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I. TERRORS MAY PREPARE A MAN'S HEART, BUT IT IS ONLY THE WORD OF GOD THAT INFORMS AND SUBDUES IT.

1. That this is God's ordinance, wherein He hath both discovered His will unto us, and annexed unto it the power of His Spirit, to subdue every thought in us to the obedience of Jesus Christ.

2. That it is the only means to bring unto God His due honour, by bearing witness to His truth in His promises, and to His righteousness in His laws, and to His authority in submitting to His directions.

II. THE WAY TO GET OUR HEARTS AFFECTED WITH WHAT WE HEAR, IS TO APPREHEND OURSELVES TO BE SPOKEN UNTO IN PARTICULAR.

1. Because self-love is so rooted in us, that we slight and make little account of those things in which ourselves have not a peculiar interest.

2. Because it much advanceth God's honour (1 Corinthians 14:25), when by such particular discoveries and directions it is made manifest unto us that God oversees all our ways, and takes care of our estates in particular, which cannot but work in us both fear, and care, and confidence,

III. THOSE WHO ENDEAVOUR TO FLY FROM GOD, YET CAN BY NO MEANS SHIFT THEMSELVES OUT OF HIS PRESENCE. Let it then be every man's care and wisdom to take hold of God's strength, to make peace with Him, as Himself adviseth us (Isaiah 27:5), seeing He cannot be —

1. Resisted (Isaiah 27:4).

2. Nor escaped (Jeremiah 25:35).

3. Nor entreated (1 Samuel 2:25).

4. Nor endured (Isaiah 33:14).

IV. GOD LOVES A FREE AND VOLUNTARY ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SIN FROM HIS CHILDREN, WHEN THEY HAVE TRESPASSED AGAINST HIM.

1. Because it brings God most honour, when we clear Him, and take the blame unto ourselves (See Joshua 7:19), whereby every mouth is stopped, and His ways acknowledged, and His judgments to be just, in visiting men's transgressions upon them; and His mercies infinite, in sparing men upon their repentance.

2. It most justifies ourselves, when we condemn our own ways and actions (2 Corinthians 7:11), and are grieved in our own hearts, and ashamed of our folly, in the errors of our ways.

V. GOD IS FULL OF MILDNESS AND GENTLENESS IN HIS DEALING WITH OFFENDERS, EVEN IN THEIR GREATEST TRANSGRESSIONS.

1. To clear Himself, that the whole world may acknowledge, that He afflicts not willingly (Lamentations 3:33)..

2. Because the sin itself is burthen some and bitter enough to a tender conscience, so that there needs no mixture with it of gall and wormwood.

VI. THE KNOWLEDGE AND CONSIDERATION OF ONE'S ILL CONDITION IS AN EFFECTUAL MEANS TO BRING HIM ON TO TRUE REPENTANCE. VII. ALL THOSE THAT DESIRE TO GET OUT OF THEIR MISERY MUST SERIOUSLY CONSIDER WITH THEMSELVES WHAT WAS THE MEANS THAT BROUGHT THEM INTO IT.

1. There can be no means of removing evil but by taking away the cause of it, neither is there any means to take that away till it be known.

2. Besides, God can no way gain so much honour, as when men, by searching out the cause of the evils that befall them, find and acknowledge that their destruction is from themselves (Hosea 13:9). Hence it is that the Lord oftentimes makes the judgment which He inflicts to point it out, either by the kind of the judgment, or by some circumstance of the time, place, instrument, or the like, by the observation whereof the evil itself that brought that judgment on us may be made manifest, especially if we take with us for the discovery thereof the light of God's Word.

(J. White, M. A.)

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KJV: And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

WEB: Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"