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406 the Fathers upon the Children, unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me. For the

First, The Jealoufy of God is a fufficient Affrightment from offering this kind of Affront or Indignity to him: for if the Jealoufy of a Man be justly to be dreaded of all that give occafion for it, because it ftirs up the highest Resentment of fuch a violation of his Honour, and arms him with a more than ordinary Courage to vindicate it; and tho the caufe of it be Love, yet the effect is commonly Revenge and Ruin; for which reafon, Solomon ftyles Jealoufy_the Rage of a Man, Prov. 6. 34. certainly the Jealoufy of God, who is more tender of his Honour, and far more able to repair it, is much more to be dreaded by all, wilful Invaders of it.

That God is thus tender and jealous in this Cafe, impatient of any Rival, and will not admit any Sharers with him in the Love and Honour we are to pay him, himself hath frequently told us: I am the Lord (faith he by the Prophet Ifaiah) this is my Name, and my Glory will I not give to another, nor my Praife to graven Images; Ifa. 42.8. In this Commandment he adds, I am the Lord thy God, in Covenant with thee, having betroth'd thee to myself, and fingled thee out to fet my Love upon thee, and therefore will not bear the invading of my Honour, nor fuffer thee to go a whoring after other Vanities: By this, Idolatry appears to be a fpiritual Adultery, a Violation of the Love and Duty we owe to our Maker, exprefs'd in Scripture by committing Fornication against him; and is therefore faid to provoke the Lord to Fealousy.

Now the Jealoufy here afcrib'd to God must not be taken for fuch a difquieting vexatious Paffion, as is wont to ruffle and difcompofe Mankind in fuch Cafes; for that is not compatible with the divine Nature; but must be understood by way of Accommodation and Similitude, fignifying that God will ftand affected towards the Breakers of this Law, as Men are wont to be that are edg'd on and enrag'd by Jealoufy; and will deal with them as one mov'd with that violent Paffion, tho at the fame time it cannot in the leaft impair or interrupt his own Felicity. Further

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The word El-kanah here fignifies a Strong as well as a Fealous God, and gives us to understand that he is able to vindicate his Honour, and will certainly punish all the Injuries offer'd to it. Jealousy of itself without Strength is

407 but an impotent and contemptible Paffion; but when arm'd with an Almighty Power, it is juftly terrible: then 'tis Cruel as the Grave (as Salomon expreffes it) the Coals thereof are as the Coals of Fire, which break into a velement Flame; Cant. 8. 6. And therefore Mofes in this very Precept about Images, minds the Ifraelites, The Lord thy God is a confuming Fire, he is a jealous God: And elfewhere brings in God Almighty thus declaring, They have moved me to Fealousy with that which is not God, they have provoked me to Anger with their Vanities: A Fire is kindled in mine Anger, and hall burn to the lowest Hell; and shall confume the Earth with her Increase, and fet on fire the Foundations of the Mountains; Deut. 32. 21, 22.

And now I may well enough ask the Apoftle's Question of all that fuffer their Hearts and Affections to stray from their Maker; Do we provoke the Lord to Jealoufy, are we Stronger than he? Can thy Heart bear up, or thy Hands be ftrong in the day that he fhall deal with thee? No, 'tis a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God; into which, the forfaking of God, and the following of Idols, will certainly caft us.

And this will lead me to the

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Second part of the Sanction of this Law, taken from the Juftice of God in punishing the Breakers of it, in those words; Vifiting the Iniquites of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me. To vifit is fometimes taken in a good fenfe, for beholding another with an eye of Pity and Compaffion; which fenfe David prays, Vifit me, O Lord, with thy Salvation: Sometimes in a bad fenfe, for looking on with an eye of Fury and Revenge, and vifiting with Judgments and Calamities; in which fenfe. it occurs here, where God Almighty threatens to punish the Offenders against this Law, both in their Perfons and Pofterity. And,

1. He vifits this Iniquity upon the Fathers themselves: of this kind the Holy Scriptures afford many Examples, God Almighty executing his Judgments upon Idolaters, and frequently punishing his own People, when they revolted from him, and fet up their molten Images.

2. He vifits this Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children: this we find verify'd in many of the Kings of Ifrael and Judah, who for their Idolatry were punifh'd not only in their own Perfons, but in their Pofterity; God recompenfing the Iniquity of the Fathers into the Bofom of their

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Children

Part II. Children after them; as we read, Fer. 32. 18. And that,

3. To the third and fourth Generation; thofe being Generations which a Man may live to fee. Now as the Profperity of Children is one of the greatest Comforts of human Life, and all Parents delight to behold fuch flourishing Branches of themfelves; fo to fee them in Mifery and Trouble, is a moft doleful and heart-breaking Profpect: And therefore God Almighty, to deter Men from the Tranfgreffing of this Law, denounces Vengeance against the Pofterity of fuch as break it, threatning their Children to the third and fourth Generation, and punishing their Idolatries thro' the whole Line that they are capable of feeing; by which it appears, that Sinners entail a Curfe upon their Offspring, and make their Childrens Children miferable by their Impieties. But how can it confift with the Justice and Goodness of God, to punifh the Children for their Parents faults? efpecially having declar'd, that the Soul that finneth, that hall die; the Son Shall not bear the Iniquity of the Father, nor the Father the Iniquity of the Son, but the Righteousness of the Righteous fhall be upon him, and the Wickedness of the Wicked upon him. Now to this the Anfwer is eafy and obvious. For,

(1.) God's vifiting the Sins of the Fathers upon the Children is always upon fuppofition of making their Fathers Sins their own, by imitating their Examples, and treading in the steps of their Impieties; for fo God himself tells them, If your Children forfake my Law, and walk not in my Statutes, I will vifit their Tranfgreffions with the Rod, and their Sins with Scourges: otherwife, if the Son forfake the Iniquities of his Father, he shall not die, he hall surely live, faith the Lord.

God never vifits the Sins of the Fathers upon penitent and reforming Children; but if they imitate their Fathers Wickedness, 'tis but juft and righteous that they fuffer for them in which cafe, they are punish'd not for their Fathers Sins, but their own.

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(2.) Becaufe Idolatrous Parents are too apt to corrupt Children by their evil Counfel and Example, God Almighty to deter them from it, threatens to punifh the Fathers in their Children; which he may as well do, as in their Houfes and Eftates, or any thing that appertains to them: for Children are a part of the Goods and Subftance of the Parents, who are deeply concern'd in their Welfare or Mifery; and therefore God may juftly vifit them in those dearest Pledges

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409 of themselves, if they mislead them into their Impieties : in which cafe he doth not fo much make the Children suffer the Punishment of their Fathers Sin, as the Fathers fuffer for their own.

(3.) God Almighty may and often doth vifit the Iniquities of the Fathers upon their Children with temporal Punishments: in which cafe tho the Calamity be the Child's, yet the Punishment is properly the Father's; he is wounded in one of the nearest and tendereft parts of himself, tho it may work together for good to the repenting Child. Indeed God never vifits the Fathers Sins upon the Children with eternal Punishments, in which fenfe every one muft bear his own Burden; but he justly may and doth with temporal Evils, for the Correction and Amendment of both.

But who are the Perfons against whom this Threat is denounc'd? Why, that the next words will inform us, in which he is faid to vifit the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children in them that hate him; that is, in them that tranfgrefs his Laws: for as the loving of God is exprefs'd by keeping his Commandments, so the breaking of them is ftyl'd the bating of him. But Idolaters and the Worfhippers of Images are more especially call'd Haters of God: for as the Adulterefs fhews her hatred and contempt of her Husband, by giving herself to the Embraces of another; fo they caft off the Love of God, who go a whoring after their own Inventions and they who give that Worship to Images that is due to God only, may be truly faid to hate him.

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But there is another Branch of the Sanction of this Law, taken from the Goodnefs of God both to the Perfons and Pofterities of thofe that love him and keep his Commandments, which fhall be confider'd in the next.

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Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image, nor the Likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above, &c. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, vifiting the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children, to the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me, and Thewing Mercy unto thousands in them that love me, and keep my Commandments.

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AVING fpoken of the Negative part of this Precept, which forbids the making and worshipping of Images; I proceed to the Affirmative part of it, or what is requir'd in it: And that is, the worshipping of God in a right way, or after a due manner; which (as appears by what has been faid before) is the worshipping of him in any way futable to his Nature and Will.

ift, I fay, this Commandment requires us to ferve God in a way futable to his Nature; that is, not by Images or corporeal Refemblances: for he having no bodily Parts, is not to be reprefented in a bodily Shape, which is to debafe and belye him; but being a fpiritual Subftance, must be ferv'd with a spiritual Worfhip: for fo our Saviour declares, John 4. 24. God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, muft worship him in Spirit and Truth. For the better clearing whereof, we may note,

1. That the worfhipping of God in Spirit and Truth doth not exclude all bodily Worfhip, as we fhall fee by and by: for this, tho perform'd by the Body, is nevertheless fpiritual Worfhip; for it proceeds from the Spirit of God exciting our Spirits to the performance of it, and is (as one has well obferv'd) directed by a fpiritual Rule, to a spiritual End, the Glory of God, and our own Salvation,

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