3. The causes of it.
4. The effects.
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306 A FAST SEEMON.
5. What a sad charge this is.
First, The nature of the sin — To be weary of God. Weariness in the body noteth a deficiency of strength, no more mind to work ; in the soul a falling from God, and we have no mind to his service, which is either partial or total.
1. Partial. When the heart is more alienated from God than before, and all our respects to him grow burdensome and grievous, and the heart begins to repine at everything we do for him : Mai. i. 13, 'Ye said also, What a weariness is it ! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts ; and ye brought also that which was torn, and lame, and sick : thus ye brought an offering. Should I accept this at your hands, saith the Lord of hosts ? ' There is a tediousness and irksomeness in God's service, be it never so slight. They that brought a sickly lamb for an offering, yet puffed as if they were tired with some great burden and labom" : Amos viii, .5, ' When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn, and the sabbath that we may set forth wheat ? ' As if all were lost that were laid out upon God. And so he is neglected and begrudged as an unwelcome guest.
2. Total. When not only the power of religion is abated, but the very profession of it is cast off ; and so, being weary of God, is a plain revolt or departure from him, and the obedience we owe to him : Heb. iii. 12, ' Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.' The evil is departing from God by a formal and direct apostasy, or denying and forsaking that which they formerly professed ; and the cause of it is the evil heart of unbelief, expecting no good by that way. It is an evil heart, because the heart which inclineth to this apostasy hath a malignant quality in it, not infirmity only, but malignity and unbelief in the cause of it, or a doubt of the happiness offered by Christ.
Secondly, That it is incident sometimes to persons considered in their single capacity ; sometimes to a people considered in their com- munity.
1. To persons considered apart and in their single capacity. A more common sin it is than we are aware of, for all by nature are incKned to it.
[1.] Partly out of natural adverseness to God : Rom, viii. 7, ' The wisdom of the flesh is enmity to God ; ' and Col. i. 21, ' Enemies by your minds in evil works.' This enmity manifesteth itself by a back- wardness to that which is good, by a proneness to that which is evil. And it is enmity against God because of his law. It is not subject, nor can it be. In the law there is a precept and a sanction. The precept showeth what is due from us to God ; and the sanction what is due from God to us, the' debitum pcena: — what punishment is due to us ; for reward we can expect none, having faulted in our duty. Now both breed a strangeness and enmity between us and God. We hate him as a lawgiver, and we fear him as an avenger, Isa. Ux. 2. We are as shy of God as God hath reason to loathe us. Ever since Adam first sinned, and then ran to the bushes, this disposition remaineth in us. Our forefather was first a fugitive, and then an exile. This is the disposition of all his posterity. We will not come to God,
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or not keep with him. The natural aversion from our duty is hardly cured, we having temptations of sense to feed it, Jam. i. 14. And our legal bondage, because of the sanction and curse, breedeth in us a shyness of God, Genesis iii. 10. And after we have seemed to con- sent to the invitations of his grace, yet it is hard to settle in a thorough love in his majesty, and delight in him.
[2.] Partly because of the fickleness and changeableness of man, who is unstable as water : a restless creature that loveth to shift and change. In his comforts, the very delights of nature by continuance grow burdensome to us, and pleasures need to be relieved and refreshed by other pleasures. In his opinions and notions about religion, light chaff is taken up by every wind, Eph. iv. 14. In his aftections : John v. 35, ' Ye rejoiced in his light for a season.' And cm-iosity, an adulterous affection to truth, loveth it while new. The frame of our hearts is soon changed ; sometimes we are zealous, anon cold and flat ; now humble, then proud ; now devout, anon vain ; now meek, and soon after passionate. In the choice and course of oiu: lives no creature so unlike itself as man is. When our first heats are spent we flag and grow weary : Gal. v. 7, ' Ye did run well ; who did hinder you, that you should not obey the truth ? ' Sometimes they show great forwardness in embracing the truth ; and though they have no satisfying reason for their defection from it ; yet mere levity diverts their affection and zeal, and they grow cold and careless in it, yea, quite alter the course of their religion and profession, and their former zeal and suflerings tend to no other effect but the disgrace of the gospel. Jehu's pace for a while often endeth in Demas' choice. ' Demas hath forsaken us, having loved this present world ' So ver- satile and fickle is man's heart.