[b]See its ugly face!
(Thomas Watson, "Body of Divinity")
What a heinous and execrable thing is sin! Sin is
the distillation of all evil. The Scripture calls it the
"accursed thing." It is compared to the venom of
serpents, and the stench of sepulchers. The devil
would paint sin with the pleasing colors of pleasure
and profit--that he may make it look fair; but I
shall pull off the paint, that you may see its
ugly face! We are apt to have slight thoughts of
sin, and say to it, as Lot of Zoar, "Is it not a little
one?" But sin is a great evil.
Sin fetches its pedigree from hell; sin is from the
devil. "He who commits sin is of the devil." Satan
was the first actor of sin, and the first tempter to
sin. Sin is the devil's first-born!
Sin is a defiling thing--a polluting thing. It is to the
soul--as rust is to gold, as a stain to beauty. It makes
the soul red with guilt, and black with filth! Sin in
Scripture is compared to a "menstruous cloth," and
to a "plague-sore." Sin has blotted out God's image,
and stained the orient brightness of the soul.
Sin makes God loathe a sinner; and when
a sinner sees his sin--he loathes himself!
Sin stamps the devil's image on a man. Malice is
the devil's eye, hypocrisy his cloven foot. Sin turns
a man into a devil. "One of you is a devil!" John 6:70
Sin is an act of rebellion against God. A sinner tramples
upon God's law, crosses His will, and does all he can to
affront, yes, to spite God!
Sin strikes at the very Deity. Sin is God's would-be
murderer. Sin would not only unthrone God--but
un-God Him. If the sinner could help it, God would
no longer be God.
Sin is an act of ingratitude and unkindness. God feeds
the sinner, keeps off evils from him, be-miracles him
with mercy; but the sinner not only forgets God's
mercies--but abuses them! He is the worse for mercy;
like Absalom, who, as soon as David had kissed him,
and taken him into favor, plotted treason against him!
Like the mule, who kicks the mother after she has given
it milk. God may upbraid the sinner, "I have given you,
your health, strength, and estate; but you requite Me
evil for good; you wound Me with My own mercies! Did
I give you life--to sin against Me? Did I give you wages--
to serve the devil? Is this your kindness to your Friend?"
Sin is a disease. "The whole head is sick!" Some are sick
with pride, others with lust, others with envy. Sin has
distempered the intellectual part--it is a leprosy in the
head; it has poisoned the vitals. It is with a sinner as with
a sick patient--his palate is distempered--the sweetest
things taste bitter to him. The Word, which is 'sweeter
than the honey-comb," tastes bitter to him. Nothing
can cure this disease, but the blood of the Physician!
Sin is an irrational thing. It makes a man act not only
wickedly--but foolishly. It is absurd and irrational to
prefer the less, before the greater. The sinner prefers
the passing pleasures of sin, before eternal rivers of
pleasures. Is it rational to lose heaven--for the
indulging of a lust? Is it rational to gratify an
enemy? When sin burns in the soul, Satan warms
himself at this fire. Men's sins feast the devil.
Sin is a painful thing. It costs men much labor to
pursue their sins. How do they tire themselves in
doing the devil's drudgery! "They weary themselves
to commit iniquity." What pains did Judas take to
bring about his damnation! Many a man goes to
hell, in the sweat of his brow.
Sin is the only thing God has antipathy against.
God does not hate a man because he is poor, or
despised in the world. The only thing which draws
forth the keenness of God's hatred, is sin. "Oh, do
not do this abominable thing, which I hate!" And
surely, if the sinner dies under God's hatred, he
cannot be admitted into the celestial mansions. Will
God let that man live with Him--whom He hates?
God will never lay such a viper in His bosom!