Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

This is.

1. A debasing of God. 1. In setting up a Creature. It speaks God less amiable than the Creature, short of those perfections, which some silly sordid thing which hath engrossed their affections, is possessed with: As if the cause of all being could be transcended by his Creature, and a vile lust could equal, yea, surmount the Loveliness of God: Tis to say to God as the rich to the poor, James 2.3. Stand thou there or sit here under my foot-stool: Tis to sink him below the mire of the world, to order him to come down from his glorious throne, and take his place below a contemptible Creature, which in regard of its infinite distance is not to be compared with him. It strips God of the love that is due to him by the right of his nature and the greatness of his Dignity; and of the trust that is due to him, as the first cause and the chiefest good, as tho he were too feeble and mean to be our blessedness. This is intolerable, to make that which is Gods foot-stool, the Earth, to climb up into his throne; to set that in our heart which God hath made even below our selves and put under our feet; to make that which we trample upon, to dispose of the right God hath to our hearts;^* Tis worse than if a Queen should fall in love with the little Image of the Prince in the Palace, and slight the beauty of his person; and as if people should adore the foot-steps of a King in the dirt, and turn their backs upon his presence.

1. *Neremberg de adorat. p. 30.

2. It doth more debase him to set up a sin, a lust, a carnal affection, as our chief end. To steal away the Honour due to God, and appropriate it to that which is no work of his hands, to that which is loathsome in his sight, hath disturbed his rest, and wrung out his just breath to kindle a Hell for its Eternal lodging, a God dishonouring and a Soul Murdering lust, is worse than to prefer Barabbas before Christ. The baser the thing, the worse is the injury to him with whom we would associate it. If it were some generous principle, a thing useful to the world, that we place in an equality with, or a superiority above him; tho it were a vile usage, yet it were not altogether so Criminal: But to gratify some unworthy appetite, with the displeasure of the Creator, something below the rational nature of Man, much more infinitely below the excellent Majesty of God, is a more unworthy usage of him. To advance one of the most virtuous Nobles in a Kingdom as a mark of our service and subjection, is not so dishonourable to a despised Prince, as to take a Scabby Beggar, or a rotten Carcass to place in his throne. Creeping things, abominable beasts, the Egyptian Idols, Cats and Crocodiles, were greater abominations, and a greater despite done to God, than the Image of Jealousy at the gate of the Altar.