he that is not with God, is against him : Mat. xii. 30 ; and he that
loveth him not, hateth him. To be a neuter, is to be a rebel, because
God doth so much deserve our love, and we are so much obliged to
him, and depend upon him. So it is said, Prov. viii. 36, ' All that hate
me, love death : he that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul.'
They that do not seek after wisdom, hate it ; they care not for God,
whether he be pleased or displeased. You speak all manner of misery
to that man of whom you may say, that he loveth not God. So Christ
brandeth his enemies : ' I know that you have not the love of God in
you,' John v. 42. Men are in a woeful case, if void of the love of God.
Love being the fountain of desiring all communion with him, and the
root of all obedience to him ; therefore, if men, blinded by the delusions
of the flesh, or diverted by the world, love not God, being so deeply
engaged to God, and God so deserving their love, they are enemies to
him : 1 John ii. 15, ' If any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him : ' 1 Cor. xvi. 22, ' If any man love not the Lord Jesus
Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.' It is danger enough not to
love him, though we break not out in open opposition against his ways.
(2.) If we love him not so much as we ought to do, or not so much
as we love some other thing. For, in the sacred dialect, a lesser love is
hatred ; as, for instance, in the notion of the law of the hated wife :
Deut. xxi. 15, 16, ' If a man have two wives, one beloved and another
hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the
hated,' etc. Not that she was Mot loved at all, or absolutely hated ;
but she that was not loved as much ^as the other, is called the hated
wife. So in that proverb, Prov. xiv. 20, ' The poor is even hated of
his own neighbour ; but the rich hath many friends.' There, hatred is
taken for slighting, or a lesser degree of love. So in this case between
us and God : Mat. x. 37, ' He that loveth father or mother more than
me, is not worthy of me.' But in Luke xiv. 26, it is, ' If any man hate
not father and mother, and brothers and sisters ; yea, and his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.' There, the lower and lesser love is called
hatred. For Christ's religion teacheth us, not to be unnatural ; but in
comparison of Christ, we should hate them, trample upon the comforts
and benefi.ts which result from such relations, if they be snares to us :
VeR. 7.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 471
SO Mat. vi. 24, * No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve Grod and Mammon.' God is of that excellent nature, that to esteem any thing above him, or equal with him, is to hate him.
Now, because men love the world, and the things of the world over much, yea, more than God, they hate him — are enemies to him. All carnal men are guilty of this, as they are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. This over-love of sensual satisfactions, or terrene and earthly things, is the highest contempt and affront that can be put upon God, in comparison of our love to him. All the pleasures and content- ments of the world should be hated rather than loved. So far as our hearts are set upon those things, which the flesh savoureth and delighteth in, so far are they estranged from God ; and then you will neglect him, or easily part with him for the world's sake. If a father should come to his child, and say, ' If you love such vain and enticing company, I shall take you for mine enemy, you must either hate me or them,' would not an ingenuous child refrain his haunts, rather than forfeit his father's love ? This is the case between us and God : ' Love not the world,' saith he, ' nor the things of the world ; if you love the world, you do not love me.' Therefore for us only to savour and relish these things is flat enmity to God.
(3.) We are said to hate God, and be enemies to him, if we rebel against him and disobey his laws. God's love to us is a love of bounty, and our love to him is a love of duty, shown rather by obedience than a fellow-like familiarity. Here in the text, our respects to God are interpreted and judged of by our respects to his law. By this, God measureth our love and hatred to himself. It is enmity to God, ' because it is not subject to the law of God.' So, elsewhere, love is determined by obedience: 1 John v. 8, 'For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments ; ' and John xiv. 21, ' He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.' On the other side, hatred is expressed by disobedience : Deut. v. 9, ' On them that hate me, and keep not my commandments.' All sin is a hatred of God ; actual sin is odium Dei actuale, and habitual sin is odium Dei habituale. It is finis operis, if not operantis. We think not so, but the Scripture judgeth so ; and it appears from reason. We apprehend God standeth in the way of our desires ; and because we cannot enjoy our lusts with that freedom and security, as we might other- wise were it not for his law, therefore we hate God. He commandeth that which we cannot, and will not do, being enticed and inveigled by the flesh.