330 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXL.
judice your hearts. God hath given such laws, that if all things were left to our own option and choice, nothing better could be devised to preserve the liberty and perfection of the human nature. It is an ill note to count the command grievous. Holiness is so amiable in itself, that men are not frightened unto God's laws, but choose them.
3. Bring thy heart to approve the law by mortifying that distemper that ariseth against it, be it pride, self-conceit, sensuality, covetous- ness. Appetite that is lost to wholesome food is restored by purging the stomach ; there is a preparation of mind required to receiving of moral things. So in divine things: 1 Cor. ii. 14, 'But the natural man receiveth not the things of the S[)irit.' We arc prepossessed, intus existens prohihet exitum. Therefore bring your heart lo approve God's law removendo prohibens, by mortifying those corruptions that rise against it.
4. When you see no other reason to yield to God's law, let his will and sovereign authority be reason enough to you. This is reason enough for God to use to his creatures : ' I am the Lord,' Lev. xviii. 4, 5, ' Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments ; which if a man do, he shall live in them : I am the Lord/ This is the will of God. We owe God blind obedience. This should silence all perverse reasonings against God, both as to his laws and providence. His will is supreme, and our will must be yielded up to his.
Secondly, We come to the other branch, cuid I hate ever?/ false ivay. Where we have — the act, hate ; the object, false way ; the extent, eve7'y, whatsoever is contrary to the purity of God's word,
Doct. That it is a good note of a renewed and obedient heart to hate every false way.
This will appear from —
1. The sorts and kinds of hatred.
2. The causes.
3. The effects, or the comparison of hatred with anger.
1. From the sorts and kinds of hatred, which are reckoned up to be two — (1.) Odium ahominatwnis ; (2.) Odium inimicitia\
[1.] Odium ahominationis, a hatred of flight and aversation, called by some odium offensionis, the hatred of offence. It is defined by Aquinas to be dissonaniia qumdam appetitus, ad id quod appre- henditur ut repuunans, <fec. It is a repugnancy of the appetite to what is apprehended, as contrary and prejudicial to it. Such there is in the will of the regenerate, for they apprehend sin as repugnant and contrary to their renewed will ; to the unrcgenerate it is agreeable and suitable, as draff to the appetite of a swine, or grass and hay to a bullock or horse. Now this hatred is a good sign, that cannot be found in another that is not born of God. The mortification of sin standeth principally in the hatred of it. Sin dieth when it dieth in the affections ; when we look upon it as an offence to us, destructive to our happiness, and as ifc is truly grieved for and hated by us. The unrcgenerate may hate sin, materially considered; that is, the thing which is a sin ; but they cannot hate it formally considered, as sin under the notion of a sin ; for then they would hate all sin, a quatenus ad omne valet consequeniia. As, for instance, thus : A covetous man
VeR. 128.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 331
hatetli prodigal and riotous courses, not as tliey are sinful and con- trary to God's law, but as contrary to his humour and covetous will.
[2.] Odium mimicifm', or the hatred of enmity. This enmity is nothing else but a willing of evil or mischief to the thing or person hated, and that out of mere displacency, dislike, or distaste of the person hated. This is a sure note ; the regenerate hate their sins, in that they would have them arraigned, crucified, mortified ; they would fain see the heart-blood of sin let out ; therefore they oppose, watch against, and resist it as their mortal, deadly enemy. When a man pursues sin, would have the life of it, this enmity cannot be quiet ; it is an active enmity, diligent in praying, mourning, watching, striving, using all holy means to get it out of our hearts, wishing, groaning, waiting, complaining, that we may get rid of it : Eom. vii. 24, ' O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?' They follow their work hard.
2. The causes of this hatred. There are three causes of it : —
[1.] Spiritual knowledge and illumination, that is one cause of hatred : Ps. cxix. 104, ' Through thy precepts I get understanding ; therefore I hate every false way.' When the heart is thick-set, and. well fraughted with divine knowledge, a man cannot sin freely. Those that are exercised in the word of God find some consideration or other to quicken to the hatred of sin. The word is a proper instrument to destroy sin: Ps. cxix. 11, ' Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee ;' Eph. vi. 13. Our affections follow our apprehensions. We come to the heart by the mind : Jer. xxxi. 19, ' After I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh.' In the word of God are the most proper reasons and arguments to kill sin.