Of Sin's Contrariety to God

1. Then the sinfulness of sin not only appears by, but consists in this, that it is contrary to God, yes, contrariety and enmity itself in the very abstract: Carnal men, or sinners, are called by the name of enemies to God (Romans 5:8, 10; Colossians 1:21), but the carnal mind or sin is called enmity itself (Romans 8:7), and accordingly it and its acts are expressed by names of enmity, and acts of hostility; as walking contrary to God (Leviticus 26:21), rebelling against God (Isaiah 1:2), rising up against him as an enemy (Micah 2:8), striving and contending with God (Isaiah 45:9), despising of God (Numbers 11:20), it makes men haters of God (Romans 1:30), resisters of God (Acts 7:51), [reconstructed: fighters] against God (Acts 5:39 and 23:9), yes, blasphemers of God, and [reconstructed: in fine] very atheists, that they say there is no God (Psalm 14:1). It goes about to un-god God, and is by some of the Ancients called Deicidium, God-murder, or God-killing. And though all these things be not acted by every sinful man, yet they are not only in the nature of sin, yes, of every sin, more or less, but are all of them in the heart of all sinners (in their seed and root) (Matthew 15:19), and what is acted by any man would be acted by every man, if God did not restrain some men from it by his power, and constrain others to obedience by his love and power; as (1 Corinthians 5:14; Psalm 110:3). Herein then is the desperately wicked nature of sin, that it is not only crimen laesae [reconstructed: Majestatis], High Treason against the Majesty of God, but it scorns to confess its crime, it is obstinate, and will not that he reign over it; it is not only not subject, but it will not be subject, no nor reconciled to God, such is its enmity! Yet more particularly.

1. Sin is contrary to the nature of God; God's name is holy, and as his name is, so is he and his nature, all holy, yes, he is so, and cannot but be so: And therefore God takes it more ill, that men should think him wicked like themselves (Psalm 50:16-22), than that they think him not to be (Psalm 14:1). It is said to weary him, when men do but say that evil is good in his sight (Malachi 2:17). This is the thing God glories in, that he is holy, yes, glorious in holiness (Exodus 15:11). And holiness is the attribute, which frees God from not only evil itself, but from all appearance or suspicion of evil. Were not God holy, many of the things which God does would look unlike him; his justice and judgments would look not only like severity but tyranny, were not it and they holy; his love in its carriages and behaviors to some people, would look like fondness and respecting of persons, but that it is holy; his patience would look like a toleration, if not approbation of sin, but that it is holy patience, etc. Thus many acts of God, were it not for holiness, would appear as seemingly evil as they are really good, and be as much suspected by all, as they are unjustly censured by some. He is holy, without spot or blemish, or any such thing, without any wrinkle, or any thing like it; as they also that are in Christ shall one day be (Ephesians 5:27). God is so holy, that he cannot sin himself, nor be the cause or author of sin in another; he does not command sin to be committed (it would be to cross his nature and will) nor approve of any man's sin when it is committed, but hates it with a perfect hatred; without iniquity is he, and of purer eyes than to behold, that is, approve iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13).

On the contrary, as God is holy, all holy, only holy, altogether holy, and always holy, so sin is sinful, all sinful, only sinful, altogether sinful, and always sinful (Genesis 6:5). In my flesh, that is, in my sinful corrupt nature, there dwells no good (Romans 7:16). As in God there is no evil, so in sin there is no good; God is the greatest of goods, and sin is the greatest of evils; as no good can be compared with God for goodness, so no evil can be compared with sin for evil.

2. Sin is contrary to all the names and attributes of God; it sets itself in opposition to them all. (1) It deposes the sovereignty of God, as much as in it lies; it will not that the King of Kings should be on the throne, and govern this world which he has made: it was by this instinct that Pharaoh said, who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know no Lord above me, I will not let Israel go (Exodus 5:2). It is the voice and language of sin (Psalm 12), our lips are our own, who is Lord over us? and it was from hence that the Jews of old said, we are lords, we will come no more to you (Jeremiah 2:31). Thus it attempts to dethrone God! (2) It denies God's all-sufficiency, as if there were not content and satisfaction enough to be had in the enjoyment of God, but that vanity and wickedness had more of pleasure and profit than he, whose ways are all pleasantness, and whose service is the whole of man: every prodigal that leaves the Father's house does practically say, it is better to be elsewhere. (3) It dares the justice of God, and challenges God to do his worst (Malachi 3:17). It provokes the Lord to jealousy, and tempts him to wrath. (4) It disowns his omniscience; Tush, say they, God sees not, nor does the most High regard. (5) It despises the riches of God's goodness (Romans 2:4). (6) It turns his grace into wantonness (Jude 4). It will make bold with God, and sin because grace abounds! In short, it is the dare of God's justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his patience, the slight of his power, the contempt of his love, as one does prettily express this ugly thing: and we may go on and say; it is the upbraid of his providence (Psalm 50), the scoff of his promise (2 Peter 3:3-4), the reproach of his wisdom (Isaiah 29:16), and as it is said of the Man of Sin (made up of sin) it opposes and exalts itself above all that is called God (and above all that God is called) so that it as God sits in the temple of God, showing itself as if it were God (2 Thessalonians 2:4).

3. Sin is contrary to the works of God; as it works contrary to God, so it is contrary to God's works, and is called the work of the devil (1 John 3:8). All God's works were good exceedingly, beautiful even to admiration, but the works of sin are deformed, and monstrously ugly, for it works disorder, confusion, and everything that's abominable: Sin may be charged for all the mischiefs and villainies that have been done in the world; it is the Master of Misrule, the Author of Sedition, the Builder of Babel, the Troubler of Israel; and all mankind. And so contrary is sin to the works of God, that it sought and still seeks to undo all that God does, that there might be no seed, nor name, nor root left him in the earth: Everything works according to its nature (operari sequitur esse) as the root is, so is the fruit, and by that every tree is known, whether it be a good tree or a bad (Matthew 7:17-18). God is good, and does good (Psalm 119:68). Sin is evil, and does evil, indeed nothing else; so that sin and its works are contrary to God and his works.

4. Sin is contrary to the law and will of God, indeed to all the rules and orders of his appointment: There is not one of his laws which it has not broken, and endeavored to make void, and of no effect; indeed, it is not only a transgression of, but a contradiction also to the will of God. When the Son of God came into the world to declare and do his Father's will, he was encountered by and underwent the contradiction of sinners (Hebrews 12:3), who would have made men believe, that neither he nor his doctrine was of God. It is an anti-will to God's will; it sets itself to oppose preaching, prayer, and all the institutions of God, and that not only out of envy to man, that he should not be the better for them, but out of enmity to God, that he should not be worshipped in the world. Now to act contrary to the will and statutes of God, is to act contrary to God himself; as may be seen by comparing Leviticus 26:14-15 with 26:21, 23, 27, and many other places. David in fulfilling the will of God, was said to be a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22), and they that obey the will of sin, are said to walk after the heart of sin (Ezekiel 11:21).

5. Sin is contrary to the image of God, in which man was made: God made man in his own likeness, namely, in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24). Now sin is clean contrary to this image, as much unlike it as deformity and ugliness is unlike to handsomeness and beauty, as darkness is to light, as hell to heaven, indeed and more too. Sin is the Devil's image; as when God made man, he made him in his own image; so when the Devil made man sin, he thereby made him his own image and likeness: and so I conceive the Devil meant that phrase, "You shall be like Gods, Elohim" (Genesis 3:5). He did not say, nor mean, that he should be like the Elohim, (the Creators, as the word is, Job 35:10; Ecclesiastes 12:1) the God that made them, but like Elohim Gods, namely, such as I and my Angels are, who once knew good, but now know evil, both by doing it, and suffering the sad effects of it. The word Elohim is used not only of God and good Angels, but of fallen Angels, or Devils (1 Samuel 28:13). And under the cover of this ambiguous and dubious word he craftily abused our first Parents; for he well knew that by sinning they could not become like Elohim, God above, but would become like Elohim, the Gods below. And alas! are we not like Elohim-devils, knowing good by loss, and evil by the sad and dismal effects thereof? Thus he that runs may read the picture, image and likeness of the Devil in sin; sinners are as like the Devil as anything, for he that sins is of the Devil (1 John 3:8), not only a servant, but a child of the Devil. "You are of your Father the Devil," said holy Jesus to the sinful Jews (John 8:44). Never was a child more like the father, than a sinner is like the Devil; sin has the nature, the complexion, the air, the features, and very behavior of the Devil.

6. Sin is contrary to the people and children of God: It is true, sin cannot hate them so much as God loves them, nor do them so much hurt as God can do them good; yet out of spite and envy it will do its worst, and hate them because God loves them. God's children are his darlings and favorites, dear to him as the apple of his eye; in all their afflictions he bears a part, and is afflicted, and looks upon it as if he himself were treated as they are in this world (Acts 9:4-5; Matthew 25:41-45). Now the nearer and dearer they are to God, the more God's heart is set upon them for good, the more sin sets its heart against them for evil. Sin is always warring against the Seed of God in them, the flesh lusts against the spirit (Galatians 5:17), and wars against their souls (1 Peter 2:11). So that by sin's ill-will, God's people should neither enjoy nor do any good in this world; it is always provoking the Serpentine Race to make war upon, to imprison and persecute (even to destruction) the little flock and remnant of the holy seed; it will not (further than rebuked by grace) let them have one quiet day, it disturbs and interrupts them, that they cannot attend upon God without destruction. When they would do good, an evil is present with them, either to keep it undone, or to make it ill done; it endeavors to spoil all they take in hand, and to turn their holy things into iniquity, by reason of which they cry out as greatly oppressed, "Wretched people that we are! who shall deliver us from this body of death?" (Romans 7). This evil and envious sin is bent also to hinder (all it can) the comfort, welfare, and happiness of the Saints. Sin, like the Devil, has not such an evil eye or aching tooth at all the sinners of the world, as it has at the Saints in the world: it is true the Devil is a man-hater, but more a Saint-hater. "Watch, for your adversary the devil seeks whom (of you) he may devour," as Saint Peter tells us (1 Peter 5:8). And this it does to cross and thwart God and his design, who and which is set upon the happiness of his people.

7. Sin is contrary to, and set against the glory of God, and all that should and would give glory to him, or has any tendency to that end: Confession of sin and repentance gives glory to God (Joshua 7:19), and this sin endeavors to obstruct and hinder: It began to practice it on Adam and Eve, and still keeps on this trade among the children of men (Revelation 16:9). Faith would give glory to God; now that men may not believe, sin employs the Devil to blind their eyes (2 Corinthians 4:4). Good men would do all they do (but sin will let them do nothing at all) to the glory of God, but is ever throwing one dead fly or other into their most precious boxes of ointment: Sin is so malicious, that it will not only displease and dishonor God itself, but labors to defeat and frustrate the endeavors of all that attempt to do otherwise: Might sin's desires take place, there should not be a person or thing by whom and whereby God should be pleased or glorified. It gives out false reports of God and goodness, lays prejudices, and rocks of offence, and stumbling in men's ways, that they may be out of love with all that's good, so desperately is it bent against the honor of God.

8. Sin (as was hinted before) is contrary to and opposite against the being and existence of God; it makes the sinner wish and endeavor that there might be no God; for sinners are haters of God (Romans 1:30). And as he that hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15), so (as much as in him lies) he that hates God is a murderer of God: It keeps garrisons and strongholds against God (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). It strives with, and fights against God; and if its power were as great as its will is wicked, it would not suffer God to be. God is a troublesome thing to sinners, and therefore they say to him, depart from us (Job 21:14), and of Christ Jesus, let us break his bonds asunder, and cast his cords far from us (Psalm 2:1-2). And when the Holy Ghost comes to woo and entreat them to be reconciled, they resist and make war with the spirit of peace (Acts 7:51), so that they are against every person in the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit. In short, and for a conclusion, sin is contrary to God, and all that's dear to him, or has his name upon it; and though it be against all good, yet not so much against any good as against God, who is, and because he is the chiefest good.

Before we pass on, let me beseech you, whoever you be that reads, to pause a little and consider of what is said; for ([reconstructed: mutato nomine, de te]) what's said of sin (is to be considered by the sinner, and) is meant of your and my sin. Shall I not plead for God and your soul, and entreat you to be on God's side, and depart from the tents of wickedness? Poor soul, can you find it in your heart to hug and embrace such a monster as this is? Will you love that which hates God, and which God hates? God forbid! Will you join yourself to that which is nothing but contrariety to God, and all that's good? Oh say to this idol, indeed to this devil, Get hence, what have I to do with you, you (Elymas) sorcerer, you full of all malignity and mischief; you child, indeed father of the devil, you that are the founder of hell, an enemy to all righteousness, that ceases not to pervert the right way of the Lord, and to reproach the living God — Away, away, shall I be seduced by you to grieve the God of all my joy, to displease the God of all my comfort, to vex the God of all my content, to do evil against a good God, by whom I live, move, and have my being? Oh no. Thus consider of these things, and do not go on to provoke the Lord, lest a worse thing befall you than any hitherto; do not contend with God who is stronger than you are, who is able when he will, and he will be one day found both able and willing enough, to turn the wicked into hell, the element of sin and sinners, who shall go into it as into their own place, as Judas did (Acts 1:25). Oh learn to pity your own soul, for he that sins does (as offend and wrong God, so) wrong and destroy his own soul; or (as some read the text) despises his own soul (Proverbs 8:36). Oh think on it, what! have you no value, no regard for your soul? Will you neglect and despise it, as if it were good for nothing but to be damned, and go to hell? Will you be felo de se, a self-soul-murderer? Shall your perdition be of yourself? Oh look to yourself, for sin (notwithstanding all its flattering pretences) is against you, and seeks nothing less than your ruin and damnation. And this brings and leads me to the second thing to be treated of.