say to these things ?' Job v. 27, * Know this for thy good.' Whether promise or threatening, we must m'ge and prick our hearts with it. Self-love maketh us fancy an unreasonable indulgence in God, and that we shall do well enough, how slightly and carelessly soever we mind religion. We do not lay the point and edge of truths to our own hearts, and say, Heb, ii. 3, ' How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?' These are the causes. Now there is no way to remedy this but to get a sound belief of the world to come, and often to meditate on it, and urge our own hearts with it,
Doct. 2. That unprofitableness is a damning sin.
If there were no more, this were enough to ruin us. By unprofit- ableness I do not mean want of success ; to the best, gifts may be unprofitable : Isa. xlix. 4, ' I have laboured in vain/ saith the prophet Isaiah ; but want of endeavour, omitting to do our duty. The scope of the parable is to awaken us from our negligence and sloth, that we may not prefer a soft and easy lazy life before the service of God, and doing good in our generation. Now, because we think omissions are no sins, or light sins, I shall take this occasion to show the heinousness of them ; and here I shall show two things : —
First, That there are sins of omission. Sins are usually distin- guished into sins of omission and commission. A sin of commission is when we do that which we ought not ; a sin of omission, when we leave that undone which we ought to do. But when we look more narrowly into these things, we shall find both in every actual sin ; for in that we commit anything against the law, we omit our duty, and the omitting of our duty can hardly or never fall out but that something is preferred before the love of God, and that is a commission. But yet there is ground for the distinction, because when anything is formally and directly committed against the negative precept and prohibition, that is a sin of commission; but when we directly sin against an affirmative precept, that is an omission. We have an instance of both in Eli and his sons. Eli's sons defiled themselves * with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,' 1 Sam. ii. 22. Eli sinned in that ' he restrained them not,' 1 Sam. iii. 13. His was an omission, theirs a commission.
Secondly, That sins of omission may be great sins appeareth — ■
1. Partly by the nature of them. There is in them the general nature of all evil ; that is, avofxla, ' a transgression of a law,' 1 John iii. 4 ; a disobedience and breach of a precept, and so by consequence a contempt of God's authority. We cry out upon Pharaoh when we hear him speaking, Exod. v. 2, ' Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice ?' By interpretation we all say so ; this language is couched in every sin that we commit, and every duty we omit. Our negligence is not simple negligence, but downright disobedience, because it is a breach of a precept ; and the offence is the more, because our nature doth more easily close with precepts than prohibitions. Duties enjoined are perfective, but prohibitions are as so many yokes upon us. We take it more grievously for God to say, ' Thou slialt not covet,' than for God to say, ' Thou shalt love me, fear me, and serve me.' AVe are contented to do much which the law requireth, but to be limited and barred of our delights, this is distasteful. To meet with
12 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXY. [SeR. XVII.
man's corrnptions indeed, the decalogue consists more of prohibitions than precepts ; eight negatives, the fourth and fifth commandments only positive. To be restrained is as distasteful to us as for men in a fever to be forbidden drink ; nature is more prone to sin. But to return, there is nnich disobedience in a sin of omission. When Saul had not done what God bid him to do, he telleth him, ' Eeljellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry,' 1 Sam. XV. 11 ; implying that omission is rebellion, and stubbornness parallel to idolatry and witchcraft.
2. Partly by the causes of them. The general cause is corrupt nnture : ' They are all become unprofitable,' Rom. iii. 12, compared with Ps. xiv. 3, ' They are altogether become filthy.' There is in all by nature a proneness to evil, and a backwardness to good. Onesimus before conversion was unprofitable, good for nothing, Philem. v. 11 ; but grace made a change, make him useful in all his relations. The particular causes are — (1.) Idleness and security ; they are loath to be held at work : Isa. Ixiv. 7, ' None stirreth up himself to lay hold on thee;' 'They forget his commandments,' Jer. ii. 31, 32. (2.) Want of love to God : Isa. xliii. 22, ' Thou hast been weary of me, 0 Israel ;' and Rev. ii. 4, ' Nevertheless I have something against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.' And (3.) Want of zeal for God's glory : ' Not slotliful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,^ Rom. xii. 11. Where there is a fervour, we cannot be idle and neglectful of our duty. There is an aversion from God before there is an express disobedience to him.