Chap 32 Ninthly, sin is a greater evil to man than affliction, because it breaks the union between G
of every sinner; I say, thou that standest before God in any one sin, and not delivered through the blood of his Son Christ, thou standest so under the Sentence of condemnation, as all the creatures in Heaven and Earth cannot help and deliver thee, thou must have some help beyond the help of all the creatures in Heaven and Earth to deliver thee.
When Paul would comfort the Saints against all troubles and afflictions they meet withal, Rom. 8. he begins thus, There is no condemnation to them in Christ Jesus: as if he should say, this is the comfort, no Condemnation.
If I know I am delivered from the Sentence of Condemnation, let what will fall out I am well enough; but this be sure of, there is
Condemnation to those that are not in Christ.
I remember Luther had this Speech when he had got assurance of pardon of sin, that he was freed and absolved by God; he cries out,
Lord strike, Lord, now strike, for I am absolved from my sins, thou hast delivered me from sin; now strike, now let any affliction befall that possibly can; let never so much trouble attend I am absolved from sin; now Lord strike.
This is the Eighth, sin is more opposite against the good of man than affliction, for it brings them under the Sentence of Condemnation.
CHAP. XXXII.
Ninthly, sin is a greater Evil to man than affliction, because it breaks the Union between God and the Soul.
Ninthly, sin is a greater evil than affliction in this, In that it is the very thing that breaks the Union between God and the Soul: It is that does it, and no affliction does it. Now Brethren, this I confess might seem to be less than that of Hatred, and might have come before it; but now I bring it in here, That it breaks the Union between God and the Soul, Isa. 59. 2. Your sins have separated between you and your God!
We are to know, The Souls of men are capable of a very near and high Union between God and them; the more spiritual any thing is, the more power has it to Unite, and the more near the Union.
As thus, The beams of the Sun because they be very spiritual, they can Unite a thousand of them into one Point as it were; but grosser things cannot so Unite themselves together. So Brethren, God being a Spirit, and our Souls being Spirits, they come to be capable of a most near Communion one with another. And the Souls of men are nearer a glorious Union with God, in this regard more near than any creature but the Angels.
Because the Object of mans Understanding is not any particular truth, but veritas, truth in general, truth it self in the whole latitude is the Object of mans Understanding. So the Object of mans Will, Is not this good, or that good in particular; but Bonitas, good in general, in the full latitude of it.
It is not so with other creatures, they have their objects in some particular thing, in such a limit and compass, and they can work no further, nor higher. But it is otherwise with mans soul, God has made man in such a kind, that the Object of his Soul should be truth and goodness in the full latitude, in the infiniteness of it, take it in the utmost extent that can be, yet still it is the object of the soul of man.
Now hence it is that the Soul of man is of such a wonderful large extent, even capable of God himself, of enjoyment of Union and
Communion with God himself, which otherwise could not be. No other creature has to do with infiniteness, nor can have to do with it but men and Angels, and upon that ground, because God has made them of such a nature so large that their Faculties should be of so large a nature. Now hence it is that man being capable of the enjoyment of God in such a glorious manner.
We have these Expressions in Scripture, He that is joined to the Lord, is one Spirit: 1 Cor. 6. 17. Made one Spirit with God. A most strange expression that the soul of a poor creature should be made one Spirit with God, and yet so it is. And so John 17. 21. we have two or three notable expressions, That they may be all one, as thou
Father art in me, and I in thee, and that they may be one in us.
Christ prays that the Saints may be one in him, and in the Father, as the Father is in him, and he in the Father: so they may be one with them. And Vers. 22. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them: that they may be one, even as we are one. Christ has given the Saints the same glory God the Father gave him. And to what end? what was the effect of that glory Christ gave to the Saints? It was that they may be one with the Father and one with the Son.
So that you see mankind is capable of a wonderful near Union with God; Oh consider this to raise your spirits. You that look after such low things and think there is no higher good than to eat, and drink, and to have your pleasures in the Flesh: know that the meanest and poorest in the Congregation, are capable to receive that glory God gave his Son Christ; that you may be one with God the Father and the Son, as God the Father and the Son are one; not every way: but know there is a likeness, Christ himself has expressed it.
Therefore you that have your hearts so low, that mind nothing but these things below, know that you have more noble things to mind if your hearts consider it. But here is the evil of sin; sin breaks the union between God and the soul; it separates between God and the Soul, it keeps off God that infinite, eternal, glorious fountain of all
good; it keeps him off from you; it makes you lose God, and all the good in God.
By sin you depart from God, which is the Curse of the Damned at the day of Judgment, Depart from me you Cursed: you here, for the present, in every sin, do begin to have that dreadful Sentence executed on you: Depart from me ye Cursed. You do it yourselves while you live in sinful ways, there is a real actual departing from God, and executing of that dreadful Sentence, Depart you Cursed. You think there is little evil in sin; but if you knew that God is an infinite Good, and then knew the Union you are capable of with God, and then see sin break this Union; this would make you see sin the greatest evil in the world.