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in their dens." And shall man disturb the harmony of God's works, shall he forget his station, and refuse to serve his Creator in his generation? Shall the moral world only be in disorder; shall men and devils pervert the order of God, and cause confusion in his work? Shall they affect independency, and act as if God had not made them? Not so our believer. He desires to perform the part allotted him in the world. He desires to live the creature, and to be faithful in the station assigned him in the great universe; if he be a child, to be dutiful; if a parent or master, to be faithful in his house; if a minister, to dispense the word of life with all readiness of mind; if a man of business, to be diligent, honest, and cheerful in his employment. In short, whatever his place be, therein so to demean himself as that God may be glorified in the world which he has made for himself.

That all these things are really contained in a true belief in God, as Maker of heaven and earth, may appear from an attention to their case who have not the disposition described. For,

First. Can they be said to have any belief in God as the Creator of themselves and all things, who have no eye to see God in his wonderful works surrounding them as they are on every side, have not the least regard to him, though they be the work of his hand, and to all intents and purposes live in the world as if there were no God? I have not the least doubt there are some who hear me that do not so much as once apply their minds to think of God for a whole day together, and for many days together, I had almost said for weeks together, for months, in short, at all. This is rash and uncharitable, you say; for how can I possibly know this? What! can I tell what is in people's heart? Not exactly what is there; but their conduct tells me what is not there. Would they own the truth, they would confess they have no real deliberate thought or regard of God. How can it be, when they live as they do, following the world, and following their pleasures, their minds, thoughts, and hearts always taken up with some perverse thing? And can these believe in the God that made them? Though they pretend to say they do when they repeat the Creed, shall we, can we believe them, when they live daily as if they were

their own makers and masters, as if God had no right over them, nor property in them? But there are others who are not so gross, men of speculation, who can read you fine lectures upon the power and wisdom of God in the works of creation in heaven and earth, and yet these are as far at least from the humble dependent spirit of creatures as the other. Human learning will furnish a man with many pretty and entertaining speculations; but it is grace only that teaches the heart to know its place in creation, to return to the dependent character, and, with true self-abasement as creatures and sinners, to own God the Maker of heaven and earth. Philosophical inquiries are widely different from spiritual and practical knowledge; and they who have amused themselves the most in nice researches into the works of nature, and made very just observations from thence upon the perfections of God, shall find at last, if they have gone no further, and have not learnt to be humbled before the great God their Maker, that they have known nothing as they ought to know, and that the injured Maker of the world will not be satisfied with subtle speculations instead of the return of an apostate spirit, upon the offer of pardon in Jesus Christ, and by the grace ministered in him, unto the temper and conduct of creatures dependent upon him and bowing before him.

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Secondly. Does that person believe in God as the Maker of heaven and earth, who abuses God's creatures to his dishonour? You cannot but be sensible, that to believe in God as Creator is to pay some regard to him in that character, falling in with his design in making all things. But where is this regard, if we oppose the end of creation in the use of God's creatures ? Was it God's design, in making food for our subsistence, that we should take occasion to indulge our palates, make a god of our bellies, or, as is sometimes done, eat almost to suffocation ? Was drink provided for us to be used as it too commonly is? Had God any design thereby to draw us together that we might run into excess, to pass the glass from one to another till sober reason should leave us, to make us merry, as it is called; that is, unguarded and dissolute, and fit for any work the devil may have for us to do? What think you was God's purpose in giving us raiment ?

Think a little, I

pray you, what it could possibly be. You that are so fond of outward adorning, of plaiting the hair (take notice it is the word of Scripture), of wearing of gold, and of putting on of apparel, ask your own consciences whether God made these things for the use you make of them, which is, whether you will believe it or no, to pride yourselves upon your finery, to set yourselves out as so many shows to be gazed upon and admired, and to make the world think you persons of more than ordinary consideration? But there is no end of particulars. O when shall we learn to use the world as not abusing it! In the mean time, till we do, let us confess that we do not believe in God as Maker of heaven and earth.

Thirdly. Can that person own God as his Creator, who abuses his soul in the love of sin, and his body in the practice of it? To say God made me, soul and body, and yet in soul and body to behave as if there was no relation between God and me, is in effect to strike myself out of God's creation. To say I believe God gave me my soul to glorify him, and yet to have neither knowledge, nor thought, nor love, nor desire of him in my heart, but the whole bent of my soul to be after worldly things, just as if God had not made me, and it was not my concern to glorify him with my spirit: at the same time, to employ every member of my body in such base services as are directly subversive of God's purpose in giving it to me; what are these but flat contradictions? And yet how much is this the practice of many who call God their Maker! Sirs, do you all verily judge that God gave you your soul and body for his use and glory? And do you all use them both with this design? What is it the main care of all of you to give up your souls to God, to his glory, and your bodies also to him, to his glory? Why, when, I beseech you, did many of you think of such a thing? When inquire how you might do it? When use any kind of endeavours towards it? When, I say, did you diligently inquire how God might be glorified in your spirit and body, which are his; when set yourself to the performance of it; when cast out of your heart such studies and pursuits as, instead of honouring, are disgraceful to God, praying and labouring that your soul might be furnished with those graces and dispositions which are his due and your duty; or when forego

such and such a practice, because you found it contrary to God's glory; or set yourself to this and that duty, because you found God would be glorified by it? Sirs, own the truth, when did you ever think or act upon this plan, so evidently suited to, so essential to the just character of the creature? What! never? What! not for one week, one day, in your whole lives? If this has been your case, have you not been a blank in God's creation? A blank! yea, rather a blot. A foul blot in God's works, bearing upon your soul and body, in the face of the whole world, nay, in the presence of rejoicing devils, the reproach of God your Maker. Alas, my friends, how unlike Christ, the fairest among ten thousand! How was his soul moulded into this one heavenly impression stamped upon the whole of it, glory to God! And his life, how it followed in acts of universal, ceaseless, submission to the divine will! Father, he said, in the conclusion of the whole, I have glorified thee upon earth. Ah! my dear brethren, look upon this Jesus, and be confoundWhat cannot you take up the word of Christ? No; not in the least desire, attempt, endeavour? Must you altogether say, God, I have dishonoured thee on earth? Then say not, "I believe in God the Maker of heaven and earth." Yet,

ed.

made us.

Fourthly. Can they acknowledge God to be their Maker, who dishonour him in their special calling? All stations are God's appointment, and, in that we are severally placed in, it is every man's duty to glorify God, and to maintain the honour of God the Creator. To act our part therein perversely or negligently is to damage the beauty of God's work, to disturb the order of God's arrangement, and signally to disgrace him that Can I own God so eminently to be the Maker of all things for his glory, as by my zeal, diligence, and fidelity in my proper station ? Therefore can I otherwise so capitally dishonour him as by a contrary conduct? What then can we conceive of such as seem to have come to a conclusion that they have nothing to do; that because they need not work for a support, therefore they may with all reason be idle, live upon the labours of others, lie a burden upon the public, and no living man be the better for them any further than they cannot help their being so by unavoidable expenses? Can we think God

made any man thus for nought; or that to be a gentleman is not as much a calling as to be a labourer; or that there are not duties as proper to the one of them as the other? Great ones, it seems, if their conduct be a safe rule to judge by, have the privilege of doing nothing, and are exempted from the curse laid by God on all the children of Adam, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground." But is this privilege any where in Scripture really granted them? What shall we think of parents and masters of families, who know no other use of their authority than to gratify their own. will, are incomparably more careful to maintain the fear of themselves than the fear of God in their houses, and regard not what example they set to those who are under them? What shall we think of indolent ministers, who care not how the flock be scattered, so themselves be fed? What shall we think of supine magistrates, who are proud of the honour of their office, but take no care to discharge the duties of it; suffering the sword of justice to sleep in its sheath, and not drawing it out to cut iniquity off, and to maintain true religion and virtue? What shall we think of men of business, who leave their shops to take their pleasure; abuse their time and substance in riotous living; and, while they are said to be of this and that profession, are known to have no other than that of idleness and extravagance? In short, if God made all things for his glory, and that glory can only be maintained by our subjection to his will and orders in our several allotments, how can God be glorified by those who are so far from seeking to honour God in their places that they neglect the duties of them? or how can such believe in God as their Maker ?

On the whole, then, we conclude, that the true, plain, and practical sense and meaning of these words, is this: I believe God the Father, the Governor of the world, to be the Maker of it, for his own glory. It is my desire that he may be glorified by all the works of his hands. For my own part, since by the power and grace of Jesus Christ I am brought out of that horrible state of darkness, alienation, and sin, wherein, with the whole fallen race of Adam, I lay by nature, I am ready and do purpose to behave towards God as his creature and subject in every respect, cheerfully returning to my place under him in his

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