[1.] Sins of mere infirmity and human frailty.
[2.] Sins of presumption. We cannot understand the one without the other.
[1.] Sins of infirmity ; they are of four kinds — (1.) Sins of ignorance ; (2.) Sins of sudden surreption or surprise ; (3.) Sins of daily incursion ; (4.) Sins of violent passion.
(1.) Of ignorance. These are opposed here to sins of presumption ; ' Cleanse thou me from secret sins ; ' and then, ' Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins.' As small sins, that are for the matter indis- cernible, and sometimes grievous sins, if the ignorance be invincible and not affected, these find favour for this circumstance wherewith they are accompanied : John xv. 22, * If I had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin ; but now they have no cloak for their sin ; ' that is, no excuse for their sin : Luke xxiii. 34, ' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' Their ignorance is pleaded as a motive to persuade God to pardon their sin: Acts iii. 14-17, 'But ye denied the holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Lord of life, whom God hath raised from the dead : and now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers;' 1 Tim. i. 13, 'Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly.' Paul was as bad as bad could be. On the contrary, knowledge aggravateth sin : Luke xii. 47, ' And that servant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes , ' James iv. 17, ' There- fore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.' To jostle a friend in the dark may be by mistake, but to run full butt at hira argueth malice. So to run full butt upon God, with eyes wide open, is a sin of presumption ; as to dash upon him blind- fold, provided we have not hoodwinked ourselves, is a sin of weakness
340 SEEMONS UPON PSALM XIX. 13. [SeR. I.
and infirmity. When God standeth in the way to stop the sinner by his precepts and threatenings, and the sinner shall say, Yonder he standeth that would stop me in my unlawful gain, stop me in my unlawful pleasure, stop me in my profane course of life ; yet have at him; I will go through in this madness and obstinate pride: this is an aggravation of the offence. But now to press on out of mistake, as Balaam when he saw not the angel, is an infirmity ; provided this ignorance be not affected, and vincible by the means afforded, that they are not willingly ignorant, refuse the light, shut their eyes and harden themselves by their own prejudices.
(2.) Sins of sudden surreption and surprise, that creep upon us un- awares, or by Satan's assaulting us on a sudden ; we cannot use that recol- lection, or have time to interpose those remedies, that might conduce to our preservation. Of these the apostle speaketh : Gal. vi. 1, ' If a brother be overtaken in a fault.^ A child of God is usually rather over- taken by the suddenness or overborne by the violence of the temptation ; surprised before he hath time to deliberate. The suddenness of the assault giveth no leisure to represent those considerations that might stay the heart. These are the sins that suddenly steal upon us, like sly thieves, and soldiers that lie in ambush for their enemies, and show themselves in us when we think them far enough from us ; as sudden flashes of evil thoughts, and evil words, and sudden actions ; those swarms of noisome and unsavoury thoughts which are injected of a sudden, and do distract us, and hinder us in the best employments ; carnal and wicked thoughts, that suddenly arise, but are rejected with indignation ; wandering thoughts in the time of prayer, never distinctly consented unto, but crowding in upon us ; rash words spoken of a sudden, and some unpremeditated actions, when we have no due time for deliberation.
(3.) Sins of daily incursion, that are not avoidable by the usual assistance which God giveth to his people, but cleave to us while we are here in this world : Eccles. vii. 20, ' There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not ; ' James iii. 2, ' In many things we offend all.' We are daily assaulted, and there is no man so exact but sometimes his watch is intermitted, and then he will be tripping. That it should be otherwise cannot be looked for in this estate of frailty wherein now we are ; especially considering the different con- ditions we are to pass through, the several occasions and provocations Ave meet with, and the many duties of piety and charity which we are to perform, many a sin cometh frequently, yea, daily upon us. In our duties to God much dulness, weariness, and formality will discover itself ; our domestic crosses will put us into sudden fits of anger and discontent; our converses upon some failings of lightness and want of sincerity ; our public employments, something of hypocrisy and inter- mixtures of vainglory ; our prosperity, a touch of high-mindedness and carnal complacency; our adversity, upon distrust and uncomely disquiets of spirit : these defects and inseparable blemishes and wrinkles are found in the faces of all the saints. Our Saviour telleth us, John xiii. 10, ' That he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit ; ' that is, though they are in a holy state, yet by walking up and down in the world, in the several