seared as to the commission of it? Yes: there are
many who are thus beguiled by Satan from the simplicity that is in Christ;" and they have reason to fear that God will speedily take his flight, and execute that threat, " If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy." Verily, " there is but a step between them and death."]
This leads us to set before you, III. The dreadful state of those who are forsaken by him —
" Woe unto them," says God, " when I depart from them0!" yes, woe unto them indeed; for,
1. They are delivered up into the hands of their spiritual enemies —
[As, when Jesus had departed from Mount Olivet (the very mountain on which the glory of God abode, when it had forsaken the temple and city) that began to be fulfilled, "Your house is left unto you desolate:" and when, "by grieving and vexing the Holy Spirit we have provoked him to become our enemy," our case is become altogether desperate : he says concerning us, " They are joined to idols ; let them alone." Then " the evil spirit that had been driven out, taketh to him seven other spirits to occupy our hearts ; " and our " last state becomes worse than the first." Not that such a person must necessarily be given over to gross and open vice : he may be left under the power of pride and infidelity, or of terror and despondency, or of hardness and obduracy: but, to whatever he is left a prey, " God swears in his wrath, that he shall never enter into his rest."
2. They live only to increase their guilt and misery —
[Every day they live, they only augment the measure of their iniquities : and, strange as it may seem, immediate death, though attended with immediate damnation, would be to them a mercy. In one view indeed, the shortest respite from death may appear a blessing : and so it would be, if they were not sealed up under condemnation : but, being " given over to a reprobate mind," they live only " to heap up misery against the last days," and to " treasure up wrath against the day of wrath." Unhappy soul, whoever thou art, when thus forsaken by thy God ! " Good were it for that man if he had never been born."]
We will conclude this subject with answering two