Motive 2. O ye children of wrath your state is wretched, for ye have lost God; and that is an unspeakable loss. Ye are without God in the world, Eph. ii. 12. Whatever you may call yours, you cannot call God yours. If we look to the earth▪ perhaps you can tell us, that land, that house▪ or that herd of cattle, is yours: But let us look upward to heaven, is that God, that grace, that glory yours? Truly, you have neither part nor lot in that matter. When Nebuchadnezzar talks of cities and kingdoms, O how big does he speak! Great Babylon that I have built,—my power,—my majesty! but he tells a poor tale, when he comes to speak of God, saying, Your God, Dan. ii. 47. and iv. 30. Alas! sinner, whatever thou hast, God is gone from thee. O the misery of a godless soul! Hast thou lost God? Then, (1.) The sap and substance of all that thou hast in the world, is gone. The godless man, have what he will, is one that hath not, Mat xxv 29. I defy the unregenerate man to attain to soul-satisfaction, whatever he possesseth; since God is not his God. All his days he eateth in darkness: in every condition, there is a secret dissatisfaction haunts his heart like a ghost: the soul wants something, tho' perhaps it knoweth not what it is: and so it will be always, till the soul return to God, the fountain of satisfaction. (2.) Thou canst do nothing to purpose for thyself; for God is gone, his soul is departed from thee, Jer. vi. 3. like a leg out of joint hanging by, whereof a man hath no use, as the word there used doth bear. Losing God, thou hast lost the fountain of good; and so, all grace, all goodness, all the saving instances of his Spirit, What canst thou do then? What fruit canst thou bring forth, more than a branch cut off from the stock? John xv. 5. Thou art become unprofitable, Rom. iii. 12. as a filthy rotten thing fit only for the dunghill. (3.) Death his come up into th• windows, yea, and has settled on thy face; for God, in whose favour is life, Psal. xxx. 5. is gone from thee, and so the soul of thy soul is departed. What a loathsome hump is the body, when the soul is gone? Far more loathsome is thy soul in this case. Thou art dead while thou livest. Do not deny it; seeing thy speech is laid, thine eyes closed, and all spiritual motion in thee ceaseth. Thy true friends, who see thy case, do lament, because thou art gone into the land of silence.
Motive 2. O ye children of wrath your state is wretched, for ye have lost God; and that is an unspeakable loss. Ye are without God in the world, Eph. ii. 12. Whatever you may call yours, you cannot call God yours. If we look to the earth▪ perhaps you can tell us, that land, that house▪ or that herd of cattle, is yours: But let us look upward to heaven, is that God, that grace, that glory yours? Truly, you have neither part nor lot in that matter. When Nebuchadnezzar talks of cities and kingdoms, O how big does he speak! Great Babylon that I have built,—my power,—my majesty! but he tells a poor tale, when he comes to speak of God, saying, Your God, Dan. ii. 47. and iv. 30. Alas! sinner, whatever thou hast, God is gone from thee. O the misery of a godless soul! Hast thou lost God? Then, (1.) The sap and substance of all that thou hast in the world, is gone. The godless man, have what he will, is one that hath not, Mat xxv 29. I defy the unregenerate man to attain to soul-satisfaction, whatever he possesseth; since God is not his God. All his days he eateth in darkness: in every condition, there is a secret dissatisfaction haunts his heart like a ghost: the soul wants something, tho' perhaps it knoweth not what it is: and so it will be always, till the soul return to God, the fountain of satisfaction. (2.) Thou canst do nothing to purpose for thyself; for God is gone, his soul is departed from thee, Jer. vi. 3. like a leg out of joint hanging by, whereof a man hath no use, as the word there used doth bear. Losing God, thou hast lost the fountain of good; and so, all grace, all goodness, all the saving instances of his Spirit, What canst thou do then? What fruit canst thou bring forth, more than a branch cut off from the stock? John xv. 5. Thou art become unprofitable, Rom. iii. 12. as a filthy rotten thing fit only for the dunghill. (3.) Death his come up into th• windows, yea, and has settled on thy face; for God, in whose favour is life, Psal. xxx. 5. is gone from thee, and so the soul of thy soul is departed. What a lothsome hump is the body, when the soul is gone? Far more lothsome is thy soul in this case. Thou art dead while thou livest. Do not deny it; seeing thy speech is laid, thine eyes closed, and all spiritual motion in thee ceaseth. Thy true friends, who see thy case, do lament, because thou art gone into the land of silence.
