liiui to anger most bitterly,' or ' with bitternesses,' as the Hebrew has it. Kelations and friends may tell us that sin is a bitter thing, and conscience may tell us that sin is a bitter thing, and good books may tell us that sin is a bitter thing, and men under terrors and horrors of spirit may tell us that sin is a bitter thing, and the sore and heavy judgments of God upon others may tell us that sin is a bitter thing, and the Spirit by his secret whispers may tell us that sin is a bitter thing, and ministers may tell us that sin is a bitter thing ; they may tell you that it is bitter to God, it being the only thing in all the world that he has revealed his wrath from heaven against, and that is contrary to the nature of God, the law of God, the being of God, the glory of God, and the grand designs of God. They may tell you that it is bitter to Christ. Witness his crying out in the bitterness of his soul, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' and witness the sorrows and heaviness of his soul, and his sweating clods i of blood. When he hung upon the cross they gave him gall and vinegar to drink ; but no gall was so bitter to him as your sins. They may tell you that sin is bitter to the Spirit of God ; for nothing grieves him and provokes him and vexes him but sin, Gen. vi. 3, and Eph, iv. 29. They may tell you that sin is bitter to the good angels. Every sin that you commit is as a dagger at their hearts : there is nothing in all the world so bitter to them as to see their Lord and Master daily, yea, hourly, crucified by sinners' sins. They may tell you that sin is bitter to the evil angels, it being the only thing for which they were banished the court of heaven, and turned down to the lowest hell, where they are kept in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great day, Jude 6. They may tell you that sin is bitter to the worst of men ; witness Adam's hiding of himself, and Judas his hanging of himself, and Cain's ciying out, ' My burden is greater than I am able to bear,' Gen. iii, 10 ; Mat. xxvii.; Gen. iv. 13. They may tell )^ou that it is bitter to the creatures who ' groan under their burdens, and who long to be delivered from that bondage that the sin of man hath subjected them to,' Eom. viii. 20-22 ; and yet for all this we will not feelingly, affectionately, experimentally say that sin is bitter, till God comes and burns us up : Lam. iv. 11, ' And gives us gall and worm- wood to drink/ Chap. iii. 19, 20, ' Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.' 0 sirs, how bitter should sin be to you, who have seen London all in flames ! Certainly God, by burning up your sweet, pleasant, and delightful things, would teach }'ou to taste a greater bitterness in sin than ever. 0 happy fire, that shall render God and Christ, and heaven, and promises, and ordinances more sweet, and sin more bitter to poor sinners' souls ! Doubtless, one of God's great designs by this late judgment of fire is to imbitter sin to all sorts of men. When judgments imbitter our sins to us, then they work kindly, powerfully, effectually, and then we may conclude that there was a hand of love in those judgments, and then we shall justify the Lord, and say with the church, Lam. i. 18, ' The Lord is righteous ; for I have rebelled against him : ' or as the Hebrew runs, 'because I have imbittered him,' he is righteous in all the sore judg-
1 Query, 'clots'?— G.
40 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
ments that he hath inflicted upon me ; for I have imhittered him against me by my most bitter sins. But,
[4.] Fourthly, By severe providences and fiery trials, God designs ihe morlifyimj and jnirging mcay of his peoples sins : Isa. i. 25, ' And I will turn my hand upon thee,' [to wit, to correct or chastise thee,] ' and purely purge away thy dross,' [or drosses,] ' and take away all thy tin,' or tins in the plui'al number. Some by dross understand gross iniquity ; and by tin, glittering hypocrisy. For as tin is veiy like unto silver, so is hypocrisy very like unto piety. Others by dross under- stand persons that are openly profane ; and by tin, such as are inwardly unsound. The words are a metaphor taken from them that try metals in the fire, purging from precious silver all dross and tin, Isa. xxxi. 9.1 The Jews, who were once silver, were now turned into dross and tin ; but God by fiery trials would burn up their dross and tin, their enor- mities and wickednesses, and make them as shining Christians in grace and holiness as ever they were. So Isa. xxvii. 9, ' By this there- fore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged ; and this is all the fruit, to take awny his sin.' God by the Babylonish captivity would as by fire purge away the iniquity of Jacob ; and to shew the certainty of it, he instanceth in their darling sin — viz., idolatry. When he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk-stones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and the images shall not stand up. Idolatry Avas the great sin for which God sent them into captivity. Now how they were purged from this sin after their return out of captivity, appears by their his- tory. Take one instance for all : Pilate being [appointed] by Tiberius to be governor over the Jews, caused in the night-time the statue of Ctesar to be brought into Jerusalem covered, which thing within three days after caused a great tumult among the Jews ; for they who be- held it were astonished and moved as though now the law of their country were profaned, for they hold it not lawful for any picture or image to be brought into the city. At their lamentation who were in the city, there was gathered together a great multitude out of the fields adjoining, and they went presently to Pilate, then at Ca3sarca, beseech- ing him earnestly that the images might be taken away out of Jeru- salem, and that the laws of their country might remain inviolated.2 When Pilate denied their suit, they prostrated themselves before his house, and there remained lying upon their faces for five days and nights, never moving. Afterwards Pilate, sitting in his tribunal-seat, was very careful to call all the Jews together before him, as though there he would have given them an answer, when upon the sudden a company of armed soldiers, for so it was provided, com])nssed the Jevs'S about with a triple rank. The Jews were hereat amazed, seeing that which they expected not. Then Pilate told them, that except they would receive the images of Caesar, he Avould kill them all, and to that end made a sign to the soldiers to draw their swords. The Jews, as though they had agreed thereto, fell all down at once, and offered their necks to the stroke of the sword, crying out that they would rather lose their lives than suff'er their religion to be profaned. Then Pilate,