Sincerity, or, The upright mans walk to heaven in two parts shewing I. that sincerity is the true way to happiness, II. that the keeping of our selves from our own iniquity is the true way to sincerity / delivered in several sermons in the parish church of St. Michael in Long-Stratton Norfolk by James Oldfield, late minister there.

4. Here we see likewise the Reason, why People are so in love with sin, which is so ugly in its own nature, and so odious in the sight of God. If we had the true picture of sin, drawn to the life before our eyes, together with the Judgments of God in this life, and the Torments of Hell in the other life, carrying up its train, we could not but sit down and wonder at the

madness of our hearts, that we should so much dote upon it or fall in love with it. O but wonder not, here's the Reason, eve∣ry man loves one sin or other because 'tis his own sin. Do not some of you wonder why David should love Absalom so well, a Murderer, a Traytor, what not, one that in many respects dealt worse with David than ever Saul did, one that was a conti∣nual grief to David, yet he loved him dear∣ly for all this, would you know the Rea∣son, see it in the 2 of Sam. 19. 4. why, he was his own Son, that was the Reason. Do you wonder that men can love sin so well, which is a Traytor in their bosoms, the Destroyer of their Souls, the only hin∣drance of their Eternal Happiness, oh here's the reason, 'tis their own sin, a Babe conceived in the womb of their own hearts, nursed up and suckled in their own Breasts. All men are mightily taken with their own things; the Proverb is every mans own goose is better than his Neigh∣bors swan, so is it with sin we do hate sin others, but we love it in our selves, nay the very same sins that we hate in others, we hug them while they are in our own bosoms; the truth is this, when ever a

wicked man hates sin, he doth not hate it as it is sin, but because it is not his sin, if it were his sin he would love it as well as others; nay and perhaps this man that hates one sin in his Neighbour, may as dearly love another sin in himself, see an example in the 38. Gen. 24, 25, 26. we look not upon our own sins, with the same pair of spectacles that we look on other mens sins withal: Men will never think their own Children to be so ill as other mens Children are, though perhaps they be a great deal worse. Here lies the great deceit, and that which doth our Souls all the mischief our owning of sin so far as to countenance it, and all the evil actions that come from it: If we could but once disown sin, we should quickly be out of love with it.