Sin a Wound

    SIN A WOUND

    "My Wounds stink and are corrupt," &c., Ps 28:5.

    "But a wounded spirit who can bear?" Pr 18:14.

    "And bound up his wounds" &c., Lu 10:34.

    SIN wounds the soul of a sinner, a church or nation. When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his Wounds, &c., Ho 5:13. The word translated Wound in this place is from a word which signifieth colligavit, he hath bound up, either hecause of the corruption of the body that is gathereth together, or because of the binding of it up with clothes.

    PARALLELS.

    I. Wounds are either new, which we commonly call green Wounds, or else old Wounds: now sinners have an old wound upon them, which is like a stinking ulcer, which they received above five thousand years ago; in the garden of Eden, when Adam was wounded by his sin, in eating of the forbidden fruit, all his posterity were wounded in him, Ro 5:12. Also every sinner hath many fresh wounds upon him.

    II. Some Wounds are venomous, as the biting or cruel sting of some poisonous serpent, &c. Sin is a venomous Wound, it is the sting of a serpent, the old serpent. See Sting.

    III. Some persons have been full of Wounds, wounded from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, they are, as it were, nothing but Wounds: so sinners are full of Wounds, every Sin is like a Wound, or makes a Wound in the soul: so many Sins a man is guilty of, so many Wounds he hath in his inward man. Every faculty of their soul is wounded: (1.) Their judgment is corrupt. (2,) Their understanding darkened, full of vanity, blindness, incredulity, enmity, and unteachableness.. (3.) The will, that noble faculty, is wounded, and fearfully depraved; the mind of a man being corrupt, the will must needs be corrupt: as to a man that hath his palate possessed with a vicious humour, every thing seems bitter according to the humour; so the understanding, reckoning the ways of God both enmity and folly, the will acts accordingly. The will of wicked men acts cross and contrary to God and his holy will in all things, they resist and fight against him, are "not subject to his law, neither indeed can be," Ro 8:7. There is much pride, inconstancy, stubbornness, and disobedience in the will, "Our tongues are our own, and Who is Lord over us?" Ps 12:4. (4.) Their affections are wounded, and very filthy, men naturally love the creature, more than God, nay they love their lusts, horrid Sins, and uncleanness, above the Majesty of heaven. The apostle, giving a character of some men, saith, they are "Lovers of pleasures more than Lovers of God," 1Ti 3:4. (5.) The memory is wounded, being forgetful of that which is good, and like a leaking vessel: men are ready to remember, what God bids them forget, but forget that which he commands them to remember; they are too apt to think of injuries; nay, may be one injury will be thought on more than many kindnesses and years of good service: they are subject enough to remember trifles and vain stories, whereas a profitable sermon, or wholesome counsel, is forgotten, &c. (6.) The conscience of a sinner is wounded with Sin, though not for it, or in a deep and real sense of the evil of lt; "Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure, but their minds and consciences are corrupt," Tit 1:15. The conscience, which should, like Job's last messenger, bring us word that all the rest of the faculties are dead, i.e., wounded, and corrupted also, is maimed, dumb, or misguided, or grievously distempered, that when it should accuse, it excuseth; it should act the part of a. faithful register, to set all our Sins down exactly, but it falsifies in this, and, as saith Dr. Preston, when it should set down hundreds, it sets down fifties, when it should restrain from evil, it is almost asleep, a nd lets the sinner alone: whom it should condemn, for want of light it acquits: and as a man is wounded in every faculty of his soul or rational part, so likewise he is in his sensitive part: his eyes are full of adultery, his lips are unclean, his throat is like an open sepulchre, the poison of asps is under his tongue, his ears are deaf, and dull of hearing which is good, Ro 3:13.

    IV. As some Wounds a man receives are very deep and reach to the heart; so Sin makes a deep Wound; man is not only wounded in every part, but very deeply wounded: "This is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth to thine heart," Jer 4:18. "Their heart deviseth wickedness," &c. "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually," Ge 6:5. Hence saith God, "Wash thine heart from wickedness," &c. Jer 4:14.

    V. Some Wounds are corrupt, filthy, and very loathsome, the "Wounds sin makes in the soul, are very filth'y and abominable, "From the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but Wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been bound up, neither mollified with ointment," Isa 1:6. "My Wounds stink and are corrupt."

    VI. Some Wounds smart and are very painful, causing the patient to cry out in great anguish: Sin makes such a Wound in the soul, that it causeth such who have their spiritual feeling to cry out; the pain is so great, that a Christian cannot, without divine help, bear up under the smart and torture of it; "I have roared," saith the Psalmist, "by reason of the disquietness of my heart; Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee," Ps 38:8-9.

    VII. Some sores or Wounds are infectious, like plague-sores, or the leprosy, they infect the clothes, and garments of the wounded and diseased person, and not only so, but the very house where he dwells, and the people also that come near him, or converse with him, Le 13:2-6. Sin is of an infectious nature, no plague more catching and infectious, than the sore or plague of Sin, it defiles all a man's best actions, and makes all our righteousness like filthy rags. If ye daily converse with, or are frequently in the company of some wicked men, it is a thousand to one if you are not the worse for it; "Who can touch pitch, and not be defiled therewith?" We are commanded to keep ourselves unspotted from the "world; it is a hard matter to keep clear of those spots and pollutions wicked men are defiled with. Sin is of such an infectious nature that it hath corrupted the earth, "The earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof," &c., Isa 24:5. Nay, some conceive, the Sin Of man hath darkened, in some respect, the glorious heavens, with the sun, moon, and stars, that they shine not so splendidly as they did at the first, Job 25:5.

    VIII. Some Wounds are of a festering and spreading nature, whilst the patient is under cure, they grow worse and worse: the Wounds or Sins of some men, though they are under cure, i.e., sit under a powerful and soul-searching ministry, fester as it -were; they, instead of growing better, grow worse and worse, like as the apostle speaks of deceivers, 2Ti 3:15.

    IX. Some sores, Wounds, and scabs, bring shame upon such who have them: Sin is such a sore, and so hateful a scab, that it causeth shame and confusion of face. Sin is the shame of any people, and yet how do some glory in it? "They glory in their shame!" Php 3:19. Sin is the foul disease; the hurt, nay all the hurt, sorrow, and shame sinners meet with, came in originally by Sin, by yielding to the devil, and by adulterating from God: no running sore, no scab, or no breaking out in the flesh like Sin in the heart and life of a sinner.

    X. Some Wounds are mortal: Sin makes a mortal Wound; "The soul that sins shall die," Eze 18. And, "Unless ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your Sins," Joh 8:21. "If ye live after the flesh ye shall die," &c., Ro 8:13. I do not say there is no help, nor cure for these spiritual sores and Wounds; yet I must say they are incurable, as to man, no man can find by all his skill and art any healing medicine. And upon this account the Lord said of Judah and Israel, "Their wound was incurable," they had brought themselves into such a condition, that none could help them, nor bring them out; "Israel, thy destruction is of thyself, but in me is thy help." Indeed some men are so desperately and dangerously wounded, that there is little hope of them, they have all the signs of ruin and eternal death upon them imaginable.

    Quest. It may be you will say, when may the state of a person be said to be desperate, and almost, if not altogether, past hope, or wounded even unto death?

    Answ. 1. If a man sins, and is sorely wounded, and yet continues in his sinful course, the sting is not pulled, as it were, out of his flesh, I mean out of his heart, nor is he will' ing it should; there is little hopes at present of this man. Can a wound be healed and yet the venom sting stick fast in him? A continual course or custom in Sin, though they be small sins comparatively, may prove deadly.

    2. When Sin is in the affection it is dangerous. You know when the heart is wounded and corrupt, there is no hopes of life. If in times of infection you can keep it from the heart you are well enough. Physicians, though they have medicines to keep infection from the heart, yet they have no medicine to cure the heart, if once the distemper: gets into it. When a man closes with his Sin, likes it, loves it, and makes provision to fulfil the lusts of it, it is a dangerous sign.

    b. When the Wound spreads and increaseth, or a person grows more vain, carnal, and filthy, it is a sad sign. Some men have been for a time cautious, and somewhat tender, their consciences have restrained them from yielding unto Sin, but afterwards they came to grow more hard and bold, and have adventured on this and the other; evil, and so by degrees from little Sins make no conscience of greater, till they are notorious in Wickedness, and this after common illuminations; this is a sign they are near hell.

    4. When a person is sorely and grievously wounded, and yet is insensible, does not cry out, nor feel any pain, it is a sad sign. Come to some wounded persons, and ask them how they do; they will answer you, very well, I ail nothing, then relations begin to weep: so some sinners, through a custom of sin, grow insensible, they are past feeling, they are not only without pain themselves, but laugh at such who complain of their sores upon the head, and mourn for their sin; of this man you may write in red letters, "Lord have mercy upon him."

    5. When a man is dangerously wounded, and nothing that is given him will go down, neither food nor physic; or if he doth take it, yet it will not stay with him, it is a very bad sign: so when a sinner refuseth all good counsel that is given him, and instead of vomiting up, by true repentance, his sin, he vomiteth up the physic and food of his soul that should do him good, and despises all reproof, hardening himself against it, he is near to destruction, Pr 28:1.

    6. And lastly, When a man is wounded, and that balsam, means, or medicine, that seldom fails to work a cure in others, yet will do him no good, but contrariwise, whilst in cure, and under the best means, he grows worse and worse, there is little hopes of him: so when a sinner under a powerful and soul-saving ministry, and divers sore afflictions, is not at all reformed, but grows worse and worse, his condition is bad; it may be that sermon that works no change at all in him, hath tended, through the mercy of God; to the; conversion of several souls who were as sorely wounded as he. If a physician gives the best medicine he has, and lays on a most sovereign plaister, and yet the patient saith, sir, that which you prescribed hath done me no good; I wonder, saith he, it seldom fails me, I fear your condition, I must give up, I have done what I can for you, the Lord pity your soul, you are no man for this world; it is an argument that Wound, or sickness will be unto death, when the best preaching, the best means that can be made use of, will not work upon a man's heart; he is under losses and afflictions, and divers melting providences, but nothing will do.,

    INFERENCES.

    I. Is Sin a Wound! or doth it wound the soul, wound the state, nation, and Church of God? We may then infer from hence the folly of men and women who love and hug their Sin. Wilt thou, sinner, hug a serpent in thy bosom, that strives to sting thee todeath? What fools are wicked men!

    II. Let us learn from hence to bewail the condition of our sinful relations, let the husband mourn over his unbelieving wife, and the wife mourn over the unbelieving husband; fathers grieve for their unconverted and wounded children, and children grieve for their wounded and unconverted parents, &c. What are they that thou lovest so dearly, and who he in thy bosom mortally wounded, and wilt thou not be troubled for them? What not one sigh nor tear come from thee for them? Be astonished, heavens! What a hard heart hast thou. '

    III. Seek out for help, you that are unconverted, delay not; and let such who are healed, do what they can get to help and cure for their friends. If a husband, a wife, a father, a child, or brother, be dangerously sick, or wounded externally, how ready are you to enquire for some skilful physician, or surgeon! and what speed will you make! and will you not be as tender and as careful of their souls?

    IV. Take heed you do not draw others into Sin. What not only Wound thy own soul, but be cruel also to the souls of others! Wilt thou murder thyself, and murder thy friend too?

    V. What blind wretches are they that make a mock at Sin? See Fools.

    VI. Let it be also matter of caution to all, to take heed they rest not satisfied with slight healing, "They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly," &c., Jer 8:11. This may be done many ways.

    (1.) Some rest satisfied, and lick themselves whole with the thoughts of federal holiness, think they are in covenant with God, through the faith of their parents; thus the Jews, "We are Abraham's seed, we have Abraham to our Father," Mt 3:9. My parents were godly; and so they might, and yet thou a child of the devil, and be damned for all that.

    (2.) Some fly to their godly education; but that will never heal their Wounds; it is not what a godly family thou wast brought up in, and what good instruction thou hadst, but what thou art, and what a change there is in thee, what faith and fear of God is there wrought in thy soul?

    (3.) Others apply the mercy of God, when they begin to feel conscience to terrify them, and their Wounds appear, but never consider his justice. Remember God is gracious and merciful, &c., but will "in no wise clear the guilty," Ex 34:6.

    (4.) Others trust to a partial reformation of life, they are other men to what they were once. Soul, it is not reformation, or leaving all manner of gross, scandalous Sins, but a change of heart and regeneration thou must seek after.

    (5.) Some apply the promises of God to sinners, before their wounds were ever lanced, or their sores laid open, and the corruption let out: this is but skimming over the sore, and to leave it to fester and rankle inwardly; the proud flesh must with some corroding plaister be taken down, thou wantest thorough humiliation for Sin.

    (6.) Many satisfy themselves, because they are not such great sinners as some are. Remember, "I tell ye, nay, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," Lu 13:3,5.

    (7.) Some fly to their duties, they sin and are wounded, and they think prayer will make them whole.

    (8.) Some boast of their knowledge and experiences, &c., they can discourse and talk well, nay, and will tell you, they are members of the Church too: and this may be, and yet they die of their Wounds, and go to hell. O take heed you are not slightly healed!

    Quest. Well, but it may be you will say, What should we do to be thoroughly healed?

    Answ. 1. There is but one Physician can heal these Wounds; none but the Lord Christ only has the healing medicine; his blood is the balsam, which thou must apply by faith. And if thou wouldest have a perfect cure, thou must be put to pain: he that would be healed, must suffer his wounds to be lanced, and searched to the bottom.

    2. Take the Physician's counsel, and carefully follow his directions: come to him presently, whilst it is to-day, or thou art a dead man.

    3. If it be so, that he says, thy right-hand must be cut off, bear the pain; or thy right-eye must be pulled out, submit to him. Whatsoever is dear to thee that hinders the cure, thou must deny thyself of.

    4. A purge thou must take, or thy Wounds cannot be healed; the evil humours, or the filth and corruption that is in thy heart, must by the Spirit of grace be purged out.

    5. Thou must become a new creature: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," Joh 3:3.