The Evil of Sin.\

By Rev. JOHN JAMIESON.

“KNOW therefore and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God.”—Jeremiah, ii, 19.

Salvation by Christ is the sum and substance of the holy Scriptures. In this, as their centre, all the lines of divine revelation meet. To this, all the histories and prophecies, types and ceremonies, precepts, promises, and exhortations, contained in the word, either immediately or ultimately relate. They all point out Jesus as the end of the law for righteousness.

But as sinners must know their disease, before they can see the necessity of improving the remedy, there are many calls, commands and expostulations addressed to them, declaring the evil and danger of sin. These may be thought unnecessary, because every man has some notion of his being a sinner; intimations of which we have even among the most unenlightened nations.

But although this is a truth that every man pretends to believe, there are few who believe it in a right manner. So unjust, partial and unaffectionate are the apprehensions, which the generality entertain of sin, that it plainly appears that they know not what it is. They reckon deliverance from it so easy a matter, as to despise the salvation purchased by Christ at such infinite expense, as if it were a thing of naught.

But, to declare the real nature of sin, the necessity of a saving apprehension of it, the importance of the work of redemption, and to leave every hearer of the gospel without excuse, the Lord addresses himself in this manner to sinners, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: Know, therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God.

We learn from the connection, that the Lord, by the Prophet, is here immediately pleading with his ancient people, as to that sin with which they were eminently chargeable, the worship of false gods. But we may justly understand the language, as containing a description of the nature of sin, extensively considered. For the idea conveyed by this expression, Thou has forsaken the Lord, and the characters of evil and bitter, are applicable to sin in general. The words immediately in view are introduced with a sentence, the truth of which is found by every sinner, sooner or later: Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee.

Was this awful denunciation accomplished by God with regard to His ancient people, when in His providence, their attachment to idolatry proved the source of their national correction in the Babylonish captivity? And is it not as really verified, either in a temporal or spiritual respect, in the experience of every sinner who goes on in his trespasses? Sin often carries its own punishment along with it. Thus, the wickedness of the sinner corrects him, and he feels the dreadful stings of conscience on account of sin, that sometimes attend the very perpetration of it, and which, unless the conscience be awfully seared, are its inevitable consequences.

*This sermon is one of the series published by The Inheritance Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich., U.S.A.

These stings are often so keen, that all the pleasures and blandishments of life cannot assuage the pain, or remove the poison. Nay, these very pleasures are embittered in the enjoyment; and life itself, how pleasing soever in a natural point of view, becomes a torment.

The wickedness of the sinner corrects him when it not only wounds the peace of his mind, but so impairs his health, and spirits, and worldly circumstances, that himself and everything around him are constant memorials of his extreme folly. But alas! to the impenitent sinner, this correction is severest in the end, compared with which, all his former sufferings are only the beginning of sorrows.

In opening these words, we propose,

1. To make some introductory observations.
2. To speak of the evil of sin.
3. To consider its bitterness.
4. To show by what proofs sinners may know and see, that it is evil and bitter.

It is first proposed to offer a few observations.

1. It may be observed, that men in general think lightly of sin. They consider it rather as a failure or infirmity of nature, than as positive transgression, guilt or vileness. Nay, some are so abandoned as to account sin no evil at all; at least, they pretend to do so. Therefore, it is said, that fools make a mock of sin. When they read or hear of its evil and wickedness, they ridicule all such representations. They laugh at its nature and consequences. Some even go so far as to glory in their iniquity.

The more that the drunkard debases himself below the brute-creation, the more he boasts. The debauchee triumphs, not only in the frequency of his abominable prostitution, but in his success in inducing others to iniquity. The profane sinner exults in the fruitfulness of his invention, in the language of blasphemy. These are the persons whom the Spirit of God describes as placing their glory in their shame, and declaring their sin as Sodom.

Men will often confess they are sinners, and pretend to pray for the pardon of sin; when perhaps, they have not one affecting thought with respect to its evil, and are in nowise serious in their pretended prayers. They will patiently hear ministers preach against sin, and enlarge on its evil; but give themselves no further trouble about it; because they consider it just as their business to speak evil of sin; as if the Holy One had not declared that He cannot look upon sin.

1. The great reason why men think so lightly of sin is, that they think lightly of God. Our judgment of anything is always in proportion to our esteem or disesteem of its opposite. God and sin are two contraries; and we will unavoidably form our estimate of sin, according to that which we form of essential holiness. Many profess to believe the being of God, but are destitute of any concern for his glory. They acknowledge their dependence on him: yet they act as if they were unaccountable. They are regardless of sin, because they have no fear of God. Therefore, it is added in the verse—and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord of Hosts.

2. There is an infinite evil in sin. This may appear impossible, because man, its subject, is a finite being. But although viewed in man, or in any

creature as its subject, it can be only finite; with respect to God, the object against whom it is directed, it is infinitely evil: for it is an affront to his infinite perfections. Men themselves judge of the evil of crimes, not so much by the person who commits them, as by the object against whom they are committed; and according to the station or dignity of the injured party, they are viewed as greater or less. Thus, that which is only felony, when affecting a fellow-subject, becomes high treason, when committed against the Sovereign.

In forming an estimate of the evil of sin, we are not so much to judge of it by the relation it bears to ourselves, or to society, as by that which it bears to the great God, who is principally offended. The evil of sin, as committed against him, appears so enhanced, that notwithstanding its fatal effects with regard to ourselves or others, we may speak of every transgression in the language of David in his penitential psalm: Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.

Every sin strikes against God, as peculiarly and directly, as if no other were either affected or offended by it, or even privy to the commission. Had there not been an infinite evil in sin objectively considered, it would not have required infinite satisfaction. It was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin. It indeed required the shedding of blood: but this blood must be of infinite value.

That of the sinner himself could not suffice. Therefore God must purchase the Church with his own blood. Acts 20:28. For without this there could have been so salvation. It was necessary that the ransom should be infinitely precious:—not because of the multitude of sinners to be redeemed; for they, being finite, could never, by reason of their number, require infinite satisfaction:—not merely because of the multitude of sins from which they were to be redeemed, which, in a certain sense, as exceeding all human calculation, may be called infinite (Job 22:5); for these were all known to him, and he could have exacted the ransom, without exceeding in the least:—but by reason of the evil of sin, which required that infinite satisfaction should be given to Divine Justice.

This is the great reason why the sufferings of hell are eternal. For as the sinner, on account of his finite nature, cannot give infinite satisfaction which the justice of God demands, or, in other words, sustains the whole of divine wrath at once, it is necessary that it be continued for ever, that what he cannot sustain in its full extent, may be measured out in endless duration. This, we say, is the great reason, for it is not the only one. Their continuance in sin would, of itself, subject them to continuance in suffering.

1. All sin has an infinite evil in it. As it hath been proved, that this is an attribute of sin in general, as being committed against a God of infinite perfection; it must be ascribed to every sin. For the evil of its nature arising, not from that degree of guilt which belongs to any particular transgression, or the peculiar atrocity attending it, but from its opposition to the nature of God, as will be more fully declared afterwards; every sin must partake of this evil nature.

Some sins indeed are more aggravated, and attended with more atrocious circumstances that others. But it will not thence follow, that some sins are infinitely evil, and that others are not. It is objected, “That if this

be a property essential to sin, no one offence can be greater than another, that the least transgression is, in a comparative point of view, as heinous as the greatest, because, that which is infinite admitting of no degrees, it cannot be said that one is less, and another more infinitely evil, as this would be a denial of the infinite evil of sin altogether?”

But although every sin be infinitely evil, it must be remembered, that it is only so objectively, as terminating on God, and not subjectively, as committed by the creature. Were it asserted, which could not be done without the greatest absurdity, that all sin is infinitely evil in the strict and proper sense of the expression, in reference not only to its object, but to its subject: even then it would not follow that there were no difference in the acts of sin.

(To be continued.)