Sin has been delightfully admitted to an entertainment by all the powers of the soul. The soul hath chosen it rather than G.o.d; and also, at G.o.d"s command, refuses to let it go.
If there be at any time, as indeed there is, a warrant issued out from the mouth of G.o.d to apprehend, to condemn and mortify sin, why then the souls of sinners do presently make these shifts for the saving of sin from things that by the word men arc commanded to do unto it:
1. They will, if possible, hide it, and not suffer it to be discovered.
2. As the soul will hide it, so it will excuse it, and plead that this and that piece of wickedness is no such evil thing, men need not be so nice.
3. As the soul will do this, so to save sin it will cover it with names of virtue, either moral or civil.
4. If convictions and discovery of sin be so strong and so plain that the soul cannot deny but that it is sin, and that G.o.d is offended therewith, then it will give flattering promises to G.o.d that it will indeed put it away; but yet it will prefix a time that shall he long first, saying, Yet a little sleep, yet a little slumber, yet a little folding of sin in my arms, till I am older, till I am richer, till I have had more of the sweetness and the delights of sin.
5. If G.o.d yet pursues, and will see whether this promise of putting sin out of doors shall he fulfilled by the soul, why then it will be partial in G.o.d"s law; it will put away some, and keep some; put away the grossest, and keep the finest; put away those that can best be spared, and keep the most profitable for a help at a pinch.
6. Yea, if all sin must be abandoned, or the soul shall have no rest, why then the soul and sin will part--with such a parting as it is--even as Phaltiel parted with David"s wife, with an ill-will and a sorrowful mind; or as Orpah left her mother, with a kiss. 2 Sam.
3:16; Ruth 1:14.
7. And if at any time they can or shall meet with each other again, and n.o.body never the wiser, O what courting will be between sin and the soul.
By all these, and many more things that might be instanced, it is manifest that sin has a friendly entertainment by the soul, and that therefore the soul is guilty of d.a.m.nation; for what do all these things argue, but that G.o.d, his word, his ways and graces, are out of favor with the soul, and that sin and Satan are its only pleasant companions?
SIN.
Sin so sets itself against the nature of G.o.d that, if possible, it would annihilate and turn him into nothing, it being in its nature point-blank against him.
What a thing is sin; what a devil and master of devils is it, that it should, where it takes hold, so hang that nothing can unclutch its hold, but the mercy of G.o.d and the heart-blood of his dear Son.
No sin is little in itself; because it is a contradiction of the nature and majesty of G.o.d.
O, sin, what art thou! What hast thou done! and what still wilt thou further do, if mercy and blood and grace do not prevent thee!
Sin is the living worm, the lasting fire; h.e.l.l soon would loss its heat, could sin expire.
Better sinless in h.e.l.l, than to be where Heaven is, and to be found a sinner there.
One sinless with infernals might do well, But sin would make of heaven a very h.e.l.l.
Look to thyself then, keep it out of door, Lest it get in and never leave thee more.
No match has sin but G.o.d in all the world; Men, angels, has it from their station hurled, Holds them in chains as captives, in despite Of all that here below is called might.
Release, help, freedom from it none can give, But even He by whom we breathe and live.
Watch therefore, keep this giant out of door, Lest, if once in, thou get him out no more.
Fools make a mock at sin, will not believe It carries such a dagger in its sleeve.
How can it be, say they, that such a thing, So full of sweetness, e"er should wear a sting?
They know not that it is the very spell Of sin, to make men laugh themselves to h.e.l.l.
Look to thyself, then, deal with sin no more, Lest He that saves, against thee shut the door.
There are sins against light, sins against knowledge, sins against love, sins against learning, sins against threatenings, sins against promises and vows and resolutions, sins against experience, sins against examples of anger, and sins that have great and high and strange aggravations attending them; the which we are ignorant of, though not altogether, yet in too great a measure.
Sins go not alone, hut follow one another as do the links of a chain.
A presumptuous sin is such a one as is committed in the face of the command, in a desperate venturing to run the hazard, or in a presuming upon the mercy of G.o.d through Christ, to be saved notwithstanding: this is a leading sin to that which is unpardonable, and will be found with such professors as do hanker after iniquity.
One leak will sink a ship; and one sin will destroy a sinner.
He that lives in sin and hopes for happiness hereafter, is like him that soweth c.o.c.kle and thinks to fill his barn with wheat and barley.
Crush sin in the conception, lest it bring forth death in thy soul.
Some men"s hearts are narrow upwards and wide downwards--narrow as to G.o.d, but wide for the world.
PRIDE.
Pride is the ringleader of the seven abominations that the wise man nameth. Prov. 6: 16, 17.
Apparel is the fruit of sin; wherefore, let such as pride themselves therein remember, that they cover one shame with another. But let them that are truly G.o.dly have their apparel modest and sober, and with such shame-facedness put them on; remembering always, that the first cause of our covering our nakedness was the sin and shame of our first parents.
ENVY.
Mr. Badman"s envy was so rank and strong, that if it at any time turned its head against a man, it would hardly ever be pulled in again. He would watch over that man to do him mischief, as the cat watches over the mouse to destroy it; yea, he would wait seven years but he would have an opportunity to hurt him, and when he had it, he would make him feel the weight of his envy. This envy is the very father and mother of a great many hid eous and prodigious wickednesses. It both begets them, and also nourishes them up till they come to their cursed maturity in the bosom of him that entertains them.
DRUNKENNESS.
Drunkenness is so beastly a sin, a sin so much against nature, that I wonder that any who have but the appearance of men can give up themselves to so beastly, yea, worse than beastly a thing.
Many that have begun the world with plenty, have gone out of it in rags, through drunkenness. Yea, many children that have been born to good estates, have yet been brought to a flail and a rake through this beastly sin of their parents.
Yea, it so stupefies and besots the soul, that a man who is far gone in drunkenness is hardly ever recovered to G.o.d. Tell me, when did you see an old drunkard converted? No, no; such a one will sleep till he dies, though he sleep on the top of a mast; so that if a man have any respect either to credit, health, life, or salvation, he will not be a drunken man.
"And Noah was uncovered." Behold ye now, that a little of the fruit of the vine lays gravity, grey hairs, and a man that for hundreds of years was a lover of faith, holiness, goodness, sobriety, and all righteousness, shamelessly as the object to the eye of the wicked.
"And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years." He lived, therefore, to see Abraham fifty-and-eight years old; he lived also to see the foundation of Babel laid, nay, the top-stone thereof; and also the confusion of tongues; he lived to see of the fruit of his loins, mighty kings and princes. But in all this time he lived not to do one, work that the Holy Ghost thought worthy to record, for the savor of his name or the edification and benefit of his church, save only, that he died at "nine hundred and fifty years:" so great a breach did this drunkenness make upon his spirit.
SINNERS.
Usually in wicked families, some one or two are more arch for wickedness than are any other that are there. Now such are Satan"s conduit-pipes; for by them he conveys of the sp.a.w.n of h.e.l.l, through their being crafty in wickedness, into the ears and souls of their companions.
"And she bare Cain:" the first sprout of a disobedient couple, a man in shape, but a devil in disposition.
The sinner, when his conscience is fallen asleep and grown hard, will lie like the smith"s dog at the foot of the anvil, though the fire-sparks fly in his face.
Peace in a sinful course is one of the greatest of curses.
There is a wicked man that goes blinded, and a wicked man that goes with his eyes open, to h.e.l.l; there is a wicked man that cannot see, and a wicked man that will not see, the danger he is in; but h.e.l.l-fire will open the eyes of both.
The soul with some is the game, their l.u.s.ts are the dogs, and they themselves are the huntsmen; and never do they more halloo and lure and laugh and sing, than when they have delivered up their soul, their darling, to these dogs.
I may safely say, that the most of men who are concerned in a trade, will be more vigilant in dealing with a twelvepenny customer, than they will be with Christ when he comes to make unto them by the gospel a tender of the incomparable grace of G.o.d.
SINFUL EASE.
"Tis true there is no man more at ease in his mind--with such ease as it is--than the man that hath not closed with the Lord Jesus, but is shut up in unbelief. Oh, but that is the man that stands convicted before G.o.d, and that is bound over to the GREAT a.s.sIZE!