V£R. 4.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 501
to cross the will of God? You might reason as the centurion, Mat. viii. 9, 'I am a man under authority, and I have others under me.' Take either part, and consider yourselves in your subjection to men that are above you, or in your carriage to those under you, and you may shame yourselves in the manifold breaches of the law of God. You have an awe of men's laws, why not of God's ? His authority is greater, and power to punish greater ; you may get out of their sight while you sin, and escape out of their reach after you have offended them ; ' but whither will you go from God's presence ? ' Ps. cxxxix. 7. Set the Rechabites before you when their father was dead : Jer. xxxv. 6, 7, ' We dare not drink wine, because our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine.' But we need not go so far back ; poor men and servants dare not displease them that have power over them by whom they live. If a master, or a father, or a landlord, or a magistrate be but displeased with them, how do they tremble and shake ? If they know anything against their mind, they dare not do it, and shun it ; they shake at the word of a man of power, or one a little above them, but make bold with God, and sin freely without check or re- morse. What do we think of God, what do we make of him ?
3. It is shameful ingratitude. Man is God's beneficiary, from whom he hath received life and being, and all things, and is therefore bound to love and serve him according to his declared will. We have our being from him : Ps. c. 3, ' He made us, and not we ourselves.' And we continually depend upon him : Acts xvii. 28, ' In him we live, and move, and have our being.' And surely dependence should beget obser- vance. Men are loath to break with, or are careful to reconcile them- selves to, those upon whom they depend. As when the men of Tyre had offended Herod, they sought terms of reconciliation : Acts xii. 20, ' Making Blastus their friend, because their country was nourished by the king's country.' Now it is extreme unthankfulness, stupidity, and brutishness for us to carry ourselves undutifully towards God, who gave us our beings. Our parents, who next, under God, gave us our beings, knew not when the child was in the womb whether it would be male or female ; they rocked our cradles for us, and provided for us in our frail and infant state. When we were not capable to express one act of thankfulness, God protected us, supplied us with all necessaries, had a tender care of us, as parents are wont to have of their children : all that we have and are, we have from him ; he hath preferred, hon- oured, and advanced us. Now should we break his laws who hath dealt so graciously and bountifully with us ? Dent, xxxii. 5, ' Do ye thus requite the Lord, 0 foolish people and unwise ? ' Surely such ungrateful people show themselves much depraved, and more brutish than the beasts themselves, who have no capacity to know God as the first cause of all beings, yet take notice of the next hand from whom they receive their supplies, and in their kind express their gratitude to such as feed them and make much of them : Isa. i. 3, ' The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib.' But we take no notice and regard of God, who hath made us, and kept us, and hath been bene- ficial to us all our days. Surely this should shame us out of sin ; for shall we offend our great benefactor ? If gratitude for benefits past doth not prevail with us, yet interest should ; for all our benefits
502 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN II I. |_^ER- VII.
plainly must come from God. You have more to do with God than men ; you are to ask your comforts daily from him, and therefore should study to please him. You are nothing but what he hath made you, and what he must continue every moment to you. Now you that are to go a begging to him daily, and receive all your comforts from his hands, should you break his laws and cross his will ? For if you will not hear God, how should he hear you ? Prov. xxviii. 9, ' He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, his prayer shall be an abo- mination.' Men observe those most with whom they have most to do. Love is not to be requited with unkindness and ingratitude. If our lawgiver be also our benefactor, men should shame themselves out of sin. Even our common mercies point to heaven, and tell us whence they come, and for what.
4. It is a disowning of God's propriety in us, as if we were not his own, and God had not power to do with his own as he pleaseth. The crea- ture is absolutely at God's dispose, not only as he hath a jurisdiction over us as his subjects, but a propriety in us as his goods. A prince hath a more absolute power over his lands and his own goods than he hath over his subjects; over his subjects he hath a dominion of juris- diction, but over his goods a dominion of propriety. God is not only a ruler, but an owner, as he made us out of nothing, and bought us when we were worse than nothing, and still keepeth us from returning into our original nothing again. Now, shall those that are absolutely his own withdraw themselves from him, and live according to their own will, and think and speak and do what they list ? Surely it is a plain denial of God's propriety in us and lordship over us : Ps. xii. 4, ' Our tongues are our own, who is lord over us ? ' Alas ! we have no will of our own, nor mind of our own, nor tongue of our own ; no wealth nor strength, nor interests of our own ; all these are God's, and must be improved for him. If we speak, it must be for God, or as God hath directed ; if we think, we should think for God : everything is his, and must be used not negatively only, not against him, but positively for him. It robbeth God of his propriety. If we consider his natural light, so sin is such an injury and wrong to God as theft and robbery. If we consider our own covenant, by which we voluntarily own God's right and property in us, so it is adultery and breach of marriage vows. If we consider this covenant as being made in a way of devoting and consecrating of ourselves from a common to a holy use, so it is sac- rilege ; all which aggravate sin, and should make it more odious to our thoughts.