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A Warning To Professors
Or, The Great Guilt Of Those Who Attend On The Ordinances Of Divine
Worship, And Yet Allow Themselves In Any Known Wickedness
by Jonathan Edwards
Ezekiel 23:37, 38, 39,
"That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and
with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused
their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire to
devour them. More over this they have done unto me: they have defiled my
sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. For when they
had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day
into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the
midst of mine house."
INTRODUCTION
Samaria and Jerusalem, or Israel and Judah, are here represented by two
women, Aholah and Aholibah. And their idolatry and treachery towards
their covenant God is represented by the adultery of these women. They
forsook God, who was their husband, and the guide of their youth, and
prostituted themselves to others. The baseness of Aholah and Aholibah
towards God their husband is here pointed out by two things, viz.
adultery and bloodshed: They have committed adultery, and blood is in
their hands.
I. They committed adultery with other lovers, viz. with their idols:
With their idols have they committed adultery.
II. They not only committed adultery, but they took their children that
they bore to God, and killed them for their lovers. Their hearts were
quite alienated from God, their husband, and they were so bewitched with
lust after those other lovers, that they took their own children, whom
they had by their husband, and put them to cruel deaths, to make a feast
with them for their lovers. As it is said in verse 37, “And have also
caused my sons whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire
to devour them.”
But here is a twofold wickedness of those actions of theirs held forth
to us in the words.
First, the wickedness of them considered in themselves. For who can
express the horrid baseness of this their treatment of God, their
husband?
Second, an additional wickedness, resulting from the joining of these
actions with sacred things. Beside the monstrous wickedness of these
actions in themselves considered, there was this which exceedingly
increased the guilt, that on the same day they came into God’s
sanctuary, or that they lived in such wickedness at the same time that
they came and attended the holy ordinances of God’s house, pretending to
worship and adore him, whom they all the while treated in such a horrid
manner. And so herein defiled and profaned holy things, as in verse 38
and 39, “Moreover, this have they done unto me; they have defiled my
sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. For when they
had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day
into my sanctuary, to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the
midst of mine house.”
DOCTRINE
When they that attend ordinances of divine worship allow themselves in
known wickedness, they are guilty of dreadfully profaning and polluting
those ordinances.
By a divine ordinance, when the expression is used in its greatest
latitude, is meant anything of divine institution or appointment. Thus
we call marriage a divine ordinance because it was appointed by God. So
civil government is called an ordinance of God. Rom. 13:1, 2, “Let every
soul be subject to the higher powers; for there is no power but of God;
the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.”
But the word is more commonly used only for an instituted or appointed
way or mean of worship. So the sacraments are ordinances. So public
prayer, singing of praise, the preaching of the word, and the hearing of
the word preached are divine ordinances. The setting apart of certain
officers in the church, the appointed way of discipline, public
confession of scandals, admonition, and excommunication are ordinances.
These are called the ordinances of God’s house, or of public worship.
And these are intended in the doctrine. It is the profanation of these
ordinances that is spoken of in the text: “They came into my sanctuary
to profane it; and, lo! thus have they done in the midst of mine house,”
says God. This doctrine seems to contain two propositions.
SECTION I
The ordinances of God are holy
DIVINE ordinances are holy in the following respects:
I. They are conversant wholly and immediately about God, and things
divine. When we are in the attendance on the ordinances of divine
worship, we are in the special presence of God. When persons come and
attend on the ordinances of God, they are said to come before God, and
to come into his presence. Jer. 7:10, “Come and stand before me, in this
house which is called by my name.” Psa. 100:2, “Come into his presence
with singing.”
In divine ordinances, persons have immediate intercourse with God,
either in applying to him, as in prayer and singing praises, or in
receiving from him, waiting solemnly and immediately on him for
spiritual good, as in hearing the word; or in both applying to God and
receiving from him, as in the sacraments. They were appointed on purpose
that in them men might converse and hold communion with God. We are
poor, ignorant, blind worms of the dust. And God did not see it meet
that our way of intercourse with God should be left to ourselves. But
God has given us his ordinances, as ways and means of conversing with
him.
In these ordinances, holy and divine things are exhibited and
represented. In the preaching of the word, holy doctrines and the divine
will are exhibited. In the sacraments are represented our faith, love,
and obedience.
II. The end of God’s ordinances is holy. The immediate end is to glorify
God. They are instituted to direct us in the holy exercises of faith and
love, divine fear and reverence, submission, thankfulness, holy joy and
sorrow, holy desires, resolutions, and hopes. True worship consists in
these holy and spiritual exercises, and as these divine ordinances are
the ordinances of worship, they are to help us, and to direct us in such
worship as this.
III. They have the sanction of divine authority. They are not only
conversant about a divine and holy object, and designed to direct and
help us in divine and holy exercises, but they have a divine and holy
author. The infinitely great and holy God has appointed them, the
eternal Three in One. Each person in the Trinity has been concerned in
their institution. God the Father has appointed them, and that by his
own Son. They are of Christ’s own appointment, and he appointed, as he
had received of the Father. John 12:49, “I have not spoken of myself,
but the Father which sent me, he gave me commandment what I should say,
and what I should speak.” And the Father and Son more fully revealed and
ratified them by the Spirit. And they are committed to writing by the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
They are holy, in that God has hallowed them, or consecrated them. They
are conversant about holy things. And God ordained them that in them we
might be conversant about holy things. They are for a holy use. And it
is God who, by his own immediate authority, ordained them for that holy
use, which renders them much more sacred than otherwise they would have
been.
IV. They are attended in the name of God. Thus we are commanded to do
all that we do, in word or deed, in the name of Christ, Col. 3:17, which
is to be understood especially of our attendance on ordinances.
Ordinances are administered in the name of God. When the word is
preached by authorized ministers, they speak in God’s name, as Christ’s
ambassadors, as co-workers together with Christ. 2 Cor. 5:20, “Now we
are ambassadors for Christ.” Chap. 4:1, “We are workers together with
him.” When a true minister preaches, he speaks as the oracles of God, 1
Pet. 4:11. And he is to be heard as one representing Christ.
So in administering the sacraments, the minister represents the person
of Christ. He baptizes in his name, and in the Lord’s supper stands in
his stead. In administering church-censures, he still acts, as the
apostle expresses it, in the person of Christ, 2 Cor. 2:10. On the other
hand, the congregation, in their addresses to God in ordinances, as
prayer and praise, act in the name of Christ, the Mediator, as Having
him to represent them, and as coming to God by him.
SECTION II
God’s ordinances are dreadfully profaned by those who attend on them,
and yet allow themselves in ways of wickedness.
PERSONS who come to the house of God, into the holy presence of God,
attending the duties and ordinances of his public worship, pretending
with others, according to divine institution, to call on the name of
God, to praise him, to hear his word, and commemorate Christ’s death,
and who yet, at the same time, are wittingly and allowedly going on in
wicked courses, or in any practice contrary to the plain rules of the
Word of God, therein greatly profane the holy worship of God, defile the
temple of God and those sacred ordinances on which they attend. The
truth of this proposition appears by the following considerations.
I. By attending ordinances, and yet living in allowed wickedness, they
show great irreverence and contempt of those holy ordinances. When
persons who have been committing known wickedness, as it were the same
day, as it is expressed into the text, and attend the sacred solemn
worship and ordinances of God, and then go from the house of God
directly to the like allowed wickedness — they hereby express a most
irreverent spirit with respect to holy things, and in a horrid manner
cast contempt upon God’s sacred institutions, and on those holy things
which we are concerned with in them.
They show that they have no reverence of that God who has hallowed these
ordinances. They show a contempt of that divine authority which
instituted them. They show a horribly irreverent spirit towards that God
into whose presence they come, and with whom they immediately have to do
in ordinances, and in whose name these ordinances are performed and
attended. They show a contempt of the adoration of God, of that faith
and love, and that humiliation, submission, and praise, which ordinances
were instituted to express. What an irreverent spirit does it show, that
they are so careless after what manner they come before God! That they
take no care to cleanse and purify themselves, in order that they may be
fit to come before God! Yea, that they take no care to avoid making
themselves more and more unclean and filthy!
They have been taught many a time that God is of purer eyes than to
behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity, and how exceedingly he is
offended with sin; yet they care not how unclean and abominable they
come into his presence. It shows horrid irreverence and contempt, that
they are so bold, that they are not afraid to come into the presence of
God in such a manner, and that they will presume to go out of the
presence of God, and from an attendance upon holy things, again to their
sinful practices. If they had any reverence of God and holy things, an
approach into his presence, and an attendance on those holy things,
would leave that awe upon their minds, that they would not dare to go
immediately from them to their ways of known wickedness,
It would show a great irreverence in any person towards a king, if he
should not care how he came into his presence, and if he should come in
a sordid habit, and in a very indecent manner. How much more horrid
irreverence does it show, for persons willingly and allowedly to defile
themselves with that filth which God infinitely hates, and so frequently
come into the presence of God!
II. By making a show of respect to God in ordinances, and then acting
the contrary in their lives, they do but mock God. In attending
ordinances, they make a show of respect to God. By joining in prayer, in
public adorations, confessions, petitions, and thanksgivings, they make
a show of high thoughts of God, and of humbling themselves before him;
of sorrow for their sins, of thankfulness for mercies, and of a desire
of grace and assistance to obey and serve God. By attending upon the
hearing of the word, they make a show of a teachable spirit, and of a
readiness to practice according to the instructions given. By attending
on the sacraments, they make a show of faith in Christ, of choosing him
for their portion, and spiritually feeding upon him.
But by their actions they all the while declare the contrary. They
declare, that they have no high esteem of God, but that they despise him
in their hearts. They declare, that they are so far from repenting of,
that they intend to continue in, their sins. They declare, that they
have no desire of that grace and assistance to live in a holy manner for
which they prayed, and that they rather live wickedly. This is what they
choose, and for the present are resolved upon. They declare by their
actions that there is no truth in what they pretend in hearing the word
preached, that they had a desire to know what the will of God is, that
they might be directed in their duty. For they declare by their actions,
that they desire not to do the will of God, and that they do not intend
any such thing. But intend, on the contrary, to disobey him. And that
they prefer their carnal interests before his authority and glory.
They declare by their actions that there is not truth in what they
pretend in their attendance on the sacraments that they desire to be fed
with spiritual nourishment, and to be conformed and assimilated to
Christ, and to have communion with him. They show by their practices
that they have no regard to Christ, and that they had rather have their
lusts gratified, than to be fed with his spiritual food. They show, that
they desire not any assimilation to Christ but to be different from him,
and of an opposite character to him. They show that instead of desiring
communion with Christ, they are his resolved and allowed enemies,
willfully acting the part of enemies to Christ, dishonoring him, and
promoting the interest of Satan against him.
Now, what can this be else but mockery, to make a show of great respect,
reverence, love, and obedience, and at the same time willfully to
declare the reverse in actions. If a rebel or traitor should send
addresses to his king, making a show of great loyalty and fidelity, and
should all the while openly, and in the king’s sight, carry on designs
of dethroning him, how could his addresses be considered other than
mockery? If a man should bow and kneel before his superior, and use many
respectful terms to him, but at the same time should strike him, or spit
in his face, would his bowing and his respectful terms be looked upon in
any light than as done in mockery? When the Jews kneeled before Christ,
and said Hail, King of the Jews, but at the same time spit in his face,
and smote him upon the head with a reed, could their kneeling and
salutations be considered as any other than mockery?
Men attend ordinances, and yet willingly live in wicked practices, treat
Christ in the same manner that these Jews did. They come to public
worship, and pretend to pray to him, to sing his praises, to sit and
hear his word. They come to the sacrament, pretending to commemorate his
death. Thus they kneel before him, and say, Hail, King of the Jews; yet
at the same time they live in ways of wickedness, which they know Christ
has forbidden, of which he has declared the greatest hatred, and which
are exceedingly to his dishonor. Thus they buffet him, and spit in his
face. They do as Judas did, who came to Christ saying, Hail, Master, and
kissed him, at the same time betraying him into the hands of those who
sought his life.
How can it be interpreted in any other light, when men come to public
worship, and attend ordinariness, and yet will be drunkards and profane
swearers, will live in lasciviousness, injustice, or some other known
wickedness? If a man should pray to God to keep him from drunkenness,
and at the same time should put the bottle to his own mouth, and drink
himself drunk; the absurdity and horrid wickedness of his conduct would
be manifest to every man. But the very same thing, though not so visible
to us, is done by those who make profession of great respect to God, and
pray God from time to time to keep them from sin; yet at the same time
have no design to forsake their known sins, but intend the contrary.
God sees men’s designs and resolutions more plainly than we can see
their outward actions. Therefore for a man to pray to God to be kept
from sin, and at the same time to intend to sin, is mockery as visible
to God as if he prayed to be kept from some particular sin, which he was
at the same time willingly and allowedly committing.
These persons are guilty of a horrid profanation of God’s ordinances.
For they make them occasions of a greater affront to God, the occasions
of showing their impudence and presumption. For he who lives in willful
wickedness, and does not enjoy the ordinances of God, is not guilty of
so great presumption as he who attends these ordinances, and yet allows
himself in wickedness. This latter acts as though he came into the
presence of God on purpose to affront him. He comes from time to time to
hear the will of God, and all the while designs disobedience, and goes
away and acts directly contrary to it.
A servant would affront his master by willfully disobeying his commands
in any wise. But he would affront him much more, if he should on every
occasion come to him to inquire his will, as though he were ready to do
whatever his master would have him do, and then should immediately go
away and do the contrary.
III. They put the ordinances of God to a profane use. The ordinances of
God are holy, as they are set apart of God to a holy use and purpose.
They are the worship of God, instituted for the ends of giving honor and
glory to him, and to be means of grace and spiritual good to us. But
those persons who attend these ordinances, and yet live in allowed
wickedness, aim at neither of these ends. They, in their attendance on
ordinances, neither aim to give honor to God, or to express any love, or
esteem, or thankfulness. Nor do they sincerely seek the good of their
own souls. It is not truly the aim of any such persons to obtain grace,
or to be made holy. Their actions plainly show that this is not their
desire. They choose to be wicked, and intend it.
It is not therefore to these purposes that they improve the holy
ordinances of God. But they put them to another and profane use. They
attend ordinances to avoid that discredit which a voluntarily and
habitual absence from them would cause among those with whom they live,
to avoid the punishment of human laws, or for their worldly advantage,
to make up for other wickedness, or for some other carnal purposes. Thus
they profane the ordinances of God, by perverting them to profane
purposes.
IV. When persons thus treat God’s holy ordinances, it tends to beget
contempt of them in others. When others see sacred things commonly used
so irreverently, and attended with such carelessness and contempt, and
treated without any sacred regard; when they see persons are bold with
them, treat them without any solemnity of spirit; when they see them
thus commonly profaned, it tends to diminish their sense of their
sacredness, and to make them seem no very awful things. In short, it
tends to embolden them to do the like.
The holy vessels and utensils of the temple and tabernacle were never to
be put to a common use, nor to be handled without the greatest care and
reverence. For if it had been commonly otherwise, the reverence of them
could not have been maintained. They would have seemed no more sacred
than anything else. So it is in the ordinances of Christian worship.
SECTION III
A call to self-examination.
LET this doctrine put all upon examining themselves, whether they do not
allow themselves in known wickedness. You are such as do enjoy the
ordinances of divine worship. You come into the holy presence of God,
attending on those ordinances, which God, by scared authority, has
hallowed and set apart, that in them we might have immediate intercourse
with himself, that we might worship and adore him, and express to him a
humble, holy, supreme respect, and that in them we might receive
immediate communications from him.
Here you come and speak to God, pretending to express your sense how
glorious he is, and how worthy that you should fear and love him, humble
yourselves before him, devote yourselves to him, obey him, and have a
greater respect to his commands and to his honor, than to any temporal
interest, ease, or pleasure of your own. Here you pretend before God,
that you are sensible how unworthily you have done by sins committed in
times past, and that you have a great desire not to do the like in time
to come. You pretend to confess your sins, and to humble yourselves for
them. Here you pray that God would give you his Spirit to assist you
against sin, to keep you from the commission of it, enable you to
overcome temptations, and help you to walk holy in all your
conversation, as though you really had a great desire to avoid such sins
as you have been guilty of in time past. And the like pretenses you have
made in your attendance upon the other ordinances, as in hearing the
word, in singing praise, etc.
But consider whether you do not horribly defile and profane the public
prayers and other ordinances. Notwithstanding all your pretenses, and
what you seem to hold forth by your attendance on them, do you not all
the while live in known wickedness against God? For all your pretenses
of respect to God, of humiliation for sin, and desires to avoid it, have
you not come directly from the allowed practice of known sin to God’s
ordinances, and did not at all repent of what you had done, nor at all
sorry for it at the very time when you stood before God, making these
pretenses, and even had no design of reformation, but intended to return
to the same practice again after your departure from the presence of
God? — I say, has not this, on many occasions, been your manner of
coming and attending on the ordinances of divine worship? Not only so,
but is it not still your manner, your common way of attending upon these
ordinances, even to this very day? Do you not lie to God with your
tongues, when you pretend, that he is a great God, and that you are
poor, guilty, unworthy creatures, deserving his wrath by the sins of
which you have been guilty? And when you pretend that you earnestly
desire he would keep you from the like for time to come? Are you not
guilty of horrid mockery of God in it, when at the same time you design
no such thing, but the contrary?
Do you not even the same day that you come into God’s house, and to his
ordinances, allow yourselves in known sins? Do you not with consent and
approbation think of the sinful practices, in which you allow
yourselves, and in which you have been exercising yourselves in the week
past? Do you not the very day in which you attend ordinances, allowedly
please and gratify a wicked imagination? And are you not then
perpetrating wickedness in your thoughts, and contriving the further
fulfillment of your wickedness? Yea, are you not guilty of these things
sometimes even in the very time of your attendance on ordinances, when
you are in the immediate presence of God? And while others have
immediate intercourse with God, and you likewise pretend to the same? Do
you not, even in these circumstances, allow yourselves in wicked
thoughts and imaginations, voluntarily wallowing in known wickedness?
Are not some of you guilty of allowedly breaking God’s holy Sabbath, in
maintaining no government of your thoughts, thinking indifferently about
anything that comes next to mind; and not only thinking, but talking too
about common, worldly affairs? And sometimes talking in such a manner,
as is not suitable even on other days, talking profanely, or in an
unclean manner, sporting and diverting yourselves in such conversation
on God’s holy day? Yea, it is well if some have not been thus guilty in
the very time of attendance on the ordinances of worship.
Examine yourselves, how it has been with you. You all attend many of the
ordinances of divine worship. You come to the house of God, attend
public prayers, singing, and preaching of the word. And many of you come
to the Lord’s supper, that holy ordinance, instituted for the special
commemoration of the greatest and most wonderful of all divine acts
towards mankind, for the special and visible representation of the most
glorious and wonderful things of our religion, for the most solemn
profession and renewal of your engagement to God, and for special
communion with Jesus Christ. Let such examine themselves whether they do
not allow themselves in known sin, to the horrid profanation and
pollution of his most sacred ordinance.
Examine and see whether you do not allow yourselves in some way of
dealing with your fellow-men, which you have sufficient light to know to
be evil; or whether you do not allow yourselves in a known evil behavior
towards some person or persons of the families to which you respectively
belong, as towards your husbands, your wives, your children, or
servants; or your neighbors, in your spirit and behavior towards them,
or in your talk of them.
Examine whether you do not some way willingly indulge an unclean
appetite, in less or grosser acts of uncleanness, or in you discourse,
or in you imagination. Or do you not give way to a lust after strong
drink, or indulge yourselves in some vicious excess in gratifying some
sensual appetite in meat or drink, or otherwise? Are you not willingly
guilty of vanity, and extravagance in your conversation?
Do you not, for all your attendance on ordinances, continue in the
allowed neglect of your precious souls, neglecting secret prayer or some
known duty of private religion? Or do you not allow yourselves in
Sabbath-breaking? — In all these ways are the ordinances of God’s sacred
worship polluted and profaned.
Men are apt to act very treacherously and perversely in the matter of
self-examination. When they are put upon examining themselves, they very
often decline it, and will not enter into any serious examination of
themselves at all. They hear uses of examination insisted on, but put
them off to others, and never seriously apply them to themselves. — And
if they do examine themselves, when they are put upon it, they are
exceedingly partial to themselves. They spare themselves. They do not
search, and look, and pass a judgment according to truth, but so as
unreasonably to favor and justify themselves — If they can be brought to
examine themselves at all, whether they do not allow themselves in known
wickedness, although they attend on divine ordinances, they will not do
it impartially. Their endeavor will not be indeed to know the truth of
their case, and to give a true answer to their consciences, but to blind
themselves, to persuade and flatter themselves that they do not allow
themselves in known sin, whether it be true or not. There are two things
especially wherein persons often act very perversely and falsely in this
matter.
I. Persons very often deal very perversely in pretending that the sins
in which they live are not known sins. Nothing is more common surely,
than for persons to flatter themselves with this concerning the
wickedness in which they live. Let that wickedness be almost what it
may, they will plead to their consciences, and endeavor to still them,
that there is no evil in it. Men’s own consciences can best tell how
they are wont to do in this matter. — There is hardly any kind of
wickedness that men commit, but they will plead thus in excuse for it.
They will plead thus about their cheating and injustice, about their
hatred of their neighbors, about their evil speaking, about their
revengeful spirit, about their excessive drinking, about their lying,
their neglect of secret prayer, their lasciviousness, their unclean
dalliances. Yea, they will plead excuses for very gross acts of
uncleanness, as fornication, adultery, and what not. They have their
vain excuses and carnal reasonings in favor of all their evil actions.
They will say, What harm, what evil is there in such and such an action?
And if there be a plain rule against it, yet they will plead that their
circumstances are peculiar, and that they are excepted from the general
rule, that their temptation is so great, that they are excusable. Or
something will they find to plead.
If it be some thing upon which their lusts are much set, and about which
they feel remorse of conscience, they will never leave studying and
contriving with all the art and subtlety of which they are masters, till
they shall have found out some reason, some excuse, with which they
shall be able in some measure to quiet their consciences. And whether
after all they shall have made it out to blind conscience or not, yet
they will plead that their argument is good, and it is no sin. Or if it
be a sin, it is only a sin of ignorance. — So men will plead for the
wickedness which they do in the dark. So without doubt some very gross
sinners plead to their consciences, as would appear, if we could but
look into their hearts. When indeed the strongest argument they have,
that in such a thing there is no evil, is the strongest lust they have
to it, the inordinate desire they have to commit it.
It was the saying of one, Licitis perimus omnes; that is, We all perish
by lawful things; which is as much as to say, man commonly live wickedly
and go to hell, in those ways which they flatter themselves, that they
are sins of ignorance, they do not know them to be unlawful. — Thus, I
make no doubt some will be apt to do, in applying to themselves this use
of examination, if they can be persuaded to apply it to themselves at
all. Whether these things be true of you, let your own consciences
speak, you that neglect secret prayer; you that indulge an inordinate
appetite for strong drink; you that defraud or oppress others; you that
indulge a spirit of revenge and hatred toward your neighbor. — Here I
desire you to consider two or three things.
First, not all sins, which one knows not with a certain knowledge to be
sinful, are justly called sins of ignorance. Men often will excuse
themselves for venturing upon a sinful action or practice, with this,
that they know not that it is sinful, which is at most true no
otherwise, than as they do not know it to be sinful with a certain
knowledge, or with the evidence of absolute demonstration; although at
the same time it is a sin against their light, and against great light.
They have been so taught, that they have had light enough to make them
sensible that it is displeasing to God, and not warranted or allowed by
him. And they do in their consciences think it to be sinful. They are
secretly convinced of it, however they may pretend the contrary, and
labor to deceive themselves, and to persuade themselves that they do not
think there is any evil in it.
Those sins which are contrary to sufficient information and instruction,
and contrary to the real dictates of their own consciences, or to the
judgment of their own minds, whether there be certain or demonstrative
knowledge or no, these are what I would be understood to mean, when I
speak of known sins. Such light as this, whether there be absolutely
certain knowledge or no, is sufficient to render the action utterly
inexcusable, and to render it, when allowed, a horrible profanation and
pollution of the holy ordinances of God.
Second, it is vain for persons to pretend that those are sins of
ignorance, which they have often and clearly heard testified against
from the Word of God. It will be found to be so at last. It will be
found to be a vain thing for persons who have lived under the light of
the gospel, and where all manner of iniquity is testified against, if
they live in immoral and vicious practices, to pretend that they are
sins of ignorance, unless the case be very peculiar and extraordinary.
Third, it is in vain for you to pretend that those are sins of
ignorance, of which you would not dare to proceed in the practice, if
you knew that your soul was to be required of you this night. Persons do
many things, for which they plead, and pretend they think there is no
evil in them, who yet would as soon eat fire, as do the same, if they
knew that they were to stand before the judgment seat of Christ within
four and twenty hours. This shows that persons do but prevaricate, when
they pretend that their sins are sins of ignorance.
II. Another way wherein men deal falsely and perversely in this matter
is in pretending that they do not allow themselves in those sins which
they practice. They either pretend that they know them not to be sins,
or if they cannot but own that, then they will say, they do not allow
themselves in them. And so they hope God is not very much provoked by
them. They pretend this, though they make a trade of them. They go on
repeating one act after another, without ever seriously repenting of
past, or resolving against future acts. But take heed that you do not
deceive yourselves in this matter. For such pretenses, however they do
something towards stilling your consciences now, will do nothing when
you come to stand before your righteous and holy Judge.
SECTION IV
Address to such as attend ordinances, and yet allow themselves in known
sin.
Consider how holy and sacred the ordinances of God are. What mockery you
are guilty of in making such a show, and such pretenses in attending
ordinances, and yet voluntarily acting the reverse of what you pretend.
Consider that there is no sort of sinners with whom God is so provoked,
and who stand so guilty before him, as the profaners of his ordinances.
The fire of God’s wrath id kindled by none so much as by the polluters
of holy things. They are represented as those who are especially guilty
before God, in the third commandment: “The Lord will not hold him
guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Why is this annexed to this
command, rather than to any other of the ten, but because the breach of
it especially renders a man guilty in the sight of God?
The taking of God’s name in vain includes the profanation and pollution
of ordinances and holy things. They do in a very dreadful manner take
God’s name in vain, who attend on his ordinances, and yet live in known
sin. For, as we have shown, they manifest the greatest irreverence for
him, and contempt of divine things. They manifest a contempt of his
authority, a contempt of the business and design of his ordinances, and
a most careless and irreverent spirit in things wherein they have
immediate converse with God. Ordinances, as we have shown, are attended
in the name of God. And therefore, by such an attendance on them, the
name of God is greatly profaned. You that attend ordinances in such a
manner, take the name of God so much in vain, that you use it only in
mockery, and so as to expose it to contempt. Such a way of attending
ordinances is a trampling of all that is sacred under foot.
We have in Scripture scarce any such awful instances of the immediate
and miraculous vengeance of God, as on the profaners of holy things. How
did God consume Nadab and Abihu, for offering strange fire before him!
How did he break forth upon Uzza, for handling the ark with too much
irreverence! 2 Sam. 6:6, 7. And how did he break forth on the children
of Israel at Bethshemesh, for profaning the ark! “He smote of the people
fifty thousand threescore and ten men,” as in 1 Sam. 6:19.
And God has threatened in the New Testament, that if any man “defile the
temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy,” 1
Cor. 3:17. There is an emphasis in the expression. God will destroy all
sinners, let it be what sin it will which they commit, and in which they
continue; and yet it is said, “If any man defile the temple of God, him
shall God destroy,” as if it had been said, there is something peculiar
in the case, and God is especially provoked to destroy such, and consume
them in the fire of his wrath. And he will indeed destroy them with a
destruction especially dreadful.
So God has declared, Gal. 6:7, “That he will not be mocked;” i.e. if any
presume to mock him, they will find him by experience, to be no
contemptible being. God will vindicate his holy majesty from the
contempt of those who dare to mock him, and he will do it effectually.
They shall fully find how dreadful a being he is, whose name they have
daringly profaned and polluted. Defilers and profaners of ordinances, by
known and allowed wickedness, provoke God more than the heathen, who
have no ordinances. Thus the wickedness of Judah and Jerusalem is said
to be far worse than that of Sodom, though the inhabitants of Sodom
were, as we have reason to think, some of the worst of the heathens. See
Eze. 16:46, 47, etc. The sin of Sodom is here spoken of as a light thing
in comparison with the sins of Judah. And what should be the reason, but
that Judah enjoyed holy things which they profaned and polluted, which
Sodom had no opportunity to do? For it is not to be supposed, that Judah
otherwise arrived to the same pass that Sodom had.
Consider therefore, ye who allow yourselves in known wickedness, and
live in it, who yet come to the house of God, and to his ordinances from
time to time, without any serious design of forsaking your sins, but, on
the contrary, with an intention of continuing in them, and who
frequently go from the house of God to your wicked practices, consider
how guilty you have made yourselves in the sight of God, and how
dreadfully God is provoked by you. It is a wonder of God’s patience,
that he does not break forth upon you, and strike you dead in a moment.
For you profane holy things in a more dreadful manner than Uzza did,
when yet God struck him dead for his error. And whereas he was struck
dead for only one offense. You are guilty of the same sin from week to
week, and from day to day.
It is a wonder that God suffers you to live upon earth, that he has not,
with thunderbolt of his wrath, struck you down to the bottomless pit
long ago. You that are allowedly and voluntarily living in sin, who have
gone on hitherto in sin, are still going on, and do not design any other
than to go on yet. It is a wonder that the Almighty’s thunder lies
still, and suffers you to sit in his house, or to live upon earth. It is
a wonder that the earth will bear you, and that hell does not swallow
you up. It is a wonder that fire does not come down from heaven, or come
up from hell, and devour you, that hell-flames do not enlarge themselves
to reach you, and that the bottomless pit has not swallowed you up.
However, that you are as yet born with, is no argument that your
damnation slumbers. The anger of God is not like the passions of men,
that it should be in haste. There is a day of vengeance and recompense
appointed for the vessels of wrath. And when the day shall have come,
and the iniquity shall be full, none shall deliver out of God’s hand.
Then will he recompense, even recompense into your bosoms.
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