Tit. 6. Directions against sinful Hatred, Aversation, or Backwardness towards God

The hatred to God and backwardness to his service, which is the chief part of this sin, is to be cured according to the directions in the first chapter, as a state of wickedness is: and more I shall say anon, about the worship of God; and chap. iii. direct. xi. containeth the cure also. Only here I shall add a few directions to a God-hating generation.

Direct. I. The first thing you have to do, is to discover this to be your sin. For you are confident that you love God above all, while you hate him above all, even above the devil. You will confess, that this is horrid wickedness, where it is found, and well deserveth damnation: take heed lest thy own confession judge thee. Remember then that it is not the bare name that we now speak of: I know that God’s name is most honoured, and the devil’s name is most hated. Nor is it every thing in God that is hated: none hateth his mercifulness and goodness as such. Nor is it every thing in the devil that is loved: none loveth his hatred to man, nor his cruelty in tormenting men. But the holiness of God, which is it that man must receive the image of, and be conformed to, is hated by the unholy; and the devil’s unholiness, and friendship to men’s sin and sensuality, is loved by the sensual and unholy. And this hatred of God (and love of the devil) one would think you might easily perceive:

1. In that you had rather God were not so just and holy; you had rather he had never commanded you to be holy, but left you to live as your flesh would have you: you had rather God were indifferent as to your sins, and would give you leave to follow your lusts. Such a God you would have: and a God that will damn you unless you be holy, and hate your sins and forsake them, you like not, you cannot abide, but indeed do hate him.

2. Therefore you will not believe that God is such a holy, sin-hating God: because you would not have him so, you will not believe he is so; and so hate his nature, while you believe that you love him; and love but an idol of your unholy fantasies. Psal. 1. 21, 22, “These things hast thou done, and I kept silence: thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.”

3. You love not the holiness of the word of God, which beareth his image. You love not these strict and holy passages in it, John iii. 3, 5; Luke xiv. 26, 33; Matt. xviii. 3; Rom. viii. 13; Col. iii. 1-4; 2 Cor. v. 17, with abundance more. You had rather have had a Scripture that would have left you your ambition, covetousness, lust, and appetite to their liberties; and that had said nothing for the absolute necessity of holiness, nor had condemned the ungodly.

4. You love not the holiest ministers or servants of Christ, that most powerfully preach his holy word, or that most carefully, seriously, and zealously obey it; your hearts rise against them, when they bring in the light, which showeth that your deeds and you are evil, John iii. 19, 20. They are an eyesore to you: your hearts rise not so much against whoremongers, swearers, liars, drunkards, atheists, or infidels, as against them. What sort of persons on the face of the earth, are so hated by the ungodly in all nations, and of all degrees, and used by them so cruelly, and pursued by them so implacably, as the holiest servants of the Lord are?

5. You love not to call upon God in serious, fervent, spiritual prayer, praises, and thanksgiving: you are quickly weary of it; you had rather be at a play, or gaming, or a feast: your hearts rise against holy worship as a tedious, irksome thing.

6. You love not holy, edifying discourse of God, and of heavenly things: your hearts rise against it, and you hate and scorn it, as if all serious talk of God were but hypocrisy, and God were to be banished out of our discourse.

7. You cannot abide the serious, frequent thoughts of God in secret; but had rather stuff your minds with thoughts of your horses, or hawks, or bravery, or honour, or preferments, or sports, or entertainments, or business and labours in the world; so that one hour of a thousand or ten thousand was never spent in serious, delightful thoughts of God, his holy truths, or works, or kingdom.

8. You love not the blessed day of judgment, when Christ will come with his holy angels to judge the world, to justify his accused and abused servants, to be “glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that do believe,” 2 Thess. i. 8-11. And can you be so blind after all this, as not to see that you are haters of God?

Direct. II. Know God better, and thou canst not hate him; especially know the beauty and glorious excellency of that holiness and justice which thou hatest. Should the sun be darkened or disgraced, because sore eyes cannot endure its light? Must kings and judges be all corrupt, or change their laws, and turn all men loose to do what they list, because malefactors and licentious men would have it so?

Direct. III. Know God and holiness as they are to thee thyself; and then thou wilt know them not only to be best for thee, as the sun is to the world, and as life and health are to thy body, but to be thy only good and happiness; and then thou canst not choose but love them. Thy prejudice and false conceits of God and holiness cause thy hatred.

Direct. IV. Cast away thy cursed unbelief. If thou believe not what the Scripture saith of God and man, and of the soul’s immortality, and the life to come, thou wilt then hate all that is holy as a deceit, and needless troubler of the world. But if once thou believe well the word of God, and the life everlasting, thou wilt have another heart.

Direct. V. Away with thy beastly, blinding sensuality. While thou art a slave to thy flesh, and lusts, and appetite, and its interest reigneth in thee, thou canst not choose but hate that holiness which is against it, and hate that God that forbiddeth it, and tells thee that he will judge thee and damn thee for it if thou forsake it not: this is the true cause of the hatred of God and godliness in the world. God’s laws condemn the very life and pleasure of the fleshly man. Godliness is unreconcilable to concupiscence and the carnal interest. Lay by thy fleshly mind and interest, or, as sure as thou art a man, thou wilt be judged and damned as an enemy to God. Dost thou not feel that this is the cause of thy enmity, that God putteth thee on unpleasing (holy) courses, and will not let thee please thy flesh, but affrighteth thee with the threatenings of hell? Rom. viii. 6-8, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace: because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be: so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Ver. 13, “If ye live after the flesh ye shall die.” “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks,” Acts ix. 5. “Woe to him that striveth with his Maker,” Isa. xlv. 9. Read Luke xix. 27.

Direct. VI. Draw near and accustom thy soul to serious thoughts of God; for it is strangeness that maketh thee the more averse to him. We have less pleasure in the company of strangers than of familiar acquaintance. Reconciliation must be made by coming nearer, and not by keeping at a distance still.

Direct. VII. Study well the wonderful love and mercy which he hath manifested to thy soul in the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ, in the covenant of grace, in all the patience he hath exercised towards thee, and all his offers of mercy and salvation, entreating thee to turn and live. Canst thou remember what God hath done for thee all thy life, and how patiently and mercifully he hath dealt with thee, and yet canst thou hate him, or thy heart be against him?

Direct. VIII. Judge not of God or holiness by the faults of any men that have seemed holy. No more than you will censure the sun, because thieves rob by the light of it; or because some men are purblind. God hateth sin in them and you, wherever he findeth it. Judge of God and holiness by his proper nature and true effects, and by the holy Scripture, and not by the crimes of sinners which he condemneth, who, if they had been more holy, had less offended.

Direct. IX. Come among the godly, and try a holy life awhile, and judge not of it or them that use it by the reports of the devil and wicked men. Malice will speak ill of God himself, and of his holiest servants. Can worse be said, than was said of Christ himself, and his apostles? The devil was not ashamed to belie Job to God’s own face, and tell God that he was such a one, as that a little trial to his flesh would turn him from his godliness. But those that come near and try the ways and servants of God, do find that the devil did belie them.

Direct. X. Remember thy near approaching end, and how dreadful it will be to be found and judged among the malignant enemies of holiness. “And if the righteous be scarcely saved, where then shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 1 Pet. iv. 18. Then what wouldst thou give to be one of those holy ones that now thou hatest? and to be judged as those that lived in that holiness which thy malignant heart could not abide? Then thou wilt wish that thou hadst lived and died as the righteous, that thy latter end might have been like his.