Heaven upon earth, or, The best friend in the worst of times. Delivered in…

he believes chains to be chains, though ⟨p. 195⟩they be of Gold, believes that poison will kill him, though it may be sweet in the mouth; he hath now such a sense of the evil and baseness of sin, as being so infinitely loathsome to God, as that he hates it with a perfect hatred; he hath a will in some measure conformed to the will of God; and what his friend, the Lord loves, he can't hate, and where his God hates he can't love. Psal. 139.22. Do not I hate them O Lord which hate thee? and am I not grieved with them which rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies. Now what is it that stirs the Psalmists choler so much? Why, he had been working upon his own heart, in the former part of the Psalm, the doctrine of Gods omniscience and goodness, and by meditation upon this subject he was brought under a lively sense of the greatness of Divine kindness; and while his heart did thus muse, the fire burnt, his soul was in a flame against sin, verse 17. How precious are thy thoughts unto me O God! O when the soul hath sweet thoughts of God, it will have sower thoughts of sin. When the soul loves God dearly, it can't choose but hate sin entirely. None behold such deformity in sin, as those which behold most beauty in God. Hence it is that some of the people of God have (nay all of them which are really acquainted with God, are of the same mind) counted it more desirable to leap into the flames, then to venture upon a known sin. It was no untruth in the absolute position, though falsely applied by Job's friend, that it is a great wickedness to choose the least sin before the greatest suffering, Job 36.21. What was it that made Paul so weary of himself? ⟨p. 196⟩what burden was it that made his back so ache? what pains, caused those bitter groans? Rom. 7. was it not sin? and why did not Paul groan before as well as then? was it because he then had no sin at all, or less sin then when he made that bitter complaint? no such matter, but because he had then less acquaintance with God. But now he is become acquainted with God, the more he doth abhor himself for sin. He now knows better then he did, his eyes are opened, and he sees sin in its colours, and he looks upon it as so great an evil, that he doth want words to express the odious nature of it; therefore because he can't find a worse word, he calls sin by its own name, Sinful Sin;