(1.) First, The heart of a holy man rises against secret sins, against such as lie furthest off from the eye of man : Ps. cxix. 113, 'I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love.' What more secret than vain thoughts ? and yet against these the heart of a holy man rises. When Joseph was tempted to be secretly wicked with his mistress, his heart rises against it : Gen. xxxix. 9, 'How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against the Lord ? ' Hezekiah humbled himself for ' the pride of his heart,' 2 Chron. xxxii. 24-26. Heart -sins lie most close and secret ; and yet for these a holy man humbles himself. Job would not suffer his heart, in an idolatrous way, secretly to kiss his hand. Job xxxi. 26, 27. The heart of a holy man rises against wickedness in the dark, against folly in a corner, against sin [in] a closet. So Paul was much affected and afflicted with the operations of sin within him, * with the law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind,' Kom. vii. 23, 24. Paul, after his conversion, never fell into any scandalous sin. Those sins that did most trouble him and dis- tress him were of his own house, yea, were in his own heart. A holy man knows that secret sins are sins, as well as those that are open, Ps. xix. 12. He knows that secret sins must be repented of as well as others ; he knows that God takes notice of secret sins as well as of open: 2 Sam. xii. 12, 'Thou didst it secretly;' He knows that secret sins do often interpose between God and his soul : ' Thou hast set our iniquities before thee : our secret sins in the light of thy coun- tenance,' Ps. xc. 8. He knows that secret sins will quickly become public, except they are presently loathed and speedily mortified. Gen. xxxviii. 24-27. He knows that secret sins, like secret diseases and secret wounds, do oftentimes prove most dangerous and pernicious ; he knows that secret sins are the price of blood, as well as open sin- nings. He knows that secret sins are a grief to the Spirit, as well as those that are manifest. He Imows that sometimes God punishes secret sins with manifest judgments, as you may see in that great in- stance of David, 2 Sam. xii. 10, 18. Upon all which accounts, a holy heart rises in a detestation of secret sins. But,
(2.) Secondly, The heart of a holy man rises against tJie least sins, as well as against secret sins, in a strict sense. I know there is no sin little, because there is no little hell, no little damnation, no little law, nor no little God to sin against ; but yet some sins may comparatively be said to be little, if you compare them with those that are more great and gross, that are more heinous and odious, Mat. xxiii. 24. Now the hatred of a holy man rises against the least: Ps. cxix. 163,
112 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAEITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
* I hate and abhor lying : but thy law do I love/ I hate, I abhor with horror, I loathe, I detest, I abominate lying as I do hell itself : so much the original word imports. David's heart smote him for the cutting off the lap of Saul's garment ; and his heart smote him again for numbering of the people ; and yet neither of these sins were heinous or scandalous, 1 Sam. xxiv. 5, and 2 Sam. xxiv. 10. Some write, that there is such a native dread and terror of the hawk implanted in the dove, that it detests and abhors the very sight of the least feather that hath grown upon the hawk. Certainly, there is such a holy dread of sin implanted in the heart of a saint, that he cannot but detest and abhor the least sin, yea, the very appearance of sin : his soul rises against the least motions or inclinations to evil, though they are silvered over with the most specious shows, and most glorious pre- tences : for he knows that the least sins are contrary to a righteous law, a holy God, and to his blessed Saviour, and the Spirit his only Comforter.!
[1.] First, A holy man knows that little sins, if Twt prevented, will bring on greater. David gives way to his wandering eye, and that led him to those scandalous sins for which God broke his bones, hid his face, and withdrew his Spirit, 2 Sam. xii. 26, seq. So Peter first denies his Master, and then forswears him, and then falls a-cursing and damning of himself. Mat. xxvi. 70-75; as the Greek word KUTavadefiaTi^eLv imports, he imprecated the wrath of God to fj^U upon him, and that he might be separated from the presence and glory of God if he knew the man ; and then concludes with a most incredible lie, ' I know not the man ; ' whenas there was hardly a Jew which knew not Christ by face, he being very famous for the many miracles that he daily wrought before their eyes. Ah ! to what a height will sin suddenly rise ! So Jacob, first he tells three lies in a breath. Gen. xxvii. 19, 20 : 1. 1 am Esau ; 2. Thy firstborn ; 3. I have done accord- ing as thou badest me : and then he dissembled, in calling his meat ' venison ; ' and then he takes the name of God in vain, by entitling God to that he did: ' The Lord thy God brought it to me.' Ah, of what an encroaching nature is sin ! how insensibly and suddenly doth it get ground upon the soul ! ^ I have read of a young man that was tempted to three great sins, viz., to kill his father, to lie vnth. his mother, and to be drunk ; judging the last to be the least, he yielded to it, and being drunk, he killed his father,, and ravished his own mother.3 Lesser sins usually are inlets to greater : as the little thief let in at the window opens the door, and makes way for the greater ; and the little wedge makes way for the greater. When Pompey could not take a city that he assaulted by force, he pretended that he would withdraw his army : only he desired that they would entertain a few of his weak and wounded soldiers, which accordingly they did. These soldiers soon recovered their strength, and opened the gates of the city, by which means Pompey's army entered and subdued the citizens. So little sins yielded to soon gather strength, and open the
^ 1 Cor. viii. 13 ; Gal. ii. 3, 4 ; Jude 23.
* So Austin confesseth that his mother Monica, by sipping and supping when she filled the cup to others, came at last to take a cup of [wine] nimis sometimes. — PltUarch, ' As before : see Wanley, xviii., § 1.— G.
Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 113
door to greater ; and so a conquest is made upon the soul. This a holy heart well understands, and therefore it hates and abhors the least sin.i But,