lest in worshipping God you worship an idol. It is a high contempt of his majesty if we do not conceive of him accor- ding to his excellent glory. Now for the conceiving of him aright^ which was the difficulty propounded, take these two rules —
1. There must be no carnal conceit and representation in your minds. Though we cannot conceive of him as he is, yet we must take heed that we do not conceive of him as he is not. We are all born idolaters, and are naturally prone to fashion God according to some form of our own — to turn the glory of God into the fashion of a corruptible thing. Look, as some have an external idol, so we have a mental idol, when we are transforming the essence of God into fleshly conceits of our own. We must conceive of God, purely, simply, spiritually, as of a spiritual l)eing, without form and without matter ; and as of an infinite being,
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without all limits and bounds. It was the saying of a heathen, Those that made images and pictures of God, took away fear and established error. Pictures to represent God do debase the nature of God, and make him contemptible ; and images of God are so natural to us, that we can hardly dispossess our minds of them. Imaginations are as bad as images ; he that forbiddeth images in the church, doth also forbid them in our mind. A picture or corporeal resemblance of the divine essence is worse in the mind than in the glass windows. By pictures a^d resemblances of the divine essence, heathen idolatry began : Rom. i. 21, ' They were vain in their imaginations; ' and then it follows, ver. 23, ' They changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things ; ' and ver. 25, ' Who changed the glory of God into a lie, and worshipped the creature more than the creator, who is blessed forever.' We that converse altogether with material and sensible beings, are very prone to conceive of God according to tliose things about which we are conversant. And that is the reason wliy there are so many cautions in the word everywhere against it: Deut. iv. 15, 16, 'Take good heed unto yourselves ; for ye saw no manner of similitude in the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire ; lest you corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female.' When God discovered himself to his people, there was no image, no outward figure ; there was only a voice. Though common awe may restrain us from making an outward image, yet we are very prone to frame inward images, and draw representations of God in our minds. There are secret atheistical thoughts within us, by which we are apt to debase the nature of God to the common likeness, and fancy him according to the shape and fashion of visible substances. Therefore the Lord saith, Isa. xl. 18, 'To whom will you liken God? or what likeness will yon compare unto him?' We are apt to liken God to some outward and visible being ; but in all your addresses to God, you must coneeive of him as a Spirit, without figure and shape. It is true, the scripture doth often use words that ^re of a corporeal sense and signification concerning God, but that is for the infirmity and weakness of our apprehensions. God lispeth to us in our own dialect : but whatsoever is spoken to us after the manner of men must be understood after the manner of God. Serapion, dwel- ling too much on these carnal expressions, fell into the error of the Anthropomorphites, who believed God to have a human shape. Sen- sible things indeed are of use to us in prayer, but then they should be used by way of argument rather tlian representation. When we argue a minori ad majus, from the lesser to the greater, it is good. As when we would advance God, and exalt his love and care in our thoughts, we may argue from sensible things, and reason from the wisdom of a father, or from the bowels of a mother : Isa. xlix. 15, ' Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee ; ' and Mat. vii. 11, 'If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your father whicli is in heaven give good things to them that ask him ? ' There is no father or mother like God; no father so wise, no mother so tender as God is. Again, when we would
YeR. 6.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 147
shame ourselves when we are but coldly affected with our approaches to God, we may reason — If I were to accuse myself as thus guilty before a common judge, would I not tremble ? If I should come in such a cold manner to man, would he regard me ? Mai. i. 8, ' Offer it to thy governor ; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person ? ' You must take heed that you conceive otGod purely, simply, siiiritually.