Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

(5.) 'Tis against the supremacy of God. As God is one, and the only Sovereign; so our hearts should be one, cleaving wholly to him, and undivided from him: In pretending to deal with him, we acknowledge his Deity and Sovereignty; but in with holding our choicest faculties and affections from him, and the starting of our minds to vain Objects, we intimate their equality with God, and their right as well as his to our hearts and affections: 'Tis as if a Princess should commit Adultery with some base Scullion, while she is before her Husband; which would be a plain denial of his sole right to her. It intimates that other things are superior to God; they are true Sovereigns that engross our hearts. If a man were addressing himself to a Prince, and should in an instant turn his back upon him, upon a beck or nod from some inconsiderable person; is it not an evidence, that that person that invited him away, hath a greater sovereignty over him, than that Prince to whom he was applying himself? And do we not discard Gods absolute dominion over us, when at the least beck of a corrupt inclination, we can dispose of our hearts to it, and alienate them from God? As they in Ezek. 33.32. left the service of God for the service of their covetousness; which evidenced that they owned the authority of sin more than the authority of God: This is not to serve God as our Lord and absolute Master, but to make God serve our turn, and submit his Sovereignty to the Supremacy of some unworthy affection. The Creature is preferred before the Creator, when the heart runs most upon it in time of religious worship, and our own carnal interest swallows up the affections that are due to God: 'Tis an an Idol set up in the heart ^*in his solemn presence, and attracts that devotion to it self, which we only owe to our Sovereign Lord; and the more base and contemptible that is to which the Spirit is ⟨p. 172⟩devoted, the more contempt there is of Gods dominion. Judas his kiss with a hail Master, was no act of worship, or an owning his Masters authority; but a designing the satisfaction of his Covetousness in the betraying of him.

(5.) 'Tis against the supremacy of God. As God is one, and the only Soveraign; so our hearts should be one, cleaving wholly to him, and undivided from him: In pretending to deal with him, we acknowledge his Deity and Soveraignty; but in with holding our choicest faculties and affections from him, and the starting of our minds to vain Objects, we intimate their equality with God, and their right as well as his to our hearts and affections: 'Tis as if a Princess should commit Adultery with some base Scullion, while she is before her Husband; which would be a plain denial of his sole right to her. It intimates that other things are superior to God; they are true Soveraigns that ingross our hearts. If a man were addressing himself to a Prince, and should in an instant turn his back upon him, upon a beck or nod from some inconsiderable person; is it not an evidence, that that person that invited him away, hath a greater soveraignty over him, than that Prince to whom he was applying himself? And do we not discard Gods absolute dominion over us, when at the least beck of a corrupt inclination, we can dispose of our hearts to it, and alienate them from God? As they in