' Qij. 'Better'? — Ed. * ' Pcccata el Miigunt uos voluutate, uon loco.'
JaS. IV. 8.] UPOX THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 367
God offended with us. How can a holy nature delight in an impure creature ? And as sin in the general doth thus, so there are some special sins that separate between God and the soul ; as pride : Ps. cxxxviii. 6, ' The proud he knoweth afar off.' God standeth at a distance, and will have no communion with a proud spirit. So creature-confidence and self-satisfaction, that keepeth us off from God ; we stand at a distance, as if we had enough of our own : Jer. xvii. 5, ' Cursed is the man that maketh flesh his arm, departing from the living God.' The nearest union is wrought by faith, that maketh the soul stay in him ; and the greatest separation when we go to other confidences, for then there is a plain leaving of God. Well, then, consider your condition by nature — aliens from God. That you may resent it the more, consider the cause and the effects of it. (1.) The cause. The heart is set upon sin, and therefore estranged from God : Col. i. 21, ' Alienated, and enemies in your minds by evil works ; ' or it may be rendered, ' by your minds in evil works ; ' mente operibus malts intenta, that is, because the mind is set upon sin. Likeness is the ground of love.^ There being such a dispropor- tion between us and God, we delight not in him. So Job xxi., ' Depart from us ; ' why ? ' for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.' We do not love holiness, and therefore do not love God. What a madness is this, to part with God for sin ! If you will not be saints, be men ; be not devils ; they cannot endure God's presence upon that ground. (2.) The effects of it. You that fly from God as a friend, you will flncl him an enemy ; you may depart from him as a friend, you cannot escape him as an enemy. It is a sweet passage that of Austin,2 Te non amittit nisi qui dimittit : et qui te dimittit quo fug it, nisi a te j^lacato ad te iratum ? You that cannot endure the presence of God, or a thought of him, where will you go from him ? Ps. cxxxix. 6, ' Whither shall I flee from thy presence ? In heaven thou art there ; in hell thou art there,' &c. Where will you go ? Jer. xxiii. 23, ' Am I God at hand, and not a God afar off? ' God is here, and there, and everywhere ; you will find him wherever you go. Surely then it is better to di-aw near to him as a friend than to run from him as an enemy.
Ohs. 2. A great duty that lieth upon the faUen creature is drawing nigh to God. I do not mean to handle the duty at large : I shall only open three things : —
1. How God and the creature may be said to be near one to another, or to draw nigh. God's special presence is in heaven, and we are on earth ; and his general presence is with all the creatures, and so ' he is not far from any one of us,' Acts xvii. I answer — It is to be understood spiritually; we draw nigh unto him 7W7i vestigiis corporis, sed animo, not by the feet of the body, but the soul. Spirits may have converse with one another though at a distance. Kow God's children are with him in their thoughts, in the aflections and dispositions of their souls. Their Trokirevfjua, 'their business and negotiation is in heaven,' Phil. iii. 20 ; ' Their heart and their treasure is there/ Mat. vi. 20, 21. Their desires are there ; the world is but a
1 ' ^i\ov KoXovfiev 6/j.olov 6,uoiU) Kar dperrjv.' — Plato de Leg. 8. - Lib. iv. Confess., cap. 9.
3o8 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [Jas. IV. 8.
larger prison. But it is more especially meant of their communion with God in duties, wherein their souls and their prayers are ' lifted up' to him, Acts x, 4; and he is said to come down to meet them, Isa. Ixiv. 5. And also it noteth the continual intercourse that is between God and them in all their ways. The first epistle of John was written to this purpose, ' That they might have fellowship and communion with the Father and the Son,' 1 John i. 4.
2. How is this effected and brought about, since we cannot endure the thought of God ? The question is necessary. This was the great design of heaven, to find out a way to bring man into fellowship again with his maker ; and God hath found out a ' new and living way ' by Christ, and therefore he is said to be * the way to the Father/ John xiv. 6. And the main intent of his incarnation and death was ' to bring us to God,' 1 Peter iii. 18. To bring strangers and enemies together is a mighty work. But how doth Christ effect it ? I answer — (1.) Partly by doing something for us — satisfying God's justice, and ' bearing our sins in his body upon the tree ;' otherwise guilt could have no commerce with wrath, stubble with devouring burnings : ' God is a consuming fire,' and we are as ' stubble fully dry.' Now Christ is a screen drawn between us : ^ the divine glory would swallow us up, but Christ's flesh is a veil that abateth the edge and brightness of it, Heb. X. 19, 20. (2.) Partly by doing something tVi ?/s. Christ's work in bringing a soul to God is not ended upon the cross ; he giveth us the graces of his Holy Spirit, which fit us for communion with God. The principal are these : — Faith, which is nothing else but a coming to God by Christ for grace, mercy, and salvation: Heb. x. 22, ' Draw nigli by the assurance of fiiith.' Unbelief is a going off from God, Heb. iii. 12, and Zeph. iii. 2 ; and faith a coming to him. Then love, the grace of union. 13y desire, it maketh us go out to God ; by delight it keepeth us there : the one is the thirst, the other the satisfaction of the soul. Love runneth out upon the feet of desire, and resteth in the bosom of delight. Then holiness : ' God will be sanctified in those that draw nigh to him,' Lev. x. 3. Holy hearts are fittest to deal with a holy God, otherwise we should not endure God, nor God us. Then fear, by which the soul walketh with God, and is near to him : there where the thoughts are, there we are spiritually. Of wicked men it is said, • God is not in all their thoughts ;' but the godly always keep God in their eye : Acts ii. 25, ' I foresaw the Lord always before me.' Fear still keepeth them in his company. Then humility ; because of our distance and guilt we cannot come to God unless we come humbly and upon our knees : Ps. xcv. G, ' Come let us worshi]) and bow down, and kneel before the Lord our maker ;' that is the fittest postui-e in ap- proaches to God : God ' will dwell with the humble,' Isa. Ivii. 1.5. Now all these graces, being exercised in the conversation, or in holy duties, where the addresses to God are more direct, make the soul near to him.