Think Well On't/Day 19
THE NINETEENTH DAY.
On mortal sin.
CONSIDER, that there is not upon earth, nor even in hell itself, a monster more hideous, more filthy and abominable than mortal sin: a monster that is the first-born of the devil; or to speak more properly, is the parent both of the devil and hell. There was not in the whole universe a creature more beautiful, more perfect, more accomplished with all kinds of gifts, both of nature and grace, than was the bright angel Lucifer and his companions: yet one mortal sin, and that only consented to in thought, changed them in an instant to ugly devils, just objects of horror and abomination to God and man. What effect, think ye, will sin have upon man, who is but dust and ashes, if it blast so foully the stars of heaven? It was this monster, sin, that cast our first parents out of paradise, and condemned both them and their posterity, to innumerable miseries, and to both a temporal and eternal death. It was sin drowned the world with the waters of the flood; and daily crowds hell with millions of poor souls, to be the fuel of endless flames. Good God! deliver us from this cursed evil.
2. Consider, that sin is the death of the soul; for as it is the soul of a man, which gives life to his body, and consequently, that body is dead, from which the soul is gone; so it is the grace of God which is the life of the soul; and that soul is dead, which by mortal sin has lost her God and his grace; if, then, a dead carcase from which the soul is gone, be so loathsome and frightful, that few could endure to pass one night in the same bed with such a bed-fellow, how is it possible, unhappy sinner, that thou canst endure to carry continually about with thee a carcass of a soul dead in mortal sin, which is far more loathsome and hideous? Ah! beg of God that he would open thy eyes, to see thy own deplorable state, to detest the hellish monster sin, which thou hast so long nourished in thy breast, and which is the true cause of all thy misery.
3. Consider what the soul loses by sin; and what she gains to recompense this loss. She loses the grace of God, the greatest of all treasures; and in losing this, she loses God himself. She loses the fatherly protection and favour of God; she loses the dignity of a child of God, and spouse of Christ; she loses her right and title to an eternal kingdom; she is stript of all the gifts of the holy Ghost, robbed of all the merits of her whole life; becomes a child of hell, and a slave of the devil; spiritually possessed by him, and with him liable to an eternal damnation: and this is all she gains by sin; because the wages of sin is death; Rom. vi. the death of the soul here, and a second and eternal death hereafter. Ah! wretched sinners, open your eyes to see and bewail your lamentable blindness, in thus exchanging God for the devil, heaven for hell.
4. Consider, that sin is infinitely odious and detestable in the sight of God, as being infinitely opposite to his sovereign goodness. He hates it with an eternal and necessary hatred; and can no more cease to hate it, than he can cease to be God. Hence if the most just man upon earth were to be so unhappy as to fall into any one, the least mortal sin, he would in that same moment become the enemy of God; and if he were to die in that guilt, he would certainly feel the weight of God's avenging justice for all eternity. Ah! Christians, never let us be so mad as to venture to be at war with God. Alas! how many and how dreadful judgments does he daily exercise upon sin and sinners! How many, in punishment of sin, are snatched away in the flower of their age by sudden and unprovided death! How many die in despair! How many, after having long abused God's graces, are given up to a reprobate sense, to a hardness of heart, the worst and most terrible of all his judgments! O! let us tremble at the thoughts of so great a misfortune; let us be convinced that there can be no misery so great as that which we incur by mortal sin; and that we are more our own enemies, and do ourselves more mischief, by consenting to any one mortal sin, than all the men upon earth, and all the devils in hell could do us, though they were all to conspire together to do their worst: because all that they can do, so long as we do not consent to sin, cannot hurt the soul: whereas we ourselves by consenting to any one mortal sin, bring upon our own souls a dreadful and eternal death. Good God! never suffer us to be so blind as to become thus the murderers of our own souls.
5. Consider, O my soul, and tremble at the sight of that multitude of treasons against thy God, by which thou hast so often provoked his indignation in the whole course of thy life. Alas! is it not too true, that thou no sooner didst come to the use of reason than thou didst abandon thy king and thy God, under the wings of whose fatherly protection thou hadst happily past the days of thy innocence? Ah! how early didst thou run away from the best of fathers; and, like the prodigal child, squandering away thy substance in a strange land, hast sought in vain to satisfy thy appetite with the husks of swine. Pass over in thy remembrance, in the bitterness of thy soul, all the years of thy life; and see what treasures of iniquity in thought, word and deed, will discover themselves to thy eyes: see how long thou hast unconcernedly sported thyself on the brink of a dreadful precipice, having no more than a hair's breadth betwixt thy soul and hell. Be confounded at thy past folly; admire and adore the goodness of thy God; and now at least resolve to embrace his mercy.