|
and of all men is exceedingly evil and terrible. The essence of sin is the
heart's opposition to and enmity against God. Yet God is holy and pure, and He
is the essence of genuine love and mercy man day by day receives from Him
unnumbered favours and mercies, but still opposes Him, and does not walk in the
way of His will and commandments. Besides this, God made man pure and desired to
render him like Himself in purity and holiness, and He commanded him to attain
to perfection of these good attributes. Accordingly these qualities were
necessary for and their attainment incumbent upon man. Yet, contrary to this,
man's heart is full of impurity, and of opposition and enmity to God. Is it not,
therefore, evident from all this how evil and hateful sin in its very nature is?
especially if we glance at the miseries and the fearful consequences which
result from sin both in this world and in the next. And if you consider the
desires and imaginations of your own hearts and become properly acquainted with
them, you will confess that your state also is such that you do not love what
God loves and do not do what you should do, and that your heart is full of
unworthy thoughts and evil desires and lusts, and that inwardly, if not
outwardly, you everyday commit numberless sins. Therefore, since my condition
and yours and that of other men is naturally such, is it possible that the holy
God should approve of a heart impure and full of sin, and should be satisfied
with our state of
|
|
|
sinfulness? Nay, for He has thus spoken and commanded: 'I1 am the
LORD your God: sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be Ye holy; for I am holy';
and again it is written that He said: 'Ye2 shall be holy: for I the
LORD your God am holy.' Sin is so completely contrary to His holiness and so
displeasing to Him that His holy and just wrath must undoubtedly be incurred by
all sinners, as it is written: 'The3 wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.'
SECTION II
THE RESULTS OF SIN
Having treated of the nature of sin, we now proceed to explain its fruits and
its punishment, in order that in this manner sin may be properly known in its
awful consequences, and, by God's grace, the yearning for salvation may be
increased in the reader's heart.
The results of sin are of two kinds: firstly, those which are met with
in this world; secondly, those which will come about in the world to
come. The very first result of sin and its first punishment is shame and fear
and disquiet of heart, such as befell Adam in the Garden of Eden. Even now this
is the case with every person, or with almost every one, after the commission of
a sin. That is to say,
|
|