A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

Fourthly, A man is naturally carnal in all his religious performances, Because when he d•h them, it is not out of any love to God, to exalt and honour him, but out of love to himself, thinking thereby to avei• some judgement or other. It is true, we deny not but it's lawful to serve God, to be humbled for sin with respect to our own good, that we may escape temporal evil, but yet we are not to do it principally and chiefly for this, we are not to uti Deo, and frui Creaturis, to enjoy the creatures for themselves, as the utmost end, and make use of God only for our outward help, as John 6. 26. our Saviour told the multitude that followed him, That they did seek him only because they did eat of the loaves and were filled: This is a fundamental principle of flesh in every man by nature not to love himself subordinately to God, but God subordinately to himself, which is a sin of a very high nature, and immediately opposing the great majesty of God; They worship God upon no other reason, then what some Heathens did sacrifice to the Devils, Tantùm ne noceant, That they might do them no hurt: I […] not then out of any love to God, or desire to magnify him, but wholly for their own ends; and hence it is, that they alter, and change the worship and ways of God, as they please, and as it serveth for any political interest, ⟨p. 142⟩as you see in Jeroboam, and other wicked Kings, Whence is all this? but because they make themselves, the Alpha and Omega, Et Deus non erit Dens nisi homini placuerit; How could men thus break the statutes and ordinances of God? but because they make their own advantages, the supreme Law, as if God were for them, and they not for him: Hence it is also that the Scripture complaineth so much of men, Walking in their own Imaginations; And Jeroboam, 1 King. 12. 33. is branded for this, that he set up such a worship and Ministry, that he had devised of his own heart; This then is a sure demonstration of our fleshly minds, that in our worship and duties, we regard not divine Institutions and Gods Rule, but attend only to what is subservient to our purpose: Now the foundation of all this is, because we do not look upon God as supreme, to whom all our senses should bow, but refer him and his glory to our selves. The Apostle