The truly blessed man

Sin, as light as the most of men make of it, is an oppressing, and intolerable load, and it is Guilt that makes it so; the truth of this conclusion will appear from the consideration of three things.

Sin, as light as the most of men make of it, is an oppressing, and intollerable load, and it is Guilt that makes it so; the truth of this conclusion will appear from the consideration of three things.

1. From the nature of Guilt it self; and indeed there need no more but this to clear the truth in hand.

In the Demonstration of this, I shall not insist largely; Guilt is properly an obligation lying upon a Sinner to suffer punishment: and it falls upon him as soon as he hath by Sin made himself obnoxious. It properly ariseth from the relation which he bears to the Law of God. All mankind originally are the Subjects of the Law, and by the Transgression of it they are denominated Sinners, 1 Joh. 3.4. Now there is in the Law a threatening of punishment denounced against the man, in case of his sinning; and by virtue of this threatening, as soon as the man is chargeable with Sin, he is under that Sentence by which the punishment becomes due to him, and is judicially laid upon him; and it is truly and properly the Guilt under consideration. We are to distinguish between the Sentence of the Law, and of the Judge; the former renders the man Guilty in his state, the latter doth but declare him to be so, and accordingly adjudge him to punishment; the Verdict of the Jury doth not make the man guilty, but finds him so; and if he were not so ⟨p. 48⟩before, it is a false Verdict. Now this must needs be an heavy weight; and will appear so, if we consider, that the whole punishment that is due to, and deserved by sin, is hereby laid upon the Sinner, and he is held fast to the suffering of it: and he that shall read all the Curses of the Law, and the fearful things that are therein threatened must needs say that they are unconceivably heavy, and enough to make the stoutest Sinner to sink under them; these, when they shall come to be born, will be found unsupportable: and it must needs be very oppressive to have them charged upon the man so as Guilt doth; so a man to read over all the Curses of the bod of God, and have his Conscience to tell him, this is thy portion, thou art the man against whom this doom is out, and must expect every moment when it will fall upon thee, is extremely oppressive: and yet this is the nature of Guilt; but this will be farther illustrated in the next thing.