The Godly Mans Journey to Heaven, Treatise 2 · Meditation 6
6. Sinne is the onelyonly thing which separateth man from God, and maketh God misknow and denie man.
AM I lying, ô my soule, vnderunder any presently felt, or foreseene feared trouble, and yet neither comforted vnderunder this my trouble, neither deliuered nor thē kept from that I feele, from that I feare. Attempt not to challenge that Almighty, that al-sufficient Maiestie, either of impotencie and weaknesse, or of vnrighteousnesse and rigour, but see that thou accuse thy selfe, conuict thy selfe for sinne and iniquitie; for that golden Axiome shall euer abide inuiolably true, sounded by that herauld of God Isaiah, not without any noyse going before it, proclaiming, with the truth, the excellencie and worthinesse of it:Isa. 59. 1. 2. Behold the Lord his hand is not shortened that it cannot saue, neither is his eare heauie that it cannot heare, but your iniquities hauehave separated betwixt you and your God, and your sinnes hauehave hid his face from you. And so I must hauehave thee, ô my soule, suffering thy selfe to be resolued, that that long and strong hand of God is neither put vp in his bosome, and so stayed from helping of thee in the day of thy need, nor put forth against thee, to strike thee. And with this, that his eare is not closed vp from thy grones and prayers, till thou by sinne hauehave separate thy selfe from his Maiestie, and thereby hauehave depriued thy selfe of that helpe, his hand otherwayes should hauehave made thee; and of that comfort thou shouldest hauehave found from his hearing eare. Tell me, tell me, ô my soule, if thou canst, how name … thou him, or her, to whom euer that blessed God failed: first, I trow these first sinners, my grand-father and mother failed to their God before he failed to them. I thinke that second sinner Cain depriued himselfe of Gods helpe and comfort by a most cruell vnnaturall murther, before either Gods mouth was opened, or hand armed against him. If these of the first world, who perished by the floud were alone, sure I am they would confesse this to be true. If these inhabitants of Ierusalem who fel vnderunder the king of Babel, and of the Romanes were aliue, they could not denie this. Alwayes here, ô my soule, I will pray thee grauely to consider one point; wouldst thou hauehave thy God comming to thee, or darest thou thinke that he will come vntounto thee when thou thinkest that he should come to thee, and as thou dreamest that he may come to thee? No, no, thou must vnderstand, ô my soule, that God will not come vntounto thee, but as he hath promised to come vntounto his owne, and as his owne hauehave found him to come vntounto them. Thou mayest thinke, ô my soule, that God will come vntounto thee when any thing troubles thee, to pitie, to comfort, yea, to deliuer thee; albeit thou in the meane time stay from him, going on in thy former and present sinnes, yea adding new sinnes to old sinnes, and grosse sinnes to lesse sins. Alwayes thou must know, ô my soule, that it cannot be so, that it ought not be so. Hearest thou not thy God speaking thus to Abraham, Gen. 17. 1.I am thy God al-sufficient, walke thou before me, and be thou vpright. Thus not onelyonly shewing Abraham what a God and Maister he will be vntounto him, but telling Abraham what a sonne and seruant he must prooue to his Maiestie againe. Speakes not Dauid thus to thee touching thy God:Psal. 18. 25. 26. With the godly thou wilt shew thy selfe godly, with the vpright man thou wilt shew thy selfe vpright: with the pure thou wilt shew thy selfe pure, and with the forward thou wilt shew thy selfe forward. And againe. The eyes of the Lord are vponupon the righteous, and his eares are open to his crie: Psal 34. 15. 16.but the face of the Lord is against them that do euill, to cut off their remembrance from the earth. Oh when shall that question and answer made by Isaiah be taken to heart by the made professors of this time: Who among vsus shall dwell with the deuouring fire? Isa. 33. 14. 15. 16.who among vsus shall dwell with the euerlasting burnings? He that walketh in iustice, and speaketh vpright things, refusing gaine of oppression, shaking his hands from taking of gifts, stopping his eares from hearing of bloud, and shutting his eyes from seeing of euill, he shall dwell on high, his defence shall be the munition of rockes, bread shall be giuen him, and his water shall be sweet. Draw neare & hearken, ô my soule, neuer shall I thinke vponupon that oracle sounded by Isaiah alreadie alledged here, (Behold the Lords hand is not shortened that it cannot saue, neither is his eare heauie that it cannot heare, but your iniquities hauehave separate betwixt you and your God, and your sins hauehave hid his face from you) but alas, oft I shall crie out to the hearing of God, Angels and men: ô the fearefull vglinesse of sinne, the vnspeakable hurt comes to man by iniquitie! Woe is my soule, that euer man was infected with sinne, and ô would to God that all men were quite of iniquitie. But wherefore alledge I, ô my soule, that sinne is a fearefull vglie thing, and wherfore out of this sense of sinne lament I, that euer man was infected with it, and wish I that all men were rid of it? Iniquity and sinne, saith Isaiah, is that onelyonly partition-wall which diuideth betwixt God and man: and so that sole and foule abhominable adulterie, whereby that marriage, bound vp betwixt God & man, is disanulled, and made voide; so that, as a religious generous husband cannot looke vponupon his wife when she hath defiled his bed; our blessed God, holinesse, wisedome, and courage it selfe, cannot abide that soule which dareth attempt by sinne to abuse him. What Gentleman hauing nothing (as we speak) but his horse and saddle, being married to some Gentlewoman, may spend by yeare fiue or sixe thousand markes, kindly in the meane time entertaining him, and prouiding him of all things requisite for his necessitie and pleasure, will wittingly and willingly (his bedfellow being wise and of any spirit as we say) commit adulterie in the open fields, to the sight of men of conscience and credit, knowing that his wife will then easily by diuorcement quit her selfe of him, and send him backe to his wonted miserie. And yet, alas, is man (married by God to God) feareth not in close corners onelyonly, but euen in the publicke streetes as it were, yea, and in the very open fields to commit spirituall adulteries, to the sight of Angels and men, against that blessed God: here running with speed after that sinne, there committing with greedinesse another sinne, albeit neuer gentlewoman found a man so bare (as we say) when she married him, as our God found vsus, all and eueryevery one of vsus when he married vsus O Ezekiel tell me what was our estate when our God married vsus. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite, thy nauell was not cut, thou wast not washed with water to soften thee, thou was not salted in salt, nor swadled in clouts, no eye pittied thee to do these things to thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field to the contempt of thy person, in the day that thou wast borne: and when I passed by thee, I saw thee polluted in thy owne bloud,Ezech. 16. 3. 4. 5. 6. I said vntounto thee, when thou wast in thy bloud thou shalt liue. Euen when thou wast in thy bloud I said vntounto thee thou shalt liue. O Paul hast thou any more to say to this purpose, yes, yes, for he tels me that when our God married vsus, we were all dead in sinnes and trespasses, walking according to the course of this world, and after the prince which ruleth in the aire,Ephes. 1. 2. euen the spirit which now worke…h in the children of disobedience. Beside this, ô my soule, neuer shall I call to minde that sentence sounded in the eares of Moses by my God, Exod. 32. and 7. Thy people whom thou hast brought from the land of Egypt hauehave corrupted their wayes, and compare it with that speech spoken by that same God to this Moses touching the same people:Exod. 4. 21. Israel is my sonne, euen my first borne. But of new againe I must crie out, ô the vilenesse of sinne, ô the hurt cometh to man by sinne! Sinne is so vile before God, sinne is so hurtfull to man, that it can make our God do that, which nothing beside sinne can possibly make him to do. And what is that I pray thee, ô my soule, consider it, consider it, for Iesus sake I beseech thee, ô my dearest soule, as thou louest thy selfe and me: feare at Moses speaking to thee by that alledged Scripture, and he will tell thee, that sinne is that which maketh our God misknow his child, deny his child; albeit nothing beside this vile sinne, can make his Maiestie rather misknow or deny him▪ for I must tel thee, ô my soule, were thy estate neuer so miserable to the eyes, & in the iudgement of men, as long as my heart resetteth not sin with greedinesse, God will not misknow me, God will not denie me.Gen. 29. Were I seruing a cruell Laban farre from father and mother with Iacob. Were I working in clay not like a man,Eodus 1. but like a beast, hauing my fee…e, my hands, my armes, and face so couered with filthy mudde, that none of my acquaintāce could take me for the man I am, with the Israelites in Egypt; were I cast out of my house by oppression; or through pouertie, or sicknesse, to lie vponupon some dunghill, or vnderunder some open staire with Iob; Iob 2.yea, were I couered from top to toe with boyles as Lazarus was, hauing none among men to visite me;Luke 16. my God can know me for his owne, and can gratiously keepe my soule by his Spirit, and attend my bodie by his Angels, in the meane time reprouing greater, and smaller men, yea, euen Kings for me when they abuse me. OnelyOnly if I louelove sinne, if I commit sinne with delight,Gen. 31. 24. will he misknow me, will he denie me. Cain Adams eldest sonne, and so the Prince of the whole world, alwayes is he not cast out from the presence of God, when defyling his fingers with his brothers bloud, he dare meddle with sinne his deadly enemie. Cham is carefully kept, by the Lord our God, in the Arke with Noah his father, and Sem and Iaphet his brethren. Alwayes is he not afterwards euen cursed by that God who sometime kept him? and all because medling with sinne, (which had destroyed the whole world before him) he dare mocke his religious old father. Saul of a begger is made a King by God: alwayes, when Saul dare lift vp himselfe against that Maiestie, who had cloathed him with Maiestie, who had treaden vnderunder his feete, Church and policie, by making his owne will the rule of his doing; is not Saul of a King ruling euen ouer Israel, God his eldest Sonne, made a slaue to be ouerruled by the diuell for euermore. Iesus that Lord of glorie by whom the world was made, comming into the world to saue the world, will assume to himselfe 12. men to be witnesses of these things he spake, and suffered; Iudas Iscariot must not onelyonly be one of them, but must carrie the bag, and beare that which was giuen.Iohn 12. 4. 5. 6. Alwayes, when he dare proue a thiefe and be content to lose a Sauiour for some siluer (as, alas, too many do) first, Satan must enter within him, and afterwards he must enter in hell, there to abide with Satan for euermore.Iohn 13. 3. Wilt thou not then, ô my soule, but delay and with all thy strength arme thy selfe against sinne, which onelyonly armeth God against thee? Wilt thou not misknow sinne altogether, neither lending a looke to it when it drawes neare vntounto thee, neither giuing an eare to it when it speaketh to thee, neither denying it with an answer, when it beginneth sweetly to flatter thee, or louingly to embrace thee, except it be with a disdaining answer thus: go behinde me Satan? Seeing sinne is the onelyonly thing maketh God to misknow thee, yea, to denie thee. And in a word, ô my soule, wilt thou not rather lay downe thy necke to the axe, then lift vp thy heart against thy will by committing of sinne; seeing sinne is the onelyonly thing which cannot suffer his Maiestie to lift thee vpward towards the highest heauens, where in his presence there is fulnesse of ioy, and at his right hand pleasures for euermore;Psal. 16. 11. and which cannot but cause him to throw thee downe towards the lowest hells, out of the which there is no redemption; notwithstanding that worme which biteth there,Esay 66. 14 shall neuer die, neither that fire which burneth there shall euer be quenched?Bern. The sense hereof moued Bernard thus to aduise one of his speciall brethren. O homo Dei, ne trepides exuere hominem illum qui de terraest, & conatur deprimere vsque ad inferos: iste est qui de terra est qui vexat, qui onerat, qui oppugnat. O man of God be not affrayed to shake off that man which is from the earth, euen that man which presseth thee downe to the earth, and labours to presse thee downe euen to the verie helles: that is that man which vexeth thee, which burthens thee, which visiteth and fightest against thee.