miserable.
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