Chapter VIII
The second part of original corruption, enmity unto God, and, to all that is
good. We became enemies to God, violating all obligation* which were
upon us to love and serve him. This enmity is in our natures and hearts, and shewn also in outward acts of hostility.
And you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind l)y wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. COL. I. 21.
We have seen how our natures by sin are deprived of all good. We are now to consider the positive part of original corruption, which hath two
especial branches.
1. An averseness, contrariety, or enmity unto God, which follows upon our aversion from him. We are not only turned from God, but turned enemies against him.
2. An inordinate conversion from God to the creatures, and the pleasures of sin as their chiefest good and their utmost end, which is in Scripture expressed unto us by lusts.
So the apostle reduceth the whole to these four degrees, Rom. v., that we
are dead men, without strength, ungodly, sinners, enemies. The privative part being despatched, this, therefore, now remains to be as the conclusion more amply treated of, to make this first general part of this discourse entire, and the total sum of our iniquity full.
Now, first, for explication of this enmity in man s heart and nature against God, there is a twofold enmity found amongst men, one against another, the like proportion unto which holds here, one directly and setly intended, the other indirect and by way of resultancy.
1. Direct and intended, when a man s aim is to ruin or to oppose and vex such a man. Or,
2. Indirect, when a man doth that which provoketh, or tends to diminish from another, when yet a man hath no such direct aim against his person, &c., in his thoughts that do carry him on to it. Which double kind of enmity is exemplned by men s offences against states or princes set over them.
Thus, 1, those are enemies that maliciously and setly plot and contrive
treason, ruin, &c., in an hostile way.
ClIAP. VIII. J IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 107
And, 2, those are enemies, too, that do contrary to the laws, to the de
clared will of a prince or state. So with us, a felon that stealeth for his lust,
yet is to be arraigned as one that acted contrary to the king s crown and
dignity, though he should plead he never aimed at the king, or intended to
diminish aught from him, yet doing what is contrary to his law, on which
his sovereignty is stamped, he is arraigned and condemned as an enemy to
the king.
Now of that first kind of direct and set opposition against God, none are found to be guilty but the devil, who is called the enemy, the adversary ; or men that sin against the Holy Ghost, whose sin is direct revenge against God, and who do despite to the Spirit of grace. But that indirect and implied enmity is common to the nature of man, and is the subject of this discourse. Let no man, therefore, think to shift, and say, I am an enemy to God ! God forbid ; I never in sinning aimed at hurt or injury to him, I had him not in my thoughts ; but if there be an indirect enmity, it is charge enough to justify the accusation: Men are executed and put to death by a state, as well for acts against law, which do involve the honour of the prince, as
for acts of open or secret hostility. So as men are children or servants of the devil, either, 1, directly, that give up their souls to him, as witches ; or,
2, that do his work, though their aim is not to serve him as their father ; and yet because they do his lusts, Christ termed them such : John viii. 44, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
Now I lay this for a fundamental maxim all along this discourse, that all
that are not for God, or are against that which his law and will is for, &c., are enemies, and justly so accounted. God is so great, so sovereign, that
if thou pleasest him not, he accounts thee an enemy ; if thou beest not sub
ject to him, thou art a rebel. As kings, yea, favourites, thinking them
selves so great, that if any be not wholly theirs, if any way not for them, if
any man veils not, stoops not, their spirits rise against them as enemies, as Haman s did against Mordecai, Esther iii. 5 ; and so, in like manner, Art thou not king ? says Jezebel to Ahab, 1 Kings xxvii. 7, and therefore
judged it an affront to him to be denied anything. In like manner, Am I not God ? says the Lord. If there be any averseness of spirit shewn to
kings, it is interpreted enmity, because their greatness expects all should serve and be subject to them. Now the greatness of God is such, as it ne
cessarily and justly draws this on with it. Hence the carnal mind is said
to be enmity against God : Rom. viii. 7, 8, Because the carnal mind is
enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. So that not to please God, not to be subject to his law, to be any way strange or averse to him, nay, not to be for him, is enmity ; yea, and enmity against him. Thus Christ says, He that is not with me is against me. And, Rom. L, those that
* haters of God, ver. 25. This being premised, I come to [open the particulars of this enmity of ours to God.
* glorified God not as God, ver. 21, are termed
First, In the degrees of it. I shall need to seek no further than the words of this text in the Epistle to the Colossians, (it being fuller to this
purpose than any other scripture I meet withal), as noting out unto us three
degrees and grounds of this enmity, wherein it consists ; in that, ] ,
estranged ; 2, enemies in minds ; 8, in evil works. For whereas there are
three, and but three, grounds of all friendship among men ; when, 1, there are certain mutual ties and bonds of relations, by which two are obliged and
tied together in friendship, as husband and wife, father and child, &c. ; or,
108 AN UN-REGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
2. there is likeness of mind, which is indeed the soul and life of all true
friendship, for all friendship is grounded on likeness (simile tjawlet iim di). 3. The third ground of friendship is mutual expressions and manifestations of
that good will and agreement of minds, by kind offices of friendship, without
which no friendship can long endure, but dies and goes out, as tire without
fuel to feed it. Now all these three, when they meet together, must needs make up the entirest friendship that can be, even a threefold cord twisted, which cannot easily be broken.
lUit now ^if you observe it) you shall find in the text three grounds of
this enmity, directly answering to these three of friendship (for, friendship and enmity being contraries, they have answerably contrary grounds, contra-
rioniin contraria eat ratio). For, first of all, in the word alienated, a-~qXXo-
rgiupsvoi, or estranged, there is implied, that we are obliged to God by some bonds of friendship, and that yet we are fallen off from him, and entered
into league and friendship with some other, so as he is thereby provoked ; for the apostle makes it the first degree of this enmity. Secondly, instead of agreement in mind and good will, there is an enmity, a contrariety in the mind. Thirdly, instead of kind offices of friendship, which should be tokens of that good will, as love, &c., there is nothing but evil works arising from the mind, every one of which contains in it enmity and contrariety against God ; and therefore all these meeting in one, as they do here, must needs
likewise argue the enmity full.
And, first, we are therefore enemies, because by nature estranged ; for
notwithstanding God hath bound all men to himself at their first creation in Adam, but especially all us that live in the visible church, by all the nearest and strongest bonds of friendship that are to be found on earth ; yet we have forsaken him, and live estranged, and have sought out other friends
contrary unto him. And if this is enough to provoke men to enmity, much more God ; yea, and by how much nearer the bonds are, the greater enmity ariseth upon the breach. None are greater enemies, when fallen out, than those that have been most obliged and nearest friends ; and this is the first
degree, which I will further explain.
1. Mankind should, by that estate they were created in, have enjoyed a most holy and blessed communion, familiarity, and intercourse of acquaint ance with the great God of heaven and earth, as may appear by some pas sages betwixt God and Adam, Gen. ii. 19, 22, 23. Sure I am, that to all us that live in the visible church, God offers acquaintance daily, notwith
standing that our first breach in Adam, who, when he heard God s voice, walking in the garden, Gen. iii. 8, 9, hid himself, as one who would not have been spoken withal. God would yet be acquainted with us all ; for to that end serve his ordinances ; his word, wherein he speaks unto and woos us ; prayer, wherein he would have us draw nigh to him. But we, besides that estrangement of our forefather, are estranged even from the womb : Ps.
Iviii. 3, The wicked are estranged from the womb ; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. And at last we come in our hearts to say with those in Job, Depart from us, we will not have the knowledge of thee or thy ways/ Job xxii. 17. Acquaintance in this kind refused, provokes men that are but equals, much more God, the infinite God. Yea, my breth
ren, every sin committed is made the deeper act of enmity by reason of
this bond broken by it. See how David takes a wrong from one that had been of his acquaintance, more heinously by far than if he had ever been a
: Ps. Iv. 12-14, For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it ; neither was it he that hated me, that did
professed enemy
magnify himself against me, then I would have hid myself from him. But
CflAP. VIII.] IN RESPECT OP SIN AND PUNISHMh !</.)
it was them, a man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. Had it been mine enemy, I could have borne it, says he ; but it was thon, my familiar friend, my equal ; we took sweet counsel once together. A
wrong from such a person David could not brook. Had we indeed been created enemies at first, God would not have regarded our estrangement, nor our wronging him, for no other could have been looked for ; but you have heard it was otherwise ; and yet he and we are not equals, there is an infi
nite disproportion ; and yet this is not all. For,
2. God being the great King of heaven and earth, obligei us to him as
his especial favourites, at our first creation, above all the iuferior creatures,
raising us up out of nothing, and out of the same dust they were taken oat of ; he breathed into us an immortal reasonable soul, which yet they want, and set us next himself in his throne over them all. Yet Adam, his favourite, and we in him, disobeyed him, in that which was God s especial charge to the contrary, in eating the^ forbidden fruit. How infinitely more are kings incensed if their favourites prove traitors than if inferior subjects are so ? And is not God provoked so too the more by these many favours abused by us ? Yes, certainly. See how heinously he took David s adultery at his
hands, more than he would at the hands of an inferior subject, because he was his especial favourite : 2 Sam. xii. 7-9, And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; and I gave thee
thy master s house, and thy master s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah ; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou
despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast
killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Did not I anoint thee king ? says God ; gave thee the house of Israel and Judah ? and would have done much more for thee. Wherefore hast thou des: the commandment of the Lord in doing evil in his sight ? Was not this now just our case in Adam in eating the forbidden fruit ? and in our own
particular too whilst unregenerate, breaking and despising all those holy and
righteous laws which God hath given ?
And 3. By creation we were all the sons of God, as Adam is called, Luke
iii. 84. For God stamped his own image on us ; therefore we were his sons when others but his creatures. Yet Adam, our forefather, fought like a rebellious Absalom to disthronise God ; that he should be as God was his
temptation to sin, Gen. iii. 5. We set up other gods, making our bellies, that is, every earthly vanity, as a god, Philip, iii. 18, 19. And this rebellion of ours, as children against God our Father, the breach of this bond pro vokes to deeper enmity than the violation of any of the former : 2 Sam.
xvi. 12, when Shimei cursed David, Oh, says he, if my son seek my life, how much more may this Benjamite ? And God takes it so too at our hands
: Isa. i. 2, Hear, heavens ; and hearken, earth : I have
very heinously
brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. This was res
in iii lltfi, a thing unheard of; and therefore he complains to these senseless creatures of it.
4. We WTC by the law of creation espoused unto God in some respect : Jer. xxxi. 31, 32. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah ; nut
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day tL took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my
110 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord,
God speaking of the old covenant, the covenant of works ; and so Adam s
covenant is involved, he says, though I am an husband to them. He
therein shews, by what he was to the Jews, what he was to Adam then. But as Adam s heart at first ran a-whoring after an apple, so ours, whilst
unregenerate, after every vanity. We are lovers of pleasures, riches, credit,
&c., more than of God; and therefore doth the Scripture challenge us as
adulterers and adulteresses, as James iv. 4, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? whosoever
therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. We are called
adulterers, as those that had forsaken our first husband (as God is called, Hosea ii. 7, by the church), and had entered into league with the world, and
other strange lovers, as it follows in both those places. Adultery, we all
know, is the breach of the marriage knot, which being the nighest tie upon earth (as both the first and the second Adam s speech doth testify
* For
this cause shall a man forsake father and mother, &c.), therefore the breach
* Jealousy, saith
of this knot causeth the deepest enmity; so it is with men :
Solomon, Prov. vi. 35, is the rage of a man. Jealousy, as you all know,
is that enmity which ariseth from the breach of the marriage knot, as it also
is taken there, as appears by the former verses. And this jealousy is rage ; the deepest that can be, more than anger, fury, or wrath. It notes out
unpacifiedness ; for it follows, He will not spare in the day of vengeance ; though thou givest him many gifts, yet he will not rest contented. And God
is a jealous God ; so he styles himself, and takes this breach of our mar
riage bond as heinously, and more, as he hath reason, than men: Jer.
iii. 1-3, They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man s, shall he return unto her again ? shall not that land be greatly polluted ? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers ; yet return again to me, saith the Lord. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with : in the ways hast thou sat for
them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with
thy whoredoms, and with thy wickedness. Therefore the showers have been
withholden, and there hath been no latter rain ; and thou hadst a whore s
forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed. You, says he, if you put away a
* but thou hast played the whore, &c. As if God had said, Judge betwixt me and you.
wife, and she becomes another man s, will not own her again ;
1st, Consider that God did not put us off, but we forsook him first, freely and causelessly. God offered no wrong, no unkindness.
2dly, Nay, there could not be any jealousies or suspicions (which often
arise among friends) ; for God is not subject to the least shadow or appear ance of turning. God shall clear it at the latter day, as he doth Jer. ii. 5, What iniquity have you, or your forefather Adam, found in me ? Did I forsake you first ? or could it be conceived that I was glad to be rid of you ? No ; it was on your part free, on my part causeless; and your enmity to me
is so continued. Nay,
3dly, This was at first, and is continued still at the persuasion of God s
utter enemy, and ours, the devil. One word, nay, a lie of his, prevailed more than all these cords of love.
And so much for the first degree, noted out in the word alienated, namely, that we have broken all the bonds of friendship whereby we were obliged ; both of acquaintance, the nearest bond of friendship civil ; of favourites to a
prince, the highest bond in friendship political ; of children to a father, the nearest in friendship natural ; of a wife unto her husband, than which there
is no greater obligations.
CHAP. VIII.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 1 11
All relations of friendship may be reduced to one of these four; and these
instances are, swnma in quolibet genere y et regula reliquorum, the highest in each of these four, and the measures of the rest. Neither were these bonds
bare resemblances, but real, and which God useth to express the nearest
obligation between us, and which yet cannot express it. God looks upon us
as obliged to him by all these bonds ; as those that should be to him as his
spouse, children should carry themselves as his especial favourites, friends ; and therefore in every act of sinning, he will charge the breach of all these bonds
upon all our consciences : Rom. vii. 2, 3, For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth : but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress : but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. The apostle
expressly says, that a woman once married is bound to her husband as long as he and she live, and if she become another man s she should be in every act called an adulteress. Now not only in this tie of marriage, but in all the
rest of their bonds betwixt God and us, it is true that time can never wear them out. God never dies, nor we, but are immortal; therefore these
relations hold, and whilst we sin, are daily broken, and we do therefore con
tinually provoke him to enmity.
Secondly, But yet, in the second place, there is a further ground and degree of a far deeper enmity betwixt God and us, for there is an internal contra
riety and enmity in our minds, which is deeper than the former. For as in
friendship outward relations, ties and bonds are but the body of it, it is inward good will that is the soul and life, and that must join hearts together. Therefore a friend is called, Deut. xiii. 6, a man s own soul, and reckoned
as sometimes nearer to men than all relations. The other externals of
friendship are but as solder or lead that joins glasses together that is
quickly melted ; and so it would be with these if this inward good will doth not animate them. And therefore, also, by the rules of contraries, it is so
in causing enmity ; though the breach of outward relations doth deeply pro voke, yet we see it true amongst men, that when notwithstanding them,
they perceive a secret good will continued to them in the party offending, they are ready to pass by, and so pardon such wrongs ; yea, and so doth God, for notwithstanding his children who are regenerated, are more deeply
obliged and engaged to him than all creatures, men, and angels besides ; yet because even when they offend, they bear inward and secret good will to God
for all that, doing what they hate, what they approve not, and grieving they should offend God whom they love above all, God therefore passeth by, and
putteth up abundance of injuries, as he did in David, accounting him a man
according to his own heart, that is, a faithful friend to him, notwithstanding many outward breaches of the nearest bonds that could be. But now in men unregenerate, there being not only an external breach of such near bonds of friendship, but also an inward enmity, contrariety, that fills the
mind, it must needs most deeply provoke, for it is full enmity indeed.
I will open this as a second and further degree. God created us at the first
in his own image or likeness, both in mind and will ; which image consisted
in an agreement of mind, liking and approving that holiness he did, and
also choosing it in our wills, embracing it in our affections; whence good will did arise betwixt God and us. And when two minds agree thus in
virtue, Aristotle says, it makes up perfect friendship, he making ripovoia, and
ewoior., meeting in virtue, to be the strongest ground of friendship, and to be the essence of it. And so this being an argument between God and us about
112 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
holiness (for the image of God in us is created after God in holiness and
righteousness, Eph. iv. 24), it must needs be so too. But now, on the con
trary, there is an enmity in the mind, we neither in mind or judgment
approving that holiness, nor in our wills choosing it ; but we in both liking and following the clean contrary, namely, every sin and evil work, for to
that purpose is the phrase used in the text emphatically, enemies in the
mind, in evil works, therefore enemies in our minds, because our minds are
in evil works ; which phrase implies that the mind is wholly set upon and
inclined and disposed unto evil. As when a man is said to be in love, that
is wholly taken up with it, given to it. Like phrase unto which also is that, animus est in patinis, his mind is in his dishes ; even so that phrase used
here, the mind in evil works (as it is in the original), for every evil work, as
you shall hear anon, contains direct enmity against God in it ; therefore
now, I say, this must make perfect enmity. And further to confirm it, that
there is this enmity in the mind, in men unregenerate, in Acts xiii. 10, it is
said of Elymas (and what is true of one wicked man in regard of his nature, of which we now speak, is true of all), that he was an enemy to all right eousness, and full of all readiness unto evil, as the word gadiovgytac signifies,
an enemy in his mind to all righteousness, because his mind was prone, ready and set to all evil ; so that the same reason is given for that his
enmity, which is here in Col. i. 21. And Simon Magus also (after the same manner of phrase used in the text) is said to be in the gall of bitterness : Acts viii. 23, For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in
the bond of iniquity. Which phrase implies that his whole heart, and the frame of it, is steeped deeply, and seasoned in works which are as gall to us,
viz. enmity against God, for he is rather said to be in this gall, than it in
him, to shew that his nature is only full of it, and abounded, and was over come by it ; as a man is said to be in the water, when he is drowned in it, or in drink, when he is overcome with it.
I might be large in running over all the faculties, and shewing how this
enmity resides in them all.
As first of all in the judgment, the reasoning and understanding part of
the mind, of which principally the text speaks, sv diavoia, which implies that
all the thoughts, reasonings, and devisings which are within the mind of man, are against God and his ways, and altogether for sin and evil works which
are enmity against him. And is not that argued to be deadly enmity, when there is nothing but plotting, devising, and using one s wits against another? Yet such is this here ; yea, in these reasonings lies the strength of the
enemy, by reason of which the inferior faculties are encouraged, backed, and
maintained in their opposition. And therefore, 2 Cor. x. 5, he compares these reasonings in the mind of man unto high forts, bulwarks, or towers,
strongholds which are cast up to maintain and hold siege against the know
ledge and obedience of Christ.
Neither, 2, is the will free of this enmity ; for though indeed the will is not mentioned directly and expressly in the text, but only the reasoning part,
yet it is not because the will is free, but rather because that, of all other
faculties, the understanding might be least suspected; seeing wicked men in
their reasonings, in the speculative understanding, are for the truth often, and against evil works, though again in the practical (which the apostle means here) it is clean contrary with them. All enmity lies principally in the will, and even common people when they express enmity, they call it
ill-inll. And so in John viii. 44, lusts of enmity and malice against God and Christ (of which Christ there speaks), and which he calleth the devil s
lusts, are made acts of the will, both because they are called (as in the devils
CHAP. Till.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 113
they are found) lusts. Now, in the devil, lusts are inclinations and acts
principally of the will, as also because Christ saith there of the pharisees, You are of your father the devil, and his lusts ye will do. The word in the
original is SiiXsrt KOISIV ; and answerably wicked men are said to be haters of
God, Bom. i. 30, Exod. xx. 5.
Yea, 3, it is seated in the whole man, and whatsoever is in man, as may
* That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Horn. viii. 7, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is
: John iii. 6,
appear by comparing these two scriptures
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. In the first, Christ
* what is born of the flesh is flesh. In saying that which is born, &c., he shews that there is not that thing in man which comes of fleshly genera
says,
tion, but it is wholly tainted with flesh, sin, and corruption, even the will and all parts. And in Bom. viii. 7, you may see what the nature of this
flesh or corruption is, and what it brings with it to every faculty. It is said
to be enmity against God, pgovjj^a <rag/co. Some translate it the wisdom
of the flesh, because that indeed is principally meant ; but the word doth in
the signification generally extend itself to the several acts of each faculty
tending towards this object, as I could shew by other scriptures. So that the
meaning of the Holy Ghost is to shew how that every act of every faculty,
understanding, will, and affections, all which are tainted with flesh, are
enmity against God. It is said so in the abstract, because it is in the very nature of the flesh, in each faculty, to be so ; even as it is the nature of a wolf to be at enmity with a lamb.
And so much likewise of the second ground and degree of enmity ; it is inherent in the mind, and in every faculty thereof.
Thirdly, Now did this enmity lie and rest there only, and break forth no
farther, nor manifest itself in acts of enmity, it were less full. But as Aris
totle makes it a condition of true friendship, ut sit manifesta nee otiosa, that
it be manifested by expressions of love, or else it is idle, worthless friendship ; so likewise to make up the measure of this enmity full, it remains that I shew the manifestation of this enmity in the mind in regard of evil works mentioned in the text, and which the mind, as you have heard it, is set on and wholly given unto. The mind of man unregenerate doth bring forth
nothing else continually but evil works, which do contain in them direct and
express enmity against God ; every sinful act contains in it enmity against God. That forenamed place, Bom. viii. 7, is express for both, where it is
said that pgonj^a eagxtis, that is (as I said before), the least stirring, desire, or
act of any faculty, even the wisdom of a man, the best and purest act the mind brings forth, the wisest thought an unregenerate mind thinks, is enmity against God. And so, Isa. iii. 8, their doings are said to be against the Lord, and to provoke the eyes of his glory, for (besides that every sin is
aggravated by being the breach of all bonds) it contains a further and directer
enmity in it, as both these places do imply ; for it is denominated to be
enmity in the abstract, which doth imply that it is in the nature of it, and is said to provoke the eyes of his glory, as being against him. Now let us exa mine the reason given there in the following words, and it will appear so, for therefore the apostle says, it is enmity against God, because it is directly against God s law, and will not be subject. And because some men may say, What is this to God ? he is one thing, and his law another ; it touches not him. Yes, verily, and that exceeding nearly, in a double respect. 1. Because upon every moral law of God his sovereignty, his prerogative royal, is enstamped and engaged in it. His being God and sovereign Lord lies at the stake ; for the law is enforced upon that ground, I am the Lord thy VOL. X. H
114 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
God. So the commandments begin, he commanding us, as he is God, and by his divine authority, to submit to those laws : the main end and intent of all
those laws being, that men should acknowledge God s sovereignty over them.
Now, therefore, in this case the breach and thwarting of the least of these
with full consent of mind and will, is flat rebellion, a gainsaying his sove
reignty, a direct and immediate opposing his prerogative royal, denying him
to be God. And therefore, Titus i. 16, they are said in works to deny him. Now we all know whatsoever is done thus against the sovereignty of a king
is an act of high treason ; whatsoever doth flatly deny the king to be king is
open rebellion. And therefore every evil work may well be said to be against God, and .to provoke the eyes of his glory, for it debaseth, tendeth to impair and entrench upon his prerogative royal, his glory, and sovereignty. But
this is not all ; it is flat enmity, hath some contrariety in the nature, form, and essence of it, to God s most holy and pure nature. Because,
2. God hath enstamped his own image on his laws. For God s laws,
especially his first command, is but the copy and extract of God s most holy,
righteous, and blessed will, and many oi the commands are the copy of his most holy nature, as that of his first command, as such which he in his
nature is inclined to will and command ; and therefore his law is called holy as he is holy, and being written in the heart doth renew us in his image. Whatsoever act, therefore, is done against this law, and hath a contrariety
thereunto, hath in the nature of it a contrariety unto the nature of God ;
which, my brethren, being so, and the mind ofman unregenerate continually producing such acts, needs must this enmity be deep in this regard. But,
8. This indirect enmity (as I may so call it) which is terminated in the breach of the law, proceedeth in the end to more immediate and direct acts
of enmity against God himself, and breaketh forth into such at last, as occa
sion is given from collateral enmity ; it launcheth out unto direct enmity
against God, and all that would bring us to him. For although man s nature
at first in sinning aims but at pleasure, and not to injure God (only it is
against him, as being his Sovereign, who hath commanded the contrary), yet if God come to discover his offence taken at these their sins, then corrupt nature
is apt to shew itself in a direct enmity. So that as by reason of every evil work there is an enmity taken up by God against us, so also further, when God goes about to reclaim us herefrom, to discover his sovereignty and dis
pleasure against us, then there ariseth further active enmity in us against him. If light comes from him that these our works are evil, then presently we hate the light
: John iii. 19, And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. If God makes himself known to us to be our Lord and King, we like not the knowledge of him : Rom. i. 28, And even as they did not
like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. If he discovers himself
to be our judge that threateneth us for these courses, then we hate him : Prov. viii. 36,
* But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul ; all
they that hate me love death. Wisdom, that is, Christ, that would reclaim men from sinning, says, If they refuse him they hate him, and love death.
It is spoken consecutively, for in sinning they love that which cause fch death, and so in sinning too they do that which will produce hatred of God, and end
in it when he comes to reckon with them. We either slight him or hate him ; either we contemn his judgments, or wish he were not. If he punish us, our hearts rise against him as against an enemy, and murmur as Cain s
did, and accordingly we quarrel with all such means as might reduce us into
subjection to him.
CHAP. IX. ] IN EESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 115