SERM.

II.

I. As to This Phrase, which we fo often meet withal in Scripture, The Glory of God; I have shown, that it denotes, in its 1ft and original Signification, the Ef fence, the Perfon, or the Majefty of God; that is, God Himself, who is the Fountain of Glory. 2dly, It fignifies the Manifeftation of God's Perfections or Attributes, in the external Exercife of them towards his Creatures. And from hence, 3dly, on the other fide, the Return or Acknowledg ment, which Creatures make again to God, for His manifeftations of his Goodness to Them, is likewife in Scripture ftiled, The Glory of God, or Their giving Glory to

Him.

THUS far, I have already proceeded in general. That which Now remains, is,

II. To confider diftinctly and particularly, in the feveral Cafes and Circumftances of Life, what it is that is required of men in Practice, in order to their fatisfying the Precept in the Text; whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the Glory of God.

AND

3I.

II.

And ift, HE who will in all things SER M. promote the Glory of God, must in the first place fhow forth the Sense he has of God upon his Mind, by Acts immediately and directly religious; by fuch Acts, as are Profeffed Acknowledgments of our own Dependence upon God, and exemplary to provoke other men, (as the Apostle elegantly expreffes it, Heb. x. 24.) unto Love and to good Words. Of This Kind, are publick Prayer and Thanksgiving: Pf. cvii. that men would therefore praise the Lord for his Goodness, and declare the Wonders that he doth for the Children of Men! That they would exalt him alfo in the Congregation of the people, and praise him in the Seat of the Elders! By this publick Worship of God, are made the propereft Expreffions of the Sense we have of our Dependence upon him; and by this manner of expreffing it, is That Senfe itself, the Senfe of God and of Religion upon the Minds of men, most effectually kept up and preferved. Very emphatical is the Defcription St John gives us, of the whole Universe joining, in their feveral Capacities, to give Glory in This manner to their Common Lord:

SERM. Rev. V. 13. Every Creature, which is in II. Heaven, and on the Earth, and under the Earth, and fuch as are in the Sea, and All that are in them heard I, faying, Blefing, and Honour, and Glory, and Power, be unto him that fitteth upon the Throne.

2dly, HE who, according to the Direction in the Text, will do all things to the Glory of God; as he must be constant in Acts immediately and directly religious, fo he must resolve against being at Any time guilty of Any Action which is directly irreligious. Of This Kind, is every deliberate Sin, every Act which is against a man's own Confcience, every known Tranfgreffion of a Commandment. Which things, whofoever is at any time guilty of; far from doing all to the Glory of God, he on the contrary, as much as in him lies, difhonours and reproaches him. For wilful Sin, finning prefumptuously or with a high hand, (as the Scripture expreffes it;) is in the Nature of Things a Dishonour to God: Rom. ii. 23. Thou that makest thy boaft of the Law, through breaking the Law dishonoureft thou God? Tis reproaching the Lord; or contending,

II.

in effect, that his Commandments are not SER M. wife, juft, and good: Num. xv. 30. The Soul that doth ought presumptuously, the fame reproacheth the Lord, and that Soul fhall be cut off from among his people. "Tis cafting Contempt upon his Laws; I. v. 24. They have caft away the Law of the Lord of Hofts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Ifrael. 'Tis defying his Power; 1 Cor. x. 22. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we ftronger than He? In a word; 'tis profeffing that we know better what is right and fit for us ourselves, than he can judge for us; and therefore that we will not bave Him to reign over us. This is the cafe of presumptuous Sins; of all Actions, known to be directly and in their own nature irreligious.

;

BUT, not only by Actions intrinfically and in their own Nature immoral, is God dihonoured but also by every thing, which in its Circumftances is Evil; by every Act, which either the Person who commits it, judges to be unlawful; or which needlefly gives Offence to Others, and becomes to Them the Caufe or the Occafion of Sin. For, the Kingdom of

God

II.

SER M. God confifting in the Prevalency of uni verfal Righteoufnefs, Sincerity, and Truth; it follows, that not only by the Practice of whatever is intrinfically immoral, but also by whatever wounds and defiles the confcience either of him who does the Action, or of Others who by the Example of it are led into the Commiffion of what to Them is Sin; by every such thing is God's Kingdom of Righteousness diminished, and the Dominion of Virtue -over the Hearts and Wills of Men, (which is the Glory and the Delight of God) is weakned and impaired. For whoever does any thing with a Senfe or Judgment in his own mind, of its being unlawful when he does it; however otherwise the Act might poffibly have been innocent in its own nature; yet he fins at That time against his own Confcience, and confequently against God. And whoever does any thing with a probable Knowledge or Expectation, that his doing it will be a means of deceiving or tempting his Neighbour into Sin; however otherwise the Action might have been not only innocent in itself, but innocent alfo to Him, because he knew it to be fo; yet in This

cafe,