Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

A Man may be said two ways to make a thing his last end and chief good.

1. Formally. When he actually Judges this or that thing to be his chiefest good, and orders all things to it. So Man doth not formally Judge sin to be good, or any object which is the incentive of sin to be his last end: This cannot be while he hath the exercise of his rational faculties.

2. Virtually and implicitly. When he loves any thing against the Command of God, and prefers in the stream of his actions the enjoyment of that, before the fruition of God; and lays out more strength and expends more time in the gaining that, than answering the true end of his Creation: When he acts so as if something below God could make him happy without God, or that God could not make him happy without the addition of something else. Thus the Glutton makes a God of his dainties; the ambitious Man of his Honour; the incontinent Man of his lust; and the Covetous Man of his wealth; and Consequently esteems them as his chiefest good, and the most noble end, to which he directs his thoughts: Thus he vilifies and lessens the true God, which can make him happy, in a multitude of false Gods, that can only render him miserable. He that loves pleasure more than God, says in his heart there is no God but his pleasure. He that loves his belly more than God, says in his heart there is no God but his belly: Their happiness is not accounted to lie in that God that made the World, but in the pleasure or profit they make their God.

2. Vertually and implicitely. When he loves any thing against the Command of God, and preferrs in the stream of his actions the enjoyment of that, before the fruition of God; and lays out more strength and expends more time in the gaining that, than answering the true end of his Creation: VVhen he acts so as if something below God could make him happy without God, or that God could not make him happy without the addition of something else. Thus the Glutton makes a God of his dainties; the ambitious Man of his Honour; the incontinent Man of his lust; and the Covetous Man of his wealth; and Consequently esteems them as his chiefest good, and the most noble end, to which he directs his thoughts: Thus he vilifies and lessens the true God, which can make him happy, in a multitude of false Gods, that can only render him miserable. He that loves pleasure more than God, says in his heart there is no God but his pleasure. He that loves his belly more than God, says in his heart there is no God but his belly: Their happiness is not accounted to lie in that God that made the World, but in the pleasure or profit they make their God.