Ps. xxxvi. 4. He abhorreth not evil.
THE standard of morals in the Christian world is far below that which is established in the Sacred Records : and hence arises that self-justifying spirit which prevails in every place. Gross iniquities, which affect the welfare of society, are condemned : but less flagrant offences are regarded as venial, and jus- tified as unavoidable in this stat^ of human existence. The person immediately referred to in my text was Saul, who, amidst all his professions of penitence, still entertained evil designs against the life of David. But we need not limit the words to him. They are, like many similar passages cited by St. Paul in the third chapter of his Epistle to the Romans'", expres- sive of the state of our fallen nature, and universally applicable to every child of man. To elucidate them, I will shew, I. How great an evil sin is —
There is scarcely any thing which is vile and lothe- some to which sin is not compared. Let us instance this in leprosy ; which may be considered as the most spreading, the most defiling, the most incurable of all disorders. In reference to this does the Prophet Isaiah speak of himself and all around him as utterly undone : " Woe is me ! I am undone : I am a man
a Rom. iii. 10 — 19.
of unclean lips ; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips'"." But, not to lay an undue stress on figures like these, I will consider sin,
1. As a violation of God's holy Law —
[The Law of God is said to be "holy, and just, and good '^." It is holy, as being a perfect transcript of God's mind and will: it is just, as requiring nothing which does not necessarily arise out of our relation to him and to each other : and it is good, as tending, in every instance, to the happiness of the creature, and to the honour of our Creator. Now " sin is a transgression of this Law ^ :" and that very circumstance it is which renders it " so exceeding sinful^." Were the Law itself less excellent, a departure from it v/ovdd be less odious : but to rebel against it, is to prefer the mind of Satan to the mind of God, and the service of the devil to the service of our God. If we would see in what light God views it, let us go back to the time of Adam, on whose heart this Law was completely written, and see what one single transgression of it brought on him ; and not on him only, but on the whole creation : and then we shall say indeed, that the evil of sin far exceeds all that language can express, or that any finite intelligence can conceive.]
2. As a contradiction to his blessed Gospel —
[To obviate the effects of sin, God sent his only dear Son into the world ; that he might " put away the guilt of it by the sacrifice of himself^;" and that by the operations of his Holy Spirit he might repress its power, and " destroy the works of the devil ^." But sin contravenes all his merciful intentions, and defeats all his gracious purposes. Now, let us suppose that the Lord Jesus Christ were now at this time to come into this assembly ; and that, instead of receiving him with all that admiring and adoring gratitude that would become us, we were to rise up against him, and beat him down, and trample him under foot ; and that, on his exhibiting the wounds once made for us on Calvary, and yet bleeding for us, we were to regard his blood as an accursed thing, and seize upon him, and nail him to a cross, and load him with our execrations till we saw him dead before our eyes : What would be thought of us? Yea, in a moment of reflection, what shovild we think of our- selves ? Yet that is what sin does, and what all of us do when- ever we commit sin : for so has the Apostle said, that " we tread under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing, and do despite to the Spirit of his grace ^;" yea, " we crucif)^ the Son of God afresh, and put him to