464 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. V.
ments, especially as breaking forth into frequent instances, is a matter of great provocation. This is that which God complains of in Israel, as wherewith he was almost wearied, Hos. vi. 4, And herein also do we try, and exercise the forbearance of our high priest. There is not a day wherein we answer and make good the engagements of our own hearts, either in matter or manner, as to our walking before him in the constant exercise of faith and love. And that we are’ yet accepted with him, it is that divura: werpio- wae, he can bear with us in all patience and moderation.
Again; our ignorances and wanderings are our sufferings, as well as our sins. Sin is the principal affliction, the principal suffer- ing of believers; yea, all other things are light unto them in com- parison hereof. This is that which they continually groan under, and cry out to be delivered from. Herein our high priest is able so to pity us as undoubtedly to relieve us; but this hath been already insisted on.
Obs. III. Though every sin hath in it the whole nature of sin, rendering the sinner obnoxious unto the curse of the law, yet as there are several kinds of sins, so there are several degrees of sin, some being accompanied with a greater guilt than others.
The Papists have a distinction of sins into mortal and venial, which is the foundation of one moiety of their superstition. Some sins, they say, are such as in their own nature deserve death eternal; so that there is no deliverance from the guilt of them without actual contrition and repentance. But some are so slight and small as that they are easily expiated by an observance of some outward rites of the church; however, they endanger no man’s eternal salvation, whe- ther they repent of them or no. The worst is but a turn in purga- tory, or the charge of a pardon. Because this distinction is rejected by Protestants, they accuse them of teaching that all sins are equal. But this they do untruly. That distinction, I confess, might be allowed with respect unto offences against the law of old, as it was the rule of the Jewish polity. For some of them, as murder and adultery, were to be punished capitally without mercy; which therefore were mortal unto the offenders. Others were civilly as well as typically expiated by sacrifice, and so were venial in the constitution of the law; that is, such as were pardoned of course, by attending to some instituted observances. But with respect unto God, every sin is a transgression of the law; and the “ wages” or re- ward “ of it is death,’ Rom. vi. 28. And the curse of the whole law was directed against every one who did not every thing required in it, or failed in any one point of obedience, Deut. xxvii. 26, Gal. iii. 10. And “ whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all,’ James ii. 10. But there are degrees of sin, and degrees of guilt in sinning; as,—1. There is a distinction
VER. 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 465
of sins with respect unto the persons that commit them. But this distinction ariseth from the event, and not from the nature of the sin itself intended. As suppose the same sin committed by an un- regenerate person, and by one that is regenerate: unto the latter it shall be pardoned; unto the former, continuing so, it shall never be pardoned. But whence is this difference? Is it that the sin is less in the one than in the other? Nay, being supposed of the same kind, commonly it hath more aggravating circumstances in the rege- nerate than in the unregenerate. Is it because God is less displeased with sin in some than in others? Nay, God is equally displeased with equal sins, in whomsoever they are found; if there be any dif- ference, he is more displeased with them in believers than in others. But the difference ariseth merely from the event. Regenerate per- sons will, through the grace of God, certainly use the means of faith and repentance for the obtaining of pardon, which the other will not; and if they are assisted also so to do, even they in like manner shall obtain forgiveness. No man, therefore, can take a relief against the guilt of sin from his state and condition, which may be an aggravation, but can be no alleviation of it. 2. There are de- grees of sin amongst men unregenerate, who live in a course of sin all their days. We see it is so, and it ever was so in the world. And sometimes here, but certainly hereafter, God deals with them, not only according to their state of sin, and their course of sin, but according to the degrees and aggravations of sin in great variety. All do not sin equally; nor shall al] be equally punished. 3. In the sins of believers there are different degrees, both in divers and in the same persons. And although they shall be all pardoned, yet have they different effects; with respect, (1.) Unto peace of conscience; (2.) Sense of the love of God; (3.) Growth in grace and holiness; (4.) Usefulness or scandal in the church or the world; (5.) Temporal afflictions; and, (6.) A quiet or troublesome departure out of this world ;—but in all a reserve is still to be made for the sovereignty of God and his grace.