But the troubles of upright ones for sin are of another kind and nature.
1. First, They are troubled that God is wronged, and his Spirit troubled by their sins : So the penitent prodigal, " I have sinned " against heaven, and in thv siorht," Luke xv. 21. Against heaven, that is, against him whose throne is m heaven, a great, glorious, and infinite Majesty ! a poor worm of the earth hath lifted up his hand against the God of heaven.
2. Secondly, They are troubled for the defilement of their own souls by sin : Hence they are compared in Proverbs xxv. 26. to a troubled fountain. You know it is the property of a li^nng spring, when any filth falls into it, or that which lies in the bottom of its channel, is raised and defiles its streams, never to leave working until it hath purged itself of it, and recovered its purity again.
So it is with a righteous man, he loves purity in the precept, Psal. cxix. 140. and he loves it no less in the principle and practice: he thinks it is hell enough to lie under the pollution of sin, if he should never come under damnation for it.
3. Thirdly, They are troubled for the estrangements of God, and the hidings of his face from them because of their sin. It would go close to an ingenuous spirit to see a dear and faithful friend whom he hath grieved, to look strange and shy upon him at the next meeting, as if he did not know him : much more doth it go to the heart of a gracious man to see the face of God turned from him, and not to be towards him as in times past. This went to David's heart after his fall, as you may see. Psalm li. 11. " Cast me not away from thy " presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me ;" q. d. Lord, if thou turn thy back upon me, and estrange thyself from me, I am a lost man ; that is the greatest mischief that can befal me.
4. Fourthly, Their troubles for sin run deep to what other men's
55S TROUBLES FOR SIN ARE TRIALS OF GRACE-
do. Tliey are strong to bear other troubles, but sink and fairjt under this : Psahii xxxviii. 4. Other sorrows may for the present be violent, and make more noise, but this sorrow soaks deeper into the soul.
5. Fifthly^ Their troubles for sin are more private and silent troubles than others are, " their sore runs in the night," as it is Psal. Ixxvii. 2. Not but that they may, and do open their troubles to men (and it is a mercy when they meet with a judicious, tender, and experienced Christian to unbosom themselves unto) but ^hen all is done, it is God and thy soul alone that must whisper out the mat- ter. Ilia vera dolet, qui sine teste dolet : This is a sincere sorrow for sin indeed, which is expressed secretly to God in the closet.
6. Siocthly^ Their troubles are incurable by creature-comforts. It is not the removing some outward pressures and inconveniences that can remove their burden ; nothing but pardon, peace, and witnessed reconcihation, can quiet the gracious heart.
7. Seventhly^ Their troubles for sin are ordinate and kept in their own place ; they dare not stamp the dignity of Christ's blood upon their worthless tears and groans for sin : * Lava lachrymas, Domine: Lord, wash my sinful tears in the blood of Christ, was once the de- sire of a true penitent. And thus our trouble for sin shews us what our hearts are.
(4.) i* OURTHLY, The behaviour and carriage of the soul with respect to subjection to the commands of sin, shews what our estate and condition is. This will separate dross from gold. All unre- generate men are the servants of sin, they subject themselves te^ its commands. This the scripture sometimes calls a " conversation in " the lusts of the flesh,'' Eph. ii. 3. Sometimes the " selling of " themselves to sin,"" 1 Kings xxi. 20. Now, as a -)- judicious divine observes, though the children of God complain Avith Paul, Rom. vii. 14, 15. that they are " sold under sin,'' yet there is avast difference betwixt these two : The saints are sold to it by Adam, but others by their own continued consent. But to shew you the difference in this matter, I conceive it necessary to shew wherein the reigning power of sin doth not consist, and then wherein it doth ; that you may plainly discern who are in subjection to the reigning power of their corruptions, and who are not. Now there be divers things common both to the regenerate and unregencrate ; and we cannot say the do- minion of sin lies in any or in all of them, viz. abstractly and simply considered.
1. First,) Both one and the other having original corruption dwel- ling in them, may also find this fountain breaking forth into gross and scandalous sins : But we cannot say that because original corrup-
♦ August. f Dr. Reynolds,
SICKS OF SIN IN DOMINION. 559
tion thus breaks forth into gross and scandalous sins in both, there- fore it must needs reijjn in the one as well as in the other ; a riffhteous man may "fall before the wicked/' as it is, Prov. xxv. S6. He may- fall into the dirt of grosser iniquities, and furnish them with matter of reproach. So did David, Peter, Abraham, and many more of the Lord's upright-hearted ones, whose souls nevertheless sin did not reign over by a voluntary subjection to its commands, nor must this embolden any to sin with more liberty.
2. Secondly^ Though an upright soul fall once and again into sin, though he reiterate the same act of sin which he hath repented of before; yet it cannot merely from thence be concluded, that therefore sin reiofns over him as it doth over a wicked man that makes it his daily trade. I confess every reiteration of sin puts a further aggrava- tion upon it : And it is sad we should repent and sin, and sin and re- pent; but yet you read, Prov. xxiv. 16. "A just man falleth seven " times, and riseth up again :" Job's friends were good men, yet he tells them, " These ten times have ye reproached me," Job xix. 3. This indeed shews a heart that greatly needs purging ; for it is with relapses into spiritual as it is with relapses into natural diseases : A recidivation or return of the disease shews that the morbific matter was not duly purged ; but though it shews the foulness, it doth not always prove the falseness of the heart.
3. Thirdly^ Though the one may be impatient of the reproof of his sin, as well as the other ; yet that alone will not conclude sin to be in full dominion over the one as it is over the other.
It is pity any good man should storm at a just rebuke of sin ; that such a precious oil as is proper to heal, should be conceited to break his head ; but yet flesh will be tender and touchy, even in good men. Asa was a good man, and yet he was wroth with the prophet who reproved him, as you find, 2 Chron. xvi. 10. yet I doubt not but their consciences smite them for it, when pride suff^ers not another to do it ; a reproof may be well-timed and ill managed by another, and so may provoke, but they will hear the voice of conscience in another manner.