idolatry; for the Jews, after the Babylonifh captivity, in the time of which Ezekiel lived, never more followed idols as before. And yet hear the message these men have fent to them by the prophet, in the 14th chapter of his prophecies," Son of man," lays God to him, "these men have fet up their idols in their heart, and put the ftumbling-block of their iniquity before their face:" and fo he proceeds in the fequel of the chapter, from the 3d verfe and downwards, to threaten them with grievous and terrible punishments. Every one that fets up any thing in that room in his heart which is God's due, is an idola. ter for idolatry is the transferring that love, esteem, confidence, truft, fear, reverence, or obedience, which is due to God, to any creature. Now, who is not guilty of this, when he ferves fin? doth he not obey either his own will, or the devil, in oppofition to the command of God, and thereby fubftitutes either himself or Satan into God's room? Think, O think! upon this part of your charge, and tremble! But to proceed,

3. Every fin has blafphemy in it, it reproaches God. They are not only the blafphemers, who, in reproachful fpeeches belch out againft Heaven, and as the Pfalmift expreffes it, Pfal. lxxii. 10. "Set their mouth against the heaven, and with their tongue walk through the earth," fparing neither God nor man; but these also are blafphemers, who do in their actions reproach God, Numb. xv. 30, 31. "The foul that doth ought prefumptuously, the fame reproacheth the Lord; and that foul fhall be cut off from among his people, because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment; that foul fhall be utterly cut off his ini. quity fhall be upon him." Is it a fmall thing to you, O finners, that you have broken the command of God? It may be light and easy in your eyes, but fee to it whether God's word or yours fhall ftand. You call it a light thing; but God looks upon himself as reproached by it: and indeed he justly looks upon it as a reproach; for every fin charges him, (1.) With folly. God, in giving laws to men to walk by, defigned the manifestation of his wifdom, in making fuch laws as became the infinite wisdom of the fupreme Governor of the world: but the finner by every fin fays practically, that God's laws are not wife;

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his own will, which he follows in the commission of fin, he thinks better. (2.) It reproaches his goodness. The finner fays, by his practice, that neither God's laws nor himself are good, but that God has, either through ignorance, or folly, or malice, retrenched him of what might have conduced to his good; that his laws are not calculated to the advantage and real good of his fubjects. (3.) He hereby like wife reproaches the righteousness and holiness of God, in as far as these are stamped upon the law, which he not only rejects, but tramples upon, as one that "believes not God, calls him a liar," 1 John v. 10. So he that obeys him not, accufes him either of unrighteoufnefs or folly. Now, this branch of the charge rifes higher than avowed atheifm; for the atheist entirely difowns God, and fo entertains not fuch unfuitable thoughts of him as he doth who owns him, and yet accufes him, by his practice, of ignorance, folly, and impurity. But this is not all that is in the crime laid against you: For,

1. Every fin hath robbery in it. It is a rape committed, au endeavour to carry away fome one or other of the crown-jewels of heaven. God has faid, "He will not give his glory to another;" and one darling part of this glory is that of his abfolute dominion. Now, every finner endeavours to rob God of this, and that to clothe either Satan or fin with it. The commanding power it would have taken from God, and given to itfelf, or fome other, than which there can be no greater robbery. Again, the glory of God's fovereignty is due to him, in a punctual obedience to every one of his commands. He that obeys the command, gives God the glory of his authority, and owns him governor of the world; and this is a part of God's property; it is the revenue that he requires of the world; and the finner, by every fin he commits, attempts to rob him of this glory, invades his property. We find God himself managing the charge of robbery against a people called by his name, Mal. iii. 8. Will a man rob God? yet ye have robbed me: but ye fay, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are curfed with a curfe; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." So I fay to you, You have robbed God: Eut you will fay, Wherein have we robbed him? I anfwer, In that which is far more valuable than tithes and offer

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ings;" you have robbed him, and in every fin do rob him, of that obedience which to him" is better than facrifice." "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and facrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than facrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams," "" 1 Sam. xv. 22. But this yet is not all; we charge you, 5. With rebellion. Every finner is a rebel against God; he cafts off the yoke of God, burfts the bonds of obedience, and takes up rebellious arms against God, the great fovereign of the world. Rebellion is a thing fo odious, that the unjuft imputation of it has been made frequently, like the wild beasts skins with which fome primitive perfecutors clothed the faints of the Moft High, that thereby they might fet upon them the dogs to tear them. Men have been termed rebels, and had this note of infamy put upon them, for disobeying the unlawful and impious commands of men; while difobedience to the commands of God bas got a more mild and favourable name; while duty has been called rebellion; the highest acts of rebellion against the most high God, poffeffor of heaven and earth, fuch as drunkennefs, fwearing, perfecution, have been horribly mifcalled by the appropriation of foft names; the drunkard has been called a good-fellow, the fwearer a gentleman, and the perfecutor a loyalift. But God will take care to have these abuses rectified, and to have things called by their right names, and then fin, and only fin, will be found to be rebellion; and this we charge upon you. And that we have ground to affert every fin rebellion, you may foon fee, if you confider, that, 1 Sam. xii. 14, 15. "If ye will fear the Lord, and ferve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then fhall both ye, and alfo the king that reigneth over you, continue following the Lord your God. But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then fhall the hand of the Lord be. against you, as it was against your fathers." Thus you fee, obeying and not rebelling, difobeying and rebelling, are plainly the fame thing in God's account: God ufes them fo; if you obey and rebel not, if you difobey and rebel. This then is one branch of the charge we now manage against you. In God's name, we accufe you of rebellion,

when

when we accufe you of fin; for, as you have just now heard, rebellion and fin is in fcripture-account, and therefore in God's account, one and the fame; and bow heinous this crime is, we find the Spirit of God telling us, in that 1 Sam. xv. 23. "Rebellion is as the fin of witchcraft." Once more,

6. We charge murder upon you. An hard charge, will you fay, if it be well proven; a charge which, if it be made good against us, we deferve by the law of God and man to die. Well, as difficult as you may think it, we fhall make it good against every foul of you, and that after this manner. You have finned, and every finner is a murderer, and that the worst of murderers. Well might the wife man fay, Eccl. ix. 18. “One finner destroyeth much good." For, (1.) He murders his own foul by it. What is faid of adultery is indeed applicable to every fin, Prov. xvi. 32. "He that doth it deftroyeth his own foul," and fo is guilty of that worst of wickedness, felf-murder. He flays a foul, and not a body only, who commits fin. (2.) He is in difpofition a murderer of God, who commits fin. This is plain, if you confider two fcriptures: 1 John iii. 5. it is afferted, that hatred is murder, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life." And Rom. vii. 7. it is faid, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." So that the natural man, in the ftate wherein he is born, is a hater, an enemy of God, and therefore in God's account a murderer of God; for indeed he that hates one, forbears inurdering only for want either of opportunity, or power, or fecrecy, or fome fuch like advantage. Now, every fin is the product of that natural enmity, the fruit of which grows on the carnal mind; and therefore must partake of the nature of the root, must have enmity or hatred against God in it, and implies a judging him unworthy of a being. That principle of enmity which inclines and prompts man to fin, to tread upon God's law, would ex. cite him to destroy God, were it pothble; every fin aims at no less than the life of God. We fay not that every or any finner doth intend the deftruction of God, but that it is the aim of every fin. A man, in every fin, aims at the advancement of his own will above that of God's: and could the finner attain his end, God would be destroyed;

for

He can as foon out-live

for God cannot furvive his will. his being as his glory; and he that aims at the one, aims at the other alfo : and this is the cafe of every finner. Now, I have made it good, that every fin has murder in it; and confequently that all who have finned, as ye all have done, have committed murder, and that of the worst fort, felf-murder, foul-murder, nay, and God-murder: and if the blood of the body of another fhall be required at the band that sheds it, what do you think will be the cafe of fuch as have fhed the blood of a foul? And if it ftand hard with fuch, what will become of the murderer of God? Sure, if fimple murder be avenged, then felf-mur. der, foul-murder, will be avenged feven times more; and if foul-murder be fo evil, and bring complicated destruction upon the guilty, what, O finners! think ye will be the cafe of thefe who fhall be found confpirators against the life of God?

Now, can ye think the crime alleged against you fmall, after we have a little opened it to you? fure he who will, must be totally deftitute of all fenfe of God, or of religion, nay, or reafon. What is grevious and heavy, if the charge of atheifm, idolatry, blafphemy, robbery, rebellion, and murder, be not fo? And we have made it appear, that our plea, or rather God's plea against you, amounts to no lefs. But this is far from being all that we have to. fay in the juftification of God, and for your condemnation. These fins have,

3dly, Aggravations as dreadful and guilt-enhancing, as they themselves are great and monftrous. You have fin ned, and confequently are guilty of atheism, idolatry, blafphemy, robbery, rebellion, and murder; but not fimply of thefe abominations as in themselves, but as they are attended with a great many fearful and killing aggravations, which add extremely to the fcore of the provocations, being as it were fo many cyphers put behind the fi gures, which, though in themselves they be nothing, yet put behind, they fwell the number to a prodigious greatness.

1. All these evils you have done, notwithstanding a great many notable helps you have received against fin. Not to speak of what you had in Adam, perfect strength, perfect will, and perfect happiness, you have not only finned in him against all thefe, but you who are here present have