These streams of defilement!

(William Secker, "The Consistent Christian" 1660)

Until we taste the bitterness of our own misery—we will never relish the sweetness of God's mercy. Until we see how foul our sins have made us—we will never pay our tribute of praise to Christ for washing us.

Outward acts are most scandalous among men—but inward lusts are most atrocious before God!

Reader! if you would know the heart of your sin—then you must know the sins of your heart! "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are the things that defile a man!" Matthew 15:19-20. These streams of defilement which appear in your life—do but show what a fountain of wickedness there is in your heart! Even the "thought of foolishness is sin!" There is no sin so little—as not to kindle an eternal fire!

"When sin has conceived—it brings forth death!"
Sin's first-born is death—and its last-born is hell.