164 NEARNESS TO 0On. happiness ? It may be said to every soul on earth, as it was once said to Israel; Youriniquities have separated betweenyou and your God; Is. lix. Q. What a world óf endless mischief was compri- sed in the firstsin of Adam, whereby this lower creation was as it were, cut off from God at once? Man was at first happy in the image and love of his Maker, a-kin to him by nature and creation, as a son to a father,:. Adamwas the Son of God; Luke iii. 38. and he enjoyed the privilege and the pleasure of holy nearness to God, and humble converse with him. He read the name Of his Maker in all his works; he could contem- plate divine wisdom, power, and goodness there ; he loved his Creator'with all his soul, and was happy in his Creator's love. But when sin entered, Adamfled from his heavenly Father, and his friend ; he 'hid himself among the trees in the garden, when the voice of the Lord called after him, Adam, where art thou? And it has been the dismal description of sinners ever since, that they are afar offfrom God. Owhat tongue can express, or what heart can conceive, the immense load, and everlasting train of mischiefs and miseries, that lie heavy on poor mankind, and have pursued human na- ture, in all the infinite members and branches of it, through all ages and nations, for almost six thousand years ? All these were introduced by man's first disobedience. We are á sinful race of creatures, horn in the likeness of the original sinner ; We come into the world estrangedfrom God, andgoastrayfront the womb; for we were shaper in iniquity, andconceived in sin Ps. lviii. 3. and li. 5. It is the temper and spirit of mankind, by nature, to desire an absencefrom God, and to wish their own misery ; Job xxi. 14. " What is the Almighty that we should serve him ? u_ Depart from us, for we desirenot the knowledge of thyways." Bynature we lovehim not, nor do we seek after his love. This is your state, and this mine bynature : These are our hateful and deplorable circumstances, and yet we go on to aggra- vate our own guilt, to run further from God hourly, and to make haste to everlasting wretchedness, if divine grace pre- vent us not. III. Reflection. Is nearness WGod the foundation of the creature's felicity, then how vain are all pretences to happiness, whileman is -a stranger to God ? Let himbe surrounded with all imaginable delights of sense, or let him be furnished with all ad- vantages of reason or natural knowledge; to entertain the mind ; yet if hebe afar offfrom God, he must be afar off from blessedness. Without God, and without hope, is the character of the sinful world. Do the profane and sensual wretches boast of their pleasures, while God is not inall their thoughts ? Emptyshews of pleasure, and vain shadows ! And even these shadows, these
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=