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…

The second way whereby men commit Idolatry with Cr •atures, is in their love which is due to God with all the heart; but men ordinarily give away their hearts to Cr •atures, in b •ing addicted to them in their desires, seeking exc •ssively after them, in their d •ating on them, or sorrowing immoderately for want of them. Hence the covetous man who loveth the world, • John 2.15. is called an Idolater, Col. 3. •. Ephes. 5.5. Thus it discovered it self in Ahab, who so loved N both's Vineyard, that he could not rest without it: So Demas idolized the world, when for love of it he forsook his service with the Apostle (though it had been but for a time) 2 Tim. 4.10. Mens love to Creatures is excessive. 1. When their contentment so dependeth upon them, as they fret when they cannot come at the enjoyment of them, as we may see in Ahab, when he cannot g •t Naboth's Vineyard, and in Rachel for want of Children. 2. When it stands in competition with God, and duty to him is shuffled out from respect and love to the world, or any thing in it, as we see in Demas, 2 Tim. 4.10. 3. Though duty be not altogether thrust out, yet when love to these things marr •th u • in that zealous way of performing duty to God, as it did in Eli, 1 Sam. 2.2 •. who is said to honour and love his Children above God, v. 29. not that he forbore them altogether, but because his sharpness was not such as it should have been, and (as it is like) it would have been, had not they been his own Sons whom he too much loved; whereas to the contrary it is spoken to Abraham's commendation, that he loved God, because he withheld not his only Son when God called for him.