YeR. 101.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 31
7. We are not only to avoid siicli sins as seem to lie remote from our temper and course of our business and interest, but our own special sins ; those sins which suit better with our condition, constitu- tion, calling, employment: Ps. xviii. 23, ' I was upright before thee, and kept myself from mine iniquity.' Every man hath his iniquity ; as every man hath his particular temper, so he hath his particular sins, and if he belong to God he hath his particular graces. The saints have their particular graces ; Timothy for abstinence and tem- perance, Job for patience, Abraham for faith, therefore styled the father of the faithful ; Moses was eminent for meekness. So there are particular sins ; men are passionate, worldly, voluptuous, ambitious, and as the channel is cut, so corrupt nature finds a vent and passage : Isa. liii. 6, ' All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way.' We are all out of the w^ay, but every man hath a particular way of sin. Look, as in the natural body, every man hath all the faculties of a man, yet some this faculty more vigorous and lively than other, some for memory, judgment, invention, quick- ness of wit, so it is as to particular sins. Now these should be most resisted and most opposed by us. The scripture requires of us, Mat. V. 19, ' To cut off our right hand, and pluck out our right eye ; ' these, if they be not watched, will run into scandal ; our particular sins make us dishonour God, dishonour our profession, and become a re- proach to the gospel. It is notable, when our Saviour dissuaded from giving scandal, Mat. xviii. 8, 9, he revives those sentences of cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye. These sins will make you a dishonour to the gospel if you do not watch over them.
8. There are the sins of the times wherein we live, vitium seculi. Indeed it is hard to keep our ground in a great flood ; when a stream is strong it is ready to carry us away ; but he that would be punctual with God should keep from the sins of the times. Peter dissembled with the Jews, and the godly Jews fell a-dissembling of their religion, insomuch that Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation, Gal. ii. 13. When sin seems to be authorised by a general practice, it concerns you to stand at a distance, to have nothing to do there. Noah was an upright man, feared God, and served him in a corrupt age. Gen. vi. 9. They are dead fishes that are carried away with the stream. We are not to walk Kara t))v alwva, ' according to the course of this world,' Eph. ii. 2, but ' to walk according to the rule,' Gal. vi. 16. In many ages there are certain sins, until light disprove them, and the Lord clears up his will, that men run into, and are carried away by violence of the stream, while the stream runs that way in their age. But this will be no excuse, you are to be upright, and not carried away by vitium seculi, the evil way of the times.
9. We are not only to refrain our feet from evil, but from all the occasions and appearances of evil ; and not to stand so much as within the scent of a temptation ; as crows and ravens, when they are beaten away from the carrion, will stand within the scent. We are to stand at a great distance from all that seems to tend to sin, not only from evil, but the appearanc3 of it, 1 Thes. v. 22. Sin should be so hateful to us, that the very picture of it should be abhorred. Many times some sins are the occasion of others, as covetousness is occasioned by
32 SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. [SkR. CVII.
distrust, there certainly we are to avoid occasions as well as sins them- selves. Ay ! but if the thing be lawful, and we know our weakness, we should not easily ride into the devil's quarters, and run into the mouth of temptation. Look, as Solomon in that particular sin adviseth the young man, Prov. v. 8, ' Kemove thy way far from her, and come nut nigh the door of her house.' lie would not have the young man venture ui)on the occasion. And God's strictness to the Nazarite is very notable, Num. vi. 3, 4, as he was to drink no wine or strong drink, so no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, nor drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried ; and afterwards he was not so much as to eat either the husk or kernel of the grape. Thus God would have us stand at a distance. This Avas a typical figure, to show at how great a distance we should stand from sin, and refrain ourselves from all evil ; as the apostle saitli, ' Hate the gar- ments spotted with the flesh,' Jude 23, an allusion to those that touched an unclean thing. Eushing upon snares and occasions of evil, we hazard the surprisal of our souls. As Csesar said of his wife, Oportet Cci'saris uxorem own solum castam esse, (&c. — she should not only be chaste, but free from all suspicion ; so God will have his people to be void of suspicion, and to be clear and innocent from all kind of transgressions. Thus you see how we are to refrain from every evil way.