3. There is a twofold hatred : odium abominationis and odium inimicitice — the hatred of abomination, and dislike, and the hatred of enmity. The one is opposite to the love of good will, the other to the love of complacency : Prov. xxix. 27, ' The wicked are an abomination to the righteous.' Surely a righteous man hateth not his neighbour with the hatred of enmity, to seek his destruction ; but with the hatred of offence, so as not to delight in him while he is wicked, in opposition to the love of complacency. We may hate our sinful neighbour, as we must first hate ourselves, and loathe ourselves, because of our sins : but
472 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIIL [SeR. IX.
-in opposition to the love of benevolence we must neither hate our neighbour, nor our enemy, nor ourselves.
[1.] Apply this distinction to the case between God and us, it will be hard to excuse any carnal man from either hatred ; certainly not from the hatred of offence or abomination, there being such an unsuit- ableness and dissimilitude between God and them in pure nature. We were created after his image, and then we delighted in him ; but when we lost our first nature, we left our first love ; for love is grounded upon likeness, or willing and nilling the same things. But, alas ! now we love what he hateth, and hate what he loveth ; and therefore, because of this dissimilitude, there is a hatred. How can we delight in a holy God, and a God of pure eyes delight in such sensual polluted creatures ? What can carnal men see lovely in God, or God in them ? See Zech. xi. 8, ' My soul loatheth them, and their soul abhorreth me.' Therefore from this hatred of loathing, offence, and abomination, none can excuse themselves ; till they come to hate what God hateth, and to love what God loveth, there is, and will be, the hatred of offence : Prov. viii. 13, ' The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.'
[2.] For the other branch. The hatred of enmity, is that which implieth all endeavours of mischief, and seeketh the destruction of the thing hated. We cannot excuse the carnal man from this either ; for there is a secret positive enmity in them against the being of God ; and this is the effect of slavish fear. We hate God under a double notion, as a lawgiver, thwarting our lusts by his precepts ; and as an avenger, punishing our disorders. This latter we are upon. Slavish fear apprehendeth God as an avenger of sin, or as a condemning God. Men hate those whom they fear. The Roman historian observeth it: proprium est humani ingenii odisse quos Iceserit. Why? Because we fear their revenge. We have wronged God exceedingly, and know that he will call us to an account ; and, therefore, being sensible of the righteousness of his vindictive justice, we hate him. All that are afraid of God, with such a fear as hath torment in it, aut extinctum Deum cupiunt aut exanimatum, it is a pleasing thought to them if there were no God : Ps. xiv. 1, * The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.' As the devils tremble at their own thoughts of God so do wicked men. It were welcome news to them to hear there were no God.
4. God's enemies carry on a double war against him, offensive and defensive. The offensive war is when men break his laws ; employ all their faculties, mercies, comforts, as weapons of unrighteousness against God : Rom. vi. 13, ' Yield not your members as instruments of unright- eousness to sin, orrXa dSiKia^i ; but yield .yourselves to God. Our faculties, talents, and interests are employed either as armour of light for God, or as weapons of unrighteousness against God. The defensive war is when we slight his word, despise his grace, resist the motions of his Spirit : Acts vii. 51, ' Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ear, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost/ When God bringeth his spiritual artillery to batter down all that which lifteth up itself against the obedience of Christ, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. When he besiegeth our hearts, and battereth them daily by the rebukes and motions of his Spirit, yet men will not yield the fortress, but stand it out to the last ; take delight to go on in the obedience of their natural corruptions ; will not have
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Christ to reign over them ; and so they increase their enmity, and double their misery, by a resistance of grace, and are rebels, not only against the law, but the gospel, stand out against their own mercies. They are enemies to an earthly prince, that not only infest his country with continual inroads and incursions, but those also that keep his towns and strongholds against him. And in this sense an impenitent person, and an enemy to God, are equivalent expressions in scripture. Though you do not break out into open acts of hostility against God, yet if you will not come out of your bondage, and come out of the misery and folly of your carnal estate, you are enemies to him.