More Particularly Sin Has Separated Man

1 From the sight and seeing of God: Man could talk with God face to face, as a man converses with his friend, but (woe and alas!) man cannot see his face and live: One of the first discoveries of man's sinfulness and misery by it was; that he could not endure (but hid himself from) the sight, and indeed the very voice of God (Genesis 3:8). Our happiness lies so much in the sight of God, that it has the name of Beatifical Vision, a sight which passes all sights: When our Saviour prays for the happiness of his own, he does not only pray that they may be where he is, but that they may see his glory (John 17:24). And this is the glory which does not yet appear, that we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). They that are regenerate, and enlightened from above, and are refined and clarified, have some glimpses and gradual sights of God, and yet it is comparatively called darkness; we see but darkly (as it were his back-parts) through a glass, which is short of seeing face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). We do live by faith now rather than by sight, as the Apostle does express it (2 Corinthians 5:7). It is true, faith is to us instead of our eyes, for it is the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1), and by it we look (as Moses did) to him who is, and to his things which are invisible (2 Corinthians 4:18). Seeing then man's happiness lies so much in seeing God, what an exceeding great mischief has sin done to man in separating him from the sight of God, that man cannot see God and live, whereas the best life is in seeing God.

2 Sin has separated man from the life of God, not only from living to God, and with God, but from living the life of God, namely such a life as God lives, which is a life of holiness in perfection; and therefore it is said of sinners, that they are alienated from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18), and more, that they are dead in sins and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1). So far from living, that they are dead; so far from living to God, that they live against God; so far from living the life of God, that they live the life of Devils: It is according to the Prince of the Power of the Air, that is, the Devil (Ephesians 1:2). Oh what an injury has sin done in separating man from the Divine Life and Nature, and sinking him into the dregs and death of sin, namely made him dead in sin!

3 Sin has separated man from the love of God: I speak not now of what love and good will there is in God toward man, but of that love, and the actual communication thereof, which man once had and enjoyed, whereof sin has not only deprived him, but made him the object of his wrath; for God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalms 7:11), and they are by nature the children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3-4), and therefore said not to be beloved (Romans 9:25). Man was once the object of his love and delight; when man came into the world in the likeness of God, God looked on him with delight, and was enamored of this his Image; but sin (alas) has made him the object of his wrath: Oh injurious sin!

4 Sin has separated man from communion with God; God and man kept company, while man and holiness kept company, but when that and man parted; then God and man parted (the redintegration of any is upon a new account) they could not walk together, because of this disagreement (Amos 3:3). When man left walking in the light of holiness, and walked in the darkness of sin, fellowship ceased (1 John 1:6-7). It is true, there is reconciliation and recovery by Jesus Christ, but sin did what in it lay to cut man off from all communion with God for ever; Oh this spiteful and pernicious sin!

5 Sin separated man from the Covenant-relation wherein he stood to God; so that God had no obligation upon him to own him, or look after him, to have anything to do with him, but ruin him; and what sin did at first, it does (if not repented of, and pardoned) to this day; and therefore sinners called Loammi, not my people, which is worse than not to be a people (1 Peter 2:10), and they are without God, Promise and Covenant (Ephesians 2:12). Man can claim nothing of God upon any right or plea of his own, having sinned; and therefore are said also to be without hope, namely in themselves: Oh what a separation has sin made! In robbing man of God, it robs him of all things, for all things are ours, but so far as God is ours (1 Corinthians 3:21-22).

From hence come two great miseries on sinners from God, as judgments upon this separation.

1 God hides his face; and this follows on the separation, as it is expressed (Isaiah 59:2): Your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sin has hid his face from you, or (as the margin reads it) have made him hide his face from you; his face which makes heaven, a smile whereof, or the lifting up the light of which countenance upon us, refreshes us, more than corn, wine, and oil (Psalms 4:6-7). Indeed, his loving kindness is better than life; we had better have parted with this than that: Man's sin is expressed by this, that he turns his back to God, and not the face; and his punishment by this, that God turns his back to him, and not the face; God carries it not like a friend, but a stranger: And indeed this hiding of his face is significant of many more miseries than I can now stay to instance in.

2 Another, and no less misery hereupon is, that God hears not his prayers, as it follows in that aforementioned text (Isaiah 59:2), and so it attends the hiding of God's face (Isaiah 1:15). God is a God hearing prayers, but sin shuts out our shouting, and the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, and he calls them no better than howlings (Hosea 7:14). Yet further.

There are two or three other miseries, not to name many more that are consequent upon this separation, which continually attend poor sinful man.

1 That man is without strength: Man's great strength is in union with God, separation weakens him; for without him, apart from him, out of him, separated from him we can do nothing; to be a sinner, is to be without strength (Romans 5:6, with 8). Man was once a Samson for strength, but having parted with his lock, his strength is departed from him, that of himself (as of himself) he is not sufficient to think one good thought (2 Corinthians 3:5). He was strong, while in the Lord, and the power of his might; but now his hands are weak, and knees feeble, his legs cannot bear him up, having got the spiritual Rickets.

2 Being separated from God, man becomes afraid of God, and ashamed to appear before him; while innocent (though naked, yet) man was not afraid nor ashamed to approach to God, or of God's approaching to him; but when he had sinned, he was ashamed to show his face, and afraid to see God's face, or to hear his voice (Genesis 3:9-10). When righteous, he was bold as a lion; but now he runs his head into a bush.

3 This separation and departure hardens his heart against God, that when God comes to talk and treat with man about his sinning, he will lay it anywhere, indeed at God's own door (as Adam did) rather than confess it. It is three times said in one chapter (Hebrews 3:8, 13, 15): Harden not your hearts, lest any of you be hardened, harden not your hearts; and all this in relation to hearing the voice of God, as it is there. When God comes to convince man, he cannot endure to hear of it, but hardens his heart; and as it was in the beginning, so it is now among the sinful children of men.

Thus have I as briefly as so large a subject would permit, set out the sinfulness of sin, as it is against the good of man (body and soul) in this life, in a natural and moral respect, which was the first thing put forward. The second follows:

2 Sin is contrary to, or against the good of man in the life to come: It has brought on man that eternal death, damnation. In this life man by reason of sin is in deaths often, but in the life to come, he is in death forever. If sin had only wronged man in this life (which is but for a moment) it had not been so considerable, but sin's miserable effects are everlasting, if mercy prevent not: the wicked die, and rise to die again the second, and a worse death. There is a resurrection to life for the righteous, the children of the resurrection; and for the wicked, a resurrection to condemnation, or death (for it is opposed to life) (John 5:29). But

Before I show what (and wherein) damnation is, and consequently the mischief and misery that sin has thereby brought on man, I shall premise a few things which will make our passage smooth and easy. I say then:

1 That God damns no man but for sin: Damnation is a punishment (Matthew 25:46), and all punishment supposes guilt and transgression. God the judge of all the earth will do right, and he lays not on man more than is fitting, that man may not enter into judgment with God (Job 34:23), or quarrel and find fault with him; which man would quickly do, if God's judgment were not just, even sinners themselves being judges. Death is but sin's wages (Romans 6:23), that which it has merited; man's undoing, is but the fruit of his own doing; man's perdition is of himself (Hosea 13:9). His own wickedness corrects him (Jeremiah 2:19), and that not only in this life, but that to come (Matthew 7:23 and Matthew 25).

2 That by sin all men are liable to condemnation: We were all of us children of wrath by nature (Ephesians 2:3), and the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience (Ephesians 5:6). He that believes not, is condemned already; he is in a state of condemnation, beside that which unbelief will bring upon him (John 3:18), and he that believes not, the wrath of God abides on him: He was a child of wrath by nature and continues still so in unbelief (John 3:36). The wrath of God seizes on him, as its habitation and abode: Every mouth must be stopped, for all the world is become guilty, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory, and are subject to the judgment of God (Romans 3:19-23).

3 Some men have been, are, and will be damned for sin; all but them who have, do and shall condemn sin, and themselves for sin: If we judge ourselves, we shall not be condemned of the Lord, else woe be to us! When our Savior sent his disciples to preach, he said, Go preach the Gospel (that's good news and glad tidings) — he that believes shall be saved (Mark 16:16). But what if they will not believe, what shall we say then? Why then tell them, he that believes not shall be damned: This is as great a truth of the Gospel, that he who believes not will be damned, as this is, that he who believes shall be saved. Heaven and salvation is not more surely promised to the one, than hell and damnation is threatened to, and shall be executed on the other: broad is the way that leads to this destruction (there are as many tracks to it as there are sins, but) impenitency and unbelief are the high road, the beaten path wherein multitudes go to hell.

4 Damnation is the greatest evil of suffering that can befall a man; it is the greatest punishment that God does inflict: This is the wrath of God to the uttermost, it is his vengeance. Oh who knows the power of his wrath? None but damned ones: It is misery, altogether misery, and always misery to be damned. This will yet more fully appear upon examination, and discovery of