Twenty sermons preached at Oxford before His Majesty, and elsewhere

4. And this woe brings in all the curses of Almighty God, an Iliad of evils. Sin calls for its wages, viz. Death, Death. That's the payment of all: The wages of sin is death. And this is the next thing; which I shall open and explain.

Now in handling hereof, I will first show how death in general must of necessity follow sin, that thou who hast forsaken the fountain of life, art liable to everlasting death. And for this see some places of Scripture, Rom. 6.2, 3. The wages of sin is death. Consider then, first what this wages is. Wages is a thing which must be paid: If you have an hireling, and your hireling receive not his wages, you are sure to hear of it, and God will hear of it too, James 5.4. He which keeps back the wages of the labourer, or the hireling, their cry will come into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. As long as hirelings wages are unpaid, Gods ears are filled with their cries, Pay me my wages, pay me my wages. So sin cries, and it is a dead voice, Pay me my wages, pay me my wages, the wages of sin is death. And sin never leaves crying, never lets God alone, never give• him rest, till this wages be paid. When Cain had slain Abel, he thought he should never have heard any more on't; but sin hath a voice, The voice of thy Brothers blood cries unto me from the ground. So Gen. 18.20. the Lord saith concerning Sodom, Because the cry of Sodom is great, and their sin very grievous, therefore I will go down and see, whether they have done according to the cry that is come up into mine ears. As if the Lord had said, It's a loud cry, I can have no rest for it, therefore I will go down and see, &c. If man had his ears open, he would continually hear sin crying unto God, Pay me my wages, pay me my wages, kill this sinful soul: And though we do not hear it, yet so it is. The dead and doleful sound thereof fills Heaven: It makes God say, I will go down and see, &c. Till sin receive its wages, God hath no rest. Again, see