Chapter IX
Some considerations propounded which do more evidence how great the enmity of man s nature is against God. That it is uninterruptedly continued. That it is implacable. That it is an universal hatred against God, and all
that hath any relation to him. We should try our state, by examining our
selves whether ive continue enemies to God or not. What are the signs by which it may lie known ?
Unto all this we may add three considerations more concerning the mani
festation of this enmity in the mind, and you shall see the depth, length, and breadth thereof, abounding in all three dimensions, even above measure.
First of all, it is continued without interruption even from the very begin ning of a man s days, whenas the mind of man begins to put forth any acts
at all : Jer. xxxii. 30, For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth ; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the Lord. They have only provoked me to anger from their youth by the work of their hands ; they had done nothing else from the very beginning. And as it is said of Jerusalem in the following verses, that that city had been a provocation to him from the very first day that it was built, so it is true of
every man unregenerate, that from the very day wherein he was born he hath been a provocation unto God by the works of his hands. And I pray you consider it, the deadliest enemy that ever was, was not always plotting, act
ing, and practising hostility ; there is a truce sometimes, a laying down of
weapons, by reason of other employments. Ay, but this enmity never hath a cessation of arms, and hereby appears the length and continuation of it.
Again, secondly, it is so deep an enmity that is thus seated in the mind, as no time, no means that can be used, no persuasions or threatenings, can of themselves reconcile thetn, or wear this enmity out, until God doth extend
his mighty power and slay this enmity, &c. And why ? Because it is seated
in the mind, in nature, as in Rom. viii. 7 it is called enmity itself, which is
not, nor cannot be, made subject. It is in the nature of the corrupt mind to be an enemy to God, as it is in the nature of a wolf to be an enemy to a lamb ; and therefore nature so remaining, it will never yield unless it be
changed. Men may be enemies to one another and yet reconciled, because
it is not seated in their natures, but only occasioned (it may be) by some outward occasional difference and variance, as appears in suits of law be
twixt man and man, which therefore composition will end ; and the cause
being taken away, they prove as good friends as ever. Ay, but this enmity will never be at an end unless God changeth the mind ; no composition, no
parley or treaty of peace can end it. Nay, a man cannot endure to hear of
ending it, but falls out with all the means, the word, Spirit, and light of
his own conscience that persuades him to it ; shunning, hating, resisting all means of ending it ; hating to be reformed, Ps. 1. 17 ; hating even recon
ciliation itself; casting all God s laws behind their backs, as it is there
expressed ; that is, dealing with all the persuasions and messengers that come from God to treat about the peace, even as Jehu did with those which came from Jehoram, saying, What have I to do with peace ? And all this with a deep inbred pride and stubbornness in the mind and will, scorning to yield or stoop, Ps. x. 4. Insomuch as God is said, James iv. 6, to resist, to
and, avTirdafferai, or jostle him, even to throw him down to hell.
116 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
Lastly, It is an universal hatred in regard of the manifestation of it, mani
festing enmity against God, and all his friends that stand in any relation of
nearness to him continually, as it meets with any of them, or as occasion is
offered.
1. An enmity to God, there being ever and anon reasonings in the dis-
coursive part that there is no God ; denying, or despising, or abusing all
that the mind knows of God ; his grace, turning it into wantonness, Jude 5 ;
despising the riches of his goodness and long-suffering, Horn. ii. 4 ; mocking at
his omniscience in such thoughts or words as these : Tush, God sees it not ; Ps. x. 11, He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten
: he hideth his face, he will never see it. And if the understanding be convinced, yet desires
arise in the will, Would there were no God ! And is not that deadly enmity, thus to reason against God s being ? or knowing that he is, to abuse him ?
or wishing the destruction of God ? Horn. i. 80. The Gentiles are therefore
* when they knew God, they glorified him not
called haters of God, because
as God in their heart, ver. 21, 25.
2. Again, it is an enmity to all the friends of God. Let him send
prophets, and after them his own Son crucified ; let him dispense to them
the preaching of the gospel, and that as the only means to reconcile them ;
* enemies to
yet they hearing this, out of the hardness of their hearts, turn
the cross of Christ, as it is expressly said, Philip, iii. 18, 19. Let the Lord
deal with them by his Spirit, and that about their own eternal good ; as if he came as an enemy, they resist him evermore, and all his good motions :
Acts vii. 51, Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do
always resist the Holy Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye. By the light of their consciences the truth they detain, and that unrighteously, like an
* For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
enemy in prison
: Ptom. i. 18,
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. If God speaks to them by his faithful ministers,
* mine
enemy, say they, hast thou found me? as Ahab said to Elijah, 1 Kings xxi. 20. And as he said also to another prophet, I hate him, for he never
prophesies good to me, 1 Kings xxii. 8, so do they say of God. Doth he send his children among them ? There is an ancient enmity sown betwixt
these and them : Gen. iii. 15, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. And this enmity manifests
itself in all indignities and injuries.
Use. Because the apostle makes this as one especial character and brand
of an unregenerate estate, to be enemies unto God, the use shall be of trial and examination of our estates hereby. Now, it is certain that we all, even
that profess ourselves Christians, are born enemies as well as Gentiles, for we came all from Adam, from whom descends this enmity, as you have heard
before. And howsoever men may think and carry the matter outwardly in
their profession, yet the Scripture tells us, and the latter day will find it so, that God hath but few friends in the world, and whole swarms of enemies
that lie and lurk even in the visible church, uvtvavrfovz, underhand adver
saries, Heb. x. 27, whom nothing but the word applied and their own con
sciences can accuse and find out ; yea, and the worst enemies are those of God s own household. And this one consideration added to the former,
namely, that we are born enemies in our minds, and that it is sealed in our
natures, may make even the best of us to look about us, and to suspect our
estates, for hereupon it will necessarily follow that it is not all the privileges outward which we Christians have above Gentiles that can alter our estates,
for we are born such, even such enemies to God as a wolf is to a lamb, enemies in our minds. As, therefore, take a wolf when it falls first from the
CHAP. IX.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 117
dam, put it into a lamb s skin, keep it up in the fold with the sheep, let it r
if it be possible, feed off the same food with the sheep, tame it, do all what
you will, it remains a wolf still, and therefore an enemy unto a lamb ; neither
will ever a lamb and it be reconciled till either that wolf becomes a lamb, or
the lamb a wolf. Just so, take one of us when we are new dropped from
the womb, give us a Christian ear-mark (baptism) ; bring us up in the same
visible church with others ; put us into a Christian coat, the profession of
Christianity ; let us feed and partake of the same word and sacraments with
others ; nay, let us by all these means seem outwardly never so much tamed,
civilised, outwardly and formally conformable to good duties ; yet still we may remain, as Christ says, inwardly ravening wolves : Mat. vii. 15, Beware
of false prophets, which come to you in sheep s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. We are still where we were, unless there be a further work to change the nature ; and not only such an one as proceeds from good motions and moral persuasions of the word and Spirit, for what can these
barely work, when we are of ourselves such irreconcileable enemies in our minds as hath been delivered ? A treaty of peace argues not reconciliation, nor will in this case ever effect it. But it must be such a work as the all-
powerful arm of God hath a hand in, slaying this enmity, and changing the
bent and frame of the mind, naturally set on evil works, unto the contrary
good, by putting in new principles, friendlike dispositions unto God and all
his ways. And, my brethren, if this be wanting, we remain still in the gall and bitterness of our natures, as Peter told Simon Magus, Acts viii. 23, for
all that it is said he was baptised, believed, wondered at what he saw the
apostles do, was conformable to Christian duties, for he was a helper with
Philip, as it is in the 13th verse ; and all this while he was an undiscovered
enemy. And, as I said before, that until the nature of a wolf be changed, and it be made a lamb, or a lamb a wolf, they can never be reconciled ; so
neither God nor we enter into a covenant of reconciliation till either God become such an one as we, which is impossible, or we become partakers of
the divine nature, and be thus inwardly changed in some measure into his
image. Can two walk together, saith the prophet, and not agree ? Amos
iii. 3. Surely no. And whereas many will further plead, and say, that
they could never perceive any such matter ; that either they were enemies
to God in mind, they never meant him hurt, but they have loved him, feared him ever since they can remember ; neither can they perceive that God is an enemy to them, but loves them, clothes them, feeds them. They taste of his kindness daily, and therefore they have good cause to think that
there is mutual love between them. But for answer to this I would have men further consider, as for this dealing of God towards you, that God is
exceeding kind to his enemies, as our Saviour saith, Mat. v. 45, making the
sun to rise on the good and bad, and sendeth rain on the just and unjust ; and therefore also he bids us be kind to our enemies. And also, as it is in Job xxxi. throughout, God forbears with, yea, and heaps abundance of bless
ings on one that is his utter enemy ; yet it is but as the king reprieving a condemned traitor, letting him enjoy his lands and livings, but reserving him still, as it is at the 30th verse, to the day of wrath. Therefore, all
these are no arguments of a man s reconciliation through Christ.
If any are discovered here to be such, let them not stand out still shifting, and pleading Not guilty, but deal plainly with their own souls, and lay it to-
heart, that they may seek out for peace betimes. And let this one considera
tion move them, that it must and shall be confessed one day, at the day of
death, or in hell ; and then they will confess it, with this addition, that they were enemies to themselves in that they confessed it no sooner, whilst recon-
118 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
ciliation was offered. It were better for a traitor to confess at the bar, when he hears of a pardon, than at the gallows.
The first sign cf being enemies and unreconciled to God, is strangeness to
him, and unto the life of God. Strangers to God are yet enemies; for ye see that being estranged is made a degree of enmity in the text, and in Job
xxii. 21, Acquaint thyself with him (says one of Job s friends to him), and be at peace ; implying that whosoever is at peace with God must be
acquainted with him. Strangeness indeed between two that never were
familiar friends breeds not enmity, it is not a sign of it ; but if you see two
that once were familiar and acquainted now to walk aloof one from another, and though they have occasion to meet often, yet to carry themselves strange one to another, Surely (you say) they are fallen out. And so if you see man and wife live asunder, never come at, speak of, or seem much to care for one another : There is a breach certainly, that is your next thought. Why, so
it is here, for God and we once were acquainted. Let me apply this now.
1. Is God a stranger to your thoughts? That whereas every trifle,
learning, credit, riches, pleasures, and cares of the world, thoughts of these
things, plotting for them, are very familiar with you, the first that call you up in a morning, take up your minds, converse with you all day, and lie down in your bosom at night ; but as for God, thoughts of him, or contriv-
* not in all your thoughts, as it is spoken of a wicked man, Ps. x. 4; or if the thoughts of him chance
ings how to please or to glorify him, are little or
to come in, yet it is not welcome as the thought or sight of a friend is, but
as of a judge, or as of a master that comes in on the sudden upon a negligent servant, and you wish he was further off; then are you strangers to God.
2. Or are you strangers to those more special duties in which communion
is to be enjoyed with him ? Why is it you are so strange ? The truth of
it is, you are enemies. Can you go whole weeks, months, and never speak to him by secret and intimate prayer, so as to take him alone, as you would do a friend, into a corner, and there pour out your heart before him, and tell him all your secrets ? Or if you do draw nigh to him with your lips, yet are not your hearts far from him ? There are millions that could never
yet say that God and their hearts were brought together in a sweet close, nor do know what it means to talk with God as a friend, as Moses did. Such
are strangers.
3. Are you strangers to and from the life of God ? as it is made the note
of a wicked man, Eph. iv. 18. There is a blessed, holy, and spiritual life which God and Christ are the fountain of, which they live ; as it is said of
Christ, Rom. vi. 10, For in that he died, he died unto sin once ; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. A life which all the saints and angels live in heaven, not depending on what is here in this world ; and it is begun in a Christian here : 1 John v. 12,
* He that hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now, try and search thy self what objects are thy affections most quickened and kept up in life with : omnis vita gmtu ducitur. What dost thou savour and relish ? Are you utter strangers to such a spiritual life ? It may be a life natural, of eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, &c. ; or it may be a life of
reason, fitting you to converse with men ; or further, a formal life, in regard of religious duties, in the letter of them ; as Eom. vii. 6, But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held ; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. But have you an inward life of grace, influences and comings-in, from recourses
to and communions with Christ (as Paul says he had, Gal. ii. 20), quick ening you in all these, and above all these, as that which you reckon your
CHAP. IX.] IN BESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 119
life, more than all these ? If you want it, you are strangers to the life of God.
4. Lastly, you are enemies to God if you be strangers to the things of
God, his graces, converses with a soul in secret, which God gives his friends and children as love-tokens : 1 Cor. ii. 12, Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God ; that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God. God hath many secrets which he makes known to them that are his friends, John xv. 15; and Ps. xxv. 14,
* The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them
his covenant. But now when we hear experimental discoursings of such
near and intimate dealings of God, as how he draws the heart to believe ; when we hear of change of heart, of regeneration, of the new birth, &c., and of the signs of these made plain to us out of the word, do we hear and
entertain them as strange, or as known things to us ? Or do not our hearts
think the same that the Athenians said of Paul s doctrine ? Acts xvii. 20, For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears : we would know
therefore what these things mean. So do not our hearts think secretly of such sermons, What mean these things ? these being strange things to our
ears : I have written to him the excellent things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing, as God in the prophet complains, Hosea. viii. 12.
All this argues we are yet strangers, and therefore unreconciled.
A second note of enmity to God, is not only this strangeness mentioned, but too much inward entire affection to or friendship with the world. The
Scripture makes this enmity with God, though men think not so : James
* Know ye not, says James there,
* ye adulterers and adulteresses, that
iv. 4,
friendship with the world is enmity with God ? By world there he means not only the corruptions of the world, or the sins of it (as Peter calls them), but the things of the world, such as are in themselves the good blessings of
God, as honour, riches, credit, learning, &c., as appears by the foregoing verses ; for he speaks of such things as men ask, and use to receive at the hands of God. And whereas men might say, These are the good blessings of God ; and to love them and rejoice in them, will God take this so heinously? Yes, if it be inordinate. He tells them it is adultery spiritual, for of that he
: ye adulterers and adulteresses. Is it not adultery in a wife to
speaks
cleave in her heart unto, to delight in, and converse with, as with a husband, not only one that is an absolute enemy of her husband s, but one whom her husband otherwise respects and loves ? Potiphar loved Joseph well, for he
gave him charge over all things in his house ; yet when as Potiphar s wife
enticed him to adultery, Joseph tells her that though his master had com mitted all things else to him, and kept nothing back but her, whom he
reserved to himself ; and therefore see how incensed Potiphar was, but upon the opinion that he would have denied her. Adultery breeds the greatest enmity. It is not the having these, or the using these things, that is a sign of enmity ; it is the very phrase by which the apostle expresseth himself,
allowing us the use of the world : 1 Cor. vii. 31, And they that use this
world, as not abusing it ; for the i ashion of this world passeth away. Upon occasion of this was founded that ancient distinction of uti and frui, using the creature, but enjoying God. Not the lordship of the world, but the
friendship of the world, breeds the quarrel, and is the enmity. You may use these things as servants, not as friends, reserving and keeping your hearts to God alone as to your husband. Aristotle says that ^oXu^/X/a cannot stand with true friendship, that is, a man cannot have many friends
in an entire and true amity ; but friendship is always but between two. As
you cannot serve, so nor be friends unto God and Mammon too. If a master
120 AN UNREGENERATE MAtt s GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
will not bear it, a friend much less. It is a sad speech which concerns us
all to look to, that in 1 John ii. 15, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. He professeth to speak not of gross sins only, but any vanity in the world, the things of the world ; and he is peremptorily conclusive in
it, to pronounce the love of the Father not to be in that heart which affects and delights therein more than in God, or in whose heart love to God pre vails not over love to them. Now, if an husband observes his wife to take
ail her care for another man, and that she is always speaking of him, and
glad to hear from him, and jolly in this other s company, but in his own
little, or coy to himself, or glad when she is out of his company ; but in
ordinately delighting in the other s, conversing whorishly with him ; this breeds jealousy and enmity. Let us look to our hearts, and judge betwixt God and them.
A third note whereby they may be discovered to be enemies, is not being
subject to the law of God. So Kom. viii. 7, a carnal mind is therefore there
said to be enmity against God; because it is not subject to the law of God. In Luke xix. 27, Christ calls those his enemies, that would not have him reign over them, that is, that would not be subject unto his laws. And the reason
is, because God s sovereignty lies at the stake, and is despised, God giving every command as he is God and sovereign Lord. And again, he that lives not by his laws, lives by the laws of sin, as they are called, Rom. vii. 21. He is subject to the devil, God s enemy, lives a subject to his kingdom, and
this is open and manifest enmity to God. Now in the first verse carnal men
are said to be married to the law of God, Rom. vii. 1, 2. At the first
creation the law and man s heart were as wife and husband, and the knot
still holds ; but there is a hellish life now between them, for his heart, as the
lawful wife, ought to be subject, but his heart will not. The law commands
something that is clean contrary to his heart s lusts, and it will not submit
if it were to die for it. The law urgeth upon his heart the Sabbath, strictly to be kept in thoughts, words, and actions ; it is death to his heart to be
kept thus in, it will out and find its own pleasures that day. I might in
stance in a great deal more. I refer myself to men s consciences ; doth not the law by the light of your consciences urge some duty upon you, be it
private prayer, &c., which you will no way be subject to, cannot endure to hear of it, wishing that commandment scraped out, or that you had never had the knowledge of it ? crying as they in Job xxi. 14,
* Depart from us, we
will not the knowledge of thy laws. And though the heart be convinced, yet
* What the will of the Lord is, we will not do. So as the law in some particular finds not a tractable, loving, obedient wife of their heart, as grieving for offending in the least particular (as it doth find a regenerate man s heart to be), or as
it will not yield, but secretly says, as they in the prophet,
standing out in nothing ; and therefore the law begets not on their hearts
unfeigned and constant desires to obey in all things, strong purposes, daily
strivings, mournings, which at last should bring forth obedient perform ances, as it doth in a regenerate man s heart. But it begets stubbornness,
rebellion, hating to be reformed, the more eagerness of lust to the contrary of what the law commands. So it is in the 5th verse, the motions of sin which were by the law brought forth fruit unto death. It is a marriage
phrase, implying that the law begat stronger desires to sin, and that which
the law forbade ; these were the children which were begotten by the law on
his heart, as a woman is said to have children by her husband.
A fourth note of a state of enmity is daily and willingly harbouring,
nourishing, fostering, and maintaining of one of God s enemies in practice or
CHAP. IX.] IN KESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT, 121
fancy, openly or secretly. Not only he that commits high treason is a
traitor by our state constitution, but also he that wittingly or willingly (for otherwise unwittingly a good subject may) houseth or harboureth a traitor, and continueth to do it, let proclamation say what it will to the contrary, and gives loving welcome and entertainment to such an one that is an enemy, as if he were a friend. In John xix. 12, the Jews accusing Christ under the notion of a rebel and an enemy to Cassar, when they saw Pilate but willing to release him, they terrify Pilate with this state axiom, If thou lettest
this man go, thou art none of Caesar s friend ; nay, we know that if one be but a suspected person, if in this case a man harbour him, he shews himself no good wellwilier to a state. Let us now judge betwixt God and our own
souls. Every sin is a proclaimed enemy to God by his word, yea, and to be our enemy also, as Peter says, which fights against our souls, 1 Peter ii. 11,
4 Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from
fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Is there now any such sin which we know to be a sin (for that condition must be added, as I said before, a
true subject may harbour a traitor unwittingly), be it covetousness, pride, or
any inordinate pleasure ; and do we house it, make it our sweetest com
panion in our daily thoughts, and that which lies next our hearts, in whose converse and enjoying of which we spend many an hour with sweetest con tentment ? He that doth this is an open and convicted enemy. Nay, I go
further, is he but a suspected person ? Are they suspected by thee to be
sins ? and yet dost thou, without examining of them, thoroughly entertain them friendly, and receive them into thy heart and life ? It is no good sign. Nay more, do we stand with them all in terms of enmity, at daggers drawing as we use to say ? And if you come within me, I will kill you ; and if they do get in (as sin dwells in the best), yet do we complain of them, bring them
forth before God as we would a traitor or enemy, arraign them, accuse them, and say, Lord, here is an enemy both of mine and thine, a cursed Achan
that troubleth all in me, that would shroud itself under my roof, and thinks there to have entertainment ? But stone it, Lord, and let Israel stone it,
let every sermon fling a stone at it, let every prayer knock it down. Do we
deal thus with our known sins daily, or as oft as we are assaulted ? Or, on the contrary, do we hide them, as the woman did the spies in the bottom of the well, covering them with strawy pretences ? If we let these enemies of God s go thus, we are argued to be none of his friends.
The last note of enmity to God, is enmity to the children and ways of God. And what surer note or sign can there be of direct enmity and fight
ing against God, as it is termed, Acts v. 39, than an enmity thus born in
heart, or manifested in word or actions against anything that seems to be of God s side, or to take his part, or that stand in any relation of friendship or
likeness with God, be they either his ways, his children, or his ministers ? These men bear the devil s colours, stand in the forefront, and therefore are more easily discovered, this being one of the farthest degrees and most
apparent sign of enmity that can be ; for many, though fallen out with
another, yet still love well enough his servants, his wife, his children, his
friends. But as love is argued to be the stronger, the more it is diffused
(propter quern alia diligimus, ipse magis amatur : he for whose sake we love other things besides him, is more beloved of us), so is it in hatred. It is
argued that he is greatly and deeply hated, against whose person we do not bear only direct hatred, but collateral also, it falling upon and extending it
self to all that are any way near him for his sake. As they say of the
panther, that therefore it is the deadliest enemy to mankind of any other
creature, because it will prey even upon the very image and likeness of a
? S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
122 AN UNREGENERATE MAN
man, which other beasts will not do, though there are many will seize on man himself.
Men have indeed the name of holiness in their mouths with a seeming reverence ; but yet still the reality of it, the power of it, the thing itself, can not be endured by them. So long as it is wrapped up in a bundle, viewed in
the general, men profess they love it ; but break it up, come to the par ticular duties of it, and then they cannot away with it ; or, in the abstract
they love it, but in the concrete, as it resides in any particular subject or
person, they hate it. Set the picture of a lamb to a company of wolves, and
they will never stir at it ; but let a living lamb come, they tear it presently. So let a living saint come among these haters of godliness, a holy man in
the concrete, their hearts rise presently, then they rage, storm, and speak
all manner of evil of him, as it is in Mat. v. 10, 11. And is it not for the same reason they do so, which Christ gives there, viz.
* for righteousness sake ?
I know there are few or none so wicked to persecute any, as knowing them to be Christ s, and under that notion (that is peculiar to those that
sin against the Holy Ghost), yet it is that which is from Christ which men do persecute ; for it is he who lives, prays, speaks in holy men, that ap pears in all that is good in them ; and therefore Christ will say to them, as
* Inasmuch as you did
to those at the latter day, that were ignorant of it,
it to one of these, you did it to me. Men see not Christ now ; but did
they know him, they would not oppose such as are any way like him. , But when he shall appear, and men shall know what strain he was of, men will
confess that they hated and persecuted him, in persecuting his saints.
There are yet a third sort of men that lie in the enmity of their natures, and in an unreconciled estate, living in the visible church, who are not only much restrained, and bite their enmity in, but who, by means of an inferior work of the word and Spirit of God upon their hearts, are brought to seek unto God for friendship, yea, and do much for him in outward actions, side and take part with his friends ; and yet their hearts being unchanged, the cursed enmity of their nature remaining unkilled and not taken away, they lie still in the gall of bitterness. For instance, look to those in Ps.
Ixxviii. 34-37, When he slew them, then they sought him ; and they re
turned, and inquired early after God. And they remembered that God was
their rock, and the high God their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they did flat
ter him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. It is said that they sought the Lord early as their Redeemer, whilst he was a-slaying of them ; yet they did but flatter him with their mouths, &c. A flatterer, you know, differs from a friend, in that he pretendeth much
kindness, yet wants inward good will, doing it for his own ends. And so do many seek God, that yet he accounts as enemies ; for they seek him whilst
they see themselves in his lurch.
Now it is harder to discover these than the former, because they pretend much friendship, and externally (it may be) do as many outward kindnesses
as the true friends ; as flatterers will abound in outward kindnesses as much
as true friends, nay, often exceed them, because they may not be discovered. Now if none of the former signs reach to them, nor touch them, then there
is no better way left than to search into the grounds of all they do, and to examine whether it proceeds from true, inward, pure, and constant good
will, yea or no, or self-respects ? As now when we see an ape do many
things that a man doth, how do we therefore distinguish those actions in
the one and in the other ? Why, by the inward principles from whence they
CHAP. IX. j IN KESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 123
spring, by saying, that they proceed from reason in the one, but not so in
the other. If, therefore, it can be evinced, that all that any man seems to
do for God, comes not from good-will to him, it is enough to convince them to be persons unreconciled ; for whenas all outward kindnesses and
expressions of friendship proceed not from friendlike dispositions and pure good will, but altogether from self-respects, it is but feigned flattery, even
among men ; and when discovered once, it breeds double hatred. And
there is much more reason it should do so with God, because he being a God that knows the heart, to flatter him it is the greater mockery ; for that
is it which chiefly provoketh men to hate such as dissemble friendship, be
cause there is mockery joined with it. Now that God accounteth every one
that doth not turn to him out of pure good will a flatterer, is plain by these
words, in Ps. Ixxviii. 36, 37, Notwithstanding, they did but flatter him, and dealt falsely in his covenant; yea, and Christ saith, Mat. xii. 30, that he that is not with him is against him. If men s hearts be not inwardly for God, and with him, as a friend would be to a friend, in their actions, he esteems them against him. Thy heart, says Peter to Simon Magus,
is not right before the Lord, Acts viii. 22, and therefore he tells him, he was still in the gall of bitterness. But thinkest thou, man, that art guilty of these things, that thou shalt
escape ? to use the apostle s own words, Rom. ii. 3, And thinkest thou this, man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou
shalt escape the judgment of God ? No ; God, that is a righteous God, and
judgeth every man according to his deeds, shall render to the contentious, roig
eg egiOsias, that is, those that have contentiously dealt with him, and carried themselves as enemies in opposing him and his, according to their deeds
(they shall have enough of it) ; he will render indignation and wrath, tribu
lation and anguish, to every such soul. Are men strange to God, and care
not for him, will not be acquainted with him now ? The day will come he
will carry himself as strange to them ; and when a good look from him would be worth a world, he shall angrily say, Depart from me, ye workers
of iniquity, I know you not, Mat. vii. 23. Will men stand out, and will not submit to his most holy, just, and righteous laws, but will live like rebels and lawless persons, and not be subject to him ? Upon their own perils be
it. Let them hear their dooms pronounced by Christ s own mouth : Luke
xix. 27, These mine enemies, that would not I should reign over them,
bring them hither, and slay them before my face. He will see execution done himself.
Are men friends of pleasure also more than of God, as the apostle speaks of the world, or any thing in the world, as James speaks, adulterers and
* Jealousy is the rage of a man ; and it is the rage of God more than anger, it notes out unpacifiedness ; Will he spare in the day of his vengeance ? Is it not said, Ps.
adulteresses ? Then, as it is said, Prov. vi. 34,
Ixxiii. 27, Thou hast destroyed, Lord, all those that go a-whoring from
thee. He speaks of it as of a thing already done, because God would
assuredly do it, and therefore it was as good as done. Are men nourishers and maintainers of any sin, that they know is a pro claimed enemy of God in his word ; sparing, cherishing that that God hates, and which he hath in his word appointed to destruction ? Let them but hear what the prophet says to Ahab in the like case, for the letting go of
* And he said unto
Benhadad, and apply it to this purpose
: 1 Kings xx. 42,
him, Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life,
124 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
and thy people for his people. Because thou hast let one go, that the Lord had appointed to destruction, therefore thy life shall go for its life.
To conclude : Are men enemies to the children of God ? You touch the
apple of his eye. You had better have a millstone hanged about your necks, and thrown into the midst of the sea, than to have offended one of
these little ones. Every scoff, wry look, rising in thy heart, when God
shall charge it on thy conscience, will sink thee down, down into the bot tom of hell. In Zech. xii. 2, 7, he compares the church unto a burden some stone ; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the earth should be gathered together against it ; and unto an hearth of fire; and wicked men that oppose them, unto wood, and a sheaf,
thinking to quench that fire ; but that fire shall devour all the people round
about.
Or, do men oppose the word of God ? Let them know that it is an ar moury and storehouse of weapons, that God hath in readiness to revenge all disobedience : 2 Cor. x. 4-6,
* For the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds ; cast
ing down imaginations, and every high thing that cxalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obe dience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. It hath enough of its own to revenge its own quarrel.
CHAP. I.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 125