Sin, the Plague of Plagues; or Sinful Sin the Worst of Evils

*Romans 7:13* — Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid! But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the Commandment might become exceeding sinful.

Being to treat of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, it is not only expedient, but necessary that I preface and premise such things as these; namely, (1) That God made all things very good (Genesis 1:31). They were all endowed with the perfections which were suitable to their several beings; so that none of them could find fault with, or complain of God, as if he had been wanting to them, or had made them defective. Yet (2) of these, the two most eminent and principal degrees of creatures did quickly degenerate; for some of the Angels sinned, and kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation (Jude 6). And by giving way to their subtle and envious insinuations, the man Adam (who was a common person) sinned also (Genesis 3). And thus by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:13). And (3) as to the Angels that fell, God left them irrecoverable, for (2 Peter 2:4) God spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell; and (Jude 6) has reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness, to the judgment of the great day. Christ Jesus the Mediator and Redeemer took not on him Angels, or (as it is in the Margin) takes not hold of Angels (Hebrews 2:16), but it pleased God to pity man; his saving grace and loving-kindness has appeared to man (Titus 2:11), and that in Christ Jesus (Titus 3:4), whose delight was with the sons of men, the habitable parts of the earth (Proverbs 8:31), and therefore he took on him the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16). And (4) this doctrine of God our Savior, or the Gospel doctrine, does suppose man a sinner: it is a faithful saying, (and worthy of the best and all acceptance and reception) that Christ Jesus came into the world (on this very errand and design) to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). The doctrine of repentance supposes also that man has done amiss (Matthew 9:13). The doctrine of faith in another for righteousness and hope, concludes man to be without righteousness and hope in himself (Ephesians 2:12-13). And the end of Christ's sending the Holy Spirit, was, that he might in the first place convince of sin (John 16:8).

These things being, beside others that might be considered, it cannot but be hugely useful to let men see what sin is, how prodigiously vile, how deadly mischievous, and therefore how monstrously ugly and odious a thing sin is; that so way may be made by it: (1.) For admiring the free and rich grace of God. (2.) For believing in our Lord Jesus Christ. (3.) For vindicating the holy, just and good law of God, and his condemnation of sinners for breaking of it. (4.) For hating of, repenting for and from sin, thereby taking a holy, just and good revenge on it and ourselves. (5.) That we may love and serve God at a better rate than we ever did, in the little and short time of innocency itself. And lastly, that this black spot may serve for a set off, to the admirable, incomparable, and transcendent beauty of holiness.

And now to the text itself, which may have this for its title: The just vindication of the law of God, and no less just accusation and condemnation of the sin of man. As to its connection, with what precedes, it is thus; at the 10th verse the Apostle had said, that the Commandment which was ordained to life, he found to death: hence an objection is raised, verse 13. Seeing the Commandment is good, how comes it to be to death? Was that which was good made death to me? To which he answers: (1.) By way of negation and abhorrence, God forbid! Far be it from me or any other to think so! No, by no means! To find fault with the law, were to find fault with God: the law is not to be blamed. What is then? For something is to blame. To this he answers; (2.) By way of affirmation and accusation, that sin is the true cause of death: the Commandment indeed condemns, or is death to man, not of itself, but because of sin: and hereby sin appears (not only like itself, but itself) sin, indeed sinful, indeed exceeding sinful sin; not in a disguise, as when it is committed, but in its own lively colors, or (rather and more properly) dead and deadly colors.

It is, says he, [in non-Latin alphabet], sin in the abstract, and that iterated and repeated (as Pharaoh's dream was) for the certainty and assurance of the thing; it is sin, it is sin, and this sin is [in non-Latin alphabet] sinful, or a sinner, nothing else but sinning and sinful sin. It is masculinely and vigorously sinful; for though Erasmus concludes this to be the Attic dialect (namely, the conjunction of this masculine and feminine) yet others think that the Apostle does dare personam peccato, bring in sin as if it were a person; as verse 17 and 20. It is not I but sin; as if it were a person: unless we may read it thus, as Faius does, that the [in non-Latin alphabet], the sinner might become sin (in the same sense as the objection is made, verse 7: Is the law sin?) that is, criminal and guilty. However we read it, we are sure of this, that it denotes the malignant, pestilent and pernicious nature and operation of sin, its own name being the worst that can be given it; and yet, as if this were not significant enough, it is so [in non-Latin alphabet], that is, supra modum, Erasmus: quam maxime, Beza: eximie, Grotius: exceeding, above measure, excessively, or in the highest degree, for a hyperbole is at extraordinary and the highest degree of speaking. It is as the Arabic version has it, superans excessum; it is extremely, and indeed, beyond all expression sinful.

So that upon the whole I may illustrate the scope and meaning, by a familiar example or instance: it is as if it had been said by a malefactor to the judge, thus; Oh my Lord, how cruelly unmerciful are you to condemn me to die? In fact, says the judge, it is not I, it is the law, I am but the mouth of the law: In fact, says the law, it is not I, it is sin; if you had not sinned I had not condemned, for the law is not against the righteous (1 Timothy 1:9). No, against such there is no law, no condemnation from it (Galatians 5:28). You may then in me (as in a glass) see what a deadly destructive and killing thing your sin is: Every mouth must be stopped, there is no room for complaint against God or his law, for you are (as all others are) by becoming guilty, fallen short of the glory, and subject to the judgment of God (Romans 3:19, 23). So that by the Commandment sin appears to be a desperate malignant thing, the proper, true and only cause of man's condemnation and death.

From this brief yet clear account of the text and context, these following truths are deducible.

1. That the law of God in whole and every part is good; not only not sin, that is, culpable or criminal, as verse 7, or only holy and just, verse 12, or spiritual, verse 14, but good, verse 12, 13. Good, not only in itself, but relatively in its institution with respect to man, for it was ordained to life, verse 10. Yet

2. This good law transgressed makes man over to death: patience, that temperate and harmless thing, (if abused) turns to rage and fury; so the law (good though it be, yet) abused, it condemns and kills.

But 3. Though the law condemn man's fault, and man for his fault, yet still the law is good, and is not to blame, nor to be blamed: The law is as good as ever it was, it is to be justified by man, even then when it condemns man: As man had no reason to break the law, so none to find fault with the law, though it bind men over to death for breaking of it. For

4. It is not the law but sin that works man's death and ruin; sin aims at no less, and (if grace prevent not) it will end in no less; for the end and wages of sin is death (Romans 6:21, 22).

Yet 5. Sin (it is true) works man's death and destruction by that which is good, namely the law: when sin has used man to break the law, it uses the law to break man, to undo him by condemnation and death. And

6. Sin is therefore exceeding sinful and wicked, most unmeasurably spiteful, poisonous and pernicious, because it kills men, and not only so, but kills them by that which is good, and was appointed to man for life; it turns food into poison: ut agnoscatur quam sceleratus peccator sit hoc peccatum, & quam pestisera res, dum per mandatum, rem salutiferam, exserit virus suum, Clarius. Like the horrid and cursed wickedness (our stories tell us of) so wickedly committed, in poisoning a man, indeed a King, by the Cup of Blessing. So that

7. And lastly, Sin by the Commandment appears to be excessively sinful: Ut evidens sit quam perniciosum, quam grave, quam scelestum sit ipsum peccatum, Zegerus. If we look on this through the microscope-glass of the law, it will appear a most hideous, devilish, and hellish thing; the most wicked, villainous, mischievous, virulent and deadly thing that ever was. Sinful sin! worse than the Devil! etc. of which anon.

I may not prosecute any of these particulars apart, for I shall have occasion enough to speak to every and each of them in handling the sinfulness of sin; in relation to which I intend to observe this method, and to manifest thereby

1. What sin is, the thing so much and so deservedly evil spoken of, whereof none can speak well, but they that speak ill of it; for they speak best who speak the worst of sin.

2. Wherein the sinfulness of sin does especially consist; and so to lay open not only its effects, but its nature also.

3. What witness and evidence there is to make good this indictment and charge against sin, that it is so vile and abominable, so sinful as the Apostle calls it. And

4. What use and improvement is to be made of the doctrine of sin's excessive sinfulness.

1. To begin with the subject, and to show what sin is: Sin is the transgression of a law, indeed of a good law, indeed of a God's law: Sin supposes a law in being, for where there is no law, there is no transgression (Romans 4:15), but where there is sin, there is a law, and a transgression of the law (1 John 3:4). Whoever commits sin transgresses the law, for sin is a transgression of the law; and this is the sin intended here in the text, as appears by verse 7.

Now the law not only forbids the doing of evil (whether by thought, word or deed) but also commands the doing of good; so that to omit the good commanded is sin, as well (or ill) as is the doing of the evil that is forbidden: against the fruits of the spirit there is no law, but against the works of the flesh (as the opposition holds) there is law, for they are all against the law, as the Apostle tells us (Galatians 5:19-24). Whatever then does transgress the law of God (in whole or in part (James 2:10)) is therefore, and is therein a sin, whether it break an affirmative or a negative precept; that is, whether it be the omission of good, or commission of evil.

2. To proceed and lay open wherein especially the sinfulness of sin does consist, which is easily and readily known from its definition or description just now set before us: Sin being a transgression of God's law, which is not only holy and just, as made and given by an holy and just God; but good also, as it respects man, for whom God made it, according to the text and context, and as it is in (Deuteronomy 5:29 and 6:24): with many other places: I say, sin being a transgression of God's law, which was made for man's good, the sinfulness of sin must needs lie in this, that it is contrary 1. To God. 2. To Man.

These then are the two heads I shall insist upon, to declare the malignity and wicked nature of sinful sin; and both these are evident from the law, for by it (as our text speaks) sin appears sin, and by the commandment sin (clearly and undeniably) becomes most exceeding, hyperbolically, or above measure sinful; that is, extremely guilty of displeasing and dishonoring God, of debasing and destroying man; and on both accounts justly obnoxious to, and deservingly worthy of the hatred of God and man; as to which I do heartily wish the issue to be, that man may hate it as God does, who hates it, and nothing else but it; or (to be sure) he hates none but for it.