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 efficient and disposing cause. 'There is no evil in the city, but I have done it.' He only disclaimeth this, James i. 13, 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 to the bottom; but not a drop of sin, though sweetened with the offer of all the world, would go down with him.

Thirdly, Other evils the saints have chosen and embraced as good, and 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 than to enjoy the pleasures of sin,' Heb. xi. 24-28. So Chrysostom, when Eudoxia the empress threatened him, Go tell her, says he, Nil nisi peccatum timeo, I fear nothing but sin.

Fourthly, Take the devil himself, whom you all conceive to be more full 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 as 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; and, on the contrary, Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven,' &c., Rom. iv. 7.

Sixthly, God hates nothing but sin. Were all evils swept down into 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 as 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,' 1 John iii. 15, so he that hateth God may be said to be a murderer of him, and wisheth that he were not. Peccatum est Deicidium.

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; dvouía is the definition of it, the transgression of the law,' 1 John iii. 4; yea, it is called destroying the law,' Ps. 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. v. 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. 32. 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 consideration more to make the measure of its iniquity fully full, and to abound to flowing over, and that is this, that the least sin, 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 our nature more to every sin than it was before; it makes the pollution of nature of a deeper die, not only to that species of sin whereof it is the 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 more increased so it is in sin, for the least cuts the soul off from God, and then it is ready to go a whoring after every vanity that will entice it or 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 you 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 making the soul more prone and subject to all.

And now you see it is a perfect evil; and though indeed it cannot be 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 he doth? And then how could it have addition to it, one sin being more sinful than another? Ezek. viii. 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 for 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 up to sin.

And thirdly, it is so evil, as it cannot have a worse epithet given it than itself; and therefore the apostle, when he would speak his worst of it, and wind up his expression highest, usque ad hyperbolem, calls it by its own name, sinful sin, duagrwλòs ȧpagría, Rom. vii. 13, that as in God being the greatest good, quicquid est in Deo est Deus ipse, therefore his attributes and names are but himself, idem prædicatur de seipso; so it is with sin, quicquid est in peccato, peccatum est, &c., 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! but 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 off 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

in 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 committeth 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, ix roũ 'idíov, 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.'

6

And secondly, then sin is a man's own, when he hates it not, but loves it: The 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;' as living upon the cream of sinning, and having such plenty, they pick out none but the sweetest bits to nourish their hearts withal.

6

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,' &c. 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. And 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, tells the Pharisees they should die in their sins,' John viii. 28.

6

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. 11, 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, peccatum est Deicidium, as I 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 'a falling into God's hands,' Heb. x. 31, which, as he says there, is 'fearful.' For if his breath blows us to destruction, Job iv. 9, for we are but dust heaps, yea, his nod, he nods to destruction,' Ps. lxxx. 16; then what is the weight of his hands, even of those hands which span the heavens, and hold the earth in the hollow of them'? Isa. xl. 12. And if God take it 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 in his work as man in his.

If sin be malum catholicum, as hath been said, that contains all evils in it; then the punishment God will inflict shall be malum catholicum also, containing in it all miseries. It is a cup full of mixture,' so called Ps. lxxv. 8, as into which God hath strained the quintessence of all miseries, 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 sin shall receive a just recompence,' Heb. ii. 2. Oh let us then take heed of 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 can 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 the screen, you might hear sin spoken of in its own dialect by the oldest sons 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 hear 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 his into the third heavens, where he saw grace in its 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 those bedlams cry out, one of this sin, another of that, and see sin as it looks in 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 in hell, and then it is too late.

* That is, 'Paul's.'-ED.