SERMONS UPON GENESIS 24:63

SERMON 8

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide.— GEN. 24: 63.

ANOTHER argument to prove the evil of sin is taken from the effects of sin. We being in a lower sphere of understanding, know causes by their effects: Jer. 2:19, 'Know therefore and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God;' when they had seen the sad effects of it, their cities wasted and destroyed. And where shall we not find the sad effects of sin? Survey the story of sin since it came into the world.
The first news we hear of sin is in the fall of the angels, and what a dreadful instance is that? The angels, that were the most noble part of the universe, the courtiers of heaven, and as soon as they had sinned, in a moment from angels they were made devils, and cast down into the pit of darkness, for one aspiring thought against God's imperial majesty. If we should see ten thousand princes executed in one day, we would wonder at the cause of it, and yet this is but a short resemblance of this case. Think of those princes of the creation, those morning-stars, those sons of God; now if one sin cast down these angels, what will become of us who have millions of sins? If God be so angry with the nobles, how may the scullions tremble? If God will cast angels out of heaven for one sin of thought, what will become of us poor dwellers in clay, who are but a little enlivened dust, that may be soon crumbled into nothing? Yet Christ was not made an angel for angels, as he was made a man for me. If you should hear of a drop of gall that should embitter a whole ocean of sweetness, you would wonder at the pestilential influence of it; here one sin of thought embittered the whole ocean of the angelical sweetness.
The next news we hear of sin is in the fall of man. Who would taste of that poison that poisoned all mankind at once? Adam did but taste of the forbidden fruit, and all his posterity were poisoned ; in the morning he was God's favourite, and in the evening the devil's slave; he slept not one night in innocency. Nay, this is not all, you shall see the venom of sin went further ; it did not only ruin all mankind, but it gave a crack to the whole creation. All the creatures groan under sin: Rom. 8: 20, 21, ' For the creature is made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.' When God looked upon the creatures that he had made, he saw all was good, but when Solomon looketh upon God's works, he seeth nothing but vanity; what is the reason of this ? Sin intervened, so that the creatures are not only the monuments of God's power, but of man's rebellion.
The next dreadful instance of sin is in the old world, and there all mankind except eight persons were swept away at once.
The next news of sin is in the instance of Sodom, and there sin was of such an evil influence that it made God to rain hell out of heaven ; as one expresses it, Gehennam misit e coelo: Gen. 19:24, ' Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven ;' dominus a domino, the Lord Christ from the Lord Jehovah. Jesus Christ himself will become the executioner upon such a wicked people.
Go from Sodom to Sion, and further trace the story of sin. Who can read the Lamentations without lamentation, or run over the story of Jerusalem's sorrows with dry eyes? There was not such a people under heaven both for mercies and judgments, the dearly beloved of his soul given up to a sad ruin! Lam. 3: 39, 'Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?' What is the reason of all this but sin?
Will you go further, and see the effects of sin upon the Son of God himself, who was the Son of his love, ' the man God's fellow,' as he is called, Zech.13: 7; his associate; they solaced themselves mutually in each other: Prov. 8:30, ' There was I by him, as one brought up with him; I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.' See what sin did to him that was but imputed to him. Look into the garden, see him in his agonies; go to Golgotha, see Christ hanging on the cross, if you would know sin. Gold and silver would not ransom us, nothing would serve but the blood of Christ. Oh! come and wonder. The boundless sea of the Godhead was stopped by the bank of sin. For a candle to be put out is no such matter, but for the sun to be quenched and darkened, this is dreadful. So for a poor creature to be forsaken is nothing, but when the 'Son of God shall complain that he cannot actually enjoy the comfort of the Godhead, when the Sun of righteousness shall complain of an eclipse, and of a suspension of consolation, this is dreadful. Though the human nature recoiled out of a just abhorrency of the sufferings he was to endure, and he came to his Father, Matt. 26:39, 'O my Father! if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;' and again, ver. 42; and again, ver. 44, saying the same words; yet divine justice would not bate him one farthing. What then would have become of us if Jesus Christ had not catched the blow?
Then survey common experience. If all the charnels in the world were emptied upon one heap, and all the bones of all that ever died were laid together, you might say, All these were slain by sin. Whenever you see sin, you may entertain it as Elisha did Hazael, Thou art the murderer. All diseases, pestilences, wars, famines, tumults, earth-quakes, these are but the births of sin; it hath laid houses desolate, wasted kingdoms, destroyed cities. Sin may say, Zeph. 3: 6,7, 'I have cut off the nations ; their towers are desolate : I have made their streets waste, that none passeth by; their cities are destroyed so that there is no man, there is none inhabitant: I said, Surely thou wilt fear me ;' that which we feel we may fear.
But we may come nearer home. Do but consider the effects of it within yourselves in the terrors of conscience. What a sorry creature is man when God arms his own thoughts against him, and sets home one sin upon his conscience! He longs for death rather than life. Heman, who was a child of God, complains, Ps. 88:16, 17, ' Thy fierce wrath goeth over me, thy terrors have cut me off; they came round about me daily like water, they compassed me about together.' What a sad thing is this, that a man should be magor missabib, fear round about, that his own thoughts should be his hell, and wherever he goes, he carries his hell with him! When he lies down in his bed, hell lies down with him ; when he walks out into the field or garden, hell walks with him ; when he goes about his business, hell goes with him. Sin is its own executioner; however it smiles in the first address, yet afterwards it scourgeth the soul with horror and despair.
Consider the horrors in death. There is a natural abhorrency from death as an evil to our life and being, but that which increaseth horror is sin: 1 Cor. 15:56, ¡®The sting of death is sin.' Oh! what agonies will it raise in our souls when we come to die if we die in our sins! Though we were immortal, yet sin is so great an evil that it were not to be committed; but when we are to die, and give an account, how doth it fill the soul with horror and diffidence and shame and anger! Some wicked men indeed die stupid and careless, at least doubtful; and some may be foolhardy; like a man that fetcheth a leap in the dark over a bottomless gulf he doth not know where his feet may light. A wicked man is like a tree that grows on the bank of a river; he is on the borders of hell, and when he dies, he falls into it. When they come to die, sin will be accusing, conscience witnessing, the law condemning, Satan insulting; heaven will be shut up against them, and hell enlarging her mouth. Oh! how will the body curse the soul for an ill guide, and the soul curse the body as a wicked instrument! It is a sad parting when these two loving friends, body and soul, part with curses, and can never expect to meet again but in torment. A godly man, when he dies, takes a fair leave of his body, and says, Farewell, flesh! He goes down to the grave with the covenant of grace in his hand, My flesh shall rest in hope; but a wicked man dreadeth it, that ever his body and soul must be united again; they part with an expectation never to meet but in flames.
But all this is nothing to the everlasting estate that follows after it. Consider either the loss or the pain; both will represent the evil of sin. Consider the loss; by sinning thou losest God and heaven and glory for a trifle; for a little dreggy pleasure thou thrustest away eternal joys. Thou dost as it were say, I care not for heaven, so I may have carnal satisfaction; as of Esau it is said, Gen. 25:34, ' Thus Esau despised his birthright;' it is not worth a mess of pottage. With what sad reflections wilt thou declaim against sin when thou shalt see the holy ones of God stand at the right hand of Christ, and thou art haled to thy own place! How will thy heart turn upon thee for thy own folly then! As one dreamed that his heart was boiling for his sins in a kettle of scalding lead, and it cried out to him, 'Ego soi toutou aitia', It is I that have been the cause of this. Were it not for sin I might have had a place in Abraham's bosom, but now I am going to everlasting torment; then you will know what sin is. Every sinner is as a mad gamester; he ventures a kingdom, the largest and fairest that ever was, at every throw, and he is sure to lose it too.
Then consider the pains of hell; they will set out the greatness of sin; and consider them either in regard of God's ordination or appointment, or in regard of your own feeling.
(1.) In regard of God's ordination and appointment. That the good God, who is meekness and sweetness and bowels itself, should adjudge his creature to eternal torments; certainly there is some cause. We pity a dog if he should be cast into a furnace for half an hour; yet those tender bowels of mercy shrink not up at the sight of sinners, though man be the work of his own hands; and though the creature screech and howl under these pains, yet he will not lessen and take them away. Surely there is some great evil in sin that hath tied up the hands of mercy.
(2.) Consider it in regard of yourselves and your own feeling. Oh! for a short temporal pleasure thou runnest the hazard of eternal pains. We that cannot endure the scratch of a pin or the aching of a tooth, how shall we endure the torment of so many thousand years, and yet still to look for more? Heb. 10:31, ' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.' Mark the attribute, ' the living God," who lives for ever to see the vengeance accomplished. As long as God is God, hell will be hell; there can never be any hope that God's being can be destroyed, or that there will he a cessation of those torments and pains. God ever liveth to reward the godly and to punish the wicked.
3. The third sort of arguments are from the aggravations of sin, that may enhance it, and show the greatness of it to your thoughts.
[1.] It is natural to us. It is necessary to reflect upon this circumstance, because it is the hardest matter in our humiliation to be sufficiently affected with our birth-sin. Evils that come by accident are objects of pity, but evils of nature are objects of hatred. We pity a dog that is poisoned, but we hate a toad that is poisonous by nature. Oh! how may the Lord hate us that have evil in our nature! It is not accidental to us. It is the great fondness of men to make that an excuse which is in itself the greatest aggravation. Some will say when they are reproved for sin, I cannot do otherwise; it is my nature. This will be the cause of thy ruin without an interest in Christ. The waters that come out of a pure fountain may be soiled and dirtied, but they will be clear again; but a puddle that runneth out of a dung-hill will be always nasty and filthy. Our sins are not by accident, but by nature; they are not like the muddying of a clear fountain, but like the unsavoury liquor that comes out of a dunghill. Original sin (however you think of it) is the sin of sins; we are born with such a sin, and it is worse than any other sin. Actual sins are but as a transient act, whereby there is a violence offered to one of God's commandments, but this is a constant, rooted, abiding contrariety to God's own nature. Actual sins are a blow and away, but this is a remaining enmity. Actual sins are like a fit of anger and displeasure, soon up and soon down, but this is a rooted hatred. This is the cause of all other sins, the bitter root that diffuseth a poison into all the branches. All other sins that a man commits are but original sin acted and exercised. Look, as in the art of numbering, the greatest number that can be numbered is but one multiplied, so the whole fry of actual transgressions is but original sin multiplied, this spawn diffused and spread abroad; all those traitorous actions that we are guilty of in the course of our lives are all summed up in this sinning sin.
[2.] Our sins are many. We sin in praying, in eating, in ploughing, in trading; and any one of these is enough to undo a world. The angels became devils for one sin, for one sin of thought, a proud thought against God's empire and greatness, and for this they were thrown into places of darkness. What ruin then will a great many sins procure to thy soul! If single sins seem light in themselves, yet what are they all together? There is nothing lighter than one sand, and yet nothing heavier than sand in a great quantity. A gnat, a fly, a locust are poor inconsiderable creatures, yet when they come in multitudes they are called God's great army, and destroy whole countries: Joel 2:11, 'The Lord shall utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great.' If every pore in the body were but pricked with a pin, the veins would soon be emptied of blood. One sin was deadly, but what are they altogether, when from top to toe there is nothing but sores and putrefaction? Herod was eaten up with lice, a small inconsiderable kind of vermin, yet the abundance of them destroyed him; so though sins seem small in themselves, yet when they come in. clusters, how soon will they devour and eat out the life and comfort of the soul! Ps. 40:12, ' Innumerable evils have encompassed me about; mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head; therefore my heart faileth me.' And if David may say so, may not we much more? Nothing can be little that is committed against the great God. But suppose them small, yet they are a company. Oh! this will make your hearts fail. The little ringer of sin is weighty, but when all the loins of it are laid upon the soul, how great will the burden be! Look upon all the troubles of the servants of God, and you will find they were first occasioned by a small sin, as Mr. Peacock's by eating too freely at a meal; but when innumerable evils shall compass you about, that wherever you look there is sin—if you look on duty there is sin, if you look on your calling there is sin, if you look on your recreations there is sin, if you look on the hours of your repast there is sin—oh! this will make your hearts fail indeed.
[3.] If they have been such as have been committed against knowledge. There is more of the nature of sin in such acts, for the nature of sin is anomia, a transgression of the law. Now the more we know the law the greater is the transgression; according to the sense we have of the law so the offence is elevated and raised. He that hath knowledge is magis particeps legis, the law is a piece of himself; it is impressed upon his conscience, and he offereth violence to the principles of his own bosom. This is the reason why the children of God use this aggravation; as David: Ps. 51:6, ' In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.' God had taught David wisdom and some spiritual skill, and yet he sinned against him. So Christ: John 15:22, ' If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin;' that is, none in comparison. According to the proportion of light, so the rate of sin riseth; the more you know of the law, the more you sin against the law. It is sad to put the finger in nature's eye, but it is worse to sin against the light of the word, that will make sin rise high indeed. Then there is more of enmity and malice in it. When a man will break through the convictions and restraints of conscience, it is a sign a man does love sin, and sins for its own sake; which is sensibly and clearly discerned in apostates, who are carried on with most willful malice and rage against the truth which once they professed. Apostatae sunt maximi osores sui ordinis. Hosea 5:2, ' The revolters are profound to make slaughter.' Forward professors,when they revolt, turn violent persecutors. They set themselves against the light. Alexander was once a disciple, yet he ' made shipwreck of the faith,' 1 Tim. 1:19, 20 ; and he is the man that must set on the multitude against Paul: Acts 19:33, ' And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward.' The same man is intended, for by the epistles to Timothy we learn that he dwelt at Ephesus, where Timothy was when those epistles were directed to him. Now the Jews set him up as the fittest accuser of Paul; he knew his doctrine, and he must appear to turn all the blame of the uproar on the Christians. Once more we read of this Alexander as a desperate adversary to the truth: 2 Tim. 4:21, ¡®Alexander the coppersmith did me much hurt.' Certainly their rage and malice is the greater because of the abundance of light which they have forsaken. No vinegar is so tart as that which is made of the sweetest wine; so when knowledge is once corrupted, it fills the heart with most rage: Prov. xxviii. 4, ' They that forsake the law praise the wicked.' They not only commit sin, but like it in others; they are the most violent and forward men to defend wicked ways and unjust courses.
Sins against knowledge have the greatest marks of the divine vengeance and displeasure. When men abuse knowledge, God giveth them up to sottishness, madness, hardness of heart, or despair. To sottishness: Rom.1:21—23, ¡®Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened: professing themselves wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things' Heathens, that had some common knowledge of the divine nature, when they sinned against their light, God darkened their hearts and made them more foolish. The heathens that were most civil and had most light were given up to the most beastly errors about the nature of God. The Romans worshipped fevers, passions, and paltry gods; the Egyptians, thunder and the sun. Or else the Lord gives them up to madness. The most moral heathens were the sorest persecutors, as Severus, Antoninus ; they abused their light, and therefore God gave them up to fury and madness against his ways. Or else they are given up to hardness of heart. Iron oft heated and oft quenched groweth harder. God justly punisheth contempt of light with obduracy; when a man hath had frequent convictions, and still he quencheth them, he grows the harder. Or else the Lord gives them up to a sad despair, God opens their consciences, and makes them to see how they have gone against their own light. Much knowledge not digested is like meat in the stomach, that, being not concocted, breedeth the colic; it breedeth sad gripes in the conscience.
[4.] If they are committed against love. It is sad to sin against God's laws, it is more to sin against God's love. Suppose it be but against common love, against God that giveth us food and raiment, rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons. The apostle calls this a ' despising the goodness of God,' Rom. 2:4, either by employing it to vile uses, or else by a careless slighting and not taking notice of it. You that slight the kindness of God do as it were say, God shall not gain me to his ways for all this. Every sin is not committed against knowledge, but every sin is against love and bowels. Christ may say to every sinner, as he said to the Jews, John 10:32, ¡®Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me?' Thus the Lord may plead, I have given you protection and provision, and food and raiment, for which of these do you violate my law and put such an affront upon me? It is I that have been so liberal to you, in giving you the fruits of the earth, the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air; it is I that have caused your sheep to bring forth thousands, and your fields to yield meat; and will you return upon me with my own weapons? Malefactors are punished in the same things in which they offend, and you seek to do me despite by my own blessings, as if I did you wrong when I did you good. But much more if you sin against special love. You that are Christ's favourites, every sin of yours is as a stab at the heart of mercy; as when the multitude forsook him, says Christ to his disciples, John 6:61, 'Will ye also go away?' That went to his heart. God reckoneth upon you that he shall have much service and obedience from you, and disappointment is the worst kind of vexation: Gen. 18:19, ' I know Abraham, that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord;' Isa. 63:8,' Surely they are my people, children that will not lie.' That which in others is but single fornication in you is adultery; others sin against common mercies, but you against the bowels of Christ; they are not thankful for a piece of bread, nor you for the bread of life. As Absalom said to Hushai, 2 Sam. 16:17, ' Is this thy kindness to thy friend? ' so is this the fruit of all those tender loves and mercies which God hath meted out to you ? It is unnatural, as if a hen should bring forth the egg of a crow.
[5.] If it be against vows and covenants, against frequent and reiterated promises and purposes. By such sinning you break double chains—God's and your own. It is not a simple sin, but treachery; Judah hath dealt treacherously: Jer. 3:7, ' Her treacherous sister Judah saw it.' You commit a sin under the show of friendship. Obedience is due, though it were never promised, but it is a help to our weakness that we vow. It is God's condescension to make a covenant; his laws bind, though we do not seal and subscribe to them; they bind as a law though not as a covenant; but vows and promises make the covenant more explicit. A lawful thing vowed and dedicated to God could not be alienated without sin. Ananias was smitten dead for receding from his purpose: Acts 5:4, ' Whilst it remained, was it not thine own ? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power ? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart ? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.' But much more in vows in thing s necessary that are not in your power. When you have promised obedience, you have promised a thing necessary. God might require duty from you, and punish you for the violation of his law, whether you vowed or no. It was never left to your pleasure to deal falsely in your covenant with men; it is the sin the Lord doth always avenge. Such solemn obligations should be sacred and inviolable; what then is it to break vows with God after we have solemnly renewed our covenant with him?
[6.] If it be against former experiences, and that either of the sweetness of grace or the evil of sin.
(1.) Of the sweetness of grace: The Lord takes it ill that you should sin against him after ' you have tasted his good word,' Heb. 6:5. It is a mighty affront to Jesus Christ to go off from him after we have had experience of the sweetness of his ways. The apostle calls this a 'denying the Lord that bought them,' 2 Peter, 2:1; that this, in foro ecclesiae, in the court of the church, and with respect to the outward covenant that is between the Lord and every church member. An apostate doth as it were proclaim to the world that Jesus Christ is no good master; that, after he hath made trial of both, the devil is a better master than Christ, for he seemeth to have known both masters. So we find the Lord contests with his people about their provocations: Jer. 2:5, ' What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanities, and are become vain?' You have gone far from me, and departed from my ways; what is the matter? Did I ever do you hurt? have I ever been a land of darkness to you, or a hard master ? So Micah 6:3, ' O my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.' When we go off from God, we do as it were proclaim that we have found just discouragement in the ways of Christ, as a man that goeth off from you showeth his expectation is deceived in you.
(2.) If you have done it after experience of the evil of sin. When a man hath found the bitterness of sin, suppose it be of drunkenness or anger, when it hath weakened his body and broken his peace, and yet he runs into it again, it is a sad aggravation; as that king that would adventure another captain and his fifty when one captain and his fifty were consumed with fire from heaven, 2 Kings 1:10, 11. When we will be tampering with the carnal sweets again which have cost us so much trouble, when we have found the hand of God meet us in a carnal way, yet we will venture again, and enter into the lists with him, and set ourselves against him, it is as the breaking of a bone in the same place: James 4:2,' Ye lust, and have not, yet kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not.' This is a plain contest with God, when, after ye have been broken in pieces, you will again gather and associate yourselves, as it is Isa. 8:9, ' Associate yourselves, O ye people, and you shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries; gird your-selves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.' Thus the children of Israel argued with the Reubenites and Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh: Josh. 22:17,18, ' Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day (though there was a plague in the congregation of the Lord), but that ye must turn away this day from following the Lord?'
[7.] If sin has been committed against a special relation, as suppose that of a magistrate or a minister, this doubles the offence. Your sins are imitated; you should be fountains of religion and justice, and you poison the fountains. You are as the first sheet that is printed off, and all others are stamped after your copy. It was a sad title that was given to Jeroboam that ¡®he made Israel to sin;¡¯ so when you do not show forth a special strictness of religion according to your place, it is a great aggravation.
 
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