VOL. XV. X
322 A FAST SERMON.
profane, the profane on the stricler party ; but we all see cause to charge it on ourselves : 2 Chron. xxviii. 10, ' But are there not with yon, even with jou, sins against the Lord our God ? ' He would have them seriously to consider their own ways, and dive into their own hearts ; though God had made them the scourge to punish the chil- dren of Judah, had not they their sins also ? One party may have the advantage of another in point of power and interest ; but they all stand upon the same level before God. All have miscarried, and neither the one nor the other can say, ' Wherein shall we return ? '
(4.) They outface all challenges ; and when they have done apparent injury to God, others, and their own souls, they will not see it, but reject all convictions : Jer. xvi. 10, * It shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this people all these words, and they shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us ? or what is our iniquity ? or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God ? ' &c. Wicked men are pertinacious or presumptuous, either to deny or excuse their sins, though never so notorious and con- spicuous ; choosing rather to charge God with iniquity, as if he had punished them without cause or above measure, than to acknowledge their perfidious carriage towards him. So Jer. ii. 23, ' How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim ? See thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done,' &c.
(5.) By censuring faithful reprovers : Jer. vi. 10, ' The word of the Lord is to them a reproach.' It is a sad crisis and temper of a people to count matter of reproof matter of reproach ; and let a man deal never so faithfully, they say he doth but rail. Though truths be de- livered never so wisely, strongly, and with clear deduction from scrip- ture, and with never so much caution and circumspection, yet guilt is touchy, and cannot brook it. And this is the fault of the religious party, the fooleries adopted into their religion.
[2.] The causes of it.
(1.) The blindness of self-love, whereby we are conceited of our- selves, and of our own gifts, and of our own good estate, and will not have the fallacy and cheat that we put upon ourselves discovered, Prov. xvi. 2. Especially in such practices as are in vogue and esteem, Luke xvi. 15. There are certain sins that are authorised by the ignorant false zeal of some good men, and cried up as a piece of religion. Now the discovery of this is irksome ; conceits of our own goodness will not permit a debate about them : John ix. 40, ' Are we blind also ? ' It is a sign of a naughty heart when men cannot endure to hear of their sins and errors.
■ (2.) Loathness to acknowledge our shame. Certainly a man is loath to take shame to himself, and, though conscious of an offence, will not seriously confess it even to God. Adam hid himself. Gen. iii. ; David kept silence, Ps. xxxii. ; and is forced to urge his backward heart by a practical decree, ver 5. And Job maketh it the common nature of man : Job xxxi. 33, ' If I have covered my transgressions, as Adam, by hiding my sins in my bosom.' Some take the name Adam j^roperly for the first man, whose fall and covering his transgression were re- markable ; others take it appellativel}', as Junius, more humano, after the manner of all mankind, who use to palliate and cloak their sins.
A FAST SERMON. 323
(3.) Indulgence to our lusts. Serious acknowledgment is a means to mortify them, and forsake them ; for men cannot easily continue in sins for which they solemnly judge themselves before tlie Lord. Now all the godly, none excepted, have some tender parts in tlieir soul, which they are loath should be touched, some evils which are as their Delilahs wherein they delight most ; as David had his iniquity, from which he kept himself, Ps. xviii. 23. And every man, besides their general inclination to aU sins, hath a peculiar and particular in- clination to some bosom sins, which their constitution and education does prompt them unto, or course of life does minister occasion of. And these are the evils in which men should prove their sincerity, as in not sparing them, so in not covering or hiding of them, but confessing them with all bitterness of spirit before the Lord. Surely you should return from every known sin. For he that reserveth and alloweth any one darling sin, is no forsaker of sin, bnt doth only make choice of that sin which he would live in. As what profit is it to guard one part of the city walls, when the other are left open to every assault ? But yet here is an indulgence which maketh us touchy and tender of having this sin meddled with ; as it is seen in Herod, Mark vi, 19, 20. And not in him only ; but some good men are impatient of reproof when theh Dehlah is touched ; therefore it is hard to convince them, to bring them to see wherein they should return.