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?[338] 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?