He that does ungod God, does unman himself.
—Thomas Case (1598 - 1682)
Whilest we go about to ungod God, we do but unman ourselves: Nay worse, an Atheist is not only a Beast, but a Devil; Christ called Judas Devil, John 6:17. Nay Worse then Devils; the Devils are under the dread of this truth; we are stupid, insensible of Providence, careless of Judgments, when the Devils believe and tremble: The Lord might well expostulate thus; Fear ye not me, O foolish people, that have no understanding? Jeremiah 5:21, 22.
—Thomas Manton (1620-1677)
God never wrought a miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it: moreover, the notion of a Deity is so deeply impressed on the tables of all men's hearts, that to deny God, is to kill the soul in the eye, to quench the very principles of common nature, to leave never a vital spark or seed of humanity behind; it is as if an ungracious soul should deny he ever had a father. he that does ungod God, does unman himself.
—William Bates (1625–1699)
4. In having debasing notions of the holy nature of God. We invert the creation contrary to God's order in it; God made man according to his own image, and we make God according to ours. We fashion God like ourselves, and fasten our own humours upon him, as the Lacedemonians were wont to dress their gods after the fashion of their cities, Psal. 40. 21. Though men are enemies to the holy majesty of God, yet they can please themselves well enough with him as represented by that idea their corrupt minds have framed of him. We cannot comprehend God; if we could, we should be infinite, not finite; and because we cannot comprehend him, we set up in our fancies strange images of him, and so ungod God in our heart and affections.
1. This is a higher affront to God than we imagine. Vulgi opinionis diis applicare prophanum est. Epicurus. De Deo male sentire quam deum esse negare pejus duco. It is worse to degrade the nature of God in our conceits, and to make him a vicious God, than if in our thoughts we did quite discard any such being; for it is not so gross a crime to deny his being, as to fancy him otherwise than he is; such imaginations strip him of his perfections, and reduce him to a mere vanity. Plutarch saith, he should account himself less wronged by that man that should deny there ever was such a man as Plutarch, than that he should affirm, there was such a man indeed, but he was a choleric clown, a decrepid fellow, a debauched man, and an ignorant fool. This was the general censure of the heathen, that superstition was far worse than atheism, by how much the less evil it was to have no opinion of God, than such as is vile, wicked, derogatory to the pure and holy nature of the divine majesty.
2. Carnal imaginations of God, as well as corporeal images, are idolatry. It is a question, which idolatry is the greatest, to worship an image of wood or stone, or to entertain monstrous imaginations of God. It provokes a man when we liken him to some inferior creature, and call him a dog, or toad; it is not such an affront to a man to call him a creature of such a low rank and classis, as to square and model the perfections of the great God, according to our limited capacities. We do worse than the heathen (of whom the apostle proclaimed) did in their images, they likened the glory of God to such creatures as were of the lowest form in the creation. We liken God not to corruptible man, but to corrupt man, and worse yet, to the very corruptions of men, and worship a God dressed up according to our own foolish fancies; And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things, Rom. 1. 23. If all those several conceptions and ideas men have of God, were uncased, and discovered, what a monstrous thing would God appear to be, according to the modes the imaginative faculty frames them in?
—Stephen Charnock (1628–1680)
If you ungod God, you must unman yourselves; yea, not only make yourselves less than Men, but worse than Devils.
—John Flavel (1628-1691)
He that will Love God, and keep himself in the Love of God, must not be a Self-lover: there is no greater Enemy to the Love of God than to Love our selves. Mark the place for it is a remarkable place (2 Tim. 3:2): He tells you of perilous times a coming, and there gives nineteen marks of such men as make the times perilous: Of all which Lovers of themselves leads the van; for where once this Principle prevails, it opens a Floodgate to all Sin, and shuts the door upon all Holy Motions: If Self be beloved, admired and idolized, it is the worst idol in the World; this is an Idol in a secret place, continually adored; this is Dagon set above the Ark, and a Man above God, and provokes to Jealousie; this perverts the course of Nature, and God's order, who is one God, and uppermost, and only to be adored: and men set up themselves in God's Throne, and Ungod him by deifying themselves: and for one God, they set up millions of gods; as many gods as Creatures. This is man's many Inventions. And when the Lord Christ came into the World, he bespeaks our Love, and wooes us for it, and commands self denyal as the first Lesson to be learned in his School, Mat. 16:24, 25. Mat. 10:37. whereby the great stubmbling-block to God's Love is taken away.
—William Cooper
