between us and our carnal desires : Col. i. 21, ' You were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works.' In the original it is 6-)(dpov'i rfj Oiavoia iv roh epiyoa roL<i Trovrjpol^, ' by your mind in wicked works ; ' because your minds were set upon wicked works, you were vexed God should restrain your desires ; for we cannot endure one should restrain the exercise of our carnal affections. Now this enmity is mutual ; God hates us, and we hate God. On man's part it is driven on with fury , he doth so hate God that he seeks the de- struction of his being ; as he that hates another sceketh the destruction of his goods, life, and honour, so he that hates God seeks to un-God him. The sinner wishes there were no such being as a God in the world : Ps. xiv. 1, ' The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.' The heart is the seat of desires ; these are the fool's wislies ; it is a sweet pleasing thought to him. Though he cannot get rid of these impressions of a Godhead, yet he wishes he could. A man that would live at liberty could wish there was no judge to call him to an account; he could let loose the reins of vile affections if there were no God ; were it not for this restraint he could live as he list. Nay, they deny God in their lives : Titus i. 16, ' They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him.' Sin in effect doth lay God aside, and, to put the greater affront upon him, it sets up something base in his stead ; it sets up the belly for God : Phil, iii. 19, ' Whose god is their belly ; ' the choicest respects of the soul run out upon the sensual part. Or it sets up a little wealth for God. Or if sin cannot take away the being of God, yet it strikes at his honour, and would make him to be an unjust or an evil God. Sin deprives God of the honour of all his attributes ; of his omnisciency, for though we are ashamed to sin before man, yet, though God seeth all things, we do not blush if we can carry on a wicked design under the veil of darkness, and dig deep to hide our counsels from the Lord. Doth such a sinner think God is all-seeing and all-knowing? Jer. ii. 26, 'A thief is ashamed, when he is found ; ' when the eye of man hath surprised him, but alas I we are always found of God. It robs him of his omnipotency and power, as if he were impotent and weak, as if we could make our party good with him. The apostle useth a smart question, 1 Cor. x. 22, ' Do we pro- voke the Lord to jealousy ? are we stronger than he ? ' As if he had said, Man, consider what thou doest ; by sinning thou dost enter into the lists with God, and art thou able to deal with him ? It is a con- test with God, as if we could arm our lusts against his mighty angels. Will you contend with him that can command legions of angels ? When you go about to sin, you do as it were wage war with heaven, and enter into combat with God. That is the reason the Lord by the prophet asketh sinners, What do you think ? Is there such a thought in thee as if thou wast able to deal with me ? Ezek. xxii. 14, ' Can thy heart endure, or can thine hands be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee ? ' Are you able to grapple with ray omnipotent arm, and snatch judgment out of my hands, and oppose my mighty angels ? Can thy heart endure when my almighty hand shall seize upon thee, and divine displeasure shall break out against thy soul ? The angel when contending with the devil ' durst not bring a railing accusation,' Jude 0. He knew the mighty God would
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avenge him, therefore he durst not be malicious ; yet we dare enter the lists with heaven. Thus is sin an enmity against God ; it would either have no God, or an impotent, unjust, unwise God. Nay, there is an enmity in sin against every person in the Holy Trinity. Against God the Son : When Christ came into the world, his great work was to dissolve the works of Satan : 1 John iii. 8, ' For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil ; ' that he might unravel all those webs which Satan had been weaving, and you strive as much as in you lies to set it up, and make his death of none effect . Heb. x. 29, ' Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing ? ' You make a low thing of it, tread it underfoot ; it is an allusion to the sprinkling of the lintels of the door, but they sprinkled it on the threshold. And it puts an affront upon the Holy Ghost ; it grieveth and vexeth the Spirit of God ; it is a setting up lust against lust, and a direct thwarting of his motions and impulses : Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.' You do as it were reproach him, and say he shall do no good upon your hearts, this shall not gain upon you. Moses, when .he speaks of a presumptuous sinner, saith, Num. xv. 30, * The soul that doth ought presumptuously, the same reproacheth the Lord ; ' when you do thus deliberately sin, you do as it were reproach the Spuit of God, Likewise on God's part , he hateth us too, and though he be full of kindness, yet he cannot give sin a good look : Hab. i. 13, ' Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.' God loveth all his creatures, and loveth to look upon them, but he hateth that which is properly man's creature, and that is sin ; there is no antipathy greater than between these two natures. You may sooner reconcile fire and water, light and darkness, cold and heat, than God and sin. The enmity of all creatures is as their beings are, finite and limited ; but God's being is infinite ; his whole nature sets him against sin ; therefore there is no comparison which serves to set out the indignation the Lord hath against sin, there is no antipathy like it.