2. They intercept our views of God —
[God is exceeding gracious to those who walk circum- spectly before him: but he has warned us that, "if we forsake him, he will forsake usa." This his people of old experienced to their cost, as the prophet told them ; " Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hearb." And is this a slight correction ? Let the cries and terrors of persons under dereliction0, be to us as a beacon for our effectual admonition.]
3. They indispose us for spiritual exercises and enjoyments —
[While we maintain close fellowship with God, our duties are a source of the sublimest happiness : but when we decline from his ways, the whole work of religion becomes a burthen. Have we neglected prayer for a season, or been inattentive in it to the frame of our minds ? how painful a task is it to ap- proach our God ! the most glorious of all privileges is turned into an irksome rite, to which we are goaded by a guilty con- science. The same indisposition instantly extends itself to every other office of religion ; so that the visiting of the sick, the conversing on spiritual subjects, the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and indeed the whole life of religion is bereft of vital energy, and degenerates into an empty and unproductive form. What an awful punishment is this !]
4. They lay us open to the incursions of sin and Satan —
[Righteousness is, as it were, a breast-plate that guards our vitals, and proves an armour on the right hand and on the leftd: but unwatchfulness deprives the soul of its defence, and exposes us to the envenomed darts of our great adversary. If we have secretly declined from God, the temptations, which once were easily overcome, have a deep and lasting effect : our spirits are soon ruffled; our evil passions are soon awakened; and, if God interpose not for our recovery, we shall soon *' return with the dog to his vomit, and with the sow that is washed to her wallowing in the mire." Sin, of any kind, makes a breach in the soul, which, if not stopped at first, will widen, till our desolation is inevitable, and our ruin final. Who can but tremble at the warning which God himself has given us ; " His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his own sinse?"
a 2 Chron. xv. 2. b Isai. lix. 2.
c Ps. lxxvii. 1 — 9. and lxxxviii. 3 — 16.
d Eph. vi. 14. 2 Cor. vi. 7. e Prov. v. 22.