Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

Self is the measure of a world of seeming Religious actions; while God seems to be the object, and his Law the motive, self is the rule and end; Zach. 7.5. Did you fast unto me, &c.

2 As men discover their disowning the Will of God as a rule by unwillingness to be acquainted with it, so they discover it, by the contempt of it, after they cannot avoid the Notions and some impressions of it. The rule of God is burdensome to a sinner, he flies from it as from a frightful bug-bear, and unpleasant Yoke: Sin against the knowledge of the Law is therefore called, a going back from the Commandment of Gods lips, Job. 23.12. A casting Gods word behind them, ^*as a contemptible thing, fitter to be trodden in the dirt, than lodged in the heart: Nay it is a casting it off as an abominable thing, for so the word [Greek or Hebrew] signifies, Hos. 8.3. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good; an utter refusal of God, Jer. 44.16. As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken. In the slight of his precepts his essential perfections are slighted. In disowning his Will as a Rule, we disown all those attributes which flow from his Will, as Goodness, Righteousness and Truth. As an Act of the Divine understanding is supposed to precede the Act of the Divine Will, so we slight the infinite reason of God. Every Law, tho it proceeds from the Will of the Law-giver, and doth formally consist in an Act of the Will, yet it doth presuppose an act of the understanding. If the Commandment be holy, just and ⟨p. 61⟩good, as it is