It may be that mote in his brother's eye, had drawn many tears from it, but these he takes no notice of; and meanwhile there is a
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beam, i. e. great horrid flagitious evil, in himself: but it is too near him to be discerned or bewailed : This is a sad symptom of a naughty heart.
2. Secondly^ He may hate it in its effects and consequents ; not in its own nature ; as the thief hates the gallows, not the wickedness that he hath done. It is not sin itself, but sin in its connexion with hell, that is frightful to him.
The unsound professor could wish that there were no such threaten- ing in the Bible against sin. When sin tempts him, I would, saith he, but I fear the consequence. O sin, could I separate thee from hell, nothing should separate thee and me.
3. Thirdly^ He may hate it in a mood or pang, but not with a rooted habitual hatred. It is plain from 2 Pet. ii. 22. That sin may sometimes lie upon the conscience of an unregenerate man, as a load lies upon a sick stomach ; and so he may discharge himself of it by re- formation, restitution, &c. but a little time reconciles the quarrel be- twixt him and his lust again : If they fall out, they will fall in again : *' The dog returned to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to " her wallowing in the mire.''
But an upright soul hates sin in another manner; and in this hatred of sin the children of God are manifest.
1. First. The opposition of sin to God, is the very ground and formal reason upon which a gracious soul opposes and hates it. If it be opposite to the holy nature and law of God, it cannot but be odious in his eyes : This cut David's heart, Psal. li. 4. " Against " thee, thee only have I sinned," q. d. I have wronged Uriah greatly, I have wronged myself and family greatly ; but the wrong I have done to others is not worth naming, in comparison of the wrong I have done to thee.
2. Secondly^ The upright soul hates sin in himself more than he hates it in any other; as a man hates a serpent in the hedge, but much more in his own bosom : Rom. vii. 23. " But I see another law in " my members ;" and ver. 21. "I find then a law, that when I " would do good, evil is present with me:" q. d. I do not know how others find it, but I am sure I find sin my very bosom, in my very bowels, it is present with me. O wretched man that I am ! A gracious soul can mourn to see it in others, but to find it in himself pierceth him to the very heart.
3. Thirdly^ The gracious soul hates not only this or that particular sin, but the whole kind, every thing that is sinful. True hatred is rroo', ra y%vri, * of the whole nature or kind ;' Psal. cxix. 104. '^ I " hate every false way." His reasonings proceed a quatenus ad omne^ from sin as sin, concluding against every sin ; sins that are profitable and pleasant, as well as sins that have neither profit nor pleasure; sins that arc secret, as well as sins that are open, and will defame him.
* Arist. Rhet. lib. 2. cap. 4.
i^56 TROUBLES FOR SIX A TRIAL OF GRACE.
And, before this trial, a false heart cannot stand ; for he a1way» indulges some lust : There is an iniquity which he cannot be sepa- rated from.
4. Fourthly, The sincere soul hates sin with an irreconcileable hatred. There was a time when sin and his soul fell out, but there never will be a time of reconciliation betwixt them again.
That breach, which effectual conviction once made, can never be made up any more : " They will return no more to folly,*" Psalm Ixxxv. 8. And indeed it seems to them that have suffered so much for sin, that have endured so many fears and sorrows for it, the greatest folly in the word to return to sin again : No, they admire the mercy of their escape from sin to their dying day, and never look back upon their former state but with shame and grief.
Ask a convert. Would you be back again where once you were ? Would you be among your old companions again ? Would you be fulfilling the lusts of the flesh again ? And he will tell you, he would not run the hazard to abide one day or one night in that condition again, to gain all the kingdoms of the world the next morning.
5. Fifthly, The sincere soul hates sin with a superlative hatred ; he hates it more than any other evil in the world besides it. Penal evils are not pleasant in themselves, but yet he must endure them, or sin, then sufferings he chuses ; Heb. xi. 25. "Chusing rather to " suffer affliction than enjoy the pleasures of sin f the worst of sufferings rather than the best of sin.
6. Sixthly, To conclude ; so deep is the hatred that upright ones bear to sin, that nothing pleases them more than the thoughts of a full deliverance from it doth : Rom., vii. 34. " I thank God, through " Jesus Christ our Lord.*" What doth he so heartily thank God for ? O for a prospect of his final deliverance from sin, never to be entang- led, defiled, or troubled with it any more : And this is one thing that sweetens death to the saints as any thing in the world can do, except Christ's victory over it, and lying in the grave for us. To think of a grave, is not pleasant in itself; but to think of a parting- time with sin, that is sweet and pleasant indeed.
(3.) 1 HIRDLY, The cliildren of God and the children of the devil ; pure gold and vile dross are manifest as in hatred of sin, so in their troubles and sorrows about sin.
All trouble for sin argrues not sinceritv ; some have reason to be troubled even for their troubles for sm : So have they,
1. First, That are only troubled for the commission of some more gross sins, that startle the natural conscience, but not for inward sins that defile the soul. Judas was troubled for betraying innocent blood, but not for that base lust of covetousness that was the root of it, or the want of sincere love to Jesus Christ ; Matth. xxvii. 4, 5. Out~
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^rard sins are sins majoHs iiifamice, of greater scandal; but heart-sins are oftentimes majoris reatus, sins of greater guilt. To be troubled for oTosser sins, and have no trouble for ordinary sins daily incurred, is an ill sign of a bad heart.
2. iS'^co7i(i/z/, A graceless heart maybe much troubled at the discovery of sin, when it is not troubled for the guilt of sin ; Jer. ii. 26. " As *« the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel " ashamed."" Hence it is that they stick not to commit ten sins against God, to hide one sin from the eyes of men. It is a mercy that sin is the matter of men's shame, and that all are not arrived to that height of impudence to declare their sin as Sodom, and glory in their shame : But to be ashamed only because men see it, and not with Ezra, to say, "O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to look up unto " thee,'' Ezra ix. 6. ashamed that thou seest it, is but hypocrisy.
3. Thirdly^ A graceless heart may be troubled for the rod that sin draws after it, but not for sin itself, as it provokes God to inflict rods.