Apples of Gold (continued)
3. Sin has robbed them of divine friendship--and made them enemies to God.
4. Sin has robbed them of communion and fellowship with God--and made them strangers and aliens to Him.
5. Sin has robbed them of their glory--and made them vile and miserable.
It has robbed many a oration of the gospel, and many a parish of many a happy guide, and many a Christian of the favor of God, the joys of the Spirit, and the peace of conscience.
Oh! the health, the wealth, the honor, the friends, the relations— which sin has robbed thousands of.
More—It has robbed many of their gifts, their arts, their parts, their memory, their judgment, yes, their very reason, as you may see in Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Ahithophel, Haman, Herod, and those Babylonish princes that accused Daniel.
And so Menippus of Phoenicia, who, having lost his goods, strangled himself. And so Dinarcus Phidon, at a certain loss, cut his own throat. By all which it is most apparent, that sin is the greatest thief in all the world.
Oh! then, who would not break league and covenant with it, and be still in pressing of God to do justice upon it! etc.
Notion (5). Fifthly, If you would break with sin, and arm and fence yourselves against sin early, then you must look upon sin under the notion of a BURDEN.
And indeed, of all burdens—sin is the heaviest burden in all the world: "For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me," Psalm 40:12. "For my sins have flooded over my head; they are a burden too heavy for me to bear."
Psalm 38:4. "Sin is a weight which easily besets us," Heb.12:1. Poor souls; sin is a burden that so troubles them and puzzles them, that so curbs them and girds them, that so presses and oppresses them, as that it wrings many bitter tears from their eyes, and many sad and grievous sighs and groans from their hearts. "Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?" Romans 7:24
Again, as sin is a burden to Christians, so it is a burden to heaven. It made heaven weary to bear the angels that fell; no sooner had they sinned but heaven groans to be eased of them, and it never left groaning until justice had turned them a-groaning to hell, Jude 6.
Again, as sin is a burden to heaven, so it is a burden to the earth.
Witness her swallowing up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, their wives, children, goods, servants, etc., Num. 16:26-35. Ah, sinners! your sins makes the very earth to groan—they make the earth weary of bearing you. Oh, how does the earth groan and long to swallow up those earthly wretches, whose hopes, whose hearts, are buried in the earth!
These shall have none of heaven—but enough of earth, when they come to die.
Cornelius a Lapide tells a story, that he heard of a famous preacher, who, showing the bondage of the creature, Romans 8:19-23, brings in the creature complaining thus: Oh, that we could serve such as are godly; oh, that our substance might be incorporated into godly people, that so we might rise into glory with them; oh, that our substance might not be incorporated into the flesh of sinners, for if it be, we shall go to hell, and would any creatures go to hell? oh, we are weary of bearing sinners! we are weary of serving of sinners!
Thus the creatures groan, thus the creatures complain, the sinner's sins forcing them to it, etc.
Again, sin is a burden to God: "Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves," Amos 2:13. By this plain, pithy, country comparison, God shows how sadly he is pressed and oppressed, how sorely he is wearied and tired with those people's sins. Divine patience is even worn out. Justice has lifted up her hand, and will bear with them no longer. God seems to groan under the pressure of their sins, as a cart seems to do under a heavy load. Of this God complains by the prophet Isaiah: "You have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your faults," Isaiah 43:24. I am as weary of your sins as a travailing woman is weary of her pains, says God. Sin was such a burden to God, that he sweeps it off with a sweeping flood, Gen. 7, etc.
Again, sin is a burden to Christ: It made him sweat as never man sweat; it made him sweat great drops of clotted or congealed blood, Luke 22:44. Sin put Christ's whole body into a bloody sweat; it made him groan piteously, when he bore our sins in his body on the tree.
Sin made his soul heavy even to the death, and had he not been one who was mighty, yes, that was Almighty, he would have fainted and failed under his burden, 1 Pet. 2:24, Isaiah 9:6. And thus you see what a burden sin is to man, to the creatures, to heaven, to earth, to God, to Christ; and therefore, as you would break with sin early, look always upon it as a burden, yes, as the greatest and heaviest burden in all the world, etc.
Notion (6). Sixthly and lastly, If you would break covenant with sin, and arm and fence yourselves against it early, then you must look upon it early under the notion of a TYRANT.
"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another." Titus 3:3. And indeed, sin is the worst and greatest tyrant in the world. Other tyrants can but tyrannize over our bodies—but sin is a tyrant which tyrannizes over both body and soul, as you may see in the sixth and seventh of the Romans. Sin is a tyrant which has a kind of jurisdiction in most men's hearts; it sets up the law of pride, the law of lust, the law of oppression, the law of formality, the law of hypocrisy, the law of carnality, the law of self-love, the law of carnal reason, the law of unbelief—and strictly commands subjection to them, and proclaims fire and sword to all who will not bow down.
This saints and sinners, godly men and bad men, do sufficiently experience.
Sin is a tyrant of many thousand years' standing, and though it has had many a wound, and received much opposition—yet still it plays the tyrant all the world over! Oh, the hearts that this tyrant makes to ache! the souls that this tyrant makes to bleed!
Pharaoh's tyranny was nothing to sin's tyranny. This tyrant will not so much as allow his slaves to sleep. They sleep not, except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to sin, Proverbs 4:16. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace to the wicked, says my God," Isaiah 57:20-21.
Other tyrants have been brought down and brought under control by a human power—but this cannot but by a divine. The power of man has brought down many of the tyrants of this world—but it is only the power of Christ that can bring down this tyrant, that can cast down his strongholds, 2 Cor.10:3-6, etc. Therefore, engage Christ in the conflict, draw him into the battle, and in the end the conquest will be yours.
Vitellius, who had been emperor of all the world, yet was driven through the streets of Rome stark naked, and thrown into the river
Tiber, etc.
Andronicus the emperor, for his cruelty towards his people, was by them at last shamefully deposed, and, after many contumelies, hanged up by his heels.
Ptolemy was put on a cross; Bajazet in an iron cage; Phocas broken on the wheel; Lycaon cast to the dogs, as well as Jezebel; Attalus thrust into a forge; King Gath into a beer barrel, etc. But none of these who have tamed these tyrants, who have brought down these mighty Nimrods—have been able to tame, to bring under control the tyrants, the sins, the lusts—which have been in their own bosoms.
Many a man has had a hand in bringing down of worldly tyrants, who, notwithstanding, have died forever by the hand of a tyrant within, etc.
Chapter 8
Brief Answers to a Young Man's
Objections