Consider 3: Sin Will Be Bitter

CONSIDER. III.

That sin will not always be sweet, at last it will be bitter. If the pleasures of sin would last for ever, the folly of sinners would not be so great as now it is. You must die shortly, and then the pleasure of sin will be turned into unutterable and eternal torments. I remember I have somewhere read concerning a company of profane persons that as they were drinking and making merry, one of them had this expression, We live a brave life if we could but get somebody to go to Hell for us when we die: True; if you can do so, be as mad and as merry as you please: But since you must die and then into the fire that never shall be quenched; if madness were not in your hearts, you would hate sin more than ever you loved it. But [illegible] will sin be at last? As sure as the Lord lives and as you have an immortal soul within you, it will be bitter at the last. Sin is a root that bears gall and wormwood (Deuteronomy 29:18). As Abner said to Joab about the devouring sword (2 Samuel 2:26), so I say to you concerning sin that devourer of immortal souls, do you know not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? What will that sin of drunkenness be at last: The wise man tells you when he says, Look not you on the wine when it is red when it gives its color in the cup, when it moves itself aright at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder (Proverbs 23:31, 32). There are some serpents which when a man is first bitten with them, the poison causes such a tickling as that he cannot forbear laughter, but when it is come into his blood and bowels, the torment is intolerable: Such a poison is sin, at the [illegible] will bite like a serpent. What will the cursed [illegible] bottle that has destroyed so many bodies and souls in New England, be at last? That strong drink which has made you drunk will at last prove the poison of dragons, and the cruel [illegible] of asps, which kills without mercy and without remedy (Deuteronomy 32:33). What will unrighteous gain? What will riches gotten by piracy and murder be at last? You young men, that have a mind to turn pirates in hopes of getting gold, hear what God speaks to you from His word (Job 20:15, 16): He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly, he shall suck the poison of asps, the viper's tongue shall slay him, his meat in his bowels is the gall of asps within him. Such wicked gain will at last prove a bitter and a deadly poison. And what will your secret adulteries and uncleanness be at last? What will you get by them? (Proverbs 6:32, 33) Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he that does it destroys his own soul, a wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. This will be all your gain at last. A wound to your conscience; an everlasting reproach in the great congregation when your secret sins shall be laid open before all the world, and ruin to your own soul.

Therefore set yourselves against sin. Hate it to the death; other enemies you may be reconciled to, but never to sin. God charged His people concerning the Ammonites, saying, you shall not seek their peace, nor their prosperity all your days for ever. And concerning Amalek, that they should have war with him for ever. Sin is that Ammon, sin is the Amalek with whom you must have war for ever. Sin is a bloody serpent: you must either kill that serpent, or it will kill your soul. And if you would become haters of sin, you must become believers on Christ: There is not a man in all the world that is a hater of all sin, besides the true believer on Christ; when Christ becomes precious, sin becomes odious. Sin may be restrained, but it will never be mortified in the man that has not faith. As for the world, and the things which are in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (which men naturally love more than they love God or Christ) it is by faith that we come to have hearts set against them, and are made victorious over them. And by this may a man know that he has true faith in Jesus Christ if keeping the commandments of God be his great delight, or [illegible] be the chief object of his hatred. Of a truth it is worth more than all this world to be able to say with David, with whose words I conclude (Psalm 119:128), I esteem all your precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way.