Discourses, or, Sermons on several Scriptures

II. ¹Another thing that makes wicked Men think so slight of Sin, is that it cannot affect God with any real Injury; for as he is not benefited by our Services, so he is not wronged by our Iniquities. 'Tis true, could our Sins reach God, could they dethrone him, or rend off any of his glorious Attributes from his immutable Essence, there might then be great Reason why God should so severely revenge them, and we for ever detest and abhor them: But since his Glory is free from any Stain, and his Being from any Wrong and Prejudice, our Sins are nothing to him, nor is there any Reason we should judge them heinous and provoking.

1. 1Sinners make light of Sin, because it is no real Injury to God.

'Tis true, O Sinner, thy Sins can never invade God's Essence; that is infinitely above the Attempts ⟨p. 27⟩of Men or Devils, but yet every wicked Wretch would, if he could, dethrone God: Sinners would not have him be so holy, nor so just as he is; not so holy in hating of their Sins, nor so just in punishing of them; that is, they would not have him to be God; for it is necessary that God should be as he is. Sinners do really contradict God's Purity, rebel against his Sovereignty, violate his Commands, defy his Justice, provoke his Mercy, despise his Threatenings, and hinder the Manifestations of his Glory to the World: And is all this nothing? Every Sinner hath so much Poison and Venom in him, that he would even spit it in the Face of God himself, if he could reach him: But because God is in himself secure ⟨p. 28⟩from their impotent Assaults, Sin shows its Spite against him in what it can; defaceth his Image where-ever it comes, abolisheth all Structures and Lineaments of God in the Soul, and would banish his Name, his Fear, his Worship from off the Face of the whole Earth: And therefore thou who art guilty of this Rebellion against the great Majesty of Heaven, canst thou yet think thy Sins to be slight and inconsiderable, and not worth either the Cognizance, or the Vengeance of the Almighty? Believe it, the Day is coming, and will not tarry, when that Guilt which thou now carriest so peaceably in thy Bosom, and which, like a frozen and benumbed Serpent, stirs not, nor stings not, shall, when heated with the Flames of Hell, fly in