We can no more be voluntarily serviceable to God, while our serpentine nature, and Devilish habits remain in us; than we can suppose the Devil can be willing to glorify God, while the nature he contracted by his fall abides powerfully in him. Our Nature and Will must be changed, that our actions may regard God as our End, that we may delightfully meditate on him, and draw the motives of our obedience from him. Since this Atheism is seated in Nature, the change must be in our Nature: Since our first aspirings to the rights of God, were the fruits of the Serpents breath which tainted our Nature; there must be a removal of this taint, whereby our Natures may be on the side of God against Satan, as they were before on the side of Satan against God. There must be a supernatural Principle before we can live a supernatural Life, i. e. live to God, since we are naturally alienated from the Life of God: The aversion of our Natures from God, is as strong as our inclination to evil; we are disgusted with one, and pressed with the other; we have no will, no heart, to come to God in any service. This Nature must be broken in pieces and new moulded, before we can make God our Rule and our End: While mens deeds are evil, they cannot comply with God*; much less while their natures are evil: Till this be done, all the service a man performs riseth from some evil imagination of the heart, which is evil, only evil, and that continually*, from wrong Notions of God, wrong Notions of Duty, or corrupt Motives. All the pretences of Devotion to God, are but the Adoration of some golden Image. Prayers to God for the ends of self, are like those of the Devil to our Saviour, when he asked leave to go into the Herd of Swine: The Object was right, Christ; the end was the destruction of the Swine, and the satisfaction of their malice to the Owners: There is a necessity then that depraved ends should be removed, that that which was Gods end in our framing, may be our end in our acting, viz. his glory, which cannot be without a change of Nature. We can never honour him supremely whom we do not supremely love: Till this be, we cannot glorify God as God, though we do things by his Command and Order; no more, than when God employed the Devil in afflicting Job*: His performance cannot be said to be good, because his end was not the same with Gods;
We can no more be voluntarily serviceable to God, while our serpentine nature, and Devillish habits remain in us; than we can suppose the Devil can be willing to glorifie God, while the nature he contracted by his fall abides powerfully in him. Our Nature and Will must be changed, that our actions may regard God as our End, that we may delightfully meditate on him, and draw the motives of our obedience from him. Since this Atheism is seated in Nature, the change must be in our Nature: Since our first aspirings to the rights of God, were the fruits of the Serpents breath which tainted our Nature; there must be a removal of this taint, whereby our Natures may be on the side of God against Satan, as they were before on the side of Satan against God. There must be a supernatural Principle before we can live a supernatural Life, i. e. live to God, since we are naturally alienated from the Life of God: The aversion of our Natures from God, is as strong as our inclination to evil; we are disgusted with one, and pressed with the other; we have no will, no heart, to come to God in any service. This Nature must be broken in pieces and new moulded, before we can make God our Rule and our End: While mens deeds are evil, they cannot comply with God*; much less while their natures are evil: Till this be done, all the service a man performs riseth from some evil imagination of the heart, which is evil, only evil, and that continually*, from wrong Notions of God, wrong Notions of Duty, or corrupt Motives. All the pretences of Devotion to God, are but the Adoration of some golden Image. Prayers to God for the ends of self, are like those of the Devil to our Saviour, when he askt leave to go into the Herd of Swine: The Object was right, Christ; the end was the destruction of the Swine, and the satisfaction of their malice to the Owners: There is a necessity then that depraved ends should be removed, that that which was Gods end in our framing, may be our end in our acting, viz. his glory, which cannot be without a change of Nature. We can never honour him supreamly whom we do not supreamly love: Till this be, we cannot glorifie God as God, though we do things by his Command and Order; no more, than when God imployed the Devil in afflicting Job*: His performance cannot be said to be good, because his end was not the same with Gods;
- *Joh. 3.19, 20.
- *Gen. 6.5.
- *Job. 1.
