III. The third thing is our recovery out of grievous lapses and falls. In them there is required a particular and express repentance ; and re- pentance and faith must be carried with respect to those four things tliat are in sin : culpa, the fault, reaius, the guilt, macula, the stain and blot, and poena, the punishment. You know the law supposeth a righteous nature that God gives to man, therefore in sin there is a stain or blot, defacing God's image. The precepts of the law require duty, so it is cidpa, a criminal act ; the sanction of the law as threatened makes way for guilt, as executed calls for puni.shment ; you see how it ariseth.
1. For the fault in the transgression of the law, or the criminal action. See that the fault be not continued ; relapses are very dan- gerous. A bone often broken in the same place is hardly set again. God's children are in danger of this before the breach be well made up, or the orifice of the wound be soundly closed ; as Lot doubled his incest, and Samson goes in again and again to Delilah. But in wicked men frequently, as that king sent fifty after fifty, and nothing would stop him. There is an express forsaking of sin required of us, otherwise it would abolish all the difterence between the renewed and the carnal.
2. The guilt continues till serious and solemn repentance, and humiliation before God, and suing out our pardon in Christ's name. 1 John i. 9, he speaks of believers : ' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' There must be a solemn humbling for the sin, and then God will forgive us. Suppose a man forbear the act, and never commit it more (as Judah forbore the act, after he had committed incest with Tamar, but it seems he repented not till she showed him the bracelets and the stafi") ; yet with serious remorse we must beg our peace humbly upon the account of our ^Mediator. Therefore some- thing must be done to take away the guilt.
200 THE SECOND SERMOX. [Ps. XXXII. 1, 2.
3. Tliere is the blot or evil inclination to sin again. The blot of sin in general is the defacing of God's image, but in j)articular sins it is some weakening of the reverence of God. A man cannot venture to act a grievous wilful sin, but there is a violent obstruction of the fear of God. A brand that hath been in the fire is more apt to take fire again ; the evil influences of the sin continue. Now the root of sin must be mortified, it is not enough to forbear or confess a sin, but we must pull out the core of the distemper before all will be well. As Jonah, he repented of his tergiversation and forsaking his call. The fault was not repeated ; he goes to Nineveh and does his duty. Yet the core of the distemper was not taken away; for you read of him, Jonah iv. 2, ' Was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? tlierefore I fled before unto Tarshish : for I knew thou wert a gracious God, and repentest thee of the evil.' On the contrary, Peter tell into a grievous sin, denying his Lord and Master with oaths and exe- crations; but afterwards, John xxi. 15, Christ tries him: Jesus saith to Simon Peter, ' Lovcst thou me more than these ?' pointing to the rest of his disciples. Peter had been bragging, Mat. xxvi. 33, ' Though all men forsake thee, yet I will not forsake thee.' Now when he was foiled, though he had wept bitterly for his fault, Christ tries if the cause be removed: 'Lord, saith he, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.' But he doth not say now, ' more than these.' The root of the distemper was gone ; Peter is grown more modest now than to make comparisons.
4. There is the punishment. Now we must deprecate eternal punishment, and bless God for Jesus Christ, ' who hath delivered us from wrath to come.' But as to temporal evils, God hath reserved a liberty in the covenant to his wisdom and fatherly justice, to inflict temporal punishments as he shall see good. ' If they break his stat- utes, and keep not his commandments ; then will he visit their trans- gression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving-kindness I will not utterly take from them, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail,' Ps. Ixxxix. 32, 33. If 'judgment begin at the house of God,' what shall become of the sinner and ungodly ? The righteous are recompensed upon earth, partly to increase their repent- ance, that when they smart under the fruit of sin, they may best judge of the evil of it. God doth in eftect say, ' Now know it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against me.' God doth not do it to complete their justification, but to promote their sanctification, and to make us warn- ings to others, that they may not displease God as we do. Now for these reasons the Lord, though he doth forgive the sin and release the eternal punishment, yet he reserves a liberty to chastise us in our per- sons, families, and relations. Therefore what is our business? Humbly deprecate this temporal judgment: ' Lord, correct me not in thine anger, nor chasten me in thy hot displeasure.' We should be instant with God to get it stopped or mitigated ; but if the Lord see it fit it shall come, patiently submit to him, and say, as the church, ' I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I iiave sinned against him.' Tiiese afflictive evils, some of them belong to God's external govern- iiicrit, and some to his internal. Rome to his external government, as wli'-'ti innny are sick, and wonk, and fallen asleep : ' When we are