Ver. 7: the 8tbChapter of the R 0 M A N S. 63 of our love to him: All the pleafures and contentments of the World, fhonld be ha- ted rather than loved : So far as our hearts are let upon thofe things which the Flefh favoureth and delighteth in, fo far are they effranged from God ; and then you will neglect him, or eafily partwith him for the World's fake. If a Father fhould come to his Child, and fay, If you love fuch vain and inticing Company, I fnall take you for mine Enemy ; you mutt either hate me or them; would not an ingenious Child refrain his Haunts, rather than forfeit his Fathers love ? This is the cafe between us and God Love not theWorld (faith he), nor the things of the World: If you love the World, you do not love me: Trherefore for us only to favour and relilh there things, is fiatenmi- ty to God. 3. We are faid to hateßod, and be enemies to him, if we rebel againfl him, and dif- obey his Laws. God's love to us is a love of bounty, and our love to him is a love of duty, ¡hewed rather by obedience, than a fellow-like familiarity. Here in the Text our refpeds to God are interpreted and judged of by our refpeds to his Law. By this God meafureth our love and hatred to himfelf: 'Tis enmity to God, becaufe it is not fabjeti to the Law of God. So elfewhere love is determined by obedience, n John 5. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And John 14. 21, He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. On the other fide, hatred is expreffed by difobedience, Deut. 5. 9. on them that hate me, and keep not my commandments. All fin is an hatred of God : Actual fin is odium Dei ailuale, and habitual fin is odium Dei habituate ; 'Tis fnis operis, if not operantis. We think not fo, but the Scripture judgeth fo ; and it appears from Reafon. We apprehend God fiandeth in the way of our defires : And becaufe we cannot enjoy our Lutis with that freedom and fecurity, as we might otherwife, were it not for h's Law, therefore we hate God. He commandeth that which we cannot, and will riot do, being inticed and in- veigled by the Flefh. 3. There is a twofold hatred; odium abominations, & odium inimicitie the hatred of abomination, and diflike, and the hatred of enmity. The one is oppofite to the love of good will, the other to the love of complacency: -See Prov. 2 g. 27. The wicked are an abomination to the righteous. Surely a righteous man hateth not his Neighbour with the hatred of enmity, to Peek his deflrudion ; but with the hatred of offence, fa as not to delight in him while he is wicked, in oppofition to the love of complacency. We may hateour linful Neighbour, as we mutt firft hate our felves, and loath our felves, becaufe of our fins: but in oppofition to the love of benevolence, we mull neither hate our Neighbour, nor our Enemy, nor our felves. Apply this diflindion to the cafe be- tween God and us, 'twill be hard to excufe any carnal man from either hatred certainly not from the hatred-of offence or abomination, there being fuch an unfuitablenefs and diffìmilitude between God and them in pure Nature. We were created after his Image, and then wedelighted in him: but when we loft our urli Nature, we left our fielt love: For love is grounded upon likenefs, or willing and nulling the fame things : Put alas I now we love what he hateth, and hate what he loveth; and therefore becaufe of this diflimilitude, there is an hatred. How can we delight in an holy God, and a God of pure eyes delight in fuch fenfual polluted Creatures ? What can carnal men fee lovely in God, or God in them ? See Zach. 1 r. 8. My ford loatheth them, and their foul ab. horreth me. Therefore from this hatred of loathing, offence and abomination, none can excufe themselves, till they come to hate what God hateth, and to love what God loveth : There is, and will be the hatred of once, Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lordii to hate evil. 2. For the other Branch: The hatred of enmity, is that which implieth all endeavours of mifchief, and feeketh the d'eflrudion of the thing hated. We cannot excufe the carnal man from this neither ; for there is a fecret pofitive enmity in them againfl the Being of God : And this isthe effect of flavifh fear. We hate God under a double Notion, as a Lawgiver, thwarting our Lulls by his Precepts; and as an Avenger, punifh. ing our diforders. This latter we arc upon : Slavifh fear apprehendeth God as an avenger of fin, or as a condemning God. Men hate thofe whom they fear : The Remece Hiltorian obferveth it ; proprium eft human ingenii odiffe pies Leferit : Why ? Becaufe we fear their revenge. We have wronged God exceedingly, and know that he will call us to an account; and therefore being fenfible of the righteoufnefs of his Vindictive Jallier, we hate him. All that are afraid of God, with fuch a fear as bath torment in it, ant extintum Denim cupeunt act exanimatum, 'cis apleatng thought to them if there were no God, Pfal.14. a. The fool bath Paid in bit heart there is 716' God. As the Devils tremble
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