Not dated. This tract is the substance of two posthumous discourses, on this text, first printed at Edinburgh, 1788.
"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
Subject: When they that
attend ordinances of divine worship allow themselves in known wickedness, they
are guilty of dreadfully profaning and polluting those ordinances.
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.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's Jonathan Edwards Collection by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
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Online since 1986