33. That there is more final bitterness in reflecting on sin, than there can be present sweetness in the commission of sin

Another principle by which believers will walk, is this: That there is more final bitterness in reflecting upon sin, than there can be present sweetness in the commission of sin.

The ways of sin may have popular approbation; but they shall also have divine odium marked upon them. This Delilah may please us for a time, but she will betray us at last. Though Satan's apples may have a fair skin, yet they certainly have a bitter core.

Methinks the flaming sword in one hand, and the golden sceptre in the other, should guard us from the forbidden tree; and make our hearts like wet tinder to all the sparks of Satan.

Reader, if you behold nothing but pleasure in the commission of sin, you will experience nothing but the most cutting pain in its conclusion. The wages of sin is death. All workmen should have their wages; and those who employ you, it is but reasonable that they should pay you. But however you may delight in the works of sin, you will by no means relish the wages of sin. Ah, what wise man would toil so long in sin's drudgery, whose wages are no better than eternal misery!

Though all sins are not equal in their nature, yet all sins are in their very nature mortal. The candle of man's life is blown out by the wind of his lusts. The corruption of nature tends to the dissolution of nature. When the plague was in the Jewish houses, they were forthwith to be demolished. It is at that enemy sin, that God shoots all his arrows.

Reader, you began to be mortal, when you began to be sinful. If you had never had any thing to do with sin, death could never have had any thing to do with you. It can only be your impiety, which divests you of the chartered blessings of immortality.

Sin is like a serpent in the bosom, which stings you; or like a thief in your closet, who plunders you. It resembles poison in the stomach, or a sword in the bowels; both of which tend to death. Like St. John's book, it may be sweet in your mouth, but it will be bitter in your belly. However fair iniquity might appear to some, it will only be found like a blear-eyed Leah to God.

The foul dregs lie at the bottom of the vessel. Who does not know that the golden cup of sin is filled with the most nauseous ingredients? Sinner! that which is now like a rose flourishing in your bosom, will in a very little time be like a poisoned dagger at your breast. Poor soul, beware of those embraces which are but signals of destruction. While such a Judas kisses, he kills. While the ivy twines round the oak, it eats out its sap.

If sin were not so deceitful, it would not be so delightful. Like an angler, it shews the bait, but conceals the book. Now it represents its present painted beauty, but casts a covering over its future obliquity. Wickedness is certainly like a river, which begins in a quiet spring, but ends in a tumultuous sea.

Every being produces its own likeness. 'Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?' The grapes of tranquillity cannot grow upon the thorns of impiety. Inward peace can only be espoused to inward purity. A good way to have conscience untormented, is to have it undefiled. He who made you clean within, will also keep you calm within.

A saint cannot so sin, as to destroy his grace; but he may so sin, as to disturb his peace. The spider cannot destroy the bee-hive, but it may get in and spoil the honey. If you, O man, be found nibbling at the bait, you may justly expect the hook to enter into your bowels!

O think, you who now glory in nothing so much as sin, that there is a time approaching, when you will be ashamed of nothing but sin. You may be eternally sinful, but you cannot be eternally joyful. In hell, all that sugar will be melted, in which the bitter pill was wrapped. This is too hot a climate for wanton delights to live in.

The pleasures of sin are but for a season; but the torments of unpardoned sin are of an eternal duration. Our first parents soon ate of the forbidden fruit; but the world to this day feels that it is not freed from the miserable consequence of that sudden banquet.

Solomon exactly describes sin's rise and fall:

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Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness. Death will turn all the waters of pleasure into blood. The serpent of sensual delight always carries a deadly sting in its tail. All the meridian glare of worldly pomp will soon end in midnight darkness and horror.

Sinner! will gall and wormwood ever make you pleasant wine? Will thick and poisonous vapours ever yield you sweet and wholesome showers? If you pursue sin for profit, you will never profit by your sin.

O that England did but look with scripture glasses upon all its departing glories, and solemnly say, 'If sin had not been here, they would never have been there.' It is better to take up our lodgings in a bed of snakes, than in a forbidden bed of prevailing lusts. Who would spread the silken sails of the mind upon the piratical ship of wantonness?

When the pale horse of death goes before, the red horse of wrath follows after. When the sinner's body goes to the worms to be consumed, then his soul goes to hell to be tormented. A wise man knows that it is far better to forego the pleasures of sin here, than to undergo the pains of sin hereafter.

Reader, if you delight in sin, I wish you to remember that your ill-doing will shortly be your undoing. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? What advantage does Dives now reap in hell, from all the delicate banquets he sat down to on earth? What taste has Cleopatra now, from her draught of dissolved pearls? The stench and torment of everlasting burnings will take away the sweetest perfumes that ever sin was covered with.

Young Joseph chose rather to be a close prisoner for Christ, than to be an open slave to his lusts. How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God? It does not only grieve a saint that God is displeased at what he does, but that he is dishonoured by what he does. He is more distressed for sin which brings evil, than for the evil which sin brings.

When the dumb son of Croesus saw his father's life in danger, it is said, that he cried out so loud in his fright, that his tongue-strings broke, and he exclaimed, 'O kill not king Croesus!' Did Christ open his veins for our redemption, and shall not we open our mouths for his vindication?

The crown is fallen from our heads: woe unto us that we have sinned! Sin is not only a monster that unmans us; but it is also a tyrant that uncrowns us. Nay, if not only takes the crown from off the sinner's head, but it also entails the curse upon the sinner's soul.

There are many who vainly suppose that the fountain of their sin is quite dried up, when, alas! the streams are only turned into another channel. A hand taken off from sinful practices, without an heart taken off from sinful principles; is only like a field which, having for a time lain fallow, afterwards springs up with greater increase: or it is like a stream which, having been dammed for a while, at last runs with greater violence, when the sluices are opened.

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