A Discourse of the Two Covenants

SECT. II. The Temporal Curse.

§. 1. WHatever is excellent or desirable in Scripture is comprehended under the name of life; and by death is comprehended whatever is evil, and whatever may make the creature miserable. The thing threatened being death in general, not this or that particular death or evil, therefore we must understand it of all kind of death; and this I shall branch under these heads: First, Temporal death; and that consists in these particulars.

1. All the Creatures are cursed to him; and that in these regards:

(1) He lost his right to all the Creatures that were given him for his use. God gave Adam an inheritance, and put all in subjection under his feet; but by sin he forfeited them all, that he has not a right to the bread that he eats, nor to the air he breaths in. There is indeed a right of providence and a right of promise that man has to the Creatures: but neither of these a man has from the first, but both from the second Covenant; the one as the Providential Kingdom, and the other as the Spiritual Kingdom is in the hand of Christ. It is as Christ employs them in the world, and so gives them these things as a reward of their service, and their portion in this life: or else they have them by patience only, as a condemned man has many comforts till his execution, but cannot claim them by any right; and so it's with them: for he that had forfeited both foul and body, must needs have forfeited all things else. Therefore all the Creatures are given him by a new Covenant-title: they are all Christ's, and by him dispensed to some as Sons, and to others as Servants, as he is pleased to employ them. For it's by his Covenant that the Earth is established, that it doth not perish, and all the Creatures in it by virtue of that Curse, Cursed be the ground for thy sake. Now if a curse upon man would bring him to destruction, then a curse upon the Creatures (had not a second Covenant come in) would have wrought their annihilation. Act. 1.26. Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. Judas had no place of his own but Hell; and Christ himself standing in a cursed condition, though he were Lord of all, yet he was in the world as one that had right to nothing. He became poor, had not a house to lay his head in, nor an Ass to ride on, but lived upon the benevolence of his servants: He had not a Chamber to eat the Passover in. And when he died, whereas all men have their Graves, he had none but another man's. But how was it that Christ the heir of all things, should be so in want, but as he stood under our Covenant, and came under our curse, and did represent our persons; and therefore it's said, Dan. 9.26, That the Messiah shall be cut off not for himself. So we read it. But others read it, Et nihil erit ei, He shall have nothing, he shall have no inheritance in his life, and shall die as if there were no hope in his death.

(2) All the Creatures deny their service to him: When thou tillest the ground it shall not give its strength; that's a fruit of the curse upon the Creatures for man's sin; the Sun shall refuse to give its light, and the Clouds their rain, and the Heavens their influence: and that we have any of these, it's by virtue of the second Covenant; it's by Christ that the Sun shines, and the rain falls upon the just and the unjust. Hos. 2.19, I will betroth thee unto me; and then the Heavens shall hear the Earth, and the Earth shall hear the Corn and the Wine: then all the Creatures shall give their fruit and influence. Rom. 8.19, 20, there's a bondage of corruption, from which the Creature desires to be delivered; by which I think is not meant dissolution, for surely no creature but desires its own preservation; therefore I judge it's meant of service and subjection, in being subordinate to the lusts of wicked men. And although the Creatures themselves be made for service, and of their own natures rejoice and triumph in it, as the Sun does rejoice as a Giant to run its course: yet since sin came into the world there is such a sympathy in the Creature of the wrong done to God thereby, that the Creatures would withdraw themselves, the Sun would clothe itself with sackcloth, and the Moon be turn into blood; the Stars would withdraw their shining, and all the rest would do so also, but that the Lord has subjected them in hope of a restauration and a glorious condition that they shall have, even a new Heaven and a new Earth, &c. And God makes the Sun to rise upon the evil as well as on the good; but upon the evil for the sake of the good. And were God's people taken all out of the wilderness of this world, the Creatures should be delivered and serve the lusts of wicked men no more. And therefore the Sun was withdrawn at the death of Christ, not that it could not behold such a horrible sight, (as some do express it); but it was in wrath, to show that he was under the displeasure of God, to whom he cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and all his Disciples forsook him and fled, and not an Angel looked out of Heaven to comfort him.

(3) The Creatures that men have in their possession are cursed; there is a curse upon them which blasts them, that they are subject unto vanity, and are become vanity of vanities, Eccles. 1.2. There is an universal decay by reason of God's curse come on all things that are for man's use; but many times there is also a particular curse that does ha •• en their decay sooner than else it would have been, as it is in Estates, Hos. 5.12, á moth and rottenness, and a lion enters into families. And we read of a flying Roll, that's the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth,—and it enters into the house of the thief and the swearer, and consumes the stones, and makes holes in the bottom of the Bag; the substance of his house shall depart, his honor and memory shall be gone; and so their names are written in the earth, the name of the wicked shall rot. God does many times rot men's names presently that they perish, they are consumed as in a moment.

(4) Whatever they have by the Creatures shall be with much toil, labor and weariness: In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread. We see how much toil and labor the Husbandman has to put some life into the dead earth; all things are full of labor, man cannot utter it; and how much weariness there is in every calling and condition of life, nay even in our very Recreations, how much pains there is to extract a poor small contentment, that even the pleasure of it does nothing recompense the labor to get it, God having made the Creatures even like to Paracelsian Physic, a little spirit mixed with a great deal of unprofitable matter; a great deal of dross with a little gold, and much chaff with a little corn, and a great deal of labor before a man can beat it out. Every condition of life is full of labor.

(5) Even those Creatures that a man is acquiring for his good, become instruments of vengeance for his destruction; for all the Creatures are armed against a man: The Stars in their courses fight against him; the Heaven that sends down destroying influences, the Sun that scorches the Earth, and destroys all the labors of man, and the Rain that drowns the World, and the Earth that opens its mouth to swallow him up; and the meanest of the Creatures, flys and lice destroy him; and a man's meat and drink become his bane: God curses his bread and water, and it shall bring diseases on him. The Angels they keep you out of Paradise with terror, Gen. 3. destroy whole Armies, meet men with a drawn sword as they did Balaam. Sometimes a man is eaten with worms as Herod was; and sometimes God fights against us as he did against Cambyses; and the Devil doth possess our bodies and destroy our goods, as he did Job; and he waits but for a commission to hurry us to Hell, and to be the instrument to convey us thither upon all occasions, as being Satan our adversary.

§. 2. The curses upon a man's body are various and great. As,

(1) Continual weariness and wasting, and sickness, and a disorder and jarring between the humors of a man's body, Deut. 28.21. and old age which is a continual disease; though indeed it's true, as Solomon says, Gray hairs are a crown if found in the way of righteousness. And it's an honor with Mnason to be an old Disciple, but yet it is in itself a fruit of the curse, that bringeth with it the decays of nature; for man if he had not fin'd should never have waxed old, nor had any deformity: for he was created at first a very glorious Creature, and had no blemish from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot: but now there is not the fairest face but it has some blemish; and there is a strange ugliness and deformity come upon men, though upon some more than others. The botch of Egypt, the Itch, the Scab that shall not be healed, &c. We read in Eccles. 12.2, 3. a description of those evil days, wherein all the comforts of a man's life are taken away; a man cannot say he has any pleasure in them, in which he is much disabled for service to God and man, by reason of his weakness and infirmities. All things that are comfortable in this life do decay, and it is with a man as in Winter-weather, when a shower or two does not cleanse the sky, but the end of one misery and disease is the beginning of another. And there is a more particular description of the miseries • hat attend man in his age in the third verse of that Chapter, The keepers of the house, the 〈◊〉 and hands are weak, the defense that God has given this house of clay, they through •••• ness and palsy do tremble, and the legs and thighs, the poor pillars and supports of 〈◊〉 house do buckle through weakness and bow: the grinders cease because they are few: and the eyes that look out at the windows are weakened, and the doors shut in the streets, and the mouth closed. And he desires not company because he is unfit for it; he keeps home and sits alone, and his sleep does easily depart from him; at every noise he rises up, at the voice of a bird, &c. and desire fails to any of the pleasures of this life. We see a Comment upon much of it in the 2 Sam. 19.35. and then death comes, and there is a dissolution of this house of clay, and after death the dust returns to the earth as it was, and this glorious body of man so curiously fed, and so sumptuously clothed, must become food to the worms, and rot in its own filthiness and putrefaction; and in all these respects the body is become a vile body, corruptible, mortal, a body of death, and it lies down in dishonor in the grave.

(2) And there is this great curse also upon the body of man; it is become an instrument of sin to the soul, and so an instrument for the devil to use. Sin indeed is not properly and formally in the body but in the soul, and therefore it is properly called the sin of the soul, for it's the soul that is the arch-rebel; sin is formaliter in cord & redundanter in corpore; formally in the soul, but by redundance in the body. But yet there is this curse come upon the body and the members of it, that it's employ'd as a servant to the soul in sinning; and as it is the misery of the Creatures to serve the lusts of men, so it's the curse upon the body to be an instrument to serve the lusts of the soul: there is a fitness in it for the service of sin, Rom. 6.13. They are weapons of unrighteousness. As grace in the soul does fit the members that a man is prepared to every good work, so does sin also prepare to every evil work. The beam in the eye is but a part of the grown wood that is in the heart. David's 's grace made his tongue as the pen of a ready writer, and Doeg 's sin made his tongue cut as a sharp razor. There is a fitness in the members to evil, there is a readiness and proneness in the members to sin, as there is a backwardness in them to whatever is good. Luk. 24.25, Slow of heart to believe,—and dull of hearing; a heavy ear and a blindness. So they are prone to evil, the poison of asps is under their tongue, they have it in a readiness; and their feet are swift to shed blood, very ready to be sent on such a message, and employ'd in such a business, &c. Moreover there is a greediness even in the members to sin, 2 Pet. 2.14, They have eyes full of adultery, that cannot cease to sin; it was as a spring tide that over flowed all, Act. 13.10. A facility to evil, and they ran greedily after the error of Balaam, Jude v. 11. They were as a swift dromedary, &c. All these expressing the readiness and greediness even of the body to be an instrument to the sin of the soul.

(3) There is an universal frustrating of all a man's labors, Eccles. 9.11, I saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. There is nothing that a man does shall prosper, he shall reap no fruit of all his labor; for he has but labored for the wind. Jer. 22.30, Write this man childless; a man that shall not prosper in his days: It's the happiness of a godly man, as in Joseph, whatever he doth the Lord makes it to prosper. But it's the misery of a man under the curse, that nothing he does shall prosper, Psal. 1. ult. God turns their way upside down; they hatch a Cockatrice egg, and they weave a spiders web, which never becomes a garment.

§. 3. There is also a curse of God upon a man in reference to his name and reputation amongst men; and that also in many Particulars. (1) A man shall be famous for wickedness, and for that get to himself a name, which is a great curse upon a man, Gen. 6.4. From those unlawful Marriages between the sons of God and the daughters of men, there were born Giants, which were in those days men of renown; it being an expression taken in the worse part, for men notoriously wicked. It's an observation of Mr. Medes, that from these Hell had its first and ancient name, Prov. 21.16, The man that wanders out of the way of understanding shall remain, in C • tu Gigantum, in the congregation of Giants. And Prov. 11.18, Her house inclines unto death, and her paths, ad Gigante, to the Giants. And so it had its name from these men, that were the first eminent and famous inhabitants of it; and yet in their life-time these were men of renown. The same thing is too common in all ages, men are famous as they do some eminent evil; as Augustine says, Pudet non esse impudentem; it is a shame not to be impudent.

(2) When a man shall not have a name answerable to his desert, Eccles. 9.11, There shall not be favor to men of skill, but folly is set in great dignity. As Chap. 10.5. i. e. Men of weak abilities and low parts are advanced to great honor and rule in the Commonwealth, and men of great ability, and fit for public Employment sit in a low place, in a mean and obscure condition: men of no note in the world, those that no man look after, servants are on horse-back, men of servile parts, and spirits that a man would look upon them as men, ad mancipium nati, born to vassalage, and yet they are brought to great honor; and Princes, 〈◊〉 Princely spirits do lacky it on foot by them. We read, Eccles. 9.14, There was a little 〈◊〉 and few men in it, and there came a great King with an Army against it, and besieged it, but a poor wise man delivered it: but he was rewarded with disgrace, disrespect, and forgetfulness; no man regarded him. Yea even the Saints of God, of whom the world is not worthy, yet they are counted the scum of all things, and men do cast out their names as evil. It was part of the sufferings of Christ, the reproaches that he was loaden withal, a part of the curse that he did undergo for us, Psal. 22.6, I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people; all they that see me laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip and shake the head, &c. They say, He is a Traitor, a Drunkard, a Conjurer, and one that did cast out Devils by the power of Satan, — a Blasphemer, &c. All this is indeed to the godly turned into a blessing, and adds to their glory; but yet it is in itself a • urse, as all other afflictions are, and a part of this death which is the curse of the Covenant.

(3) When a man has gotten to himself a name, and honor, and repute, it proves his snare, and he is lifted up by it; Pulchrum est digito monstrari, —and it shall be said, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Demosthenes, —and then the man is so exalted in himself that the earth cannot bear him. Nebuchadnezzar was come to be one of the greatest Monarchs of the Earth, Isa. 14.13, Thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God, &c. and Ezech. 28.2, His heart was lifted up, and he said, I am a God, and I sit in the seat of God, yet thou art man and not God, though thou set thy heart as the heart of God. And Herod, when the people exalted him in that blasphemous speech, It's the voice of God, his heart was lifted up, and the Angel smote him. So I have read of a Doctor that read excellent Lectures concerning the two Natures of Christ, and was much admired by his Auditors, and then the blasphemy of his heart brake forth, Quantum mihi debes, Jesu! &c. How much dost thou owe unto me, Jesus, &c. There is many a man whose head is very giddy by the wind of honor, and he is as a Boat that is sunk by his own sail.

(4) When men have gotten great honor, then shall they by some means or other blemish it, and God will give them over to dishonorable lusts, Eccles. 10.1, As a dead fly causes the ointment to stink, so doth a little folly a man of understanding. A man reputed for wisdom and honor, a small over-sight, a little indiscretion in his carriage shall cast him down, and make his name as distasteful as ever it was before acceptable; a little folly is sufficient to stain and blemish all his repute. Sometimes it is by a foolish speech, The lips of a fool swallow up himself, &c. i. e. Bring him into danger and disgrace. His right arm shall wither, and his right eye shall be put out: his wisdom and prudence shall decay, and his authority and ruling power amongst the people shall by degrees come to nothing; he shall lose all his honor, — and after death his name shall rot, Prov. 10.7. and men shall speak of him as he is; (though sometimes, whiles alive, either fear or favor, and dependencies do blind men, and make them speak well of them, and admire them) as we see it in Ahab: there was none like Ahab, that sold himself to work wickedness. — And Jeroboam the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin; and Judas that was the Traitor, &c. And men shall lie down in the grave in their shame, and be covered with their own confusion as with a mantle; and every man shall delight to cry him down: as we see it in Nebuchadnezzar that so terrified the Nations, that none opened his mouth, or peep'd against him; yet see how they scoff at him, Isa. 14.9, 10, How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, &c. And this shall specially be at the day of Judgment, when men shall be ashamed before men and Angels, Dan. 12. Some shall rise to shame and everlasting contempt.

(5) They shall have a vile esteem in the hearts of all good men, in whose eyes a vile person is contemned, Psal. 15.4. And Judas, though he was amongst the Apostles, yet Christ counts him a Devil. And David calls Saul, Cush, Psal. 7.1. And Abigail saith of her Husband, Nabal is his name, and folly is with him, &c.

§. 4. The last Branch that I will mention in this Temporal curse, is in a man's Relations, all those respects wherein men stand one to another: these are many, and we cannot speak to all, but shall make choice only of some, and leave it unto you in your own private Meditations to make up the rest. We will mention (1) that of Magistrates and Subjects. (2) That between Ministers and People. (3) That between Husband and Wife. (4) That between Parents and Children. And by these you may judge of all other Relations whatsoever.

(1) The relation between Magistrates and People is under a curse. And that 1. as to Magistrates: though Civil Government in itself be a blessing in this state of sin, and Commonwealths have a great dependence upon such Governors, as the names that are given them in Scripture do show; viz. the Bars, the Nails, the Corner-stones, the Shields of the Earth, Fathers, Savior's, Nurses, the breath of our nostrils, and the stay of our tribes, &c. Yet all Magistracy is occasioned by sin, and comes in by the second Covenant. God gave man in his •• cation Dominion over the works of his hand; and they were Pastores pecorum magis quam • eges hominum; Pastors of Cattle, rather than Kings of men. A Natural subjection there should have been but not a Civil. The name of Magistrate came in by sin, not by nature; but the Government being in the hand of Christ, he has erected a double office for Government; (1) That of Angels; (2) That of Magistrates. And as it came in by sin, so they shall last no longer then till sin shall be done away, 1 Cor. 15.24. Calvin here takes in also the dominion of the Angels: all these shall cease with Christ's giving up the Kingdom to the Father, that so God may be all in all. But though it be in itself a blessing, yet coming in by sin, it hath blasted it, and the curse cleaves to Magistracy in many particulars.

(1) They shall affect Dominion, and make great stirs and disturbances in the World, and bring great miseries upon the People that their lusts may be satisfied, and they shall rule according to their will, Gen. 10.8, 9, Nimrod began to be a mighty hunter in the earth. And Jer. 16.16, I will send for many fishers, and many hunters, that should be all for the prey, and take all the people, and bring them into subjection to them. This is spoken of the Chaldeans; and what did they hunt for but to enlarge their Dominions? such was this Nimrod before the Lord; i. e. openly; having cast off all the fear of God, and respect to men; and he was the first, not that founded, but began to exercise Monarchy. And the first Proverb that ever we read of grew from this fruit of the curse upon great men, As it is said, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. Dan. 7.2, 3, The four winds of the heaven strove upon the great Sea, and four great beasts came up from the Sea, divers one from another. By Winds are meant the wars and tumults, and the uproars of the people, Jer. 57.1. And out of this Sea thus disquieted by Winds arose the four Beasts; these made the wars, stirred up the winds to enlarge their Dominion. See it in the first Beast Nebuchadnezzar, the head of Gold; He is a proud man, keepeth not at home, is not content with his own dominions, but enlarges his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers to him all Nations, and heapeth unto himself all people. Isa. 7.2, 8, There is a confederacy between Syria and Ephraim to go up against Judah to vex it: and what was the end but to set up a King in the middle of it? but God said, The head of Syria is Damascus, that is, the Metropolis; and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, it shall not come to pass, &c. And when this itch and affectation of rule takes place men will never be satisfied, what misery soever they bring upon their Subjects. We see Nebuchadnezzar 's service against Tyrus, and though God had an over ruling hand in it, yet his highest end was the enlargement of his Dominion.

(2) Having attained to Dominion they shall rule over the people with rigor, by will and not by law; but all must be arbitrary, the ancient hedge of Law they will pluck up, and the ancient bounds of Government they will remove. Hos. 5.10. Dan. 7.26, There are ten horns on the head of the fourth Beast; and they are ten Kings, and another shall arise after them that shall subdue three Kings, and he shall think to change times and laws. And we read also, Zach. 11.5, The people are the flock of the slaughter; for their possessors slay them. I will deliver every man into the hand of his neighbor, and the hand of his King, and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will deliver them.

(3) They shall use their authority against Religion, and against the Saints, to subvert the one and destroy the other. Nebuchadnezzar has no sooner an Empire, but he must have a Golden Image, and the people must upon pain of death be all of the Kings Religion. Let Jeroboam attain the Crown and the people must go no more up to Jerusalem to worship; they shall have at Dan and Bethel a worship every way as specious, and to human wisdom as rational, as that at Jerusalem; and all this is for the people's ease, and they willingly walk after the Commandment. King Ahaz must have his new-fashioned Altar, and Ahab the worship of Baal: the ten Kings give their Kingdoms to the Beast, they must use their power to have some human addition, and some politick contrivement in matters of Religion and the things of God. They shall speak great words against the most High, and shall endeavor to wear out the Saints, Dan. 7.25.

(4) And they are also instruments to ruin themselves by their wickedness, and the Kingdoms in which they rule. As Saul had almost destroyed the Kingdom. The land is weak and all the inhabitants are dissolved, I bear up the pillars of it, &c. Psal. 75.3. and Dan. 7.26, He shall do this till the judgment shall sit, and dominion shall be taken from him, and it shall be consumed and destroyed to the end. Magistrates may so far provoke God in the abuse of their power not only to take away dominion from them, but even to destroy the Nation, and Government itself for their sakes. As Kingdoms were cast off in Rome for the abominations of their King. There was a great Star that fell from Heaven, and his name was called wormwood, and the third part of the waters were become bitter, and many perished in his downfall. It were not harsh to say, that most of the Magistrates that ever have been raised up in the world, have been given to a people in wrath, as Saul was; and even their persons being such as they are, have been fruits of the Curse, have been given in judgment, and proved very great scourges to the Nations where they lived.

2. There is a Curse also upon the people in reference to Magistrates.

(1) The people shall flatter the Magistrate, which is a great judgment, and by this means he shall lift up himself to his own destruction, and they willingly walk after his Commandment. It's a judgment to a people to have a Magistrate command what is evil willingly; so it is to a Magistrate to have the people willing to obey anything, be it never so evil: to be as a lump that receives any leaven. This was the rise of Antichrist, and the great judgment, that the Kings gave their Kingdoms to the Beast, and all the world wondered after the Beast, Rev. 13.3. To worship Kings as amongst the Persians, to set them up as God's is base flattery.

(2) A spirit of jealousy and murmuring of the people against them. God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, that they were full of nothing else but jealousy and distrust one of another; full of murmuring and complaining. If any evil befall them, by and by stone Moses; if he deliver them it is that he may make himself altogether a King over them, and put out their eyes that they may see nothing. Donit we see how things are carried all for your own advancement? as Corah and his Company said. And when he had wrought the greatest deliverance for them, yet they cry out, That he did bring them out of Egypt out of envy, because there were no graves there; it was but to bury them in the Wilderness: as a sick Patient says to a Physician, surely you mean to kill me, when all his endeavor tends to cure him.

(3) Sometimes they rebel against the Magistrates, and disobey their Commandment; endeavoring by force to cast off their Government: As Absalom 's Conspiracy with the people against David his own Father, besides all the people of Israel were with Absalom. And in Rehoboams time, To your Tents, O Israel, let David take care for his own house, what portion have we in David, and inheritance in the son of Jess, &c. If Sheba the son of Bichri the most obscure man do but blow the Trumpet, and say we have no part in David, all Israel will be ready to desert and fall off from their loyalty and allegiance. As the meanest man shall have power enough to make a party against Government. And men will forsake them when they are in danger and stand in most need of them: as when the Philistines came against Saul and made war against him, all the people were scattered from him. And so others if danger come the people leave them to themselves, after all their care and pains with the greatest faithfulness bestowed upon them.

(4) God many times leaves Magistrates for the people's sins, 2 Sam. 24.1, The Lord was angry with Israel, and he moved David against them, to say, Go number Israel and Judah. David is left to this sin, but it was the Lord's anger against Israel that did provoke him thereunto, that by this sin he might bring upon them the judgment, Ob peccata populi labitur princeps; and therefore Peter Martyr 's observation is, That the people may much help and assist their Magistrates in Government; Orando & recte vivendo, by prayer and well-living; and therefore when the people neglect these, Saepe a Deo deseruntur, the Magistrates are oft left by God, &c.

2. The Relation between Ministry and People is cursed.

1 There is a Curse upon the Ministers in reference to the People.

(1) They shall prove unprofitable and of none effect; they shall not profit this people at all. Though they rise early and go forth in all their might, yet men make excuses when they come to invite them; and they go their way, one to his Farm, and another to his Merchandize, &c. And we can but return the same account that Melancthon did, when he first went forth to preach, Old Adam is too strong for young Melancthon. It was a part of the Curse that was upon Christ for us, in the days of his flesh, Isa. 49.5, I have labor'd in vain, and I have spent my strength in vain. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doth signify, my radical moisture; and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies, utterly to waste, and perfectly to consume. And yet Christ has done all this (in respect of success) in vain, for Israel is not gathered.

(2) The people build hay and stubble upon the foundation that their Ministers lay; and that not only ungodly men, but even godly men, whose work may be consumed and they suffer loss, and yet their souls be saved in the day of the Lord, 1 Cor. 3. Satan can sometimes get into Peter, and carry him away to a dissimulation, as Barnabas also. They may not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , rightly proceed, nor 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , rightly divide; and so by doctrine and example they may hurt souls, Ezech. 13.18, 20. and their trading may be as that of Rome, for the souls of men. The Apostle says, there is a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a craftiness to deceive and draw disciples after them. And the Father says, There is a bait of heresy, something that the flesh of man is taken with.

(3) They may stir up great divisions and contentions in Churches and States. There was a contention begun amongst the Disciples which of them should be the greatest. And by Diotrephes from love of Preeminence, He prates against us with malicious words; and he neither receives the brethren, and forbids them that would, casting them out of the Church. And in the Revelations they go forth together with the Kings of the Earth to the great battle of Armageddon. Therefore Nazianzen bitterly bewails the contentions between the Ministers in his time: If I (saith he) be the cause of this division, if I be the Jonas, then cast me out. And he makes that as his last request to Theodosius the Emperor, That he would compose those divisions; telling him, This should be as the ornament and glory of all his former Victories and Trophies.

(4) They may be a means to ripen the sins and to hasten the Judgment of God upon a people, and increase their condemnation. Go make the heart of this people fat, &c. And the ground that drinks in the rain and bears briers and thorns is near to cursing. If I had not come and spoken to you you had had no sin, but now there is no cloak for your sin, &c.

2. There is a Curse that comes upon the Ministers by the people's sin.

(1) For the people's sins God does many times hide his face, and his truth from their Ministers. There is not a Prophet, there is none can tell us how long. I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, and thou shalt be dumb and not be a reprover to this people. The Sun shall go down upon your Prophets, and the day shall be dark over them, &c. For they do receive Truths as stewards to dispense them; and when God will punish the family then he does straighten the stewards and hides his face from them.

(2) For the people's sins God does many times give the Ministers up to errors and delusions; that as the people are, such also shall the Priest be: They love lies, and say prophesy and declare to us smooth things; prophesy deceit, therefore if any man will prophesy of wine and strong drink he shall be a Prophet for this people. Ahab 's sin did provoke God to send the Devil to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the Prophets. And 2 Thes. 2.10, 11. the people not receiving the truth in the love of it, the Ministers were given over to that efficacy of deceit, and the people were ensnared by it, that all they might be damned that had pleasure in unrighteousness, and had not pleasure in the truth.

(3) The people are many times a continual grief to their Ministers. I was amongst you as a nurse: and therefore did bear with much frowardness and perverseness in the people to the grief of his soul: if you will not hear my soul shall weep in secret for your pride, saith Jeremy. And how much bitterness of spirit the Ministers of God have felt by the perverseness of the people is known to God and their own souls.

(4) They many times make them to prophesy in sackcloth and ashes, in a poor, low, afflicted and contemptible condition; look upon them as the scum of the world, and the offscouring of all things. It has in all ages been the portion of the Witnesses that God has stirred up, to be looked upon as enemies to men, because they tell them the truth; and therefore there are snares laid for them to reprove in the gate. And though the Lord says, they should be counted worthy of double honor that labor in the word and doctrine; yet amongst the generality of men, they that labor most shall be honor'd least. And though the Lord says, Let him that is taught in the word, make him that teaches partaker in his good things; yet men are willing to make them partakers in nothing; and yet if they sow to you spiritual things is it a great matter that they reap carnal things from you? Yes, men think it great, and look not upon it as a duty, but give it with the same repining that nigards give an alms at their door, &c.

3ly, The Curse is also come upon the relation of Husband and Wife. (1) When a Wife shall become a snare to a man's soul, and be to him but one of the Devils darts, a Serpent in his bosom. 'It is said in 1 King. 21.20. There was none like Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. To have a Wife instrumental to further the lust of her Husband in what kind soever, what a snare is that? for her to entice him to the worst of evils, Idolatry, &c. as Deut. 13. (2) When a Wife shall be false to her Husband in the Marriage bed. Thy wife shall be a harlot in the middle of the city, is threatened as the Husbands Curse, Amos 7.17. And Job 31.10, Let my wife grind to another man, &c. And for a man to mistrust his Wife; Keep the door of thy lips from her that lies in thy bosom. (3) When a Wife shall be an enemy to Religion, and a scoffer, as Michal; How glorious was the King of Israel today, when he was uncovered before the maids? And for Job 's Wife to join with his friends, yea with Satan against; Dost thou still retain thy integrity? curse God and die. It's questioned why the Devil should spare Job 's Wife when he took away his Goods and Children? there is surely more comfort in a Wife than in all things in this world. The reason given is, because he did intend to make her an instrument to persuade her Husband to curse God, hoping to conquer him by her. And how this evil in a Wife imbitters the spirit of a Husband, and what animosity it raises in him against her, and what suspicious thoughts, and what estrangement this does usually work in their minds one from another, we many times by experience find.

And the Husband also becomes a Curse to the Wife: (1) By a spirit of jealousy over her, which though sometimes it may be upon just ground and cause given in the Wife; yet sometimes it may be causeless, as appears, Numb. 5.12, 13. We see what great care the Lord did take of Marriage-Chastity, it being his own Ordinance, he did appoint an Offering and a water of Jealousy; the one to be offered to the Lord, and the other to be drank by the Woman accused. And if she were guilty her belly should swell, and her thigh rot; and if guiltless she should conceive seed and become fruitful: so that it was sometimes causeless, and yet a spirit of Jealousy might come upon a man. A Wife made a Cross is the greatest cross; and made a snare is the greatest snare, and the most dangerous. And when a man grows vile in the eyes of a Wife for any weakness in him, either inward or outward, as Nabal did, His name is Nabal, and folly is with him. And Job said, My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the children's sake of my own body, Job 19.17. Jealousy is the rage of a man, it makes him bitter to her, takes everything in the worst sense, not bearing with ordinary and common failings, incident to persons in that state. Bitterness in words, sharp and piercing speechees and actions, savouring of tartness and want of that tenderness and love that should be in a man towards his own flesh. Gen. 3.16, Thy desire shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. The woman was created to be a help to the man, and the woman created for the man, and not the man for the woman; and therefore a subordination and a kind of subjection there was before the fall, but not such as now after the fall. Indeed the Civilians say, that Marriage is, Perpetua quaedam servitus, a constant servitude: only before the fall (as Austin says) it was servitus dilectionis, a servitude of love: but since the fall it is servitus conditionis, a servitude of condition. Before the fall it was with much sweetness and love, their wills never clashing; they both joined in the same good, and willed the same thing: but now there is much opposition and much contrariety of will. And yet it is the bondage that God has laid upon the Wife; she must be subject to her Husband, and have no will of her own; but even her desire must be subject to him: not only submit her actions but even her will also, which is of all other the greatest subjection. It's said of Jacob, though he was a holy man, that God saw that Leah was hated by him, which at best cannot be interpreted but of a less degree of love, and that there was more sharpness in his carriage towards Leah than there was towards Rachel.

(2) When the Husband deserts and forsakes his Wife, being ravished with a strange woman, and embracing the bosom of a stranger, Prov. 5.20. And we read in Mal. 2.15, 16. the great misery those poor women were subjected to, for the Husband making use of that command of Moses, which is not a toleration but a limitation: not that putting away was lawful, (for the Lord hates putting away), but for the hardness of their hearts, seeing they did put them away; for the woman's discharge he was to give her a writing of Divorce. But by this means their wives, v. 13. covered the altar of God with tears: so that when they came to offer Sacrifice, that sin came up into remembrance before God, that their Sacrifice could not ascend; and the Altar was not covered with that, but with the tears of their wives, which they had in a cruel and wicked manner, by their deserting them, caused them to shed, dealing treacherously with the wife of their youth: she that is thy companion and the wife of thy Covenant. They had great complaints against their wives, and were able to find out many pretences to put them away, when they had sinfully found out others, that their lust carried them to: and so they did cover violence with a garment. But the Prophet bids them take heed to their spirits, and look upon the falseness of their own hearts in it, that they deal not treacherously and falsely, and so break their Covenant with their wives, even the Covenant of their God.

(3) By puting them upon occasions of sin; and so they are made instruments to satisfy the lust of their Husbands. What an occasion of sinning did Abraham put upon his beloved Sarah twice? once before Pharaoh King of Egypt, and another time before Abimelech King of Gerar, by desiring her to say, that she was his sister. How was she drawn at his request to consent to a lie, and to endanger her chastity amongst the Heathen? In re illicita etiam consensus vitiosus est; in an unlawful matter the very consent is unlawful. The Apostle says, 1 Cor. 7.34, The married woman takes care of the things of the world, and how she may please her husband. The Apostle does not only set this down as a duty, what married persons should do in that condition, to take care of the things of the family, and how to please their Husband; but as an ordinary temptation and corruption also, that follows that state; though as Calvin observes, Hoc non est proprium conjugii malum; sed ex hominum vitio provenire. It is the common temptation and corruption that accompanies that state, not only a moderate and a lawful but even an inordinate care also of the things of the world, and how to please her Husband even with the neglect of the things of God, and how to please him. Ahab desires Naboth's Vineyard, and is sick for it; and lays him down upon the bed, and will eat no meat. Jezebel his Wife comes to him and says, Dost thou now govern Israel? is this becoming the greatness of thy state to bear such a denial, and affront? Is not all the Kings? and do not his people enjoy what they have by his leave and favor as a boon from him? and shall any subject dare deny his King what he requests of him? This is not to reign over them, bu • to be under them: Imperatoris est leges dare, non accipere, &c. And thus she reproves him, and becomes a very fit instrument for the Devil, I will give thee the Vineyard of Naboth, 1 King. 21.7.

4. Between Parents and Children: 1. Children are curses to Parents. Thou shalt be cursed in the fruit of thy body, as well as in the fruit of thy land. (1) By disesteem, making them vile in a man's eyes, Cursed be he that sets light by father or mother; and this proceeds further even to mocking and deriding, Prov. 30.17, The eye that mocks at his father or mother, the ravens of the valleys shall pick it out. (2) By forsaking them, 2 Tim. 3.3. without natural affections: the word in the Greek is a similitude taken from a Stork, which takes special care to provide for and maintain the Parent when it's old. But Mar. 7 11. they taught Children a way to cheat their Parents by dedicating their Estates to the Temple, or the public service; and then when the Parent should stand in need of any part of it, the child says it is Corban, a thing dedicated, and therefore he must not meddle with it, and so do nothing for him. (3) There is a seeking their Fathers life, as Absalom did David 's, Use the young man well for my sake, says the father; but when Hushai said, We will smite the King only; the saying pleased Absalom well. And the son shall betray the father to death; Sennacherib was slain by his two Sons. (4) The parting with Children at death and not knowing in what condition a man shall leave them, is a great part of a man's vexation. In this life it's a great part of the Curse, His Sons come to honor and he knows it not, they are brought low and he considers it not, &c. That was Luther 's comfort in his Will, Lord, thou hast given me Wife and Children, and I give them to thee again; Qui pater es pupillorum & judex viduarum, which art the Father of Orphans, and Judge of the Widows. But the contrary is a very great affliction unto the hearts of Parents, and a great part of a man's misery, that Children must suffer for the Parents sins, and God may visit the iniquity of Parents upon Children to the third and fourth Generation.

2. Parents also are a Curse to their Children: (1) The sins of Parents are transmitted to the Children. We see Adam did bring a Curse upon himself and all his posterity, and the infants of Sodom were involved in the punishment of the sins that they were not in themselves guilty of; God reserved the punishment of the Fathers for their Children for three hundred and ninety years together. Chams sins and Canaan's is punished nine hundred twenty-five years after; and Gehazi his Leprosy cleaves to him and his posterity; and the Jews in Crucifying Christ, say, his blood be upon us and our children; and so wrath is come upon them to the uttermost for many Generations. [1] This is a punishment upon the Parent, and a testimony of great wrath, that not only Judgment comes upon himself, but upon his posterity. [2] It's only in Temporal things, for an Eternal Curse never comes upon Children, but for their own sins; but for Temporal Curses they are dispensed in a way of prerogative, and the Lord will lay those Curses upon Children which the Parents did deserve, and they are gone down to Hell to receive. (2) Parents prove snares and plagues to their Children by betraying their liberties, losing of their privileges, Rom. 3.2, Unto them were committed the Oracles of God. Now when they shall forfeit them and part with their privileges by little and little. What a curse is this? The Ordinances and the Truths of the Gospel are the greatest trust committed to Parents, but when they provoke the Lord to call them Loammi, and to cast them off, then they are forfeited. As Rom. 11. the natural branches are broken off, and their posterity are cast out as an abominable branch: only the Lord will in time graft them in again. So many a Father does lose glorious privileges and opportunities for his Children. Saul did divest himself of the Kingdom and all his posterity, Now would I have established the Kingdom to thee, &c. (3) By an evil example, corrupting them by their vain conversation received by tradition from their Fathers, Jer. 44.17, We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven as we have done, we and our fathers, our Kings and our Princes in the cities of Judah, &c. (4) The Father may forsake his Son, yea, he may forget, When my father and mother forsake me, says the Psalmist, the Lord takes me up. And the Father may betray the Son to death, as we see Saul did Jonathan; if he will not comply with his lusts he shall not live; he throws a Javelin at him to kill him, &c.

SECT. III. Spiritual Death.

§. 1. WE have thus far considered the first Branch of the Covenant's Curse, and that consists in Temporal death: Now let us come to consider the second Branch of it, which is Death Spiritual, and that is All the spiritual evil that can befall the soul of man in this life, whether of sin or sorrow. And it's as possible for a man to weigh the fire, and to measure the wind, and number the stars, or count the sand upon the sea-shore, as to reckon the particulars wherein this Death consists. Godly men that study the evils of their own hearts all their days, yet cry out, The heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it? Jer. 17.10. The word signifies an incurable disease; its only the Lord that can cure and search it, and know the malignity of it. And as it is said of Virtue and the beauty of Holiness, if it could be seen with bodily eyes, Mirabilem excitaret amorem sui, it would stir up a wonderful love of itself: so could the death of the soul and the evils of it be seen, it would stir up hatred and amazement above all things in the world. A godly man that sees but a little of it, when God opens his eyes, he abhors himself and loathes his own soul, Job 42.6. And Luther blessed God, that he did not show him sin all at once, but by degrees; it would have sunk him with the apprehension of it. This will be the study of men in Hell to all eternity to rake into this filthiness of the soul and the death thereof: for Hell is the grave of the soul, and the rottenness of it shall be studied there forever. And this shall be the work of that never-dying worm, the souls reflection upon itself and its own loathsomeness, and to loath itself forever.

Consider (1) the soul is the darling, and therefore the beauty of a man; and the worth of the man lies in the hidden man of the heart, which is in the sight of God of great price, 1 Pet. 3.3. and therefore the deformity of the soul is the greatest. The worth of the man is from the worth of the soul, Prov. 10.20, The heart of the wicked is little worth: His Lands and his Honor, and his Cloaths may be worth much in the esteem of the world, but his soul is worth nothing. Therefore the value of a man is in his spirit, though there be other things that we commonly prize men by, yet those that judge aright count the Saints upon this account the excellent ones, Psal. 16.3. and all others to be vile men how great and rich soever, Dan. 4.17. Psal. 15. And a man does prosper truly as his soul prospers, 3 Joh. 2. and not as his body prospers, or as his estate prospers. Therefore a man is filthy if his soul is filthy, and vile as his soul is vile; and he decays as his soul does from day today. (2) The great difference between men and men lies in their spirits. Caleb had another spirit, Numb. 14.24. Our distinctions for the present are but for a time, and death will make all equal; that as we were all made of one body, so we shall all be dissolved into the same dust; they are all but for the time of this life; the Princes robes and the beggars rags lie down together, but the difference in their spirits is eternal, and therefore the blessing or the curse upon the soul is much more than that on the body or the estate: many of these being but for the time of this life. (3) Sin is chiefly an act of the soul. The sin of the soul? membra sunt arma, the members are but weapons; it's the soul that's the hand, and the chief cause of enmity lies therein; and therefore the chief vengeance lights upon that. God will punish sin not only here, but eternally: Therefore as the greatest blessing is upon the soul, so the greatest curse also. And as the School-men say of Glory, so we may say of Wrath, it is Radicaliter in cord, redundanter in corpore, radically in the heart, but redundantly in the body; the main object of wrath and curse is the soul. (4) The great evil that sin does a man, it fights against his soul; and the great loss that it occasions is the loss of the soul, men do often complain of losses, but they may be all made up in this life, as Job 's were; or if not, yet the afflictions of this present life are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed; they work for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: and, Quaedam amittere ut majora lucreris non amissio est sed mercatura; to lose some things that thou mayest gain better is not loss, but a thriving trade. But the loss of the soul is the great loss that can never be made up, and therefore the curse of the soul is the great curse. (5) The curse of the soul being taken off all other curses are taken off also; as the curse remaining on the soul all blessings are turned into curses: they may be blessings in the thing, but they are curses to the man. So on the other side all cursings are turned into blessings: they may be curses in the thing, but they shall prove blessings to the man. To the unclean all things are unclean, for their minds and consciences are defiled, Tit. 1. When once Grace comes into the soul malediction goes out; all things shall work for your good, and the curse is taken off from all the Creatures for your use. Life is yours, and death is yours; so that as the precept of the Law is made a servant to the promise of the Gospel; (for it was added by way of subordination and subserviency thereunto;) so the curse of the Law is made a servant to the Grace of the Gospel also: and a Saint has a sanctified use of that as a blessing, which is in itself a curse. (6) The chief satisfaction that was given for sin has reference to the soul. In the sacrifice there was offered the life and the blood; but it was the blood that made an atonement for the soul, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. And when Christ came to stand in our stead as a surety, the main of the sufferings he endured were in his soul, God made his soul an offering for sin. Christ did as our surety, and therefore he put his name to our bond, and was made under the Law. Now being our surety he was to pay our debt; and that was mainly in the soul. The Sacrifice that was to be accepted of God was to be a whole burnt-offering: now if Christ had but suffered in his body it had been but a half burnt-offering. He offered himself, Heb. 9.10. therefore it must be his whole manhood: and before his bodily suffering came, while he was in the Garden, he says, My soul is heavy unto death, Mar. 14.33. amazed or astonished: the word is rendered, a failing of spirit: his spirit died even within him, his thoughts were wholly abstracted from all things else, and the wrath of God that lay upon him did wholly fill up his soul, &c. Now in all these respects the curse upon the soul which is spiritual death, is the greatest part of the Curse far greater than that upon the body, upon Creatures or Relations.

§. 2. And now let us come to consider wherein this Curse upon the Soul lies.

1. It lies in this, That a man has forsaken God as his chief Good, and as his utmost End. Man in his Creation was carried towards God, as that chiefest Good, wherein his happiness consisisted; and acted towards God as him to whom all his actions were referred, and wherein his blessedness lay: and therefore Augustine speaking from a spirit renewed and having the same principle begun in him, says, Omnis copia quae non est Deus inanis egestas est; All plenty that is not God is poverty. And Bernard says, Animam Dei capacem quicquid est Deo minus non implebit; nothing less than God will fill the soul capable of God. Man having all in God must needs do all for him, and refer all to him: for he that is the chief Good must needs be also the utmost End. Now the death of the soul lies mainly in this first, it's taken off from God as the chief Good; for that's the first thing sin does, Jam. 1.14. it draws a man away from God, who was the Center where the soul rested, Psal. 116.7, Return to thy rest, O my soul. They have forsaken their resting place, they have wandered upon every mountain. And therefore Jude v. 18. all the lustings and inclinations of the soul they are called ungodly lusts, because they have nothing else in them, that being the main bent in them all, to take off the soul from God and carry it away from him, Jer. 2.13, It's forsaking the fountain of living water. And Heb. 3.12, It's departing from the living God. And hence it is that repenting is called returning, because we have departed from him; and conversion is nothing else but returning to God as a man's chief Good. And man being thus departed from him, God is not in all their thoughts: for they look for no good from him, their good lies not in him, and therefore they live without God in the world; they know him not, they love him not, they expect nothing from him; it's to them as if there were no God to judge, nor reward; and hence it is that men can live without the favor of God all their life-long, and never be troubled, because they have not made it their happiness. But take a man that has set up this as his happiness, a frown is to him as the messenger of death, and not to see the Kings face puts him into the shadow of death; for he can breath in no other air: as Absalom said, He could not live unless he saw the Kings face. And so David, God had hid his face, which made him like to them that go down into the pit. Man in his Creation as he was wholly of God, so he was wholly for him; and so it is when the Image of God is renewed: None of us lives to himself, nor dies to himself; Whether we live we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord, &c. But nature never aims at God in anything, makes him neither the end of his being, nor of his working: if he labor in his Calling and get an Estate, he is laying up treasures for himself; and is not rich towards God: and in his Religious duties, if he pray, he howles for Corn and Wine. —If he fast, Have you fasted to me, says the Lord? and when you did eat and drink, did you not eat to yourselves? And when they preach it's to themselves: some preach Christ out of envy, and to draw disciples after them. Some self-end or other is the great wheel in all they do that acts them, and carries them on: and if they do reform with Jehu, it's upon a politick principle, and not a pious; not for God but for themselves: and so dum obtemperant, non obsequuntur, whiles they obey they obey not; and in all the duties of Religion Self is at the bottom, Hos. 10.11, They are as a heifer that loves to tread out the corn. And if like the Pharisee they fast, or give alms, it is to be seen of men; God is not in all their thoughts, nor his glory in all their aim; and they are said to serve other things as Mammon, and serve divers lusts and pleasures. Now what is service but to do another's work, and to do it to their ends, to be wholly theirs: therefore Christ is said to be God the Fathers servant, because he did the work that God gave him to do, and he aimed at God's ends also; he did not seek his own glory, but the glory of him that sent him: and Grace is in this respect in a special manner called self-denial, Mat. 16.24, Let a man deny himself; and Self in ends is hardest denied of any other. This is great Babel that I have built for the honor of my Majesty. And thus the soul is taken off from God, it has no happiness in him as the chief Good, they live not to him, they act not for him as their utmost end; he is neither the end of their being, nor of their working.

2. The Soul has lost his interest in God. There were glorious relations between God and man by Covenant, so that as God had an interest in man, so had man also an interest in God, Luk. 3. ult. Adam was the son of God, and had that interest in God that became that relation, as a child has an interest in a father, and he could truly call him his God: and this is the glory of the second Covenant, that our interest in God is restored and increased; I will be their God and they shall be my people, Jer. 31.33. And he that has an interest in another may claim him according to his relation, as truly as if all were in his own power; as the Wife has an interest in the Husband, and she may expect that love, care, and protection and provision that that relation does entitle her to, as truly as if it were in her own power; and the Husband may expect from his Wife that love, service and help that the relation calls for. And it's true of all other relations whatsoever, when persons have a relation and an interest one in another; and though the persons be of the highest rank, as between a King and a Subject, a Master and a Servant, a Father and a Son, yet the relation gives them a mutual interest one in another: and so man had in God at the first, he was his God; and the Saints now call him in Christ, the God of my mercy, and the God of my life; and so man had an interest in the Wisdom of God, and in the Holiness of God, and the Sovereignty of God over all the Creatures, so far as might be for man's good, as truly as for his own glory; for that's the nature of propriety, Eph. 6.10, Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. I have no power, may such a soul say, but I am strong in the strength of God, and wise by the wisdom of God; all that is in God I have a claim to, I have nothing of my own, but all the Creatures of God are as mine; and therefore as having nothing, and yet possessing all things; having nothing in myself and yet possessing all things in God: as Rev. 21.6, He that overcomes shall inherit all things; I will be his God. And therefore after all Job 's great losses the Fathers bring him in looking upon them all, and saying, I have lost nothing. So long as the soul has an interest in God he can lose nothing, he can want nothing: But sin has broken all relations between you and God, but barely that of a Creature, thou art no more a Son; and therefore the Jews, Joh. 8. boasting that God was their father, Christ tells them, that there was no such relation between God and them, but they descended from another stock, of their father the Devil. And for servants, they serve not God but themselves, their own bellies; and therefore all this interest must be restored unto them in Christ; I ascend to my father and your father, my God and your God: He is no way a God to us but as he is Christ's God, else we have no interest in him; and if we sin we can lay no claim to his Mercy to pardon, or to his Wisdom to direct us, or his Power to protect us, or his Bounty to provide for us; nay, all the Attributes of God that work for the good of his people, they all work against such a soul; his Holiness is a terror, for he is of purer eyes than to behold evil; his Wisdom is a terror, for he knows how to reserve the wicked to the day of judgment to be punished; his Omniscience is against us, for he will bring every work to judgment with every secret thing: He does number our steps, and does watch over our sins, and the mercy of God thou hast no interest in, thou shalt have judgment without mercy, &c. a man can claim nothing that is in God to be for him. And though while men are at ease, and enjoy the Creatures, they find no want of this, yet when they come to die and to be in a straight, as Paul was when he said, the Angel of the Lord stood by me whose I am and whom I serve; and at the last day to look up to God, and say, I am thine, save me Lord, it will be more than for a man to have an interest and a title to all the Kingdoms of the Earth: and other men that have slighted it they shall know what it is to lose their interest in God.

3. The Soul has wholly lost the Image of God in which the glory of the soul did at first lie, but it's utterly defaced, and a new Image is now stamped upon us. We are all by nature the children of the Devil, and there is an image that's earthly which we do now bear, 1 Cor. 15.49. therefore we must be renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created us; for all knowledge and inward abilities of mind either to know God or the Creature is lost, and the soul is darkness itself, Ephes. 4.18. dark in its principles, and dark in its reasonings, his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is darkness: and though Divines do commonly say, that there are some common notions as fragments of the former image, I conceive we are beholding to the Covenant of Grace for them, and that they are preserved in us by Christ, as our lives are; and the support of the Creatures for our use, and whatever does tend to our comfortable being, whatever is on this side Hell, we have not as a part of the first Image, and from the first Covenant, but as an overflowing of the Grace of the second Covenant, by which I say the world stands: for surely man fell in lutum lapidosum, into a stony mire, as Bernard: the one blotted out the image of Holiness, and the other brake in pieces all his natural abilities. It's laid for a ground, that Original sin is alike in all; now how comes it to pass that it has not the same punishment and power upon all? Take a natural fool, and the veriest idiot, and everyone of us was as guilty of Adam 's sin as he; now why are those common notions blotted out in him, and preserved in us? surely it is from the different dispensations of the Mediator, into whose hand the government and administration of all things are committed; and it's said, Joh. 1.9. That he enlightens every man: there is not only a supernatural light from Christ to all the Elect, but there is some kind of light that even all mankind has from Christ by virtue of the second Covenant; that it's not destroyed it is from him: and that glorious freedom of Will is wholly lost, that though man acts as a free-willer because he does it answerable to the dictates of Reason; yet it is libertas adulterina, an adulterine liberty; and that which has a show of liberty, but is only bondage: for surely that libertas contrarietatis, velle bonum vel malum, is not liberty; for that's a perfection, and so is not the other, neither can there be liberty in Heaven then: but now the soul is wholly servile, because it can will nothing else but evil,— Phil. 2.13. he must work the will, &c. Facit ut velimus praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati. Aug.

4. The Soul has lost all fellowship and communion with God. Adam could walk with God, and enjoy fellowship as a friend with God; and so do the Saints that have this image renewed; but it's grace only fits a man for fellowship, Being made partakers of the divine nature, 2 Pet. 1.4. And so for glory also, Col. 1.12. Ephes. 4.18. Estranged from the life of God. So called, either because it's wrought by God, (as the righteousness of Christ is called the righteousness of God,) it's God that lives in the soul by his spirit; and it's the life of God by way of eminency and excellency; for things excellent are called the things of God: and it's the life of God, because it does fit a man to walk with God, and to live to God. Now from this life men are strangers, they live a natural life, and they feed upon the carnal comforts that are below, that nature desires and seeks after; and they live a civil life, they converse with men in civil affairs; but for a godly life, a life to God, to walk with God, converse with him in all their ways, this they are strangers to, this is only the life of Saints. But men live the life of Satan; he lives in them being the spirit of this world, and he acts them, and with him they converse, and his lusts they do. As Augustine says of himself, speaking of the lusts of his youthful time, Hi sunt amici quibus acquievi, consules quibus credidi, aves quibus cohabitavi. But for God they have no acquaintance with him in all their ways.

5. The Soul is at enmity with God, Col. 1.21, Enemies in our minds: and this enmity is twofold, either direct or collateral enmity, as when men's lusts run out to the Creatures, and the using of them, loco mariti, in the stead of an husband; it's an enmity unto God, though we intend it not, but Jam 4.4. only pleasure in the Creature carries us on, and we prove adulterers therewith, when men's spirits are carried unto several lusts for pleasure sake, and profits sake, &c. and so it's enmity against God but indirectly, and men say they never meant God any evil, I never intended it; as they in Ezech. 8.3, They set up the image of jealousy to provoke me to go far from my sanctuary: that was finis operis, the end of the work, though not operantis, of the worker. But there is a kind of direct enmity which carries a man on unto that which is simply evil, and that for no cause but because it does displease and dishonor God, as in swearing, a sin wherein is neither pleasure nor profit; there is no ground for it but barely because God is dishonored by it. We read Heb. 10.29. there is a despighting of the spirit of Grace; there is an enmity to do evil for no other end but to despite the spirit of Grace, which is the great transgression, Psal. 19.13. There is an inclination in our nature to this great offense, unto which not only presumptuous sins, but even secret sins are steps and degrees. Men reject the Sovereignty of God, and scorn his Laws, and despise his power and judgments, deny his being and exalt themselves above him, saying there is no God.

6. The Souls death lies in this mainly, that it hates, and is an enemy to all those ways that might bring him back unto God again, resists whatever may reconcile God and his soul; let but a good thought of God come into their head, and they hate it. We naturally like not to retain God in our knowledge; let anything be offered unto us that exalts God, and we reject it, we are enemies to all righteousness. Take but the offers of Christ, and the grace of the Gospel, there is nothing that the heart rises so much against and opposes, because it's the way that brings us to God; they will find out another of their own, they desire to be under the Law, go about to establish their own righteousness, and not submit to the righteousness of Christ. This will be the great condemnation of the World. Nay, even in a godly man, let but a little of God be set upon his soul, presently flesh lusts against it, ( Gal. 5.17.) and would extinguish that spark that the grace of God has kindled in his soul, but that an Almighty power upholds it; so that men could be content to live in this world and never know God, Job 21.15.

§. 3. The curses upon the Soul in reference to God we have seen; now there are others in reference unto the soul itself, and some of these we shall also name: As first, God doth forsake the soul; for the Creature departing from God, he does also depart from it. There are three words used to this purpose, one is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Jer. 23.33, I will even forsake you; it signifies to cast off the care of them, &c. And another word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which is properly to forsake or depart from a person, or withdraw his presence, 2 Chron. 15.2. If you forsake him he will also forsake you: but the word in 2 Chron. 28.29. is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which signifies to cast a man off, and to forsake him as an abomination. Now of the Desertions of God there are several kinds, answerable to the several blessings wherein a man is deserted: (1) There is a desertion in the matter of actions, and then a man can do nothing, for even a godly man is not sufficient of himself to think a good thought: God works the will and the deed of his good pleasure. (2) There is a desertion in matter of Grace, and then all corruptions prevail and overflow. (3) There is a desertion in direction, and then a man's way is hid, and he cannot tell which way to take, but he gropes for the way as a blind-man. (4) There is desertion in matter of strength, and then a man can bear no affliction, nor resist any temptation, but his heart is weak as water. (5) There's a desertion in part of joy and comfort, and then his heart is full of heaviness, he walks in darkness and has no light; when God does but hide his face his soul is troubled even to death. (6) There is a desertion in respect of any outward calamity. When God leaves a man in the hand of an enemy, as he did Job in the hand of Satan, and withdrew himself, took away the hedge that was about him; and when a man is left in the hands of wicked men whose tender mercies are cruelty, Job says, Chap. 29.4. The secret of God was upon my tabernacle: there is a secret of counsel, and so some expound it here for direction, God making known his Counsels to him; but there is also a secret of Providence, God's presence being with him as if he were peculiarly the God of his family, and had a special eye to the preservation of his Tabernacles beyond all others. As amongst the Heathens they had their Household-God's, so did the Lord seem to be unto Job, and the secret of his Providence was there, as the Lord has still a secret of his peculiar Providence over his own, which is called the secret of the Lord. Now if the Lord desert a man, even his own people, any of these ways, in what a miserable condition do they by and by apprehend themselves to be? There is a presence of God required to the subsistence and being of the Creature, and therefore one has well compared it to a glass without a foot, &c. There is a Divine hand that holds it, and if the Lord do hold it, it will abide safe, but if God withdraw his hand it falls, he need not ta • e it and dash it against the wall, it will break of itself; so if God do but withdraw his hand the Creature does perish, if he do but forsake it in its natural being, it comes to nothing; so also if the Lord forsakes the soul in its spiritual being, all misery must needs break in upon it.—When the Lord says, I will be with thee, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. O! how comfortable is it to hear such a promise? let a man but sit down and imagine with himself what good he can desire, and as it is all in God eminently, so is the supply of it to a soul eminently in the presence of God: all happiness is comprehended in this, I will be with thee; so do but imagine to the utmost whatever evil you can fear, and it's all comprehended in this one word, I will forsake you; and then all misery must needs follow it. Deut. 31.17. God says, I will forsake thee, and hide my face from thee, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, and they shall say, these evils are come upon us because God is not amongst us. If the Lord forsake his beloved Son the Lord Christ in point of his presence and joy, he looks upon it as the greatest of his sufferings, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? though it was but substractio visions, non unionis, a subtraction of vision, not of union. And this is the dreadful sentence at the last day past in the most terrible words, Depart from me ye cursed; and therefore cursed because you must depart: and 2 Thes. 1.9, Punished with eternal destruction from the presence of God, and the glory of his power. And if a soul be left by God, O! whither will it go? and though men be not now sensible of it, because they enjoy the Creatures; yet when all the Creatures and the comfort of them shall have an end, and God shall be all in all, and this God hath forsaken thee, and thou hast no interest in him, then thou wilt know what it is for God to leave the soul.

2. There is guilt upon the Soul that follows as a part of the Curse, and is a necessary consequent and concomitant of every sin, Rom. 3.19, All the world is become guilty before God; and Jam. 2.20, He that breaks one Commandment is guilty of all. This guilt in its nature is the obligation of the Soul to bear the whole Curse, and all the punishment that is legally due thereunto. There are indeed two things in guilt; (1) There is ordination unto wrath, and that is ex parte Dei, on God's part; which the School-men call reatus personae, the guilt of the person, the actual binding over of such a man to punishment because of sin; and this is from God, (for the Law is good) and may be separated from sin, as in all the regenerate that are justified by the righteousness of Christ it is. (2) There is a demerit in sin, which is the desert of punishment and wrath, and this is called reatus peccati, the guilt of sin; and this is inseparable from sin wheresoever it is; even in God's people, there is a meriting of wrath in their sins, as well as others: But unto all men that are under the first Covenant, both these by virtue of the curse of it do concur; there is a demerit in the sin, and there is an actual obligation to punishment upon the person. There are two things in sin, there is the act and the guilt; the act with the pleasure of it is fading, the pleasures of sin that are but for a season; but there is an abiding guilt upon the spirit that is after a sort infinite, being an offense against an infinite God, a violation of an infinite Holiness, and a contempt of infinite Majesty and Authority; and it is also eternal and will remain upon the Creature forever, and nothing in the world but the Blood of Christ can take it away from the soul, being sprinkled upon the Conscience; and this is the meaning of that Proverbial speech, Gen. 4.7, Sin lies at the door; it's a speech taken from a dog or a fierce beast that lies at the door to watch; and it teaches us three things: [1] That though the act be past, yet the guilt remains, binding over the soul to punishment, the sin lies there. [2] That there is a time when sin in the guilt and punishment of it may lie still and be quiet, and a man may ruffle it in the house within and never be troubled at that which lies at the door. [3] Sin lying at the door will surely be awakened, and it will be easily awakened; ad sores somno minime aptus est locus; ibi quiescit peccatum ubi diu quiescere non potest, &c. Sin lies asleep there where it can lie long asleep; the door will surely open, and the sin that seems sleepy now will awake, and therefore it is a fearful thing, talem habere janitorem, to have such a porter. Jer. 2.22, Though thou wash thyself with niter and fullers soap, yet thy iniquity is marked before me; it's spoken of all the false glosses and pretences that men have to excuse themselves and to extenuate their sins. There is a guilt upon the man before God, The iniquity of Judah is writ with a pen of iron, &c. It is to be referred both ad reatum & culpam, and it notes the indelible characters of it upon the soul; that as the people of God have the Law of God writ upon their hearts, so have ungodly men the guilt of sin and the law of sin; their sin will find them out. There are two things that men are terrified with, and they look upon as enemies, the word of God and the guilt of their own sins, and therefore men do endeavor to fly from the one, and to hide themselves from the other; now the word follows them, and will surely overtake them at last, Zach. 1.6. and the guilt of sin that seeks the man; and albeit he has many a hiding place, yet sin both in the guilt and in the punishment of it also will at last find him out. (3) Hence follows an evil Conscience, Heb. 10.22. There are two things that make the Conscience evil, it's pollution by reason of the filth of sin, and its accusation and condemnation by reason of the guilt of sin; and though this indeed be mainly reserved to the last day, Rom. 2.15, 16. when the book of Conscience shall be opened, and that faculty enlarged, because then it is to give up its Viatory office, and an account of the whole man that God has betrusted it with; yet it doth in many men begin here, according as the Lord is pleased to act it, and doth bring into the soul an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Heb. 10.27. a receiving of judgment beforehand, binding a man over unto wrath, that the Creature is continually in expectation of it, Heb. 2.15. Mat. 8. • 9. Art thou come to torment us before the time? therefore an evil Conscience they have that tells them that there is a torment in a greater measure provided for them, and that there is a time appointed when the extremity of this torment shall begin, though as yet they knew the time was not come. Hence comes that fear which does torment the soul, 1 Joh. 4.18. that wrath will seize upon a man wheresoever he is, as it was with Cain, Gen. 4.14. Everyone that meets me will slay me: he looked upon himself, as Luther saith, Tanquam excommunicatus spiritualiter & corporaliter, regnum amiserat & ecclesiam, as one who was excommunicated both spiritually and corporally, &c. And therefore he that was put out of the protection of God could look for no safety amongst the Creatures; hence a man walks in the horror of the shadow of death; Felix trembles, and Herod feared it was John the Baptist that he had slain that was risen again. There is fear on every side: if he walks by the way he looks vengeance should come upon him, and he shall never again visit his habitation, and if he abide in his house there is a curse entered into the stones and the timber of it; when he lies down at night, he says, it may be this night God will take away my soul, and he is scared with dreams, and terrified with visions, that he is not able to stand under the imaginations and thoughts of his own heart: if he attend upon the Word there is a savor of death unto death; he sees the grave open, and this is to him a testimony of a further death, 2 Cor. 2.16. And hence is that shame and confusion of face that is in men: looking upon themselves they abhor their own image, and are not able to endure their own stink, seeing how their souls do breed worms, as Herod 's body did; they see that they are the loathsomest Creatures alive, and hence there is a loathing of themselves; and it comes at last to a revenge, as we see in Judas. And the reflections and reproaches of a man's own spirit he cannot bear: and he has these dreadful desperate thoughts, I shall never find mercy, my glass is run, my hope is past, surely there is no mercy for me; if there were as many windows in Heaven as there be Stars, as many doors as there be souls, yet there would be no entrance for me. And the soul sinks down under his own burden forever, and says, My iniquity is heavier than I can bear. And this is properly the death of the soul, it is eternal desperation, it's hell itself. I had time and means, and offers, and entreaties and works, and motions of the Spirit of God; but the Lord has now forsaken me, and the night is come upon me, there is as much hope of the Devils as of me. And this is much strengthened by the threatening and the Curse of the Law, giving a man his portion; and so Ministers are said to judge men, Ezech. 20. • . and to torment them. Rev. 11.10. and to kill them; which is all barely by the words suggesting to an evil Conscience, and the Conscience assisting thereunto: and there is answerable to the Curse of the first Covenant a work of the Spirit of God upon a man's soul, which is called a spirit of bondage, and a spirit of fear, Rom. 8.15. 2 Tim. 1.7. whereas men would turn away their eyes from their sins, the Spirit of God does hold them upon it, and set them in order before them: and whereas men would have slight apprehensions of sin and wrath, the Spirit of God does give a man great apprehensions and dreadful thoughts of them: and as in Heaven the spirit of Adoption shall be in perfection, so in Hell the spirit of bondage shall be in perfection also.

4. God gives a man up unto the power of sin and the dominion of it; that a man is not his own, but yields up himself and his members instruments to unrighteousness, Rom. 6.18. He gives over himself to obey sin and the lusts thereof; man sells himself to sin sinfully, and God sells him judicially, &c. That as a godly man is not his own, so neither is a wicked man: For his servant a man is to whom he obeys, whether it be of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness; and therefore they are the servants of sin. Now sin has a double power, (1) of a Lord, as it reigns over men, which unto godly men is taken away. (2) As a Hu • band, Rom. 6.14. that's a power of love that it can command, and a man has an inward affection to obey it, as it is said of Ahab, he did sell himself to work wickedness; and then God sells a man to wickedness, and the man is become wholly the servant and the creature of such a lust. Every man by nature indeed does sin freely; but some men are left to a judiciary freedom in sinning, that as they cannot restrain themselves, so God will not restrain them from sinning; but they shall pour out themselves to all iniquity with greediness, Jude v. 11. they shall be as wicked as they will, that so they may fill up their measure of sinning; as Christ said of the Pharisees, Fill up the measures of your fathers: it's spoken by way of wrath and vengeance; the Lord did give them up to the power of sin to the uttermost, Rev. 22.11, He that is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. This permission is the highest and forest affliction. And there the Church leaves them that are obstinately ignorant, and resist instruction, 1 Cor. 14.38, He that is ignorant let him be ignorant. Now for a man to be thus given up by God and his Church, is a most desperate condition. As it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; so it's a fearful thing to be given up to his own hearts lust. To be given up to sin is a just punishment of sin; for the ways of sin, as well as the wages of sin, is death. It's a dreadful thing for the Lord to say of a people appointed to wrath, Jer. 15.2. Let them go forth, such as are for the sword to the sword, and such as are for the famine to the famine: but it is more dreadful for God judicially to say, let them go forth, such as are for drunkenness unto drunkenness, and such as are for uncleanness unto uncleanness; as much as sin is a greater evil than affliction, and as much as it is better to suffer than to sin.

5. God gives a man up to the power of Satan and his own will, 2 Tim. 2.26. The Devil is compared to a hunter, and men are by him taken alive as we do beasts in a snare, and then carried whither the hunter will: though God be not the author of sin, yet he is the orderer of it as well as of suffering: and as he sets bounds unto Satan in our affliction, as Job 1.12. All that he has is in thy hand, only upon himself lay not thy hand; so he does in our temptations also, He will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able, 1 Cor. 10.13. Satan would indeed tempt you above what you are able, but God will not suffer you so to be tempted. It's a fearful thing for God to give a man either in his body or estate over to the will of the Devil, as we see in Job, how sad was it with him in that regard; but much more for God to give over a man's spirit to Satan to carry a man unto what sins he will: then I am sure he will be boundless in his sinning, as well as in his suffering. It's an observation of Damascene, that it's only by sin that Satan has access to the spirits of men, and therefore he did tempt Adam and Christ himself by outward objects only presented to the senses, which is a great argument that he could not have access to their spirits. The Prince of this world, says Christ, comes and has nothing in me. The more Satan has in a man the more immediate access he has to him, and the greater power over him; therefore the less of Satan there is in a man surely the less power he has over him. But besides the possession and dominion that sin has given him, there is a delivering a man unto Satan, a kind of spiritual excommunication by God himself; as Christ by a sop gave Satan full possession of Judas: and though before the sop he had it may be some reluctancy to that damned business, yet after it Satan had full power over him, and he goes on with a resolution, and an impudent boldness, and says, Whom I kiss he it is; for he was delivered over to the will of Satan to carry him unto what sin he would. And so we may observe of the false Prophets in Ahab 's time, and them also that are mentioned in 2 Thes. 2.12. and such men, as Tertullian observes, he raises to a higher degree of wickedness; the Devil vouchsafed them greater and fuller power: he speaks it of Marcion, Valentinus, and other Heretics, Satan brings them to those sins against God that he himself cannot commit.

6. All Providences and Ordinances, and Operations of the Spirit become a curse to them, and a snare to their souls; Prosperity makes them full and deny the Lord, and poverty makes them steal and take the name of God in vain. If a man be raised from a low estate as Saul and Hazael, it is in wrath; and if he be preserved in a common judgment it is in wrath: as God raised up Pharaoh, That he might show his power on him, and send all his Plagues upon his heart; and if there be a Prophet sent to Jeroboam, a judgment lights on him in his way back, because he was disobedient to the word of the Lord: yet thereupon Jeroboam turns not from his abomination. Every act of Providence is to them for evil, and a snare to their souls; and all the Ordinances that they do enjoy do but ripen their sins, Amos 8.7. there is a fullness of curse as well as of blessing in the Gospel; and it's a favor of death as well as of life, and all the works of illumination, humiliation, seeming conversion and reformation do make them but the stronger enemies to God; when they fall from them all they do but prepare a habitation for seven worse spirits; for the dog to return to his vomit again: as we read such a story of one Eustathius, who was first an Arian, and then afterwards was converted and subscribed the Articles of the Council of Nice, and was a man employed by the Church, and endured a great Persecution with Basil, and divers other godly men; and yet afterward he turned again into the former Doctrine of Arianism, and never returned. And so we read of Alexander in Act. 19.33. and afterwards of his Apostasy; and these works do qualify men for the sin against the Holy Ghost, and make them more conformable to the Devil than otherwise they would be.

7. There is a giving a man up to Spiritual judgments which are of all plagues the greatest, Exod. 9.14. As spiritual sins are the greatest sins, so are spiritual judgments the greatest plagues, and there is no plague like that of the heart, 1 King. 8.38. and we have so much the more cause to observe them, because God did formerly under the Old Testament punish with outward and temporal punishments; but those that live under the Gospel are specially punished with Spiritual judgments; as the mercies of the Gospel are more spiritual, so are the punishments also: and they are (1) a hard heart; which implies three things, [1] Insensibleness of sin and judgment: [2] Taking no impression either from the Word or Spirit, and the touches of both. [3] Inflexible as an Adamant, that you cannot bow nor break it, and that heart that is a flint to God is wax to Satan; no command, nor judgment of God will break it, for it's possessed with an iron sinew; bray a fool in a mortar, yet his folly will not depart. (2) There is a spirit of slumber that a man is sensible of nothing, no danger can wake him; for sleep is the binding up of all the spiritual senses. Their eyes are closed and they cannot see; their ears are uncircumcised and they cannot hearken; let them be smitten and they cannot feel it; and nothing does awaken them, neither the loudest cry of the Word, nor the judgments of God; a deep sleep is upon them, and they fear no evil. (3) A seared Conscience, 1 Tim. 4.2. the word signifies, to sear with a hot iron, and to make insensible, to have no feeling, or else to cut off by searing; so that men walk as if they had no Consciences left. (4) An injudicious mind; God gives them over to a reprobate mind: an injudicious mind is taken with envy, error, with every vanity, and is able to judge aright of nothing. (5) Vile affections, the basest and most dishonorable lusts, even sins that are below a man, as brute beasts therein to corrupt themselves, and that makes them hateful and abominable to all the world. (6) A final impenitency, a heart that cannot repent; and it's impossible for them to be renewed again by repentance.

§. 4. Having spoken of Temporal death and Spiritual death, we should now come to consider Eternal death; which, as it is said of the Glory of the Saints, Neither eye has seen, nor ear has heard, neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive, &c. it is as true of this Eternal death, no ear has heard what it is; it is called perdition and destruction, the second death. And as Heaven is set out by some resemblances of the glory of the things in this life, so is Hell in respect of the miseries of this life; but all these are but shadows of the one and of the other. Psal. 90.11, Who knows the power of thy wrath? as is thy fear, so is thy wrath: that is, the wrath of God in the dreadful effects of it is such that it passes knowledge, and it passes fear. The heart of man is able to conceive vast fears, as it has vast desires; but whatever we can fear there is something in the wrath of God answerable to all. But having spoke of this more largely elsewhere, I shall but touch upon it at present. In this death there is something essential which befalls all that suffer these torments, and is inseparable from it, as they do fall upon such a subject; the essential part of this death the Scripture makes to be of two parts, there is punishment of Loss, and punishment of Sense. There is a loss and a separation of a man from all good things whatsoever; there is no man but has some good thing in possession, and he has something of which hope gives him a reversion: but in this death he shall be separated from them both, and this is the privative part. This poena damni, punishment of loss, is double, (as Durand has observed, pag. 210.) either, in amissione boni habiti, vel nondum habiti, in the amission of some good possessed or hoped for: Now by this death men shall be shut out from both: First, they shall be shut out of the presence, vision and fruition of God forever; there shall pass upon him an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Divines did anciently call it, an eternal excommunication, or a non-communion: as their spiritual death did consist in an estrangement from God in holiness, so their eternal death shall consist in an eternal separation from God in happiness; They shall be punished with eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord, 2 Thes. 1.9. and this was the great torment that Christ does complain of, Mat. 27.46. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and yet it was only substractio visions, a subtraction of vision. And this is the great affliction of his people here on earth: if the Lord hide his face, David says, Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like to them that go down into the pit: and yet this is but a hiding of his face, as an Eclipse of the Sun for a day; he will but hide his face for a little moment, but he will have mercy on thee with everlasting loving kindness: how much more when God shall cast a man off in wrath forever, and never have an eye upon him more! and therefore the Fathers do generally say, that the greatest torment of Hell is this of Loss; Absentia Dei quoad visionem omnia alia tormenta superat. Augustine and Chrysostom in Mat. 7. Mille Gehennae paenas: and there is nothing so dreadful as to be separated from God, and to be hated by him.

CHAP. II. How and why men naturally desire to be under the Law?

CHAP. III. How and whence it is that sin is irritated by the Law.