VeR. 5.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 211
staggered me, and made me think covetousness is to be taken in the ordinary and vnlgar acceptation ; but I recovered myself again, when I considered that interpretative idoUxtry is when the creatnre is set in tlie place of God ; which may be done two ways — by confidence and trust, and by love and delight ; for there are two chief respects due to God — love and trust. Now though the covetous person in tlie ordi- nary sense is an idolater, as he trusts in uncertain riches, and maketh Avealth his all, so men given to ether sins, especially to the greediness of uncleanness, may be idolaters also, because they prefer their brutish satisfactions before God. And the apostle saith the same : Eom. xvi.
18, 'They serve not God, but their own belly;' and again, Phil. iii.
19, 'Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly.' Add, more- over, they may be called idolaters also because they yet live in the same villanies and abominable practices which heathens and idolaters do, and are very reconcilable to them ; therefore I shall stick to the sense first given, many of the ancients concurring, and also divers of the most learned modern writers producing irrefragable proofs for their exposi- tion, not fit now to be insisted on.
2. The predicate, ' Hath no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God ; ' that is, no portion in the church of God under Christ, nor inheritance in heaven ; for there is both a kingdom of grace and of glory. The latter is especially understood, that kingdom spoken of, Mat. XXV. 34, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.' They have no right unto, and so living and so dying, never shall have possession of, that blessed estate. And it is called ' the kingdom of Christ and of God,' because this kingdom is now in the hands of Christ as mediator, and so shall be till the judgment be over ; but after the judgment, he shall give up the kingdom to the Father, 1 Cor. XV. 24, or resign up the church to God, to live and reign with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for ever.
Secondly, The evidence, ' For this ye know.' In the original, eVre yivMCTKovre^ , ye are knowing. It is a Greek circumlocution, to make the sense more emphatical ; as if he had said. If ye have the least taste of the christian religion, ye cannot be ignorant of this, that such filtlii- ness and unlawful lusts deprive us of the kingdom of God ; ye have been always taught this. Now this is added —
1. To show how heinous a sin this would be in them that have faith and knowledge, and yet indulge these kind of lusts ; these rebel against the light of conscience, and wilfully forfeit heaven to please the flesh : James iv, 17, ' Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.'
2. To teach us that we ought to bo put in mind of what we already know ; for temptations induce a strange kind of oblivion into the mind, which is an ignorance for the present: 2 Peter i. 12, 'I will not be negligent to put you in remembrance of these things, though ye know them ; ' and 1 John ii. 21, ' I have not written to you because you know not the truth, but because )'e know it;' and Eom. xv. 15, 'I have written to you, as putting you in mind.' Our work is not only to in- form people of what they know not, but to inculcate and press known truths ; not only to cure ignorance, but also forgetful ness, laziness, and dulness.
212 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. V.
Doct. Tliat it is ati evident truth tliat nil unclean persons have no inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ.
1. That there is a kingdom of God. This notion implieth, on God's part, liis sovereign authority and right to command ; and on our part, both duties and privileges. On God's part, ' One God over all, blessed for ever,' Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who hath full right, as creator, to command and govern us with such laws as he thought fit to give us, with such rewards and penalties as he thought fit to annex to them. This right God never divested himself of, nor can it be vacated by our sin, but continueth still, while man recciveth his being from God by creation, and the continuance of his being by daily preservation and providence. There is dominium j\irisdictionis et j)roprietatis. The dominion of jurisdiction is founded in the dominion of i)ropriety. We are his own, for he created us out of nothing, and therefore hath a full right and title to govern us. Now God will govern us, not with a rod of iron, by necessity and force, but with the bands of a man, by laws backed and confirmed with rewards and punishments ; for he will not violate the liberty of his own workmanship. Man, being a rational and free agent, is governed accordingly by moral means, induced to his duty by the rewards of obedience, and deterred from sin by the punishments appointed for the wicked and rebellious. On our part the kingdom of God implieth duties and privileges.