CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

Thirdly,¹ Obedience must have a command because of the great corruption and ⟨p. 200⟩pollution which is upon mans understanding, so that it's impossible it should ever choose or do that which is acceptable to God, Rom. 8. They that are in the flesh cannot please God, And the Heathens, even those that were judged most learned, yet were darkened in their Imagination, Rom. 1. They became vain, and the Apostle calls it their foolish hearts; It is therefore a most absurd and insufferable indignity offered unto God for thee to take upon thee how thou wilt worship him, how thou wilt serve him, and for this it is that the Scripture so often complaineth, that they went after the imagination of their own hearts; So that by this you may judge of what little consequence those excuses are which some make for superstition, That they were done out of pious Intentions, and a fervent zeal, for although such things may in some respects excuse a tanto, yet not a toto. Hence Uzziah though out of a good intention stopping the Ark not according to Gods order, is stricken dead; Paul persecuting the Church of God though out of zeal, for he thought he was bound to do what he did, yet was not thereby excused from being a blasphemer, a persecutor, and the greatest of sinners; Nothing is to be added to Gods precepts, Etiamsi vel bonum nobis videtur, said Ambrose; So that the right understanding of our deep pollution, may justly make us afraid of any thing which is ours, and hath not Gods command; The Apostle Col. 3.2. condemneth even those things, because not of God, which yet had a show of humility and great mortification.

Thirdly,¹ Obedience must have a command because of the great corruption and ⟨p. 200⟩pollution which is upon mans understanding, so that it's impossible it should ever choose or do that which is acceptable to God,