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THE INGRATITUDE OF SIN.

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All this he has done; and if more be wanting, all that is wanting he engages to do. Now think of sin, which you have indulged in your heart. It insults this blessed God, it offends him, as far as it can it injures him, it disorders his work, confuses what he made harmonious, darkens what he formed bright, renders hateful what he created lovely; it abuses his mercies, it tramples his laws under foot, it does despite to the Spirit of his grace; and had it power, as sure as it is sin, would hurl him from his throne. Such is sin. Will you cherish this monster of wickedness? Can you think without horror of rebelling against so good, so great a Benefactor? Can you bear the thought of burthening your soul with such hellish ingratitude? Can you think of indulging in what God hates and the devil loves? Surely you cannot. Then, hate sin; mortify sin, the enemy of God, the enemy of Christ, the enemy of angels, the enemy of man, and the worst enemy of your immortal soul.

Consider again, that sin, in all so hateful, is in you more hateful. Is not God your God? is he not your Father, the God of your choice, the object of your hopes? have not you chosen him as your portion? have not you in private and public avowed this choice? have not you professed to yield him your heart, and to surrender to him all you are? You were once a prodigal; but have not you come back into your Father's family, and found an open door, a gracious welcome, and a Father's love? Is not the Son of God your Saviour? Did not he shed his blood to wash your stains away? and have not you confessed before him, that "love so amazing, so divine," not merely demanded, but should have, your “life, your soul, your all ?" Are not you indebted to him for all your hopes, for peace and pardon? Is not the Spirit of God your Sanctifier? Are not you indebted to his gracious illuminations for all your comforts, and for all your knowledge of God and the Lamb? for a disposition to walk in the way of peace? for a heart to flee to the Saviour and his cross? By faith in Jesus, have not you acquired a title to a life above? and been introduced into the family of God? Have not you had your hopes strengthened, and sealed your solemn vows, in the courts of your God, in the professions of your baptism, and at the table of your atoning Lord? O, my friend, who then shall describe the evil of wilful sin in you? You would sin

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THE MADNESS OF SIN.

against the God of all these mercies, against your forgiving Father. You would sin against the solemn vows, by which your soul is bound to him. You would sin against your crucified Saviour; against his dying love; against him to whom your soul is committed; against him who writes your name in the book of life; against him who lives to promote your happiness in heaven, as once he died for you on earth; against Jesus, your only hope, and whom you have engaged to serve and love. You, too, would sin against the blessed Spirit, who has sought your happiness, and been to you the source of numberless blessings. O, then, mortify sin-sin, which inflicts all these evils, and is connected with all this worse than Satanic ingratitude.

When tempted to sin, compare the poor, short, vanishing delights of sensual pleasure, with the heaven of which sin would deprive, and the hell into which sin would plunge, you. If going to plunge into sin, think of the wages it earns; and consider, if you fall into that sin, you fall into hell, unless God's grace should bring you to true repentance, and of this you have no certainty.

Remember, that to consent to the enticements of sin, is to be guilty of that height of folly, which wants a name to express its greatness. It is as if you were to put into one scale of a balance, the glory and favour of the eternal God, the rich joys of an eternal heaven, the life of your own eternal soul, and the precious blood of the Son of God, and in the other scale, some sensual pleasure, some worldly profit, some fading vanity, and after deliberation and choice, to le these sinful trifles outweigh in your esteem those vast and inestimable blessings. O, monstrous madness, and dreadful contempt of God, and the Saviour, and heaven!

§8. Let your abhorrence and opposition of sin thus proceed from gospel motives. Be not satisfied with resisting it, merely through the fear of shame or hell. He who opposes it only from these, has no more grace than the highwayman, who would steal but that he sees the gallows before him. Take away the sight of the gallows, and he will rob at ease; take away from many men the fear of hell, and they would sin at ease. But the Christian mortifies sin from nobler principles. With Joseph he can exclaim, "How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God!" Above all things,

RUINOUS EFFECTS OF A SINGLE SIN.

157 the influence of the cross of Christ is fatal to sin. Look to the Lamb of God suffering there: contemplate the severity of those nameless agonies; the depth of that bitter humiliation; the sharpness of those outward and inward torments; and then exclaim, "Was this for my sin? For my transgressions did he groan and die? Were my iniquities his intolerable burthen? Did my sin bring him from his Father's throne to the accursed cross and its ignominious sorrows? Oh! bitter were the fruits of sin, when man lost paradise; dreadful were the effects of sin, when the world perished in a deluge, or when Sodom and Gomorrah were overwhelmed with the fires kindled by an angry God: but not so dreadful did sin appear, when Adam lost Eden, when all nations were drowned, or when Sodom burned, as when the Son of God hung on the cross, and for my transgressions expired. Before his cross let me renounce my dearest lusts, and by the influence of his cross mortify every corruption."

§ 9. Besides other motives for the mortification of sin, it is by no means an inconsiderable one, that a single sin may fix upon your character a stain, which on this side the grave will never be worn out. A pious minister observes, "I have been much affected with the following reflection: Though, if not greatly deceived, I have had some degree of experimental acquaintance with Jesus Christ for almost forty years; though I have borne the ministerial character for upwards of twentyfive years; though I have been, perhaps, of some little use in

church of God; and though I have had a greater share esteem among religious people than I had any reason to expect; yet, after all, it is possible for me, in one single hour of temptation, to blast my character-to ruin my public usefulness-and to render my warmest Christian friends ashamed of owning me."* An earthen vessel once cracked, though it may afterwards be used, will never again appear what it once was: so the character of a professor of religion, or a minister, once injured by any flagrant crime, into which unmortified sin may lead, has received a wound that will, probably, never be healed. In David's adultery, Hezekiah's ostentation, Peter's cowardice, falsehood, and perjury, it is too visible that even persons of eminent virtue may, if sin be not mortified, soon plunge deep in atrocious vices. And the same truth is

Booth's Pastoral Cautions.

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taught in the blasted characters of many, once conspicuous for piety and usefulness, but, perhaps, by a single transgression so sunk, that, however penitent, they never rose again. Think not therefore any Scriptural admonitions needless.

Permit me affectionately to caution you more minutely against some sins.

§ 10. Falsehood. Every thing, whether in jest or earnest, that is not consistent with the strictest truth. Lying is a sin of so shameful a nature, that an ingenuous mind, even if a stranger to converting grace, holds it in abhorrence; yet too often we see this disgraceful sin committed, or near approaches made to it, and this in many ways. How many lies are told in trade, and in other pursuits of human life. The buyer lies, when he affirms an article is not worth its real value; the seller lies, when he declares it worth more, and asserts that to be cheap which he knows to be dear. The seller lies, when he declares that such a price is the very lowest, and almost immediately accepts a lower; the buyer lies, when he declares that a certain price is the highest he will give, and presently gives a higher. The physician or the surgeon lies, when he declares of his hopeless patient, that his danger is small, and recovery almost certain. The servant lies, when she declares that a master or mistress is out, whom she knows is at home. That they are not at home to the person who inquires, is mere quibble, and lessens not the lie. The manufacturer lies, when he promises to complete an order by a certain day, but knows that he is too busy to accomplish it, or from careless ness neglects to do so. Flatterers he, when they compliment persons as possessed of excellences, of which they do not really believe them possessors. Tattlers lie, when they circulate as truth, tales and accounts whose truth or falsehood they have not investigated. Numberless lies are uttered by persons professing to relate narratives of facts, but which, through carelessness, inattention, or love of the marvellous, they embellish with additions of circumstances that never took place. Many parents and persons intrusted with children often lie, when endeavouring to persuade children to comply with what they dislike, or in declaring they will punish them, though they have no such intention. In these and other ways, almost innumerable, is this hateful sin committed.

To impress your mind with the deepest abhorrence of this

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sin consider, that it is hated by God. "Lying lips are abomination to the Lord. These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue."-That the devil undid the world by a lie, and is peculiarly the father of lies and liars. "The ser"Ye

pent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die." are of your father the devil; when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”— That lying is numbered with the worst sins; with fornication, adultery, murder, idolatry, and even hatred of God." And that while liars are thus numbered with the most atrocious criminals, it is with dreadful emphasis declared, that they, as it were above all, shall be shut out of heaven, and endure eternal destruction.s "ALL LIARS shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." What a dreadful emphasis do the words all liars bear! It is as if it were said, that the damnation of every impenitent liar is so certain, that if it were possible, which yet it is not, for some of these other classes to be saved in their sins, yet that not one liar should. Let it be added on this subject, that quibbling or equivocation has in numberless instances all the guilt of falsehood.

§ 11. Another sin of awful prevalence is scandal. Perhaps no sin is so common, perhaps no sin committed with so little thought, or remembered with less remorse. It is a sin, not like some others, chiefly committed by the open slaves of the world, and the wicked one; but, alas! frequently by those who profess to follow the benevolent Saviour, from whose lips not one word of scandal ever dropped. This sin is perpetrated in various ways. It is committed, not merely by the slanderer, who fabricates falsehoods respecting his neighbour, but by them who circulate these falsehoods. A tale-bearer comes, and brings some plausible account to another's disgrace. It may be true, it may not; the slanderer seldom takes much pains to inquire, but spreads the report far and wide; and in doing so, gives publicity to the wilful lie of an abandoned liar, and makes himself a partaker of that liar's crimes. If they to whom he relates this account respect him, this adds new weight to the scandal. They spread it farther still, and

(0) Prov. xii. 19, 22; vi. 16-19. (p) Gen. iii. 4.
G) Rom. i. 29. (s) Rev. xxi. 27; xxii. 25.

(2) John vii. 44. (c) Rev. xxi. 8

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