me, that you think it such a mighty thing! and expect now, that all past sins shall be forgiven, and my favour secured, for this good frame! yea, and that I shall give you heaven into the bargain! What, are your obligations to me so small, that I must be so much beholden to you for your love! What, did you never hear that I was the Lord! and that it was I that stretched abroad the heavens! and that you are my clay, whom I formed and fashioned for myself? Begone, thou impudent wretch, to hell, thy proper place: thou art a despiser of my glorious majesty, and your frame of spirit savours of blasphemy. Know it, I am not so mean as you imagine, nor at all beholden to you for your love." And this is one reason that the sacrifice of the wicked is such an abomination to the Lord, not only when they pray with a view to recommend themselves to their fellow-men, but also when, in doing their best, they only design to ingratiate themselves with God. Prov. xxi. 27. The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination, (even his very best :) how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind? The infinite greatness, glory, and excellency of God, and the infinite obligation thence resulting which we are under to love him with all our hearts, and obey him in every thing, renders a self-righteous spirit unspeakably odious, and infinitely provoking in the eyes of a holy God. But this will appear still plainer under the next particular. To proceed, therefore, [2.] If we are under an infinite obligation to love God supremely, live to him ultimately, and take everlasting delight in him, because of his infinite glory and excellency, then the least disposition to disesteem him, to be indifferent about his interest and honour, or to disrelish communion with him; or the least disposition to love ourselves more than God, and be more concerned about our interest and honour than about his, and to be pleased and delighted in the things of the world, more than in him, must, consequently, be infinitely sinful*, as is self-evident. * The least sin may be an infinite evil, because of the infinite obligation we are under to do otherwise, and yet all sins not be equally heinous: for there is as great a difference among infinites, as among finites; I mean, among things that are infinite only in one respect: For instance, to be for When, therefore, the great Governor of the world threatens eternal damnation for the least sin, (as in Gal. iii. 10.) he does the thing that is perfectly right; for an infinite evil deserves an infinite punishment. Hence, also, it is no wonder that the holiest saint on earth mourns so bitterly, and loathes and abhors himself so exceedingly for the remaining corruptions of his heart; for, if the least disposition to depart from God and disrelish communion with him, and to be careless about his honour and interest, is infinitely sinful, then the best men that ever lived have infinite reason always to lie as in the dust, and have their hearts broken. Although it be so with them, that all which the world calls good and great, appears as dross to them; and it is nothing to them to part with friends and estate, honour and ease, and all, for Christ; and although they have actually suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, not worth mourning about, or repining after; yet, notwithstanding all these attainments, attended with the fullest assurance of eternal glory in the world to come, they have infinite reason to do as they do, to dislike themselves, to hate themselves, and lie down in the dust all in tears, because still there is such a remaining disposition in their hearts to disesteem the Lord of glory; to neglect his interest, and depart from him; and because they are so far from being what they ought to be, notwithstanding the obligations lying upon them are infinite. Oh! this is infinitely vile and abominable, and they have reason indeed, therefore, always to loathe and abhor themselves, and repent in dust and ashes; yea, they are infinitely to blame for not being more humble and penitent. A sight and sense of these things made Job lie down in the dust, and mourn so bitterly for his impatience under his past afflictions, though he had been the most patient man in the world. Job xlii. 5, 6. This made the Psalmist call himself a beast. Ps. lxxiii. 22. And hence, Paul called himself the chief of sin ever in hell is an infinite evil, in respect of the duration; but yet the damned are not all equally miserable. Some may be an hundred times as miserable as others, in degree; although the misery of all is equal in point of duration. ners, and cried out, I am carnal, sold under sin; O wretched man that I am! and hated to commend himself when the Corinthians drove him to it, and seemed to blush at every sentence, and, in a sort, recalled his words I am not a whit Behind the very chief of the Apostles, yet I am nothing. I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I. Such a sight of things kills a self-righteous spirit at root, in the most exalted saint; for he has nothing, (all things considered,) to make a righteousness of, but, in strict justice, merits eternal damnation every hour, and does nothing to make the least amends. For, if perfect obedience merits no thanks, as was before observed, and if the least sin is an infinite evil, and deserves an infinite punishment, as we have now seen, then a whole eternity of perfect obedience would do just nothing towards making the least amends for the smallest sin; much less will the best services of the highest saint on earth. And, consequently, when Paul came to die, he deserved to be damned, (considered merely as in himself,) as much as when he was a bloody persecutor, breathing out threatenings and slaughter; yea, and a great deal more too: for all his diligence and zeal in the service of Christ did just nothing towards making the least amends for what was past; and his daily short-comings and sinful defects run him daily infinitely more and more into debt, which he did nothing to counterbalance. And hence, Paul accounts himself to be nothing, (2 Cor. xii. 11.) as well he might; and all his attainments to be, in a sense, not worth remembering, (Phil. iii. 18.) and looks upon himself the chief of sinners, (1 Tim. i. 15.) and less than the least of all saints, (Eph. iii. 8.) and durst venture his soul upon nothing but mere free grace through Jesus Christ. Phil. iii. 8, 9. And thus it is with every believer, even the most holy, although he daily sees what a God he has sinned against; how he has sinned against him, and does, from a gracious respect to God, mourn for sin, for all sin, as the greatest evil, and sincerely turns from all to the Lord, and gives up himself to God, to love him and live to him for ever; yet he feels that all this makes no amends at all for his sins, but that he really deserves to be damned for them as much as ever; yea, he feels that he is infinitely blame-worthy for not being more humble, and penitent, and self-abhorring, and that his desert of damnation is infinitely increasing continually. And hence, he looks upon the grace that saves him as absolutely and divinely free, and infinitely great; and always derives all his hopes of happiness from the free grace of God through Jesus Christ. And this is what the apostle means when he speaks of his living by the faith of the Son of God, Gal. ii. 20. of his rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and having no confidence in the flesh. Phil. iii. 3. And this was the cause of his so earnestly longing to be found not in himself, but in Christ; not having on his own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith. Phil. iii. 8, 9. How directly contrary to all this is the temper of the blind, conceited Pharisee, as expressed by Maimonides, the Jew, who was professedly one of that seet? "Every man," says he, " hath his sins, and every man his merits: and he that hath more merits than sins, is a just man; but he that hath more sins than merits, is a wicked man." And this is the way of such men; they put their sins, as it were, into one scale, and their good duties into the other; and when they fancy their goodness outweighs their badness, then they look upon themselves in the favour of God. But to return : From what has been said, we may learn, that the more sensible any man is of the infinite glory and excellency of God, and of his infinite obligations thence resulting to love God with all his heart, and obey him in every thing, the clearer will he see that perfect obedience deserves no thanks, and that the least sin is an infinite evil, and deserves an infinite punishment; and so he will renounce his own righteousness, die to himself, and come down to nothing, more and more; and so will be proportionably more and more sensible of his absolute need of Christ and free grace. And hence, the more holy a man grows, the more humble will he be. And, on the contrary, the more insensible a man is of God's infinite glory and excellency, and of his obligations thence resulting, the more will he value his duties, and the less evil will he see in sin, and the less sensible will he be of his ill desert, and of his need of Christ and free grace. And hence, a self-righteous, impenitent, Christ-despising spirit, reigns in all who know not God. And thus we see some of the consequences necessarily following from that infinite obligation to love God with all our hearts, which we are under, resulting from the infinite glory and excellency of the divine nature. But to pass on, 3. This obligation we are under to love God with all our hearts, arising from his infinite glory and excellency, is in the nature of things, eternally binding. God, his being, perfections, and glory, will be eternal. God will always be infinitely amiable; always as amiable as he is now; and there will be always, therefore, the same reason that he should be loved, for being what he is; even the very same reason that there is now: This obligation is therefore perpetually binding amidst all the changes of this life. Whether we are sick or well, in prosperity or in adversity; whether we are raised to honour with David, or live in affluence with Solomon; or whether we are in prison with Joseph, or on the dung-hill with Job, or wandering about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, destitute, afflicted, tormented, with those mentioned in the eleventh to the Hebrews, still this obligation upon us to love God, is invariably the same. For God is always infinitely amiable in himself; yea, and always will be so, whether we are in the earth, or in heaven, or in hell. And therefore it always is, and always will be, our indispensable duty to love him with all our hearts, let what will become of us, and let our circumstances, as to happiness and misery, be what they may. Did our obligations to love God arise merely from a consideration of something else besides the eternal excellency of the divine nature; from something which might altogether cease in time, then might it possibly, some time or other, cease to be our duty to love God with all our hearts. But assuredly it can never cease, until God ceases to be what he is. The infinite obligation hence arising will be eternally binding. Indeed, if all our obligations to love God did arise merely from selfish considerations, then in hell, where these selfish considerations will cease, it would cease to be a duty to love God. If I were obliged to love God, only because he loves me, is kind to me, and designs to make me happy, then, |