VER. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. 249
sin, why is hell and everlasting woe threatened to his creature, the work of his own hands ? We cannot without horror think of the howling of a dog in a fiery furnace for half-an-hour. If God make so little reckon- ing of sin, why was Jesus Christ so troubled and exceedingly amazed when he stood in the place of sinners ? Mark xiv. 33, ' And he began to be amazed, and to be very heavy.' He wanted not wisdom nor courage ; he knew the value of things as well as you ; had no want of fortitude ; he foresaw the sufferings would be short, the event glorious ; he knew God was his Father, that he loved him while he suffered ; yet when he took the task of sinners upon him, he was sore amazed. Ob, therefore be ashamed of so sottish a conceit, as if sin were nothing.
[2.] Sensuality and inordinate love of pleasures. These take away the heart : Hosea iv. 11, 'Whoredom, and wine, and new wine, take away the heart,' wasteth all tenderness and feeling. Pleasures bring a brawn and deadness upon us, thrust the soul into a dead sleep : 1 Tim. V. 6, 'She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.' Like Nabal's heart, which died within him, and he became as a stone, 1 Sam. XXV. 37. These things stupify the conscience and dull the spiri- tual senses, so that men have not an ear for God, or a heart that is likely to be sensible of anything. Oh, therefore take heed of such a frame of heart,
[3.] Worldliness, Men throng their hearts with care and business, and so have no time and leisure to mind the state of their souls: Luke xxi. 34, ' Take heed unto yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life.' As Cain fell a-building to divert his conscience, or as they that offered their children to Moloch did still and drown their cries with drums and tabors ; so the din and noise of business will not let con- science speak, they being ' cumbered with much serving.' They that cumber themselves with many things seldom mind the one thing necessary. This keepeth away all heart-qualms.
[4.] Great and heinous sins. These cast the soul into a swoon, and deprive it of all sense. There is some tenderness left with lesser sins, as a prick of a pin will make a man start, but a heavy blow stunneth him. David, for cutting off the lap of Saul's garment, his heart smote him, and so for numbering the people, he was pricked and wounded in conscience, 2 Sam. xxiv. 10 ; but in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba it was not so ; he lay long dead and senseless. We hear of no kindly meltings and workings of heart from him till Nathan came to him : Ps. li., the title, ' A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba ; ' and that was when the child was born : 2 Sam, xii. 14, ' Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to thee shall surely die,' Let a man run on in a course of gross sin, and he loseth his feeling : Eph. iv. 19, 'Who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasci- viousness, and to work all uncleanness with greediness.' And that is a sad crisis and state of soul. Oh, take heed of these presumptuous sins: Ps, xix. 13, 'Keep back tiiy servant from presumptuous sins, and let them not have dominion over me; so shall 1 be upright before thee, and innocent from the great transgression.'
[5.] The customary committing of any lesser sins against conscience ;
250 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 33. [SeR. II.
these lead on to hardness of heart, and senselessness, and stupidity. The heart of young men, especially if well educated, is tender, and startleth at the least sin and thought of God's judgments ; the least sin will trouble it, and make it tender ; but when once we give way to small sins against knowledge, we every day grow more and more bold and venturous, and then shall swallow greater evils without any great trouble or fear of wrath. Water, when it beginneth to freeze, will not endure anything ; the least weight put upon it sinketh it presently ; but after a while it will bear the weight of a laden cart. Therefore take heed of giving way to sin. That heart that was easily troubled before, when once it is inured to sin, loseth all its sensibleness and tenderness, and what seemed intolerable at first will grow into a delight ; as Alipius, St Austin's friend, first abhorred the bloody spectacles of the gladiators, but giving himself leave, by importunity of friends, to be present, but would wink, and not open his eyes, yet at length, when the people shouted, he gave himself liberty to see, and then not only beheld them with delight, but drew others to behold what himself once loathed. Sin at first seemeth insupportable, then heavy, then light ; then the sense gone, then delightful, then desired. Oh, therefore watch over your souls if you would keep any feeling. Ab assuetis non Jit passio. Things to which we are used do not work upon us ; we are not much moved with them. Custom maketh men sleep quietly by the falls of great waters where much noise is ; and some parts of the body grow callous, brawny, dry, and dead, as the labourer's hand and the traveller's heel, by much use. So doth the conscience; when often offered violence to, and used to sin, it groweth senseless, and less capable of this work, which is of such use and profit.