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and there is no greater bondage than to be a slave to sin : 2 Peter ii. 19, ' While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption ; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage.' What a bondage is this, to be a vassal of hell, to be at the command of our lusts, a slave to pride and uncleanness, and we know not how to help it !
SERMON VIIL
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide. — Gen. xxiv. 63.
2. Another argument to prove the evil of sin is taken from the effects of sin. We being in a lower sphere of understanding, know causes by their effects : Jer. ii. 19, ' Know therefore and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God ; ' when they had seen the sad effects of it, their cities wasted and destroyed. And where shall we not find the sad effects of sin ? Survey the story of sin since it came into the world.
The first news we hear of sin is in the fall of the angels, and what a dreadful instance is that ? The angels, that were the most noble part of the universe, the courtiers of heaven, and as soon as they had sinned, in a moment from angels they were made devils, and cast down into the pit of darkness, for one aspiring thought against God's imperial majesty. If we should see ten thousand princes executed in one day, we would wonder at the cause of it, and yet this is but a short resemblance of this case. Think of those princes of the creation, those morning-stars, those sons of God ; now if one sin cast down these angels, what will become of us who have millions of sins ? If God be so angry with the nobles, how may the scullions tremble ? If God will cast angels out of heaven for one sin of thought, what will become of us poor dwellers in clay, who are but a little enlivened dust, that may be soon crumbled into nothing ? Yet Christ was not made an angel for angels, as he was made a man for me. If you should hear of a drop of gall that should embitter a whole ocean of sweetness, you would wonder at the pestilen- tial influence of it ; here one sin of thought embittered the whole ocean of the angelical sweetness.
The next news we hear of sin is in the fall of man. Who would taste of that poison that poisoned all mankind at once ? Adam did but taste of the forbidden fruit, and all his posterity were poisoned ; in the morn- ing he was God's favourite, and in the evening the devil's slave ; he slept not one night in innocency. Nay, this is not all, you shall see the venom of sin went further ; it did not only ruin all mankind, but it gave a crack to the whole creation. All the creatures groan under sin : Eom. viii. 20, 21, ' For the creature is made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.' When
324 SKRMONS UPON GENESIS XXIV. 63.
God looked upon the creatures that he had made, he saw all was good, but when Solomon looketh upon God's works, he seeth nothing but vanity ; what is the reason of this ? Sin intervened, so that the crea- tures are not only the monuments of God's power, but of man's rebellion.
The next dreadful instance of sin is in the old world, and there all mankind except eight persons were swept away at once.
The next news of sin is in the instance of Sodom, and there sin was of such an evil influence that it made God to rain hell out of heaven ; as one expresses it, Gehennam misit e coelo : Gen. xix. 24, ' Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven ; ' dominus a dommo, the Lord Christ from the Lord Jehovah, Jesus Christ himself will become the executioner upon such a wicked people.
Go from Sodom to Sion, and further trace the story of sin. Who can read the Lamentations without lamentation, or run over the -story of Jerusalem's sorrows with dry eyes ? There was not such a people under heaven both for mercies and judgments, the dearly beloved of his soul given up to a sad ruin ! Lam. iii. 39, 'Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins ? ' What is the reason of all this but sin ?
Will you go further, and see the effects of sin upon the Son of God himself, who was the Son of his love, ' the man God's fellow,' as he is called, Zech. xiii. 7, his associate; they solaced tliemselves mutually in each other : Prov. viii. 30, ' There was I by him, as one brought up with him ; I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.' See what sin did to him that w^as but imputed to him. Look into the garden, see him in his agonies ; go to Golgotha, see Christ hanging on the cross, if you would know sin. Gold and silver would not ransom us, nothing would serve but the blood of Christ. Oh ! come and wonder. The boundless sea of the Godhead was stopped by the bank of sin. For a candle to be put out is no such matter, but for the sun to be quenched and darkened, this is dreadful. So for a poor creature to be forsaken is nothing, but when the Son of God shall complain that he cannot actu- ally enjoy the comfort of the Godhead, Avhen the Sun of righteousness shall complain of an eclipse, and of a suspension of consolation, this is dreadful. Though the human nature recoiled out of a justabhorrency of the sufferings he was to endure, and he came to his Father, Mat. xxvi. 39, * 0 my Father ! if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; ' and again, ver. 42 ; and again, ver. 44, saying the same words ; yet divine justice would not bate him one farthing. What then would have become of us if Jesus Christ had not catched the blow ?