bit of our thoughts, two things which are always nearly connected. It is the latter sense, however, in which I use the word; and the particular les son which I am inculcating, for the conduct of our thoughts, is to think more of our sins, and less of our virtues. In a former discourse, I showprecepts, a due regard to which accords with the state of mind of him who fixes his attention upon his sins and defects, and by no means with his state of mind, who hath fixed his attention chiefly upon his virtues Secondly, That Scripture examples, that of Saint Paul most particularly, teach us to renounce the thoughts of our virtues, and to entertain deeply and constantly the thoughts of our sins: Thirdly, That the habit here reproved, is inconsistent with a due sense of the love of God in the redemption of the world. I am now to offer such further reasons as appear to support the rule I have laid down. of God's exceeding love and kindness towards us. [ and by disposition is also meant, the train and haThere is no proportion between even our best services and that reward which God hath in reserve for them that love him. Why then are such services to be so rewarded? It is the grace of God; it is the riches of his grace; in other words, his abounding kindness and favour; it is his love; it is his mercy. In this manner the sub-ed, that there are strong and positive Scripture ject is constantly represented in Scripture; and it is an article of the Christian religion. And to possess our minds with a sense, an adequate sense, so far as it is possible to do so, of this truth, is a duty of the religion. But to be ruminating and meditating upon our virtues, is not the way to acquire that sense. Such meditations breed opinions of merit and desert; of presumption, of pride, of superciliousness, of self-complacency; tempers of mind, in a word, not only incompatible with humility, but also incompatible with that sense of divine love and mercy towards us, which lies at the root of all true religion, is the source and fountain of all true piety. And, first, There is no occasion whatever to You have probably heard of the term self-right- meditate upon our virtues and good qualities. eousness: you find it much in the writings and We may leave them to themselves. We need discourses of a particular class of Christians, and not fear that they will either be forgotten or unalways accompanied with strong and severe ex- dervalued. "God is not unrighteous to forget pressions of censure and reprobation. If the term your works and labour of love:" Hebrews vi. 10. mean the habit of contemplating our virtues, and He will remember them; we need not. They are not our vices; or a strong leaning and inclination set down in his book; not a particle will be lost. thereto, I agree with those Christians in thinking, Blessed are they who have much there; but we that it is a disposition, a turn of mind to be strong-need not count them up in our recollection; for, ly resisted, and restrained, and repressed. If the whatever our virtues are or were, we cannot make term mean any other way of viewing our own them better by thinking of them afterwards. We character, so as to diminish or lower our sense of may make them better in future by thinking of God Almighty's goodness and mercy towards us, their imperfections, and by endeavouring to enin making us the tender of a heavenly reward, counter, to lessen, or remove those imperfections then also I agree with them in condemning it, hereafter; but then this is to think, not upon our both as erroneous in its principle, and highly dan- virtues, but upon our imperfections. Thinking gerous in its effects. If the term mean something upon our virtues, as such, has no tendency to more than, or different from what is here stated, make them better, be they what they will. But and what has been enlarged upon in this dis- it is not the same with our sins. Thinking upon course, then I profess myself not to understand its these afterwards may make a very great alteration meaning. in them, because it may lead to an effectual repentance. As to the act itself, what is past can not be recalled; what is done cannot be undone : the mischief may possibly be irrevocable and irreparable. But as to the sin, it is different. Deep, true, sincere penitence may, through the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, do away that. And such penitence may be the fruit of meditation upon our SERMON XI. (PART II.) TO THINK LESS OF OUR VIRTUES, AND MORE OF sins; cannot possibly come without it. Nay, the OUR SINS. My sin is ever before me.-Psalm li. 3. To think well is the way to act rightly; because thought is the source and spring of action. When the course and habit of thinking is wrong, the root is corrupt; "and a corrupt tree bringeth not forth good fruit:" Do what you will, if the root be corrupt, the fruit will be corrupt also. It is not only true, that different actions will proceed from different trains of thought; but it is also true, that the same actions, the same external conduct, may be very different in the sight of God, according as it proceeds from a right, or a wrong, a more or less proper principle and motive, a more or less proper disposition. Such importance is attached to the disposition; of such great consequence is it, that our disposition in religious matfers be what it should be. By disposition is meant, the bent or tendency of our inclinations; act itself may be altered. It is not always that an injury is irreparable. Wrong indeed has been received at our hands; but restitution or compensa tion may be in our power. When they are so, they are the surest proofs of penitence. No penitence is sincere without them, if they be practicable. This benefit to those whom we have injured, and an infinitely greater benefit to ourselves than to them, may be the effect of seeing our sins in their true light, which that man never does, who thinks only, or chiefly, or habitually, upon his virtues. Can a better reason be given for meditating more upon our sins, and less upon our virtues, than this; that one train of thought may be profitable to salvation, the other is profitable for nothing? It is an exceedingly good observation, that we may safely leave our virtues and good qualities to themselves. And, besides the use we have made of it in showing the superfluity, as well as the danger of giving in to the contemplation of our virtues, it is also a quieting and consoling re- was, "Your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no flection for a different, and, in some degree, an man taketh from you:" John xvi. 22. Was this opposite description of character, that is to say, promise fulfilled to them? Read Acts xiii. 52: for tender and timorous consciences. Such are They were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost." sometimes troubled with doubts and scruples The kingdom of God," saith Saint Paul, "is about even their good actions. Virtue was too joy in the Holy Ghost:" Rom. xiv. 17. So that easy for them, or too difficult; too easy and plea-St. Paul, you hear, takes his very description and sant to have any merit in it: or difficult by rea- definition of Christianity from the joy which is son of fleshy, selfish, or depraved propensities, diffused over the heart; and St. Paul, I am very still existing unsubdued, still struggling in their confident, described nothing but what he felt, unregenerated hearts. These are natural, and, as Yet St. Paul did not meditate upon his virtues: I have sometimes known them, very distressing nay, expressly renounced that sort of meditation, scruples. I think that observations might be of- His meditations, on the contrary, were fixed upon fered to remove the ground of them altogether: his own unworthiness, and upon the exceeding, but what I have at present to suggest is, that the stupendous mercy of God towards him, through very act of reflection, which leads to them, is un-Jesus Christ his Saviour. At least, we have his necessary, provided you will proceed by our rule, viz. to leave your virtues, such as they are, to themselves; and to bend the whole force of your thought towards your sins, towards the conquest of these. ing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:" 1 Peter i. 8. This joy covered even their persecutions and sufferings: "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now, for a season if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations," 1 Peter i. 6, meaning persecutions. In like manner St. James saith, "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, that is, persecutions;" and why? "knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience:" James i. 2, 3. Let no one, after these quotations, say, that it is necessary to fix our attention upon the virtues of our character in order to taste the comforts of re own authority for saying, that, in his Christian progress, he never looked back; he forgot that which was behind, whatever it might be, which he had already attained; he refused to remember it, he put it out of his thoughts. Yet, upon this But it will be said, are we not to taste the com- topic of religious joy, hear him again: "We joy forts of religion? Are we not to be permitted, or in God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" Rom. v. rather ought we not to be encouraged, to relish, 11; and once more, "the fruit of the Spirit is to indulge, to enjoy these comforts? And can love, joy, peace:" Gal. v. 22. These last are this be done without meditating upon our good three memorable words, and they describe, not actions. the effects of ruminating upon a man's own vir I answer, that this can be done without medi-tues, but the fruit of the Spirit. tating upon our good actions. We need not seek But it is not in one apostle in whom we find the comforts of religion in this way. Much we this temper of mind, it is in them all. Speaking need not seek them at all; they will visit us of of the Lord Jesus Christ, St. Peter thus addresses their own accord, if we be serious and hearty in his converts: "Whom having not seen, ye love; our religion. A well-spent life will impart its sup-in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believ port to the spirits, without any endeavour, on our part, to call up our merits to our view, or even allowing the idea of merit to take possession of our minds. There will, in this respect, always be as much difference as there ought to be, between the righteous man and the sinner, (or, to speak more properly, between sinners of different degrees,) without taking pains to draw forth in our recollection instances of our virtue, or to institute a comparison between ourselves and others, or certain others of our acquaintance. These are habits, which I hold to be unchristian and wrong; and that the true way of finding and feeling the consolations of religion, is by progressively conquer-ligion. No persons enjoyed these comforts in so ing our sins. Think of these; contend with these, and, if you contend with sincerity, and with effect, which is the proof indeed of sincerity, I will answer for the comforts of religion being your portion. What is it that disturbs our religious tranquillity? What is it that embitters or Impairs our religious comfort, damps and checks our religious hopes, hinders us from relishing and entertaining these ideas, from turning to them, as a supply of consolation under all circumstances? What is it but our sins? Depend upon it, that it is sin, and nothing else, which spoils our religious comfort. Cleanse your heart from sin, and religion will enter in, with all her train of hopes and consolations. For proof of this, we may, as before, refer to the examples of Scripture Christians. They rejoiced in the Lord continually. "The joy of faith," Phil. i. 25. "Joy in the Holy Ghost," Rom. xiv. 17, was the word in their mouths, the sentiment of their hearts. They spake of their religion as of a strong consolation, as of the "refuge to which they had fled, as of the hope of which they had laid hold, of an anchor of the soul sure and steadfast:" Heb. vi. 18, 19. Their promise from the Lord Jesus Christ great perfection as the Christians whom we read of in Scripture, yet no persons thought so little of their own virtues. What they continually thought upon was the abounding love of Christ towards them, "in that, whilst they were yet sinners, he died for them," and the tender and exceeding mercies of God in the pardon of their sins, through Christ. From this they drew their consolation; but the ground and origin of this train of thought was, not the contemplation of virtue, but the conviction of sin. But again: The custom of viewing our virtue, has a strong tendency to fill us with fallacious notions of our own state and condition. One almost constant deception is this, viz. that in whatever quality we have pretensions, or believe that we have pretensions to excel, that quality we place at the head of all other virtues. If we be charitable, then "charity covereth a multitude of sins." If we be strictly honest, then strict honesty is no less than the bond which keeps society together; and consequently, is that without which other virtues would have no worth, or rather no existence. If we be temperate and chaste, then self-government being the hardest of all duties, is the surest test of obedience. Now every one of | to the words, sins and crimes; meaning thereby acts of gross and external wickedness. But think further; enlarge your views. Is your obedience to the law of God what it ought to be, or what it might be? The first commandment of that law is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.' Is there, upon the subject of this commandment, no matter for thought, no room for amendment? The second commandment is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Is all with us as it should be here? Again, there is a spirituality in the commands of Christ's religion, which will cause the man who obeys them truly, not only to govern his actions, but his words: Again: The habit of contemplating our spirit- not only his words, but his inclinations and his ual acquirements, our religious or moral excellen- dispositions, his internal habits, as well as his excies, has, very usually, and, I think, almost una- ternal life. "Ye have heard that it hath been voidably, an unfavourable effect upon our dispo- said of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: sition towards other men. A man who is con- But I say unto you, He that looketh on a woman tinually computing his riches, almost in spite of to lust after her," that is, he who voluntarily inhimself, grows proud of his wealth. A man who dulges and entertains in his mind an unlawful accustoms himself to read and inquire, and think desire, "hath committed adultery with her already a great deal about his family, becomes vain of his in his heart," is by the very entertainment of such extraction: he can hardly help becoming so. A ideas, instead of striving honestly and resolutely to man who has his titles sounding in his ears, or banish them from his mind, or to take his mind his state much before his eyes, is lifted up by his off from them, a sinner in the sight of God. rank. These are effects which every one observes; Much the same kind of exposition belongs to and no inconsiderable degree of the same effect the other commandments; not only is murder forsprings from the habit of meditating upon our bidden, but all unreasonable intemperate anger virtues. Now humble-mindedness is a Christian and passion; not only stealing, but all hard and duty, if there be one. It is more than a duty; it unfair conduct, either in transacting business with is a principle. It is a principle of the religion; those who are upon a level with us, or, where it and its influence is exceedingly great, not only is more to be feared, towards those who are in our upon our religious, but our social character. They power. And do not these points open to us a who are truly humble-minded, have no quarrels, field of inquiry, how far we are concerned in them? give no offence, contend with no one in wrath and There may not be what, strictly speaking, can be bitterness; still more impossible is it for them to in-called an act or deed, which is scandalously bad; sult any man under any circumstances. But the way to be humble-minded is the way I am pointing out, viz. to think less of our virtues, and more of our sins. In reading the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, if we could suppose them to be real characters, I should say of them, that the one had just come from ruminating upon his virtues, the other from meditating upon his sins. And mark the difference; first, in their behaviour; next, in their acceptance with God. The pharisee all loftiness, and contemptuousness, and recital, and comparison, full of ideas of merit, views the poor publican, although withdrawn to a distance from him, with eyes of scorn. The publican, on the contrary, enters not into competition with the pharisee, or with any one. So far from looking round, he durst not so much as lift up his eyes; but casts himself, hardly indeed presumes to cast himself, not upon the justice, but wholly and solely upon the mercies of his Maker: "God be merciful to me a sinner." We know the judgment which our Lord himself pronounced upon the case: "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other:" Luke xviii. 14. The more, therefore, we are like the publican, and the less we are like the pharisee, the more we come up to the genuine temper of Christ's religion. Think, then, less of your virtues; more of your sins. Do I hear any one answer, I have no sins to think upon; I have no crimes which lie upon my conscience: I reply, that this may be true with respect to some, nay, with respect to many persons, according to the idea we commonly annex yet the current of our imaginations, the bent of our tempers, the stream of our affections, may all, or any of them, be wrong, and may be requir ing, even at the peril of our salvation, stronger control, a better direction. Again: There may not be any action which, singly and separately taken, amounts to what would be reckoned a crime: yet there may be actions, which we give into, which even our own consciences cannot approve; and these may be so frequent with us, as to form a part of the course and fashion of our lives. Again: It is possible, that some of the miscarriages in conduct, of which we have to accuse ourselves, may be imputable to inadvertency or surprise. But could these miscarriages happen so often as they do, if we exercised that vigilance in our Christian course, which not only forms a part of the Christian character, but is a sure effect of a sincere faith in religion, and a corresponding solicitude and concern about it? Lastly, uprofitableness itself is a sin. We need not do mischief in order to commit sin; uselessness, when we might be useful, is enough to make us sinners before God. The fig-tree in the Gospel was cut down, not because it bore sour fruit, but because it bore none. The parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 14.) is pointed expressly against the simple neglect of faculties and opportunities of doing good, as contradistinguished from the perpetration of positive crimes. Are not all these topics fit matters of meditation, in the review of our lives? Upon the whole, when I hear a person say he has no sins to think upon, I conclude that he all. their imperfections, for acceptance through him, of broken and deficient services, the truth is, they have recourse to no such hope; besides, it is not imperfection with which they are charged, but a total absence of principle. A man who never strives to obey, never indeed bears that thought about him, must not talk of the imperfection of his obedience: neither the word, nor the idea, pertains to him; nor can he speak of broken and deficient services, who in no true sense of the term hath ever served God at all. I own, therefore, I do not perceive what rational hopes religion can hold out to insensibility and unconcernedness; to those who neither obey its rules, nor seek its aid: neither follow after its rewards, nor sue, I mean, in spirit and sincerity, sue, for its pardon. But how, it will be asked, can a man be of regular and reputable morals, with this religious insensibility: in other words, with the want of vital reli nas not thought seriously concerning religion at Let our sins, then, be ever before us; if not our crines, of which it is possible that, according to the common acceptation of that word, we may not have many to remember; let our omissions, deficiencies, failures, our irregularities of heart and affection, our vices of temper and disposition, our course and habit of giving into smaller offences, meaning, as I do mean, by offences, all those things which our consciences cannot really approve; our slips, and inadvertencies and surprises, much too frequent for a man in earnest about salvation: let these things occupy our attention; let this be the bent and direction of our thoughts: for they are the thoughts which will bring us to God evangelically; because they are the thoughts which will not only increase our vigilance, but which must inspire us with that humility as to ourselves, with that deep, and abiding, and opera-gion in his heart? I answer, that it can be. A ting sense of God Almighty's love and kindness and mercy towards us, in and through Jesus Christ our Saviour, which it was one great aim and end of the Gospel, and of those who preached it, to inculcate upon all who came to take hold of the offer of grace. SERMON XII. SALVATION FOR PENITENT SINNERS. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much.Luke vii. 47. general regard to character, knowing that it is an advantageous thing to possess a good character; or a regard generated by natural and early habit; a disposition to follow the usages of life, which are practised around us, and which constitute decency; calm passions, easy circumstances, orderly companions, may, in a multitude of instances, keep men within rules and bounds, without the operation of any religious principle whatever. There is likewise another cause, which has a tendency to shut out religion from the mind, and yet hath at the same time a tendency to make men orderly and decent in their conduct: and that cause is business. A close attention to business is very apt to exclude all other attentions; especially those of a spiritual nature, which appear to men of business shadowy and unsubstantial, and Ir has been thought an extravagant doctrine, to want that present reality and advantage which that the greatest sinners were sometimes nearer they have been accustomed to look for and to find to the kingdom of heaven than they whose offences in their temporal concerns; and yet it is unwere less exorbitant, and less conspicuous: yet doubtedly true, that attention to business frequentI apprehend, the doctrine wants only to be ration-ly and naturally produces regular manners. Here, ally explained, to show that it has both a great deal of truth, and a great deal of use in it; that it may be an awakening religious proposition to some, whilst it cannot, without being wilfully misconstrued, delude or deceive any. Of all conditions in the world, the most to be despaired of, is the condition of those who are altogether insensible and unconcerned about religion; and yet they may be, in the mean time, tolerably regular in their outward behaviour; there may be nothing in it to give great offence; their character may be fair; they may pass with the common stream, or they may even be well spoken of; nevertheless, I say, that, whilst this insensibility remains upon their minds, their condition is more to be despaired of than that of any other person. The religion of Christ does not in any way apply to them: they do not belong to it; for are they to be saved by performing God's will? God is not in their thoughts; his will is not before their eyes. They may do good things, but it is not from a principle of obedience to God that they do them. There may be many crimes which they are not guilty of; but it is not out of regard to the will of God that they do not commit them. It does not, therefore, appear, what just hopes they can entertain of heaven, upon the score of an obedience which they not only do not perform, but do not attempt to perform. Then, secondly, if they are to hope in Christ for a forgiveness of therefore, is a case, in which decency of behaviour shall subsist along with religious insensibility, forasmuch as one cause produces both-an intense application to business. Decency, order, regularity, industry, application to our calling, are all good things; but then they are accompanied with this great danger, viz. that they may subsist without any religious influence whatever; and that, when they do so, their tendency is to settle and confirm men in religious insensibility. For finding things go on very smoothly, finding themselves received and respected without any religious principle, they are kept asleep, as to their spiritual concerns, by the very quietness and prosperity of things around them. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." It is possible to slumber in a fancied security, or rather in an unconsciousness of danger, a blindness to our true situation, a thoughtlessness or stupefaction concerning it, even at the time when we are in the utmost peril of salvation; when we are descending fast towards a state of perdition. It is not the judgment of an erroneous conscience: that is not the case I mean. It is rather a want of conscience, or a conscience which is never exerted; in a word, it is an indifference and insensibility concerning religion, even in the midst of sec.ning and external decency of behaviour, and soothed and lulled by this very circumstance. Now it is not only within the compass of possibi- God is turned into lasciviousness. At the time lity, but it frequently, nay, I hope, it very fre- this design is formed, the person forming it is in quently comes to pass, that open, confessed, the bond of iniquity, as St. Peter told Simon he acknowledged sins, sting the sinner's conscience: was; in a state of eminent perdition; and this that the upbraidings of mankind, the cry, the cla- design will not help him out of it. We say that mour, the indignation, which his wickedness has repentance is sometimes more likely to be brought excited, may at length come home to his own soul; about in a confessed, nay, notorious and convicted may compel him to reflect, may bring him, though sinner, than in a seemingly regular life: but it is by force and violence, to a sense of his guilt, and of true repentance that we speak, and no true a knowledge of his situation. Now I say, that repentance can proceed from a previous intention this sense of sin, by whatever cause it be produced, to repent, I mean an intention previous to the sin. is better than religious insensibility. The sinner's Therefore no advantage can be taken of this docpenitence is more to be trusted to than the seem-trine to the encouragement of sin, without wilfully ingly righteous man's security. The one is misconstruing it. roused; is roused from the deep forgetfulness of But then you say, we place the sinner in a religion in which he had hitherto lived. Good more hopeful condition than the righteous. But fruit, even fruit unto life everlasting, may spring who, let us inquire, are the righteous we speak from the motion which is stirred in his heart. of? Not they, who are endeavouring, however The other remains, as to religion, in a state of imperfectly, to perform the will of God; not torpor. The thing wanted, as the quickening they, who are actuated by a principle of obeprinciple, as the seed and germ of religion in the dience to him; but men who are orderly and heart, is compunction, convincement of sin, of regular in their visible behaviour without an indanger, of the necessity of flying to the Redeemer ternal religion. To the eye of man they appear and to his religion in good earnest. "They were righteous. But if they do good, it is not from the pricked in their heart, and said to Peter and to the love or fear of God, or out of regard to religion rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall that they do it, but from other considerations. If we do?" This was the state of mind of those they abstain from sin, they abstain from it out of who first heard the Gospel: and this is the state different motives from what religion offers; and of mind still to be brought about before the Gos- so long as they have the acquiescence and appropel be heard with effect. And sin will sometimes bation of the world, they are kept in a state of do it, when outward righteousness will not; I sleep; in a state, as to religion, of total negligence mean by outward righteousness, external decency and unconcern. Of these righteous men there of manners, without any inward principle of reli- are many; and, when we compare their condition gion whatever. The sinner may return and fly with that of the open sinner, it is to rouse them, to God, even because the world is against him. if possible, to a sense of religion. A wounded The visibly righteous man is in friendship with conscience is better than a conscience which is the world and the "friendship of the world is torpid. When conscience begins to do its office, enmity with God," whensoever, as I have before they will feel things changed within them mightiexpressed it, it soothes and lulls men in religiously. It will no longer be their concern to keep fair insensibility. But how, it will be said, is this? Is it not to encourage sin? Is it not to put the sinner in a more hopeful condition than the righteous? Is it not, in some measure, giving the greatest sinner the greatest chance of being saved? This may be objected; and the objection brings me to support the assertion in the beginning of my discourse, that the doctrine proposed cannot, without being wilfully misconstrued, deceive or delude any. First, you ask, is not this to encourage sin? I answer, it is to encourage the sinner who repents; and, if the sinner repent, why should he not be encouraged? But some, you say, will take occasion, from this encouragement, to plunge into sin. I answer, that then they wilfully misapply it: for if they enter upon sin intending to repent afterwards, I take upon me to tell them, that no true repentance can come of such intention. The very intention is a fraud: instead of being the parent of true repentance, it is itself to be repented of bitterly. Whether such a man ever repent or not is another question, but no sincere repentance can issue or proceed from this intention. It must come altogether from another quarter. It will look back, when it does come, upon that previous intention with hatred and horror, as upon a plan, and scheme, and design to impose upon and abuse the mercy of God. The moment a plan is formed of sinning with an intention afterwards to repent, at that moment the whole doctrine of grace, of repentance, and of course this part of it amongst the rest, is wilfully misconstrued. The grace of with the world, to preserve appearances, to maintain a character, to uphold decency, order, and regularity in their behaviour; but it will be their concern to obey God, to think of him, to love him, to fear him; nay, to love him with all their heart, with all their mind, with all their soul, with all their strength; that is, to direct their cares and endeavours to one single point, his will; yet their visible conduct may not be much altered; but their internal motives and principle will be altered altogether. This alteration must take place in the heart, even of the seemingly righteous. It may take place also in the heart of the sinner; and, we say, (and this is, in truth, the whole which we say,) that a conscience pricked by sin is sometimes, nay oftentimes, more susceptible of the impres sions of religion, of true and deep impressions, than a mind which has been accustomed to look only to the laws and customs of the world, to conform itself to those laws, and to find rest and satisfaction in that peace, which not God, but the world gives. SERMON XIII. SINS OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jea lous God, visiting the iniquity of the father |