VER. 163.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 187
[3.] For praying. We oftener pray from our memories than from our consciences, and from our consciences enlightened than hearts renewed by grace. Prayer, as it is the fruit of memory and invention, is but a few slight and formal words said of course, a body without a soul ; as dictated by conscience, it may be retracted by the will, at noli modo. Austin, when he prayed against his youthful lusts, timebam ne me excluderet Deus, was afraid lest he should be heard too soon ; at best but half desires, faint wishes, like Balaam's wish to die the death of the righteous. The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing. God never made promise that lazy wishes should be satisfied. If you pray against .sin with your whole heart, he will hear you. The great fault is the want of this thorough hatred of sin.
Use 2. Take heed of two things : —
1. A secret love to _ your sins.
2. A remiss hatred against them.
1. A secret love to sin. Job speaketh of some that hid sin as a sweet morsel under their tongues, Job xx. 12, loath to let a lust go ; and David of regarding iniquity in our heart, Ps. lxvi. 18. First there is a secret liking of sin, which in time will prove baneful to the soul ; some lust is spared, and continueth unmortified. It doth not remain so much, as it is reserved, and there keepeth possession for Satan. This will in time eat out all our other virtues, and bring a stain upon those good properties wherewith God hath endowed us. Sin was never heartily cast out, therefore they are in time ensnared again, and drawn away by some sensitive lure.
2. A remiss hatred of sin. No ; there must be a total and full aver- sion. Hatred and indignation is the soul's expulsive faculty ; it cannot be kept in good plight without it. It is the lively and active principle which sets the soul a-work, in avoiding what is hurtful to the spiritual life : it concerneth us to keep it up in strength and vigour. The reason why even believers do so often sin through weakness is because the will doth not so strongly dissent as it should. Though we do not deliberately give our assent, it should more potently awaken our dis- pleasure. But certainly the reason of wilful sin is want of a strong hatred. Though convinced of evil, yet we go on like a fool to the correction of the stocks, Prov. vii. 22.
Doct. 3. That among other sins, we must hate falsehood and lying, and all kind of frauds and deceits.
1. I shall open the particular notion of lying in the text.
2. Show you the reasons against it.
First, To open the particular notion of lying.
1, In the vulgar acceptation and sense of it, we take it to be speak- ing an untruth, or that which is false, with an intention to deceive. Now this is a sin contrary to the new nature : Col. iii. 9, ' Lie not one to another, since ye have put off the old man with his deeds.' It is not only contrary to that natural order which God hath appointed between the mind and the tongue, but to that sincerity and true holi- ness which is our great qualification and the fruit of regeneration. Therefore God saith, Isa. lxiii. 8, ' Surely they are my people, children that will not lie.' God presumeth that his people will not deal falsely,
188 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXLX. [SEE. CLXXVII.
but speak as they think, and think of what they speak as it really is ; and that Christians will not deceive and circumvent others, since they are members of the same mystical body, and should seek one another's welfare, as much as they do their own : Eph. iv. 25, ' Wherefore put away lying ; speak every one truth with his neighbour ; seeing ye are members one of another.' No ; it is more unseemly in a Christian, more inconsistent with grace. In short, no sin maketh a man more like the devil : John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do : he was a murderer from the begin- ning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar, and the father of it.'
2. Concealing the truth which should be confessed. God would not have his people hide themselves in necessary truths ; he would have them believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth, Bom. x. 9, 10. And Christianity is called a confession, Heb. iii. 1 ; and all Christians are saved either as martyrs or as confessors.
But how far we are to confess lesser truth is a great case of conscience. Certainly we must do nothing against a truth, not appear in the garb of a contrary party, nor must we lie hid when God in his providence crieth out, Who is of my side, who ? We read of some, John xii. 42, who ' believed in Christ, yet they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue ; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.' Faith is in a very weak condition when confession is not joined with it, when men will not own Christ in troublous times, and appear in their own shape. Men that have much to lose have many worldly considerations ; they think these lose more than they can gain, and lose by the praise of God rather than the praise of men. Now the sincere Christian saith in these cases, ' I hate and abhor lying.'