AGGRAVATION OF
SIN;
Was that then which is good
made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working
death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become
exceeding sinful . - Rom. VII. 13.
WE find our apostle in the 9th verse to have been alive,
but struck upon the sudden dead, by an apparition presented to him in the glass
of the law, of 'the sinfulness of sin.' 'Sin revived,' says the 9th verse,
'appeared to be sin,' says the 13th verse, looks but like itself, ' above
measure sinful;' and he falls down dead at the very sight of it; 'I died,' says
he in the 9th; 'it wrought death in me,' says the 13th, that is, an
apprehension of death and hell, as due to that estate I was then in. But yet as
the life of sin was the death of Paul, so this death of his was but a
preparation to a new life, 'I through the law am dead to the law, that I might
live to God,' Gal. ii. 19. And here he likewise speaks of God's work upon him
at his first conversion; for then it was that he relates how sin became in his
esteem, so 'above measure sinful.'
The subject then to be insisted on is
the sinfulness of sin, a subject therefore as necessary as any other,
because if ever we be saved, sin must first appear to us all, as it did here to
him, 'above measure sinful.'
And first, because all knowledge begins at the
effects, which are obvious to sense, and interpreters of the nature of things,
therefore we will begin this demonstration of the evil of sin, from the
mischievous effects it hath filled the world withal, it having done nothing but
wrought mischief since it came into the world, and all the mischief that hath
been done, it alone hath done, but especially towards the poor soul of man, the
miserable subject.
Which, first, it hath debased the soul of man, the
noblest creature under heaven, and highest allied, made to be a companion fit
for God himself, but sin hath stript it of its first native excellency, as it
did Reuben, Gen. Xlix: 4, debased the soul more worth than all the world, as
Christ himself saith, at only went to the price of it; yet sin hath made it a
drudge and slave to every creature it was made to rule; therefore the prodigal
as a type is to serve swine, and feed on husks, so as every vanity masters it.
Therefore we find in Scripture, that men are said to be 'servants to
wine,'Titus ii. 3, servants to riches, and divers lusts, &c.
And hence
it is that shame attends upon it, Rom. vi. 21. Now shame ariseth out of an
apprehension of some excellency debased; and by how much the excellency is
greater, by so much is the shame the greater and therefore unutterable
confusion will one day befall sinners, because the debasement of an invaluable
excellency.
Secondly, It not only debaseth it, but defiles it also; and
indeed was nothing else that could defile it, Mat. xv. 20, for the soul is a
pure beam, bearing the image of the Father of lights, as far surpassing the sun
in pureness as the sun doth a clod of earth; and yet all the the world cannot
defile the sun, all the clouds that seek to muffle scatters them all; but sin
hath defiled the soul, yea, one sin, the least defiles it in an instant,
totally, eternally.
(First.) One sin did it in the fall of Adam,
Rom. v. 17, 'one offence' polluted him, and all the world. Now suppose you
should see one drop of darkness seizing on the sun, and putting out that light
and eye of heaven, and to loosen it out of the orb it moves in, and cause it to
drop down a lump of darkness, you would say it were a strange darkness; this
sin did then in the soul, to which yet the sun is but as a taper.
(Secondly.) It defiles it thus in an instant. Take the most glorious in
heaven, and let one of the least sins seize upon his heart, he would instant
fall down from heaven, stript of all his glory, the ugliest creature that ever
was beheld. You would count that the strongest of all poisons that would poison
in an instant; as Tiberius Nero boiled a poison to that height that it killed
Germanicus as soon as he received it; now such an one is sin.
(Thirdly.)
Sin defiles it totally. It rests not in one member only, beginning at
the understanding, eats into the will and affections, soaks through all. Those
diseases we account strongest, which seize not joint or a member only, but
strike rottenness through the whole body.
(Fourthly.) It defiles eternally,
it being a stain which no 'nitre or soap' or any creature can 'wash out,' Jer.
ii. 22. There was once let in a deluge of water, and the world was all
overflowed with it It washed away sinners indeed, but not one sin. And the
world shall be afire again at the latter day, and all that fire, and those
flames in hell, that follow, shall not purge out one sin.
Thirdly, It hath
robbed the soul of the 'image of God,' deprived us of 'the glory of God,' Rom.
iii. 33, the image of God's holiness, which is His beauty and ours. We were
beautiful and all glorious once within, which though but an accident is more
worth than all men's souls devoid of it, being a likeness unto God, 'a divine
nature,' without which no man shall see God. Though man in innocency had all
perfections united in him, eminently, that are to be found in other creatures,
yet this was more worth than all; for all the rest made him not like to God, as
this did; without which all paradise could not make Adam happy, which when he
had lost, he was left naked, though those his other perfections remained with
which is 'profitable for all things,' as the apostle says. The least which, the
whole world embalanced with, would be found too light, without which the
glorious angels would be damned devils, the saints in heaven damned ghosts,
this it hath robbed man of.
Fourthly, It hath robbed man even of God
himself. 'Your sins separate,' says God, 'betwixt you and me;' and therefore
they are said to live without God in the world;' and in robbing a man of God,
it robs him of all things, for 'all things are ours,' but so far as God is
ours, of God whose face makes heaven, he is all in all, 'his lovingkindness is
better than life,' and containeth beauty, honours, riches, all, yea, they are
but a drop to him.
But its mischief hath not stayed here, but as the leprosy
of the lepers in the old law sometimes infected their houses, garments, so it
hath hurled confusion over all the world, brought a vanity on the creature,'
Rom. viii. 20, and a curse; and had not Christ undertook the shattered
condition of the world to uphold it, Heb. i. 3, it had fallen about Adam's
ears. And though the old walls and ruinous palace of the world stands to this
day, yet the beauty, the gloss, and glory of the hangings is soiled and marred
with many imperfections cast upon every creature.
But as the house of the
leper was to be pulled down, and traitors' houses use to be made jakes, so the
world (if Christ had not stepped :in) had shrunk into its first nothing; and
you will say, that is a strong carrion that retains not only infection in
itself, but infects all the air about; so this, that not the soul the subject
of it only, but all the world.
Lastly, It was the first founder of hell,
and laid the first corner-stone thereof. Sin alone brought in and filled that
bottomless gulf with all the fire, and brimstone, and treasures of wrath, which
shall never be burnt and consumed. And this crucified and pierced Christ
himself, poured on him his Father's wrath, the enduring of which for sin was
such as that all the angels in heaven had cracked and sunk under it.
But
yet this estimate is but taken from the effects of it; the essence of it, which
is the cause of all these evils, must needs have much more mischief in it.
Shall I speak the least evil I can say of it? It contains all evils else in it;
therefore, James i. 21, the apostle calls it 'filthiness, and abundance of
superfluity,' or excrement, as it were, of naughtiness, ' As if so
transcendent, that if all evils were to have an excrement, a scum, superfluity,
sin is it, as being the abstracted quintessence of all evil - an evil which, in
nature and essence of it, virtually and eminently contains all evils of what
kind soever that are in the world, insomuch as in the Scriptures you shall find
that all the evils in the world serve but to answer for it, and to give names
to it. Hence sin, it is called poison, and sinners serpents; sin is called a
vomit, sinners dogs; sin the stench of graves, and they rotten sepulchres ; sin
mire, sinners sows; and sin darkness, blindness, shame, nakedness, folly,
madness, death, whatsoever is filthy, defective, infective, painful. Now as the
Holy Ghost says of Nabal, 'as is his name, so is he;' so may we say of sin: for
if Adam gave names to all things according to their nature, much more God, 'who
calls things as they are.' Surely God would not slander sin, though it be his
only enemy. And besides, there is reason for this, for it is the cause of all
evils. God sowed nothing but good seed in the world; 'He beheld, and saw all
things were very good.' It is sin hath sown the tares, all those evils that
have come up, sorrows and diseases, both unto men and yeasts. Now, whatsoever
is in the effect, is in the cause. Surely therefore it is to the soul of man,
the miserable vessel and subject of it, all that which poison, death, and
sickness is unto the other creatures, and to the body; and in that it is nil
these to the soul, it is therefore more than all these to it, for by how much
the Soul exceeds all other creatures, by so much must sin, which is the
corruption, poison, death, and sickness of it, exceed all other evils.
But
yet this is the least ill that can be said of it. There is, secondly, some
further transcendent peculiar mischief in it, that is not to be found in all
other evils, as will appear in many instances.
For first, all other evils
God proclaims himself the author of, and owns them all; though sin be the
meritorious cause of all, yet God the effecient and disposing cause. 'There is
no evil in the city, but I have done it" He only disclaimeth this, James i. 18,
as a bastard of some other's breeding, for he is 'the Father of lights,' verse
17.
Secondly, The utmost extremity of the evil of punishment God the Son
underwent, had a cup mingled him of his Father, more bitter than if all the
evils in the world had been strained in, and he drank it off heartily the
bottom; but not a drop of sin, though sweetened with the offer of the world,
would go down with him.
Thirdly, Other evils the saints have chosen and
embraced as good, refused the greatest good things the world had as evil, when
they came in competition with sin. So 'Moses chose rather to suffer, much
rather to enjoy the pleasures of sin,' Heb. xi. 24 - 28. So Chrysostom, when
Eudoxia the empress threatened him, Go tell her, says he, I fear nothing but
sin.
Fourthly, Take the devil himself, whom you all conceive to be more of
mischief than all the evils in the world, called therefore in the abstract '
spiritual wickedness,' Eph. vi. 12, yet it was but sin that first spoiled him,
and it is sin that possesseth the very devils; he was a glorious angel till he
was acquainted with it, and could there be a separation made between him and
sin, he would be again of as good, sweet, and amiable a nature any creature in
earth or heaven.
Fifthly, Though other things are evil, yet nothing makes
the creature accursed but sin; as all good things in the world do not make a
man a blessed man, so nor all the evils accursed. God says not, Blessed are the
honourable, and the rich, nor that accursed are the poor; but 'Cursed is the
man that continues not in all things,' Gal. iii. 10, a curse to the least sin;
on the contrary, 'Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven,' Rom. iv.
7.
Sixthly, God hates nothing but sin. Were all evils swept down in one
man, God hates him not simply for them, not because thou art poor and
disgraced, but only because sinful. It is sin he hates, Rev. ii. 15, Isa.
xxvii. 11, yea, it alone; and whereas other attributes are diversely
communicated in their effects to several things, as his love and goodness,
himself, His Son, his children, have all a share in, yet all the hatred, which
is large as his love, is solely poured out upon, and wholly, and limited only
unto sin.
All the question will be, What transcendency of evil is in the
essence of it that makes it above all other evils, and hated, and it only, by
God, Christ, the saints, &c., more than any other evil?
Why? It is
enmity with God, Rom. viii. 7. Abstracts, we know, speak essences; the meaning
is, it is directly contrary to God, as any thing could be, for contrary it is
to God, and all that is his.
As, 1. Contrary to his essence, to his
existence, and being God; for it makes man hate him, Rom. i. 30, and as 'he
that hateth his brother is a murderer,' I John iii. 15, so he that hateth God
may be said to a murderer of him, and wisheth that he were not.
2.
Contrary it is to all his attributes, which are his name. Men are jealous of
their names. God's name is himself; as (1.) it makes a man slight God's
goodness and to seek happiness in the creature, as if he were able to be happy
without him; and (2.), it deposeth his sovereignty, and sets up other gods
before his face; (3.) it contemns his truth, power, and justice and (4.), turns
his grace into wantonness.
And as to himself, so to whatever is his, or
dear to him. Besides, a king hath three things in an especial manner dear to
him: his laws, his favourites, his image stamped upon his coin; and so hath
God.
First, His laws and ordinances: God never gave law, but it hath been
broken by sin; the definition of it, 'the transgression of the law,' 1 John
iii. 4; yea, it is called 'destroying the law,' Pa. cxix. 126. And know that
God's law, the least tittle of it, is more dear to him than all the world. For,
ere the least tittle of it shall be broken, heaven and earth shall pass. The
least sin, therefore, which is a breach of the least law, is worse than the
destruction of the world; and for his worship (as envying God should have any)
it turns his ordinances into sin.
Secondly, For his favourites, God hath
but a few poor ones; upon whom because God hath set his love, sin hath set his
hatred.
Lastly, For his image, even in a man's own breast; the law of the
members fights against the law of the mind, and endeavoureth to expel it,
though a man should be damned for it, Gal. y 17. 'The flesh,' namely, sin,
'lusteth against the spirit,' for they' are contraries. Contrary, indeed, for
methinks though it hates that image in others, that yet it should spare it in a
man's self, out of self love; but yet, though a man should be damned, if this
image be expelled, it yet laboureth to do this, so deadly is that hatred, a man
hates himself as holy, so far as he is sinful.
It abounds now so high as
our thoughts can follow it no farther. Divines say, it aspires unto infinity,
the object against whom it is thus contrary unto being God, who is infinite,
they tell us, that objectively sin itself is infinite. Sure I am, the worth of
the object or party offended, aggravates the offence; an ill word against the
king is high treason, not the greatest indignity to another man. Sure I also
am, that God was so offended with it, as though he loves his Son as himself,
yet he, though without sin, being but 'made sin' by imputation, yet God 'spared
him not;' and because the creatures could not strike a stroke hard enough, he
himself was 'pleased to bruise him,' Isa. liii. 16. - 'He spared not his own
Son,' Rom. viii. 82. His love might have overcome him to have passed by it to
his Son; at least a word of his mouth might have pacified him; yet so great was
his hatred of it, and offence at it, as he poured the vials of his wrath on
him. Neither would entreaty serve, for 'though he cried with strong cries it
should pass from him,' God would not till he had outwrestled it.
And as the
person offended aggravates the offence, as before, so also the person
suffering, being God and man, argues the abounding sinfulness of it. For, for
what crime did you ever hear a king was put to death? their persons being
esteemed in worth above all crime, as civil. Christ was the King of kings.
And yet there is one censideration more to make the measure of its iniquity
fully full, and to abound to flowing over, and that is this, that the least sm,
virtually, more or less, contains all sin in the nature of it. I mean not that
all are equal, therefore I add more or less; and I prove it thus: because Adam
by one offence contracted the stain of all, no sooner did one sin seize upon
his heart, but he had all sins in him. And so every sin in us, by a miraculous
multiplication inclines, nature more to every sin than it was before; it makes
the polluted nature of a deeper die, not only to that species of sin whereof it
is proper individual act, but to all else. As bring one candle into a room, the
light spreads all over; and then another, the light is all over increased: so
it is in sin, for the least cuts the soul off from God, then it is ready to go
a whoring after every vanity that will entice it entertain it.
And this
shews the fulness of the evil of it, in that it contains not only all other
evils in the world in it, but also all of its own kind. As would count that a.
strange poison the least drop of which contains the force of all poison in it;
that a strange disease, the least infection whereof brought the body subject to
all diseases: yet such an one is sin, the least makes the soul more prone and
subject to all.
And now you see it is a perfect evil; and though indeed it
cannot said to be the chiefest in that full sense wherein God is said to be the
chiefest good, because if it were as bad as God is good, how could He pardon
it, subdue it, bring it to nothing as be doth? And then how could it have
addition to it, one sin being more sinful than another? Ezek. v 15, John xix.
11. But yet it hath some analogy of being the chiefest evil as God the chiefest
good.
For, first, as God is the chiefest good, who therefore is to
be loved himself, and other things but for his sake, so also is sin the
chiefest evil because it is simply to be avoided for itself; but other evils
become good, yea, desirable, when compared with it.
Secondly, As God
is the chiefest good, because he is the greatest happiness to himself, so sin,
the greatest evil to itself for there can be no worse punishment of it than
itself; therefore when God would give a man over as an enemy he means never to
deal withal more, he gives him to sin.
And thirdly, it is so evil,
as it cannot have a worse epithet given than itself; and therefore the apostle,
when he would speak his worst of it, and, wind up his expression highest, calls
it by its own name, sinful sin, Rom. vii. 13, that as in God being the greatest
good, therefore attributes and names are but himself, so it with sin, he can
call it no worse than by its own name, 'sinful sin.'
Use I. And what
have I been speaking of all this while? Why! of one sin in the general nature
of it. There is not a man here, but hath millions of them, as many as the sands
upon the sea shore; yea, as there would be atoms were all the world pounded to
dust, it exceeds in number also; and therefore, ere we go any further, let all
our thoughts break here in wonderment at the abounding of sin above all things
else: for other things if they be great, they are but a few; if many, they are
but small. The world it is a big one indeed, but yet there is but one; the
sands, though innumerable, yet they are but small; your sinfulness exceeds in
both.
And next, let all our thoughts be wound up to the most deep and
intense consideration of our estates; for if one sin abounds thus, what tongue
can express, or heart can conceive their misery, who, to use the apostle's
phrase, 1 Cor. xv., 'are yet in their sins'? that is, stand bound to God in
their own single bond only, to answer for all their sins themselves, and cannot
the estate wherein yet they stand of impenitency and unbelief, plead the
benefit of Christ's death, to take off and ease them of the guilt of one sin,
but all their sins are yet all their own, which to a man in Christ they are
not; for his own bonds are cancelled and given in, and Christ entered into
bonds for him, and all his sins translated upon him.
Now for a proper
character of their estate, and suitable to this expression:
First, then a
man's sins may be said to be still his own, when he cornniitteth sin out of his
own, that is, the full frame and inclination of his heart. Thus the devil is
said to sin, John viii. 44, 'out of his own,' the whole frame of his spirit is
in it; which a man in Christ cannot be so fully said to do, for he hath a new
creature in him 'that sinneth not,' 1 John iii. 1, 9, that can say even when he
sins, 'It is not I, but sin.'
And secondly, then sin is a man's own, when
he hates it not, but loves it: 'Tho world loves his own,' saith Christ, John
xv. 27, and so doth a wicked man his sin 'more than any good,' which is David's
character, Ps. lii. 3.
And thirdly, what is a man's own, he nourisheth and
cherisheth; therefore Eph. v. 19, 'No man hates his own flesh, but loveth it
and cherisheth it;' so do men their sins, when they are their own. Those great
and rich oppressors, James v. 5, are said to 'nourish their hearts in
wantonness,' and in pleasure, 'as in a day of slaughter;' a living upon the
cream of sinning, and having such plenty, they pick out none but the sweetest
bits to nourish their hearts withal.
Fourthly, so what a man provides for,
that is his own; so says the apostle, 'A man that provides not for his own is
worse,' &e. When therefore men make provision for the flesh, as the phrase
is, Rom. xiii. 14, have their caterers and contrivers of their lusts, and whose
chiefest care is every morning what pleasures of sin they have that day to be
enjoyed, it is a sign that their sins are their own.
In a word, when men
live in sin, it is the expression used, 1 Tim. v. 6, 'She that lives in
pleasure is dead while she lives.' When the revenues of the comfort of men's
lives come in from the pleasures of sin, and that supplies them with all those
necessaries that belong to life; as when it is their element they 'drink in
like water ;'their meat, 'they eat the bread of wickedness,' Prov. iv. 17, and
it goes down, and troubleth them not; their sleep also, 'they cannot sleep till
they have done or contrived some mischief,' ver. 16; their apparel, as when
'violence and oppression covers them as a garment, and pride compasseth them as
a chain,' Ps. lxxiii.; their recreation also, 'It is a pastime for a fool to do
wickedly,' he makes sport and brags of it, Prov. x. 23; yea, their health,
being sick and discontented, when their lusts are not satisfied, as Ahab was
for Naboth's vineyard, 'Amnon grew lean' when he could not enjoy his paramour.
All these, as they live in their sins here, and so are dead whilst they
live, and so are miserable, making the greatest evil their chiefest good; so
when they come to die, as we all must do one day, and how soon and how suddenly
We know not; we carry our souls, our precious souls, as precious water in a
brittle glass, soon cracked, and then we are 'spilt like water which none can
gather up again,' 2 Sam. xiv. 14; or but as a candle in a paper lantern, in
clay walls, full of crannies, often but a little cold comes in and blows the
candle out ; and then, without a thorough change of heart before, wrought from
all sin to all godliness, they will die in their sins. uid all, and the utmost
of all, miseries is spoken in that one word; and therefore Christ, when he
would sum up all miseries in one expression, the Pharisees they should 'die in
their sins,' John viii. 28.
Use II. And let us consider further,
that if sin be thus above measure sinful, that hell, that followeth death, is
then likewise above measure fearful and so it is intimated to be a punishment
without measure, Jer. xxx. compared with Isa. xxvii.,' Punish them as I punish
thee,' says God to His own, 'but I will punish thee in measure.' And, indeed,
sin being committed against God, the King of kings, it can never be punished
enough. But as the killing of a king is amongst men a crime so heinous that no
tortures can exceed the desert of it, we use to say all torments are too little
and death too good, for such a crime. Now, said before, a destroying God as
much as in us lies; and therefore none but God himself can give it a full
punishment; therefore it is called falling into God's hands,' Heb. x. 31,
which, as he says there, is. For if his breath blows us to destruction, Job iv.
9, for we are but heaps, yea, his nod, 'he nods to destruction,' Ps. lxxx. 16;
then what the weight of his hands, even of those hands 'which span the heavens,
hold the earth in the hollow of them'? Isa. xl. 12. And if God take into his
hands to punish, he will be sure to do unto the full. Sin is man's work, and
punishment is God's, and God will shew himself as perfect his work as man in
his.
If sincontains all evils it; then the punishment God will inflict
shall be containing in it all miseries. It is 'a cup full of mixture,' so
called lxxv. 8, as into which God hath strained the quintessence of all misery
and 'the wicked of the earth must drink the dregs of it,' though it be eternity
unto the bottom. And if one sin deserves a hell, a punishment above measure,
what will millions of millions do? And we read that 'every shall receive a just
recompence,' Heb. ii. 2. Oh let us then take heed dying in our sins, and
therefore of living in them; for we shall lie in prison till we have paid the
very utmost farthing.
And therefore if all this that I have said of it will
not engender answerable apprehensions of it in you, this being but painting the
toad, which you look upon and handle without affrightment, I wish that if
without danger you could but lay your ears to hell, that standing as it were
behind screen, you might hear sin spoken of in its own dialect by the oldest
son of perdition there, to hear what Cain says of murdering his brother Abel;
what Saul of his persecuting David and the priests of Jehovah; what Balaam and
Ahithophel say of their cursed counsels and policies; what Ahab says of his
oppression of Naboth; what Judas of treason; and with what expressions they
have, with what horrors, yellings, groans, distractions, the least sin is there
spoken of. If God should take any man's soul here, and as he rapt Paul's into
the third heavens, where he saw grace in fullest brightness; so carry any one's
soul into those chambers of death as Solomon calls them, and leading him
through all, from chamber to chamber, shew him the visions of darkness, and he
there hear all the bedlams cry out, one of this sin, another of that, and see
sin looks hell! But there is one aggravation more of the evil and misery sin
brings upon men I have not spoken of yet, that it blinds their eyes and hardens
their hearts, that they do not see nor lament their misery till they be hell,
and then it is too late.
Use III But what, doth sin so exceed in
sinfulness, and is the venom of it boiled up to such a height of mischief, that
there should be no name in heaven and earth able to grapple with it and destroy
it? Is there no antidote, no balm in Gilead more sovereign than it is deadly?
Surely yes; God would never have suffered so potent and malicious an enemy to
have set foot in his dominions, but that he knew how to conquer it, and that
not by punishing of it only in hell, but by destroying it; only it is too
potent for all the creatures to encounter with. This victory is alone reserved
for Christ, it can die by, no other hand, that he may have the glory of it;
which therefore is the top of his glory as mediator, and His highest title, the
memory of which he bears written in his name Jasus, 'for he shall save his
people from their sins,' Mat. L 21. And therefore the apostle Paul, his
chiefest herald, proclaims this victory with a world of solemnity and triumph,
1 Cor. xv. 55, '0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory? The
sting of death is sin; the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God,
that gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ;' which yet again adds
to the demonstration of the sinfulness of it, for the strength of sin was such,
that, like Goliah, it would have defied the whole host of heaven and earth. 'It
was not possible the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin,' Heb. x. 4;
nor would the riches of the world or the blood of men have been a sufficient
ransom. 'Will the Lord be pleased with rivers of oil? shall I give my
first-born for my transgression?' No, says he, there is no proportion, for thy
first-born is but the fruit of thy body, and sin is the 'sin of the soul,'
Micah vi. 7. It must cost more to redeem a soul than so, Ps. xlix. 7. No;
couldst thou bring rivers of tears instead of rivers of oil - which, if
anything were like to pacify God, yet they are but the excrements of thy
brains, but sin is the sin of thy head - yea, all the righteousness that we
could ever do, cannot make amends for one sin; for suppose it perfect, whenas
yet it is but 'dung,' Mal. ii. 3, and 'a menstruous cloth,' yet thou owest it
already as thou art a creature, and one debt cannot pay another. If then we
should go a begging to all the angels who never sinned, let them lay all their
stock together, it would beggar them all to pay for one sin. No; it is not the
merit of angels will do it, for sin is the transgression, the destruction of
the law, and the least Iota is more worth than heaven and all that is therein.
Only, though it be thus unconquerably sinful by all created powers, it hath
not gone beyond the price that Christ hath,paid for it. The apostle compares to
this very purpose sin and Christ's righteousness together, Rom. v. 15, 20. It
is true, says be, that 'sin abounds,' and instanceth in Adam's sin, which
staineth all men's natures to the end of the world; yet, says he, the 'gift of
righteousness by Christ abounds much more,' abounds to flowing over, says the
apostle, 1 Tim. i. 14, as the sea doth above mole-hills, Mic. vii. 19. Though
therefore it would undo all the angels, yet Christ's riches are unsearchable,
Eph. iii. 8. He hath such riches of merit as are able to pay thy debts the very
first day of thy marriage with him, though thou hadst been a sinner millions of
years afore the creation to this day; and when at is done, there is enough left
to purchase thee more grace and glory an all the angels have in heaven. In a
word, he is 'able to save to the all that come to God by him,' Heb. vii. 5, let
their sins be what they will.
But then we must come to him, and to God by
him, and take him as our lord, and king, and head, and husband, as he is freely
tendered- we must be made one with him, and have our hearts divorced from all
sins for ever. And why not now? Do we yet look for another Christ? and to
allude to us as Naomi said to Ruth, Is there yet any more sons in my womb, that
they may be your husbands? So say I, Hath God more such sons? Or is not this
Christ good enough? or are we being happy too soon in being married to him?
But yet if we will have Christ indeed, without whom we are undone, 'how
shall we then continue in sin,' Rom. vi., which is thus above measure sinful?
No, not in one. The apostle speaks there in the language of impossibility and
inconsistency. Christ and the reign of one sin, they cannot stand together.
And, indeed, we will not so much as take Christ until first we have more or
less this vision here, and sin appear to us, as to him, above measure sinful.
Naturally we slight it, and make a mock of, and account it preciseness to stick
and make conscience of it; but if once sin appears to any but in its own
colours, that man will look upon the sin then as upon hell itself, and like a
man affrighted fear in all his lest he should meet with sin, and starts at the
very appearance of it, weeps if sin do but see him, and he do but see it in
himself and others, cries out, as Joseph did, 'How shall I do this, and sin?'
And then a will make out for Christ as a condemned man for life, as a man that
no longer live, Oh, give me Christ, or else I die; and then, if upon Christ
appears to him, and 'manifests himself,' as his promise is to them that seek
him, John xiv. 21, his heart thereupon will much more and loathe it; he saw it
evil afore, but then it comes to have a new tincture added, which makes it
infinitely more sinful in his eyes, for he then looks upon every sin as guilty
of Christ's blood, as dyed with it, though 'covered by it.' 'The grace of God
appearing, teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts.' 'The love of
Christ constrains him.' Thinks he, shall I live in that for which Christ died?
Shall that be my life which was His death? Did he that never knew sin undergo
the torment for it, and shall I be so unkind as to enjoy the pleasure of it?
No; but as David, when he be very thirsty, and had water of the well of
Bethlehem brought him, with hazard of men's lives, poured it on the ground,
for, says be, 'It is the blood of these men,' so says he, even when the cup of
pleasures is at very lips, It cost the blood of Christ, and so pours it upon
the ground. And as the love of Christ constrains him, so the power of Christ
doth change him. Kings may pardon traitors, but they cannot change their hearts
but Christ pardons none he doth not make new creatures, and 'all, things pass
away,' because he makes them friends, favourites to live with and delight in;
and if men 'put on Christ', and have learned him, as truth is in Jesus, they
put off as concerning the former conversation the old man, with the deceitful
lusts,' Eph. iv. 21, 22, and he ceaseth from sin,that is, from the course of
any known sin. They are the apostle's words which shall judge us; and if we
should expect salvation from Him upon any other terms, we are deceived, for
Christ is 'the author of salvation to them only that obey him,' Heb. v. 9. 11
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