356 SERMONS UPON PSALM XIX. 13. [SeR. III.
SERMON III.
Keep hack thy servant from presumptuous sins. — Ps. xix. 13.
Having showed you the danger of the first sort of men, that Kve in known sins against the light of conscience and the things they presume upon, I now come to a second sort, that live in sin, and please themselves in this, that all men are sinners, and so are they, and that their sins are but sins of infirmity.
To this I answer — That which you constantly practise, without resistance and remorse, how can you call that your infirmity ? Every man almost thinketh his sins to be infirmities. Come to the drunkard, swearer, adulterer, oppressor of godliness, the vilest of men, they will tell you that they are sinners, as all men are, and that their sins are but slips and frailties incident to mankind. But what are these slips and frailties you call so ? Swearing frequently, drunkenness, wanton- ness, and the like sins : this they call making themselves merry ; and in their mirth they are commonly ridiculing and deriding religion. Though they daily go to the taphouse, playhouse, whorehouse, though they have not one drachm of grace, or any serious care about eternal life, yet this is their excuse, that they have their infirmities as well as others.
To these five things must be offered — (1.) The distinction of per- sons; (2.) The distinction of sins; (3.) The nature of sins of infirmity ; (4.) Some observations thence ; (.5.) The vanity of their excuses and pleas, by which they would prove their sins to be infirmities.
First, There is a distinction of pei'sons to be regarded. Some have passed from death to life, 1 John iii. 14 ; others do as yet remain in ' the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity,' Acts viii. 23. Some are in the flesh, and ' they cannot please God,' Eom. viii. 8 ; others make it their business to find acceptance with him, 2 Cor. v. 9. Some that live after the flesh, Eom. viii. 13 ; others who are in Christ, and ' there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ,' Eom. viii. 1. The one sort of men are under the first covenant, and the sins which they commit are deadly and damnable. To the other sort indeed we cannot say all their sins are venial and sins of infirmity ; for they may fall in some rare and extraordinary cases into great and atrocious crimes ; but this we can say, their infirmities are pardoned of course, which we cannot say of the other. The state- of the person, though it doth not all, yet it beareth much weight in the case ; for the first sort of men are without the verge of the covenant of grace, and wholly destitute of the spiritual life. How can their sins be said to be infirmities or venial faults ? The state of the covenant will not permit it, nor the state of their hearts. Not the state of the covenant ; for sin, all sin, is in its nature deadly and destructive. The end of it is death, and the wages of it death, Eom. vi. 21, 23. How can wicked men, that never accepted of the covenant of grace, hope for any release ? for the grace and mercy of God goeth along with that covenant, and reacheth not to them that are not under it. Therefore their lighter faults are deadly and destruc- tive, both ex meriio, in their own nature and merit, and ah eventu, in
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON PSALM XIX. 13. 357
respect of the event. They shall have judgment without mercy, when others are judged hy the law of liberty, James ii. 12, 13. And the state of their hearts will not permit it, for he hath no spiritual life ; for infirmity is in one that hath life. He hath life, but it is weak, and so he faileth out of weakness : ' The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,' Mat. xxvi. 41. But infirmities cannot properly be said to be in them who are said to be ' dead in trespasses and sins ; ' where sin remaineth in its full strength, and they have no power of grace at all. You do not say of a dead man that he is weak. It is true, the faults of wicked and impenitent persons are not all of a like nature ; some are more wilfully committed than others, but they are all mortal, even their vain thoughts and idle words, and bring them under the curse, which is not taken ofi" till they fly for refuge to the covenant of grace, and change states. A wicked man so living and so dying shall be judged accord- ing to that covenant which saith. Gal. iii. 10, ' Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' But now, for the other sort, we cannot say that all the sins of the godly are infirmities. It is true, the sins whereinto they ordinarily fall are not presumptuous sins, but sins of weakness and infir- mity, because the general bent and frame of their hearts is towards God. But they may, in some extraordinary cases, fall into gross and foul sins. As outwardly, besides the daily infirmities the body is subject to, as hunger, weariness, faintness, and pain. There are grievous distempers and diseases, in which a man cannot tell whether the patient will live or die ; so a godly man that hath the life of grace may, besides incident weaknesses which cannot be avoided by the grace that is ordinarily given, fall into great enormities, which are ordinary and frequent, and so may lose his sense of the love of God, and his hopes and fitness for eternal life as before ; but this advantage he hath above the wicked man, his infirmities and daily failings do not bring him under condem- nation, but are pardoned by virtue of his general interest in the covenant of grace, while the main of his course is to walk after the Spirit, and not after the flesh, Kom. viii. 1. He hath the seed of God in him to awaken his heart, and some former experiences of the love of God that encourage him to sue out his pardon. In his grievous offences he is not altogether so hopeless and helpless as a wicked man that never was acquainted with God. It faretli with him as with Nebuchadnezzar when he was brutified through his melancholy or God's secret judgment, Dan. iv. 15. The stump of his roots remained in the earth when his branches were cut off and his leaves shaken and the fruit scattered. There was the foundation of a reasonable creature under bruti.sh manners. Well, then, the different state of the persons must be considered. What ! should men dead in trespasses and sins, and wholly strangers from the covenant of promise, talk of infirmities ?