Thirdly, This is a part and fruit of true wisdom.
1. That this is a chief part of wisdom and understanding, to hate every false way, appears from Job xxviii. 28, ' The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; and to depart from evil, that is understanding.' So much as we hate sin, so much of spiritual wisdom and spiritual under-
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standing. Certainly to hate sin is wisdom ; I prove it from the nature of sin. All disobedience is the greatest folly that can be in the world ; and therefore, if to sin be to do foolishly, to hate sin is to be wise ; and not to have understanding certainly is a fruit of folly, for a man to do that which will condemn himself, if ever he comes to himself. Now, when a man comes to himself, as when he dies or repents, oh ! how will his heart condemn and reproach him for the vanity of his worldly course, Avhen he is filled wuth his own ways ! Especially repentance, that is a coming to ourselves. As a man when he hath slept out his drunkenness and excess, and begins to look back upon his follies com- mitted under that distemj)er ; such is repentance, it is an after-wisdom, and therefore it argues that there was an imprudence and inconsidera- tion of the things we repent of, and therefore we condemn ourselves. That is folly which gratifies those that are our utter enemies. Now sin it gratifies the devil, which seeks our ruin : he ' goes about, seek- ing whom he may devour,' 1 Peter v. 8. You please him that seeks your utter destruction ; and will you grieve God and please the devil ? That is folly which brings no disadvantage upon him Avhom you dis- obey, but upon you it brings the greatest mischief imaginable. God is not hurt by your sins ; he is above our injury : Pro v. ix. 12, 'If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself ; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.' There is no hurt done to God ; all the hurt is to our own souls : Prov. viii. 36, ' He that sinneth against me, wrongs his own soul ; and he that hateth me, loveth death.' Every sinner is his own murderer and his own destroyer. All those arrows we shoot up against heaven, they fall down with more violence upon our own heads. That is folly for a man to hazard a jewel for a trifle, to stake his soul, and heaven, and eternal happiness, against a little flesh-pleasing and carnal satisfaction : Jonah ii. 8, ' They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies.' Poor fugacious comforts, lying vanities, to follow after, and forsake their own mercy ; that is, all that happiness which might have been their own. A sinner is a mad gamester, that throws away the kingdom of heaven at every cast for a little momen- tary short delight and vain contentment. That is folly to break with him upon whom our all depends, our life, being, comfort, happiness ; £0 doth sin make us break with God : Isa. lix. 2, ' Your iniquities have separated between you and your God.' Well, then, if sin be to do foolishly, to depart from sin, this is wisdom, this is understanding. Certainly he that provides against the greatest mischief doth escape the greatest danger ; he is the wise man, and not he that provides against temporal inconveniences only, as poverty and disgrace. He that escai3es sin, escapes hell, the wrath of God, the extremest misery that can light upon a poor creature : Prov. xv. 24, ' The way of the wise is above, to avoid hell beneath ;' and therefore it is a high point of wisdom to hate sin.
2. As it is a high point of understanding, so it is a fruit and effect of understanding. According to the degree of understanding that we have, so will our hatred of sin be ; for he saith, ' Through thy precepts I get understanding ; therefore I hate every false way. To prove this by two reasons : —
[1.] Our affections follow our apprehensions. There is no way to
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come to the heart but by the mind, by the miderstanding. Look, ns there is no way to come to the bowels to purge our distempers that are there but by tlie mouth, stomach, and other passages that lead to the bowels, so there is no way to come to the heart and affections but by the understanding. Knowledge begets all other affections, those which belong to choice and pursuit, or those that belong to slight or aversation. Those that belong to choice and 2>nrsuit, desire, delight. There is no desire of that which is unknown ; so in tliose things that belong to slight and aversation, those affections, be it grief or shame for sin already committed, or fear or hatred that sin may not be com- mitted. Grief or shame : Jer. xxxi. 19, ' After I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh ; I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.' It is light which humbles, and the soul is affected according to the sight it hath of things ; or go to those affections which serve to prevent the commission of sin, as hatred and fear. Hatred in the text ; a good understanding goes before, a thorough hatred will follow.