[Sin, though it cannot be hidden from God, may be covered from ourselves, by denial, by extenuation, hy for get fulness.
Many, though walking in the habitual violation of the plainest duties, will deny that they commit any sin at all. As " the adulterous woman," of whom Solomon speaks, " eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness^;" so these, in gratifying their sensual appetites, think tliat they commit no more evil than if they had merely satisfied the de- mands of hunger and thirst: and, in their minds, one sinful indulgence is but a prelude to another, whenever opj)ortunity and inclination concur to call for it. Persons of this description, if they receive only a distantintimationof their state, are ready to reply, even against God himself, just as Cain did, after mur- dering his brother Abel : " Where is thy brother Abel? " " I know not : am I my brother's keeper '' ? " Thus, rather than they will humble themselves before God, they will deny their accountability to him, saying, " Our lips are our own : who is Lord over us'^ ?" But this denial of their guilt will avail them nothing. God will reprove them as he did Israel of old'^; and will surely visit them with his heaviest indignation^.
Others cover their sins by endeavouring to extenuate the guilt of them. Thus did Adam and Eve in Paradise. Thus also did Saul, after sparing the king of the Amalekites, and the spoil which he had taken, instead of destroying them utterly according to the direction which he had received from the Lord. He first of all asserted that he had executed the divine command ; and that being disproved by the lowing of the oxen, he vindicated himself, asserting, that, in as far as he was implicated in the affair, he had acted under the influence of the people, whom he could not restrain, and dared not to resist *^. Thus it is also that the generality are acting all around us. They cannot actually deny that what they are doing is contrary to God's revealed will ; but they are so circum- stanced, that they cannot on the whole act otherwise than they do : the current of the world is so strong against them, that they cannot resist it ; and, if they err, the fault is rather in those who have led the way, than in themselves, who have only gone with the stream.
But perhaps the most common way of covering sins is by letting them pass altogether unnoticed. Many are not altoge- ther satisfied that their ways are right : but they go on with- out much thought, and presently forget any thing which may have made a slight impression on their minds. Forgetting
a Prov. XXX. 20, b Gen. iv. 9. <= Ps. xii. 4.
^ Jer. ii. 23, 24. This is a fine image to illustrate the insatiable avidity witli which the wicked follow their own lusts and passions. ^ Jcr. ii. 31, 35. f 1 Sam. xv. 13—15, 20, 21, 24.
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their sins, they suppose that God has forgotten them also. Of such persons God comphuns ; " They consider not in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness s." Very beauti- ful is the description which God gives of such persons, by the Prophet Jeremiah : " I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright : no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done ? Every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle^." The horse is unconscious of his danger ; and so are the mass of ungodly men : " it is a sport to them to commit iniquity;" and, provided it be not of such a heinous nature as to violate the usages of the place wherein they live, they say, " No evil will come unto us'."]
But all who thus attempt to cover their sins are guilty of the extremest folly —