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that this people was under, feparation from God. 2dly, The party at whofe door the blame lies, they who have made the breach. 3dly, The procuring caufe of this evil, your iniquities.

As to the 1ft, Separation is either good or bad, according to the quality of the term from which men are separated. But the feparation here is held forth as an evil, and that the greatest evil; for it is a feparation from God, an evil which is fo heavy, that, when felt, it is enough to make a Cain groan, and fay, "It is greater than I can bear," Gen. iv. 13. Sin makes many feparations. It separates the nearest relations; it feparates the foul from the body. But all these are inconsiderable in respect of this, the feparation of the foul from God. It is an evil ftill greater, for it is a separation from a covenanted God, YOUR GOD. Free love had separated Ifrael from all other people on the earth, and made them the Lord's by a peculiar relation; but fin feparates betwixt them and that God to whom they were thus joined. That there fhould be a separation betwixt God and the Gentile world, who had profeffedly joined themselves to other gods, is not to be wondered at; but how dreadful is this, to be feparated from our God! No fall is like a fall to hell from off heaven's threshold. The higher perfons are raised up, the lower do they fink when they fall.

2. Who are to blame? Why, men are ready to fay, God is an auftere mafter, and forgetful of the children of men; and from our first father we have it as hereditary, rather to lay the blame on God, than to take it to ourselves. Therefore, he clears himself of it, ver. 1. fhewing he wants neither power nor will to help them, on due application; and accordingly, he lays the blame where it should be, even on themselves. They made the breach; VOL. I. they

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they may thank themselves for what they lie under, for they have drawn it on with their own hands.

3. How have they done it? Has God, who is exalted above the heavens, withdrawn from them, because they are on the earth as nothing before him? Cannot Infinite Majesty lodge with the foul in a cottage of clay? Has he feparated from them, because they are mean, hated and despised by their neighbours round about them? No, no; none of these are the causes. Their iniquities are the only caufe of all. Nothing but fin could part them. Sin is the only make-bate betwixt God and you. This fubject affords us this

DOCTRINE, viz. However light people think of fin, yet it is that which is of fo dreadful efficacy, as to make a feparation betwixt God and the finSin feparates between God and a foul.

ner.

In difcourfing which, I fhall fhew,

I. What is that separation which fin makes betwixt God and fouls,

II. I fhall evince the greatness of the evil of feparation from God, which many go fo lightly under. III. Inquire how fin makes this separation betwixt God and the foul.

IV. Make fome practical improvement.--I am to fhew,

I. WHAT is that feparation which fin makes betwixt God and a foul. It is not a local feparation; for he is not far from every one of us, for in him we live, move, and have our being." Acts xvii. 27. 28. The wicked would fain be at a local feparation, and therefore, in their vain imaginations, they fhut up God in heaven, that he

may

may not see what is done on earth. But the immenfity and omniprefence of God make this fimply impoffible; for as he is God, he is intimately prefent with us, even in the very centre of our fouls; fo that, unless our fins could undeify him, (if the expreffion may be used), they can make no local feparation betwixt him and us. Hence it is remarkable, that even in hell the wicked fhall be punished from the prefence of the Lord, 2 Theff. i. 9. He will not fend his ftrokes upon them from heaven, or from afar, though he could preferve the force of them by the way, but he will erect his throne of juftice among them: "Whither fhall I go from thy fpirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there: If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermoft parts of the sea, even there fhall thy hand lead me, and thy right-hand fhall hold me," Pfal. cxxxix. 7.-10. But it is a relative feparation, inferring a distance of oppofition betwixt God and the foul, and affecting the man's ftate, or cafe, or both. It makes fuch a separation as is made by whisperers betwixt friends: "A whisperer," faith Solomon, "feparateth chief friends." This being the cafe, the Lord's countenance is not towards the finner as it was before the breach was made. And as by fin there is an alienating of the finner's affection from God, fo in God there is fomething equivalent to the alienation of affections from the finner, for affections are not properly ascribed to God. Thus, concerning every one that feparateth himself from the Lord, and fetteth up his idols in his heart, God faith, Ezek. xiv. 8. "I will fet my face against that man, and will make him a fign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the

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midst of my people, and ye fhall know that I am the Lord."

As to this feparation, we obferve,

1. That in it there is something negative; and that is, the Lord denies them the influences of his grace, countenance, and fellowship; they are deprived of benefits, their fins with-hold good things from them. The fcripture expreffeth it by the Lord's hiding his face from finners, as it is faid in the text, by fhewing them the back, and not the face, Jerem. xviii. 17.; by forgetting them, Hof. iv. 6. Thus the fun of many is gone down, they ❝ftumble at noon, as in the night, and are in defolate places as dead men," Ifa. lix. 10. They go up and down in the world, as walking ftatues, carrying dead fouls in their bodies as living coffins; for God is gone, and his glory is departed from them.

2. There is fomething pofitive in it, fin kindles a fire against the foul. (1.) There is a standing controverfy God has against finners, Amos iii. 3. "Can two walk together except they be agreed ?” God is difpleafed with the creature, his Spirit is grieved at him. Anger refts in the bofom of God against the finner, as long as he keeps the finful morfel under his tongue, which, though pleafant to the poor fool in the mean time, is moft difpleafing to a holy God. (2.) There is a pursuing of this controverfy against the finner; fome pofitive outgoings of God's anger against the soul, in angry looks, which, if perceived, are enough to put the touteft finner out of countenance. In this did the Lord look unto the host of the Egyptians, through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled them, Exod. xiv. 24. Angry words, even fad threats, miniftered by the word and the man's confcience; also fad strokes upon the foul,

way

fometimes

fometimes upon the body, fometimes on both at once, are measured out.

But to this it may be objected, fays one, "Happy am I then, for I fee no fuch thing." Anf. Were there no more upon most of us than we feel, we would have a very light burden either of fin or wrath upon us. But take heed ye be not like Ephraim, Hofea, vii. 9. "Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not." Or like the Ephefians, chap. iv. 19. "Who being paft feeling, gave themselves over unto lafcivioufnefs, to work all uneleanness with greediness." Are you going on in your fins? then be fure God is going on against you, pursuing his quarrel; and even in small things, if it were but the miscarrying of a basket of bread, the curfe of God is in it to a wicked man, which makes it in itself very heavy. There are two kinds of ftrokes upon the foul: (1.) Deadening strokes; these are fecret ftrokes which God gives, and they are not eafily perceived. By them the confcience is deadened, the foul ftupified, and thus the man is fat-tened for the day of flaughter. People think never to get their fill of eafe, and fometimes the Lord gives them enough of it: Hof. iv. 17. "Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone," (Heb. give.· him reft). (2.) Quickening ftrokes: Hof. v. 14. "For I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the houfe of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go away, and no one shall rescue him.” By such strokes the confcience is made like mount Sinai, when there was nothing but thunder and lightning, and the found of the trumpet waxing louder and louder. Many men's confciences are like iron taken out of the fire, and having lain a D 3 little,