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 18th, 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 of it. 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, that 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 said 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 sin is the debasement of an invaluable excellency. Secondly, It not only debaseth it, but defiles it also; and indeed there was nothing else that could defile it, Mat. xv. 20, for the soul is a most 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 dirt in the world cannot defile the sun, all the clouds that seek to muffle it, it 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 angel in heaven, and let one of the least sins seize upon his heart, he would in an 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 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, but beginning at the understanding, eats into the will and affections, soaks through all. Those diseases we account strongest, which seize not on a joint or a member only, but strike rottenness through the whole body. (Fourthly.) It defiles eternally, it being aterna macula, 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, 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 via eminentiæ, 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 him, which is profitable for all things,' as the apostle says. The least dram of 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. Your sins sepa Fourthly, It hath robbed man even of God himself. rate,' says God, 'betwixt you and me ;' and therefore they are said to 'live * That is, Tiberius Nero. Suetonius only says, that Germanicus died at Antioch, not without suspicion of poison; and again, that the common belief was that he died through the treachery of Tiberius, by the agency of C. Piso.-ED. 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, goría ris nanías. As if so transcendent, that if all evils were to have an excrement, a scum, a 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 beasts. Now whatsoever is in the effect, is viá eminentia 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 all these to the soul, it is therefore more than all these to it, for corruptio optimi pessima; 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. |