Proposition 1: Sinners Flatter Themselves

Proposition. I.

Persons who indulge themselves in sin, are not apprehensive of the evil and danger which is therein. They flatter themselves. They please themselves with vain imaginations. Otherwise they would be afraid to sin, and much more to go on in their trespasses. There are several vain imaginations which sinners flatter themselves with.

1. They please themselves with thinking that sin [illegible] no sin. That when they sin fearfully they have not sinned at all. How common is it for men, if they intend well in what they do, to think all is well. Like Saul who excused his transgressing a positive command of God, with saying, he did it for sacrifice. Sin and Satan do wonderfully blind the eyes of sinners. Hence they sometimes take damning errors to be rare [illegible] as the deluded Christians in Thyatira did (Revelation 2:24). The depths of Satan as they speak. They said that the things which they did believe were deep rare mysteries, so did they speak concerning those errors which at last they found to be no better than Satanical delusions. When men have shut their eyes against the clear light, their light does become darkness, and how great is that darkness? A spirit of strong delusion is sent upon them, so that they believe a lie (2 Thessalonians 2:11). And because men err in their judgments, they are guilty of such practices as will prove the ruin of their souls, and yet flatter themselves that there is no sin nor evil in what they do. Idolatry is a soul-ruining iniquity, yet the Jews of old who lived in that sin, would not believe they were guilty of any such crime. The Prophets by all their sermons could not convince them of it. Jeremiah 2:35: You say, because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me, behold, I will plead with you because you say I have not sinned. Men may be under the power of sin and Satan so far as not only to believe that a damning sin is no sin at all, but that it is a duty. To persecute the faithful ambassadors of Christ to death is a crime of a high nature: yet did the Lord say to his Apostles, The time comes that whoever kills you will think he does God good service (John 16:2). Thus it was with Paul before his conversion. He verily thought with himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 28:9). This indeed was not Saul's case when he killed the priest at Nob. He sinned maliciously against his conscience, at the very time when he commanded bloody Doeg to murder them; he called them the priests of the Lord. Some have therefore thought that he did at that time commit the sin against the Holy Ghost, because his knowledge and his malice was very great. But many of those that kill and burn them whom they call heretics, do it more out of ignorance than malice, thinking they do well in it.

2. Another imagination which sinners please themselves with, is, that if what they do is a sin, yet that it is no great or dangerous sin. They say of the iniquity which they indulge themselves in, as Lot said of Zoar, Is it not a little one (Genesis 19:20). Thus Ephraim loved to oppress, and yet he said, they shall find in me no iniquity that were sin (Hosea 12:7, 8). The Hebrew word there translated sin, is many times used to denote a great sin: Ephraim pleased himself that they should find in him no iniquity that was of a heinous or criminal nature, notwithstanding his being guilty of great oppression, he esteemed that to be no sin, that is to say no great sin. There are great oppressors in the world, who justify themselves in their oppression. They that are guilty of biting and oppressing usury commonly do so. Sinners remember not what Christ has said (Matthew [illegible]:19), Whoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; he shall be of no account there, he shall never come there, if he allows himself in the willful breach of the least commandment. Men are apt to please themselves that none on the earth are without sin; the best have their failings: and that their iniquities are only sins of infirmity, such as God's children while in the world are subject to; and that therefore they shall have a pardon in course for them: they cannot think that the merciful God will be so severe as to punish them eternally for such small matters; not believing that the least sin is in its own nature deadly and damning. And it is possible for men to be so blinded as to think that great sins are little ones. The Gentiles thought that fornication and drunkenness were no great sins: and therefore they had no laws to punish such iniquities. But the Lord in his Word declares that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:21).

Hence 3. Sinners are apt to flatter themselves, that though they do iniquity they shall escape punishment. Notwithstanding the awful threatenings of God in his Word, the sinner thinks he shall do as well as others. When he hears the words of the curse, he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst (Deuteronomy 29:20). There are many such sinners, who after they have made themselves athirst with strong drink, will make themselves drunk again, and yet say they shall have peace. They promise themselves impunity in sinning against the holy God. Hence the Psalmist speaks, as in Psalm 10:13, Therefore does the wicked contemn God? he has said in his heart you shall not require it. Every sinner so far forth as he is a sinner, is an atheist: he says in his heart that there is no such God as the Lord is. Either he is such an atheist as to imagine that God does not take notice of the sins of men (Psalm 94:7), They say the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. A vile wretch when he is about to commit a sin, suppose theft or uncleanness or the like odious wickedness, if he believed that any man, no, that a child of seven years old saw him, he would not do that wicked thing: does he then believe that God sees him? No, he is an atheist. Or, he says in his heart, that the Lord is not so holy a God as his Word declares him to be. That he is not so much offended with sin as his ministers say he is. They imagine a God made up all of mercy, without any justice or holiness. They judge of God by themselves; because they do not hate sin, they think the Lord hates it not. They flatter themselves that because God bears with them for a time, that he will never call them to an account (Psalm 50:21), These things have you done, and I kept silence; you thought that I was altogether such an one as yourself; but I will reprove you, and set them in order before you. Or, they flatter themselves that because of some external show of religion, or some good works done by them, all their sins will be forgiven. They vainly suppose that by some righteousness of their own they shall make amends for all their transgressions. They think the Lord will be pacified with rivers of oil, and that the fruit of their bodies will compensate for the sin of their souls. The Jews would steal, commit adultery, and swear falsely, and yet trust in lying words, saying, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord (Jeremiah 7:4). They would go to the Temple and there offer sacrifice and then say, we are delivered; we are purged from our past transgressions; and now having cleared the old score, we may safely venture to sin again, and by going to the Temple we shall be delivered, and never punished for these abominations. Do not men in these days flatter themselves, after the like manner? If they go to the Temple, if they go to church, if they offer sacrifice, if they say their prayers there, they promise themselves impunity though they live in sin. Thus are they who indulge themselves in the ways of sin secure and not aware of the infinite danger their souls are in.