(1 .) The more studiously and dexterously any sin is carried on, it argueth the worse temper of spirit, and the sin is the more aggravated : ' To be wise to do evil,' Jer. iv. 22 ; 'To devise iniquity, and work evil upon our beds,' Micah ii. 1 ; ' The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth,' Ps. xxxvii. 12. The subtle designer of sin is worse than he that occasionally lapseth into it. The good may be overtaken or overborne, but to dig deep to hide our wicked- ness, and sit abrood upon it, is the greatest evil.
(2.) That sinful inventions for the hiding and palliating of sin never succeed well, but involve us the more. I shall not instance in the worst of men, how they are forced to add sin to sin, and help out one wicked- ness with another, which at last bringeth upon them the feared evil with the greater violence ; but even in the best of men, that you may the more loath these sinful inventions. David had many inventions to
51 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES Vir. 29.
cloak his sin with Bathsheha, but how ill did they succeed at last ! When sin hath got a tie upon a man, and a man hath done some evil from which he cannot well acquit himself but with some loss and shame or other inconvenience, then it is a mighty snare, unless he cover it or maintain it, or some other way help himself by adding some other sin to it. Thus usually in this case men have their inventions, shift off a l^iult with a lie, and imagine it in a sort necessary for their safety to be evil ; and out of this seeming necessity heap and pile up sin upon sin, and transgression upon transgression. This, I sa}^ was* David's case in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah. Surely he had never pro- ceeded to such black thoughts, to plot the murder of a person so worthy and innocent, but to salve his credit and cover his dishonest act, when other arts and shifts failed and took no effect. Admit one sin, and the devil taketh this advantage, that he will force us for the defence of that to yield to more. Thus Sarah's unbelieving laughter brought forth a lie : Gen. xviii. 12-15, ' Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not ; for she was afraid.' Peter, when he had denied his master with a plain single denial, ' I know not the man,' Mat. xxvi. 70, he proceedeth after to a denial with oaths and execrations : ' Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man,' ver. 74. If he had pre- vented the first sin with ordinary courage and boldness, he had not thus entangled himself; but one sin must help out another, though still to our loss and trouble. Eudoxia, wife to Theodosius junior, having received of the emperor her husband an apple of incredible beauty and bigness, gave it to one Paulinus, a learned man, whom she prized ; he, not knowing whence the empress had received it, presents it as a rare gift to the emperor, who thereupon sending for his wife, asked her for the apple ; she, fearing her husband's displeasure if she should say she had given it away, answered she had eaten it ; upon this afterwards the emperor produceth it, and in his jealousy killeth innocent Paulinus, and hateth his wife. If she had not told an untruth at first, she had not fallen into the sin of lying ; but giving way a little, she is drawn into a greater sin, her innocent friend lost his life, and she her husband's favour ever afterwards. All this is spoken that we may beware of evil inventions, which never succeed well, nor to the content of the parly that useth them.
[2.] These inventions are put for our pursuits after a false happiness. True happiness is only to be found in the favour of God, and in the way appointed by God ; but man would be at his own dispose, and would invent and find out an happiness for himself, and be sufficient to himself for his own blessedness, without any dependence upon God. Now, when man was thus fallen off from God, God was disobliged from providing for him, and so man is left to his own shifts. But alas ! how ill doth he provide for himself ! This being the very thing intended in the text, I shall a little more amply dilate upon it in several ])ropositions.
(1.) When man fell from God, he fell from him tanquam aprincipio etjine, from dependence upon him as the first cause, and respect to him as his chief good and last end. His dependence was loosened, because he distrusted God's provision for him, and would be a god to himself, his own principle, rule, and end ; live from himself to himself,
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29. 55
according to his own will. So that self-love came in the place of love to God ; he that before sought nothing but God, began now to seek himself, and thought he should find in himself what he lost in God.
(2.) Man being once off from God, never of himself cometh on again, but rangeth infinitely, being guided by his own will and wit : Jonah ii. 8, ' They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies.' Man being fastened to such objects as he liketh, keepeth aloof from God, whom he liketh not, and will not come at him as long as he can make a shift without him : Jer. ii. 31, 'We are lords ; we will come no more unto thee.' And though he wandereth hither and thither, he finds no rest for his soul, for he seeketh happiness where it is not to be found, in the riches, honours, and pleasures of the present life.