36 SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. [SeR. VI.
the flesh, to prevent the actings of sin. ' If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,' Eom. viii. 13 ; therefore YOU go about to make void his personal operation. Thus it is a wrong to God.
2. By an argument drawn from ourselves ; it is very unsuitable to you. We profess ourselves to be ' regenerate ' and born of God : 1 John iii. 9, ' He that is born of God cannot sin.' It is not only contrary to thy duty, but to thy nature, as thou art a new creature. It were monstrous for the egg of one creature to bring forth a brood of another kind, for a crow or a kite to come from the egg of a hen. It is as unnatural a production for a new creature to sin ; therefore you that are born of God, it is very uncomely and unsuitable. Do not dishonour your high birth.
3. Consider the nature of sin ; if j^ou give way to it, it will encroach further. Sins steal into the throne insensibly ; and being habituated in us by long custom, we cannot easily shake off the yoke or redeem ourselves from their tyranny. They go on from little to little, and get strength by multiplied acts. Therefore we should be very careful to avoid all sin.
The second part of the caution is, beware of gross sins, committed against light and conscience. When we are tempted to sin, say with Joseph : Gen. xxxix. 9, ' How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God ? ' The more of deliberation and will there is in any action, the sin is the fouler. Consider, foul sins are a blot that wull stick long by us. See 1 Kings xv. 5; it is said, ' David walked in all the ways of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.' Why, there were many other things wherein David failed ; you read of his diffidence and distrust in God : ' I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul.' We read of his dissimulation, and feigning himself mad in the company of the Philistines. We read of his injus- tice to Mephibosheth, his fond affection to Absalom, his indulgence to Amnon. We read of his numbering the people, which cost the lives of thousands all on a sudden : all these are great failings, but these are not taken notice of; but the matter of Uriah left a scar and blot that was not easily washed off.
Thirdly, Beware of continuance in sin. How may we continue in sin ? In what sense ? Three things I shall take notice of in sin — culpa, reatus, macula ; there is t\ie fault, the guilt, the hlot ; and then we continue in sin, when the fault, the guilt, or blot is continued upon us.
1. ^\\e fault is continued when the acts of it are repeated, when we fall into the same sin again and again. Kelapses are very dangerous, as a bone often broken in the same place ; you are in danger of this, before the breach be well made up between God and you ; as Lot doubling his incest : to venture once and again is very dangerous.
2. The guilt doth continue upon a man till serious and solemn repentance, till he sue out pardon in the name of Christ. Though a man should forbear the act, never commit it more ; yet unless he retracts it by a serious remorse, and humbleth himself before God, and sueth out his pardon in a repenting way, the guilt continues.
VeR. 3.] SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. • 37
* If we confess' — he speaks to believers — then sin is forgiven, not otherwise.
3. There is the macula, the hlot, by which the schoolmen under- stand an inclination to sin again ; the evil influence of the sin continueth until we use serious endeavours to mortify the root of it. When we have been foiled by any lust, that lust must be more mortified. For instance, Jonah, he repented for forsaking his call, when he was cast into the whale's belly ; but the sin broke out again, because he did not mortify the root ; what was that ? — his pride. So that it is not enough to bewail the sin, but we must lance the sore, and discover the root and core of it before all will be well. A man may repent of the eruption of sin, the former act, but the inclination to sin again is not taken off. Judges xvi. 2. Sampson loves a woman of Gaza, and she had betrayed him ; but by carrying away the gates of the city he saves his life : possibly upon that experience he might repent of his folly and inordi- nate love to that woman. Ay ! but the root remains : therefore he falls in love with another woman, with Delilah. Therefore if you would do Avhat is your duty, you must look to the fault, that that be not renewed ; the guilt, that that be not continued by omission of repentance ; and that the hlot also do not remain upon you, by not searching to the root of the distemper, the cause of that sin by which we. have been foiled. So much for the first part of the text, They do no iniquity.