A37049:212
A practical exposition of the X. Commandments with a resolution of several momentous questions…A practical exposition of the X. Commandements with a resolution of several momentous questions…
A practical exposition of the X. Commandments with a resolution of several momentous questions and cases of conscience.A practical exposition of the X. Commandements with a resolution of several momentous questions and cases of conscience.
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
We shall first speak of practical Heart-idolatry, especially when lawful things are made Idols, which is the most subtle kind of Idolatry, and that which men most ordinarily f •ll into; And it may be cleared these five ways; by all which, men give that which is due to God unto Creatures. There are five things that are incontrovertibly due to God, to wit, 1. Estimation and honour above all. 2. Love with all the heart. 3. Confidence and trust. 4. Fear and reverence. 5. Service and obedience.
We shall first speak of practical Heart-idolatry, especially when lawful things are made Idols, which is the most subtil kind of Idolatry, and that which men most ordinarily f •ll into; And it may be cleared these five ways; by all which, men give that which is due to God unto Creatures. There are five things that are incontrovertibly due to God, to wit, 1. Estimation and honour above all. 2. Love with all the heart. 3. Confidence and trust. 4. Fear and reverence. 5. Service and obedience.
First then men commit Idolatry, when any thing, even any lawful thing, getteth too much respect from them; so that their happiness is placed in it, and they can less abide to want it in effect, whatever they may say in words, than Communion with God himself: When men have such an excessive esteem of Wife, Children, Houses, Lands, Great Places, &c. and when they are taken from them, they cry as Micah, Judg. 18.24. Ye have taken away my Gods from me, and what ha •e I more? When all the other contentments a man hath, yea all the Promises, and God himself also, proveth but of little value to him, in respect of some particular he is deprived of by some cross Dispensation; it is a token it had too much of his heart: Try this by two things. 1. When any beloved thing is threatened to be removed, it then appeareth how it is affected, and stuck unto. 2. What is made use of to make up that; see a notable difference betwixt David and ⟨p. 33⟩