Section 3

¹SECT. III.

1. 1§. 3. Distractions are sins in the special Presence of God.

THE third Evil in the nature of them, is, That they are sins in the special Presence of God. We read, Ezek. 8.16. ⟨p. 149⟩of God, showing the Prophet with infinite wrath, five and twenty men at the door of the Temple of the Lord, between the Porch and the Altar, with their backs towards the Temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the East, and they worshipped the Sun towards the East. This he highly resented, that in his Temple they should have their faces towards the Sun, and turn their backs on him. This is the manners of a roving heart. In God's own presence he turns his back on God, and his face to the things under the Sun, and those he worships. O infinite patience! that turns not such a soul into a Pillar of Salt, yea, throws it not into a Pit of Brimstone! Ezek. 5.11. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, surely (see how he binds it with double strength) because thou hast defiled my Sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thy abominations, therefore I also will diminish thee — A third part shall die with the Pestilence. Which of all thy detestable sins, but thou hast had a fling at in the Sanctuary and Presence of God? now a proud, now a wanton, then a worldly thought. Ah, says God, I cannot bear it. He that provokes me to my face, shall feel it^*. Few think these ⟨p. 150⟩sins have brought the Plague, no more than the Corinthians did their unworthy partaking at the Lord's Table. In his special presence he looks at thee, as I may say, with both eyes,