[4.] Consider the multitude of them. Small sins with their multitude and number hurt the soul as much as greater sins with their weight. David, a good man, crieth out, Ps. xl. 12, ' Innumerable evils have compassed me about ; mine iniquities have taken hold of me, so that I am not able to look up : they are more than the hairs of mine head ; therefore my heart faileth me.' They are a burden too heavy for me. Though little sins seem light in themselves, what are they altogether ? Nothing lighter than sand, yet what is more weighty than sand ? Prov. xxvii. 3. A gnat, a fly, a locust, poor inconsiderable creatures, yet when they come in multitudes they are God's 'great army,' Joel ii. 25. We may count our sins by the moments of our lives, the number of our thoughts, words, and deeds. We must not look on them as single sins, but as the sins of one that hath greatly sinned before, in the whole track and course of his life ; as a figure added to a sum already fixed makes it rise high. What a miserable spectacle is a poor creature that hath a complication of diseases, and is exercised with many at once, the stone, gout, strangury, pain of the teeth ! Consider it ; oh, what are we that have so many kinds of sin ? We look on sins severally, but God conjunctly. Though he can see every sin apart, yet he seeth them altogether, in the whole course and track of it.
[5.] Small sins have met with great judgments ; Uzzah for touching the ark struck dead, 2 Sam. vi. 7 ; Moses shut out of Canaan for a few hasty unadvised words, Num. xx. 24 ; Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt. Gen. xix. 26 ; the disobedient prophet torn in pieces by a lion, 1 Kings xiii. 26 ; Nadab and Abihu cut off for offering strange fire unto the Lord, Num. xxvi. 60.
[6.] It is a greater evil to be guilty of one of those sins than to suffer
VeE. 13.] S^x^SIONS UPON PSALM XIX. 13. 363
the greatest temporal losses. It is a step towards the loss of the favour of God, and an offence to God ; Heb. xi. 26, ' Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.'
2. Is it because you are tempted and drawn on by others ?
Ans. Yet there may be presumption and consent on thy part for all this. Adam was tempted to the eating the forbidden fruit 1)y Eve, and Eve tempted by Satan, yet the mischief of that action was very great. He had time of deliberation, and to give check to the temptation. All that are drawn into sin are tempted ; some by themselves, and some by others. David gave leave to his eyes to fire his heart, 2 Sam. xi. 2. Indeed those that tempt themselves sin more ; but yet you may sin, and that presumptuously, without being tempted by others. David was tempted to number the people : 1 Chron. xxi. 1, ' And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel;' yet David doth not lessen and excuse the sin by the temptation : ver. 8, ' I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing.' Joseph was tempted, but he stood, because the fear of God preserved his heart. If you had stood upon your guard, you might not miscarry. It is true God considereth men according to their temptations ; so should we (Gal. vi. 1, ' If a brother be overtaken in a fault ') in judging others, but not in judging ourselves. A self-excusing heart is none of the best. We, that are conscious to the workings of our hearts, may find wilful circumstances and volun- tary inclinations in ourselves, besides instigation from without. But how are we enticed ? why drawn away by our own lusts and enticed ? James i. 14. Si Sathanas loqueretur, et taceret Deus, haheres wide te excusares — If Satan only speak, and God hold his peace, it were another matter. But when we are set between God's admonitions and Satan's suggestions, why should we yield to one more than to another ? God adviseth that which is good, as well as Satan enticeth to evil. Now voluntarily and deliberately to hearken to Satan and neglect God, judge whether that be not a presumption, yea or no. They that sin, and. are not tempted, reject the commandment of God ; but they that are tempted reject God and prefer the commandment of a base crea- ture or sinful man before God, and are pliable to men when the heart is not to be entreated by God, which is a double affront and disgrace.
3. Or is it because you say you strive against it ?
Ans. So did Pilate against the crucifying of Christ, but yielded to it at last against his own conscience for his interest's sake, to preserve the good-will of the people and his credit in his government ; though he would fain have washed his hands of it, yet it sticketh to him to this day. Balaam resisted for a while, but yieldeth at length for the wages of unrighteousness. The consciences of most will bear back and hold off lor a time from a thing which they apprehend to be offen- sive to God and destructive to the soul, but the pleasure and profit of sin prevailetli, and they are carried away. If sin hath not wholly beclouded and subverted our reason (which happeneth only to such whom God abandoneth in an extraordinary manner), men do not, can- not commit any considerable crime without some reluctancy of con- science ; but at length, after some encounter and contest, reason is ca{)tivated by the violence of passion, and men are strangely transported by the instigations and urgings of the flesh ; but the actions are not the