Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Puritan Nuggets of Gold # 84

Sin (continued)

The arts that sin uses to disguise itself. If sin were not an ugly thing, would it wear a mask? If it did not have evil designs, would it walk in disguise and change its name? Truth is not ashamed of its name or nakedness; it can walk openly and boldly. Sin, on the contrary, is a cheat, a lie, and therefore lurks privily and puts on false names and colors; for if it were to appear like itself - as it sooner or later will do to all, either for conversion or confusion - it would frighten men into dying fits, as it did the Apostle, and when they come to themselves they would abhor and hate it, as Paul and the Prodigal did. Men would never be so hardy in sinning but that sin  hardens them by deceiving them; so the Apostle says, "Take heed lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:13). (Ralph Venning)

Custom of sinning takes away the sense of it; the course of the world takes away the shame of it. (John Owen)

But how are things altered since in came into the world! The angels He has charged with folly (Job 4:18). The heavens are not clean in His sight (Job 15:15). Man in his best estate is altogether vanity (Psalm 39:5). The earth is under a curse (Genesis 3:17-18). Indeed the whole creation groans (Romans 8:21-22). (Joseph Hall)

Oh, better it for you to die in a jail, in a ditch, in a dungeon, than die in your sins. If death, as it will take away all your comforts, would take away all your sins too, it were some mitigation; but your sins will follow you when your friends leave you, and all worldly enjoyments shake hands with you. Your sins will not die with you as a prisoner's other debts will; but they will go to judgment with you there to be your accusers; and they will go to hell with you there to be your tormentors. (Joseph Alleine)

What does satan at the sinner's elbows? He helps him to contrive sin. He tempts him to commit sin. He terrifies him for sin. He that has satan standing at his right hand, is sure to be set at God's left hand. Here is the misery of such as oppose God's royal sceptre, that He will set everything in the world against them. If there be either justice in heaven or fire in hell, sinners shall not be unpunished. (Thomas Watson)

Woe to that sinner that gets that which falls to him and is his due, for that is hell! (Samuel Rutherford)

What is this sin unto death? Two things concur in it; illumination in the mind and malice in the heart. (John Cotton)

A sheep may fall into a ditch, but it is the swine that wallows in it. (William Gurnall)

Sins in the saints are but wasps without their stings; and if the wasps without their stings be so troublesome, how troublesome are the wasps that have their stings in them; how troublesome is sin in itself. (William Bridge)


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