3. When God is departed from the soul, then the Devil enters in, he presently comes in, and takes up the room; there will be no emptiness or vacuum. And this is a fearful woe indeed: for as soon as God is departed from a man, he is left to the guidance of the Devil, his own flesh, and the world. There will be no emptiness in the heart: no sooner God departs, but these step in, and take God's place.

4. Then in the fourth place, after all this is done, comes sin and cries for its "" wages, which is death." The terrible death which comprehends in it all that beadroll of curses, which are written in the Book of God; and not only those, but the curses also which are not written, which are so many that they cannot be written. Though the Book of God be a complete book, and the law of God a perfect law, yet here they come short, and are imperfect for the curses not written shall light upon him, which are so many, as pen and ink cannot set down, nay, the very pen of God cannot express them, so many are the calamities and sorrows that shall light upon the soul of every sinful man.

Now let us take these woes in pieces, one after another.

1. The first woe is the polluting and defiling of the soul by sin. A thing (it may be) that we little think of; but if God once open our eyes, and shew us what a black soul we have within us, and that every sin, every lustful thought, every covetous act, every sin gets a new spot and stain upon the soul, and tumbles it into a new puddle of filth, and then we shall see it, and not till then; for our eyes are carnal, and we cannot see this. If once we did but see our hateful and abominable spots, that every sin tumbles us afresh into the mire: did, we see what a black devil we have within us, we would hate and abhor ourselves, as Job did. It would be so foul a sight, that it would make us out of our wits, as it were, to behold it. A man that is but natural, cannot imagine what a black

c Deut. chap. 28.

devil there is within him: but though he seeth it not, yet "hed that hath eyes like a flame of fire," seeth our stains and spots.

Our Saviour shews the filthiness of the heart, by that which proceeds out of the mouth: "Those things which. proceed out of the mouth, come from the heart." And, verse nineteenth: "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts," &c. Observe. Of all evils we account evil thoughts the least. This we think strange, what, thoughts defile a man? what, so light a matter as a thought? Can they make any impression? Yes, and defile a man too, leaving such a spot behind them, which nothing but the hot blood of Christ can wash away. So many evil thoughts, so many blasphemies, so many filthy things come from the heart, every one being a new defilement and pollution that a man is made so nasty by it and filthy, that he cannot believe that it is so bad with him, as indeed it is. The apostle having shewn the Corinthians their former life, and exhorted them against it', goes on: "Let us cleanse ourselves from the filthiness of the flesh, and spirit." Mark then, there is a double filthiness, "a filthiness of the flesh, and a filthiness of the spirit." The filthiness of the flesh, that every one acknowledgeth to be filthy carnality, fornication and adultery, &c. These bestial lusts every one knows to be unclean. But then there is a filth of the spirit too, and such are evil thoughts. They are the filth of the spirit. "Corruptio optimi est pessima. The corruption which cleaves to the best thing is worst." The soul is the best thing, the most noble thing; the filthiness which cleaves to it therefore must needs be the greatest. Fleshly filthiness, as adultery, is filthy; but contemplative adultery, to dwell thereon is worse: however such a man may be pure from the filth of the flesh, yet if he delight himself in filthy thoughts, his spirit is abominable in the sight of God: there is a stain by every one of thy impure thoughts left behind. However an actual sin

d Rev. chap.

ver. 14.

e Matt. chap. 15. ver. 18.

be far greater than the sin of a thought, yet if that be but once committed, and these are frequently in thee; if thou always lie tumbling in the suds of thy filthy thoughts, thy continuing therein makes thy sin more abominable than David's outward act, which he but once committed. So that we see there is " a filthiness of the spirit, as well as the flesh." In James, chap. I. ver. 21. we have a word sets out the filthiness of it, which is superfluity. 'Lay apart," saith he, "all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness."

First, it is expressed by the name of filthiness, shewing there is nothing so defiles a man as sin.

Then it is called superfluity of naughtiness; but what, is there any naughtiness to be borne with? And what exceeds that, is it superfluity? No, that is not the meaning of the place. By superfluity is meant the excrements of sin. Excrements are the refuse of meat, when the good nourishment is taken away from it. And it is as if he had said: Lay aside filthy, nasty, or excrementitious sin. The word was used in the ceremonies of the Jews, and thereby we may see what was taught concerning sin: "Thou shalt have a place without the camp whither thou shalt go," &c. Though the comparison be homely, yet it shews the filthiness of the sin, that it is a very excrement: "Thou shalt have a paddle, and it shall be that when thou wilt ease thyself, thou shalt dig therewith," &c. "And thou shalt cover that which cometh from thee." And what, did God care for these things? No, it was to teach them a higher matter, as the reason following implies: "For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the camp." God would thereby shew them, that those things at which every man stoppeth his nose, are not so filthy to man, as a sin is unto God. So that you see how the case stands with a sinful man: sin defiles him, it pollutes him.

And then in the next place, it makes God's soul to hate and abhor him. It is true, some sins there are

Deut. chap. 23. ver. 12, 13.

VOL. XIII.

G

that every man imagineth to be shameful and filthy; but we see all is sin to God, it is filthiness of flesh and spirit. A man may have carnality, fleshly filthiness; peradventure also he may have covetousness, but pride and prodigality that he may get, as he thinks, credit by, that he cannot maintain the reputation of a gentleman without them. A miserable thing, that a man should account that a garnish of the soul, which doth defile and pollute it. If a man should take the excrements of a beast to adorn himself, would not we think him an ass? Well, when we thus defile ourselve by sin, God cannot endure us, he is forced to turn from us, he abhors us; and that is the next woe.

2. When thou hast made thyself such a black soul, such a dunghill, such a sty, then God must be gone, he cannot endure to dwell there: it stands not with his honour, and with the purity of his nature to dwell in such a polluted heart, there must now be a divorce: "Holinessi becomes his house for ever. His delight is in the saints." He is king of the saints, he will not be in a sty; when thou hast thus polluted and defiled thy soul, God and thou must presently part: God puts thee off, and thou puttest God off too. We read in that place before alleged, that before they knew Christ, they were "without God in the world," &c. atheists, a0eot. And in chap. IV. ver. 18. "Having their understanding darkened, and being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them." The presence of God is the life of our souls; and we having through sin and ignorance banished God, we become strangers until the time of our ingrafting into Christ; we are aliens from the life of God, whereupon comes a mutual kind of abhorring one another. God abhors us, and we, vile and filthy wretches, abhor God again. There is enmity betwixt God and us, and between all that belongs to God, and all that belongs to us. There is an enmity betwixt God and us, and observe the expres

Psalm 93. ver. 5. Psalm 16. ver. 3. Rev. chap. 15. ver. 3.

sion of it: "If you shall despise my statutes, or if your souls shall abhor my judgments, so that you will not do my commandments," &c. See here how we begin to abhor God; and then for judgment on such persons; "My soul shall abhor you." We are not behind hand with God in this abhorring; "My" soul loathed them, and their soul abhorred me.' When we begin to abhor God, God's soul also abhors us. When a man hath such a polluted soul, he becomes coσTuyns, a hater of God, and hated of him. When thou hast such a stinking soul, God must needs loath it as a most loathsome thing; and so thou art not behind God neither. Thy filthiness makes God abhor thee, and thou abhorrest him, "ɛoσΘεοσTuys, haters of God" is one of the titles of natural men drenched in sin°. And this is thy case, by hating thou art hated of God.

There is enmity also beand all that belongs to us.

Nor is this all the enmity. twixt all that belongs to God, God's children and the wicked have ever an enmity betwixt them, such an enmity as will never be reconciled. It is set down in Proverbs, chap. XXIX. ver. 27. “An unjust man is an abomination to the just, and he that is upright in his way, is an abomination to the wicked." Just as it is between God and the seed of the serpent, so it is between both the seeds. "A wicked man is an abomination to the just, and an upright man is an abomination to the wicked." There is a pale of abomination set between them so that this is the second woe. We come now to the third.

:

3. And the third woe is that which immediately follows, God's leaving of us. When we have polluted ourselves with sin, and God by reason thereof abhors us, and turns from us, then are there others ready presently to take up the room; and so soon as God departs, the Devil steps in and becomes thy God. He was thy God by creation, this by usurpation: he was thy father that

Levit. chap. 26. ver. 15. n Zach. chap. 11. ver. 8.

In Ibid. ver. 30.

• Rom. chap. 1. ver. 30.