doth SO, Isa. v. 20. Never think to find lioney in the pot, when God writes poison on its cover. We may say of every sin in this respect, as Abigail of her husband ; as is its name in Scripture, so is it. If God call it folly, there is no wisdom to be found in it. The devil, indeed, teacheth sinners to cover foul practices with fair names, — superstition must be styled devotion ; covetousness, thrift ; pride in apparel, handsomeness ; looseness, liberty ; and madness, mirth. And truly there is need for sinners to do thus, to make this fulsome dish go down with less regret. There are some who have made a hearty meal of horseflesh, or the like carrion, under a better name, whose stomachs would have risen against it, if they had known what it was. Therefore, as persecutors of old wrapped the Christians in the skins of those beasts which would render them the most desirable prey to those they were cast ; so Satan and our false hearts present sins to us under those names that will sharpen our appetites to them, or at least take away the abhorrency our consciences else would shew against them : but canst thou be content, poor soul, to be so cheated .' Will the fire burn thee the less, into which thou art emboldened to put thy finger, because a knave, that owes thee an ill turn, tells thee that it will not hurt thee ? Hear rather what the God of truth saith of sin, and by what names he calls it, and you shall find, that whatever is dreaded by us, or hated, feared, or loathed, in all the world, are borrowed and applied to sin : — the vomit of dogs, the venom of serpents, the stench of rotten sepulchres, dunghills, deadly diseases and sores, gangrenes, leprosies, and plagues attributed to it, 2 Pet. ii. 20 ; Luke iii. 7 ; Rom. iii. 13 ; 2 Tim. ii. 17 ; 1 Kings viii. 38 ; yea, hell is raked for an expres- sion to set it out, it being compared to the veiy fire of hell itself! James iii. 6. And because of the penury and straitness of these appellations, (not able to express its full horridness,) therefore it is called by its own name, as the worst that God himself can say thereof, 'sinful sin,' Rom. vii. 13. Now what shall be done to the thing that the great God thus loathes, and loads with such names of dishonour, thei'eby to signify his abhorrence of it? What? Every gracious heart will soon resolve, that he should pursue it with fire and sword, till he have executed upon it tlie judgment written in its utter ruin and destruction.
Section III. — The nature of sin, as the word defines it. See its description, 1 John iii. 4 : ' Sin is the transgression of the law ;' a few words, but of weight enough to press the soul that commits it to hell, yea, to press sin itself to death in the heart of a saint, if laid on with these considerations. First, Whose law it is by sinning we break : — not of some petty prince, (and 3fet such conceive their honour so deeply concerned in their laws, that they take vengeance on the violators of them,) but of the great God, whose glorious name is in every attri- bute assaulted and reproached by the sinner, yea, the very life and being of God endeavoured to be destroyed : for he that would rob God of his honour, is an enemy to his very being, because God's being is so wrapped up in his glory, that he cannot outlive the loss of it. These, it is tiaie, are above the reach of the sinner's short arm ; but that is no thanks to him, because his sin aims at these, though it cannot carry its shot so far as to hurt him. Secondly, What law it is : — not cruel, v/ritten with the blood of his creatures, as the laws of some tyrant princes are, who consult their own lust, and not the peo))le's good, in their edicts. But this law is equal and good ; in the keeping of which is life. So that no provocation is given by any rigour of unnecessary taxes imposed w^on us to rise up against it. ' What iniquity,' saith God, ' have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me ?' Jer. ii. 5. He that put away his wife, was to give her a bill of divorce, declaring the cause of his leaving her. Thus God condescends to expostulate with siimers, and asks what evil they can charge upon him or his government, that they forsake him. Rut, alas ! no more cause can be given, than why a beast in a fat pasture should break the hedge to get into a barren heath, or dirty lane, where nothing but starving is to be had- Thirdly, At whose motion the poor creatiu-e transgresseth the good law of God, and that is of a ciu-sed spirit, (the devil,) no less our enemy than God's. Now, for a child, at the solicitation of his father's greatest enemy, and his own also, to take up rebellious arms against a dear, loving parent, adds to the monstrosity and unnaturalness of the fact. This thou dost. Christian, when by sin thou transgressest the law of God. And now, by this time, methinks I see thy blood rise and boil with anger in thee, while thy God points to thy sin and tells thee,
QQQ AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT.