sin. Boldness and wilfulness are in it. It is the tearing of the soul by
idolaters, enraged with their lusts, that they are "mad on their idols," Jeremiah 50:38. We may consider what lies in this madness of sin: -
1. For the nature of it; it consists in a violent, determined pressing to sin. Boldness and wilfulness are in it. It is the tearing of the soul by any sin to force its consent. It rises up in the heart, is denied by the law of grace, and rebuked; - it returns and exerts its poison again; the soul is startled, casts it off; - it returns again with new violence and boldness; the soul cries out for help and deliverance, looks round for springs of gospel grace, trembles at the furious assaults of sin, and casts itself into the arms of Christ for deliverance. And if it is not able to take that course, it is hurried up and down through the mire of foolish imaginations, corrupt lusts, which rend it as if they would devour its whole spiritual life. See 1 Timothy 6:9, 10; 2 Peter 2:14. It was thus with those we referred to before, Isaiah 57:17. They had an enraged lust working in them, "covetousness," or the love of this world; by which men "pierce themselves through with many sorrows." God is angry with them, and reveals his wrath by all the means that it was possible for them to be made aware of. He was "wroth, and smote them;" but though, this staggered them a little, yet they "went on." He is angry, and "hides himself" from them, - deserts them as to his gracious presence. Does this work? No; they go on waywardly, mad on their covetousness. Nothing can stop to their raging lusts. This is madness and fury. We see men mad on their lusts every day; their lusts do not rage so much in them, as they rage in the pursuit of them. Are those greedy pursuits of things in the world, though they do not call it that, anything else but plain madness in the pursuit of their lusts? God, who searches the hearts of men, knows that most things that are done in the world, are nothing but the actions of men mad in the pursuit of their lusts, though they call them better names.
2. Sin does not usually rise this far, unless it has a double advantage: -
(1.) When it is heightened by some great temptation. Though it is a poison in itself, yet, being inbred in nature, it does not grow violently outrageous without some new poison of Satan. It was the advantage