8. The description you give of a sin of infirmity, from Gal. vi. 1, is that alone which we acknowledge may befall believers, though it hath sometimes befallen them in greater sins. It is evident from hence that a sin becometh a sin of infirmity, not from the nature of it, but from the manner of men's falling into it. The gi'eatest actual sin may be a sin of infirmity, and the least a sin of presump- tion. It is possible a believer may be overtaken, or rather surprised, with any sin, so he be overtaken or surprised. A surprisal into sin through tlie power of temptation, subtlety of Satan, strength of in- dwelling sin, contrary to the habitual, standing frame of the heart (not always neither through a defect of watchfulness), is all that we grant a believer may be liable to ; and so, upon Mr Goodwin's con- fession, he sins only out of infirmity, such sins being not exclusive of the love and favour of God. And, therefore, —
4. We say that true believers cannot be said to " walk according to the flesh," to "do the works of the flesh," to "do the lusts and de- sires of the flesh," which the Holy Ghost so cautions them against; which, as Mr Goodwin observes, are " none of them charged upon true believers, but only upon such persons as are enemies of God and children of wrath." So that those expressions hold out to be- lievers only what they ought to avoid, in the use of the means which God graciously affords them, and do not discover any thing of the will of God, that he will suffer them, contrary to his many faithful promises, to fall into them. And so the close of this discoiu'se is contrary to the beginning, Mr Goodwin granting that true believers cannot fall into these sins, but only such as are enemies to God ; and yet he hath no way to prove that true believers may cease to be so but because they may fall into these sins, which that they may do he here eminently denies. Wherefore he adds : —
"If by ' sinning out of malice' they mean sinning Avith deliberation, with plotting and contriving the methods and means of their sin- ning,— sinning against judgment, against the dictates of conscience (and what they should mean by sinning out of malice but sinning upon such terms as these I understand not), — certain it is that true believers may so sin out of malice, or at least such as were true believers before such sinning; and this our adversaries them- selves confess."
Ans. All this falls heavy on the shoulders (as it is supposed) of poor David, and yet we think it evident that God " took not his
XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 539
Holy Spirit from him/' but that his covenant continued with him, " ordered in all things and sure," and that " sin had not dominion over him." The reasons of this persuasion of ours concerning him shall farther be insisted on when we come to the consideration of his case in particular. In the meantime, I confess the dreadful falls of some of the saints of God are rather to be bewailed than a^gra- vated, and the riches of God's grace in their recovery rather to be admired than searched into. Yet we sa}^, —
1. That no one believer whatever in the world, upon any temp- tation whatever, did fall into any sin of malice; that is, accom- panied with any hatred of God, or despite of his grace, or whole delight of his will in the sin whereunto he was by temptation for a season captivated. And though they may fall into sin against their judgments and dictates of their consciences, — as every sin whatever that they have, or may have, knowledge of or acquaintance with in tlieir own hearts and ways is, — yet this doth not make them to sin out of malice ; for that would leave no distinction between sins of infirmity, whereinto men are surprised by temptation, and of malice, even sins of infirmity being in general and particular directly contrary to the dictates of their enlightened, sanctified judgments and consciences.
2. For "sinning with deliberation, plotting and contriving the methods and means of sinning" (the proof whereof, that so they may do, will lie, as was before observed, on the instance of David), I say, it being the will of God, for ends and purposes known only to his infinite wisdom, to give us, as to his fall, his dark side and his sin to the full, with the temptation wherewith he was at first surprised, and afterward violently hurried into, upon carnal reasonings and considerations of the state whereinto he had cast himself, having lost his old Friend and Counsellor, as to any shines of his countenance for a season, not acquainting us at all with the frame, and working, and striving of his spirit in and under that fall, I shall not dare to draw his case into a rule. That what he then did a believer now may do, judging of his frame in doing of it only by what is expressed; that believers may have morosam cogitationem, or deliberation upon some sins whereunto they are tempted, upon the strength of indwelling sin, which may possibly so overcome and prevail against the workings of grace for a season as to set the flesh at liberty to make contrivances to fulfil the lusts thereof, — I say, many have granted, and I shall not (for the sake of poor returning souls, whose backslidings God hath promised to heal) deny. But yet, I say, all their actings in this kind are but like the desperate actings of a man in a fever, who may have some kind of contrivance with himself to do mischief (as I have known some myself), and aim at opportunities for the accomplishment of it. All the faculties of their souls being discomposed, and rendered unserviceable to them through their dis-