for our committing sins of that kind; that we did what we could to avoid them; and at length fell into them by surprise, by inadvertency, by weakness, when we did not intend it, when we intended otherwise.

Upon the whole then, we are obliged constantly to watch, pray, and endeavour against all kinds of sins, sins of infirmity as well as others; and that in order to stand clear of wilful sin, and to preserve our peace with God. Venture not upon any sin, under the notion of its being a small sin only: for it is not small if it be wilful, or if it be readily and fully consented to. Wilful disobedience, even in a slight matter, is no slight thing. The wilfulness shown in it makes the offence grievous: and however small the matter of it may seem, the contempt is great, and is itself a high crime. Let us therefore make it our conscientious care to avoid, as much as possible, all sins whatever, great and small, and to approach every day nearer and nearer to religious perfection. And may God enable us, by his grace, to get ground of our infirmities, and to improve daily in every good word and work.

SERMON XI.

The Nature and Danger of presumptuous Sins.

PSALM xix. 13.

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

THESE are the words of pious David, the undoubted author of this religious song or psalm. In the verse going before, he had put up his petition for pardon of all the failures and errors of his life past, even of such as had escaped his notice, or had slipped out of his memory: "Who "can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret "faults." But besides those slighter offences, he was aware also of the offences of a more heinous kind; and therefore immediately subjoins a prayer against them likewise: "Keep back thy servant also from presumptu"ous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then "shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the "great transgression."

The words, as they run in our new translation, are not difficult to understand, and so will need the less opening. Indeed the words of the original have been thought capable of a very different version, and consequently of as different a sense: but I shall not take notice of niceties of that kind, which would be both dry and useless. The sense which they bear in our translation is a very good one, and is judiciously preferred before any other. I pro

ceed therefore to consider the matter contained in it. In discoursing hereupon I shall take this method.

I. To treat of sins in general, their nature, kinds, and

measures.

II. To treat of presumptuous sins in particular, with the malignancy and danger of them, and the concern we ought to have to stand clear of them.

III. To close all with proper advice and directions how to avoid them.

I.

I propose to treat of sins in general, their nature, kinds, and measures.

Sin is rightly defined, a transgression of God's law; and is either the doing of something which God has forbidden, or the leaving undone what God has commanded. The doing what we ought not to do is called a sin of commission; and the not doing what we ought is styled a sin of omission. In the one, we commit a trespass; in the other, we neglect a duty; and either way we sin. Sins of either kind may differ in their degrees of greater and less, according to their different matter, circumstances, and aggravations.

The Stoic philosophers, and some few of the less considerate Christians, have pretended, that all sins are equal. Their reasons for it are not worth the mentioning; for the conceit is so groundless, and so repugnant to the common sense of mankind, that barely to speak of it is to expose it, and it carries its own confutation with it. For a man must be very weak to imagine that theft, suppose, is as great a sin as murder; or fornication as high a crime as adultery; or telling a lie as wicked a thing as robbing a house, or plundering a church, or firing a town. Every body is sensible of a difference between high crimes and trivial trespasses; between sins of the first magnitude and slight offences: our Lord therefore compares some to gnats, while he compares others to camels; some to moles in the eye, others to beams.

Seeing therefore that sins are not equal, but differing in

degree, as the text also intimates; the next inquiry is, what makes the difference, or by what rules or measures we may judge of it.

There are two considerations to be taken in, which seem to be the principal in determining of the greatness of any sin. One is, the matter of the sin itself, or the mischievous tendency of it: the other is, the degree of malice or wilfulness in the person committing it.

Moral evil, the same with sin, is the choosing something which is naturally evil, or is of mischievous tendency. The case is plain in all instances prohibited by the law of nature: and as to cases prohibited by the positive law of God, the prohibition brings them under the same rule: for then a man cannot break through the prohibition, without affronting, contemning, disobeying Almighty God; and that is naturally evil, and of evil tendency; it is rebellion against the Creator, which is of pernicious example, and carries many mischievous consequences in it, with respect both to man's temporal and eternal welfare. I say then, first judge we of the heinousness of a sin by the mischievous tendency of it. Thus, to instance in matters of a moral nature, stealing is not so hurtful as maiming; nor is maiming so mischievous as murder; nor is murder of an equal so mischievous as the murder of a superior, a magistrate, a father, or the prince we are subject to.

In matters of a positive nature, neglecting to defend or to maintain the Gospel, when commanded, is a grievous sin; because the salvation of thousands may be concerned in it: but the opposing the Gospel is much worse, and is of yet greater malignity. Neglecting the Sacraments, or other solemn ordinances of God, is a great sin, as it is slighting God's goodness, affronting his authority, and setting a very ill example: but rejecting them utterly, or contemning them, is high profaneness, and of most pernicious tendency, as it is striking at all instituted religion directly, and at morality in consequence; and so, in the last result, at the general happiness of mankind, here and

hereafter. This may serve to explain what I mean by the evil tendency of any sin.

The other consideration is, the degree of wilfulness in the person committing it. Whatever mischief a man may do, he is no farther chargeable with it than as he made it his choice; no farther than he knew what he was doing, and wilfully chose it. A madman may do a great deal of mischief, but in him it is no sin: the like may be said of a natural fool, or idiot. Where there is no reason nor choice, there can be no sin. And supposing a man, under the use of reason, to do mischief, either being compelled to it, or not knowing that it is mischief, or not considering it, or not designing it; these will be all so many articles in his favour, either to acquit him entirely of blame, or to excuse and extenuate, in proportion to the degree of the necessity he was under. Hence it is that Divines have distinguished sins into three kinds; called sins of ignorance, sins of infirmity, and sins of presumption. The will is supposed to concur more or less in all, otherwise they could not be sins; but they have their names from what is most prevailing and predominant in each. If there be more of ignorance than wilfulness in it, it is a sin of ignorance; if there be more of infirmity than wilfulness in it, it is a sin of infirmity: but if there be more of wilfulness than of either or both the former, it is then a wilful sin; and that is what my text calls presumptuous sin. To say something more particular of each:

1. Of a sin of ignorance: such was the sin of Abimelech, when he took unto him Abraham's wife, not knowing her to be his wife, but supposing her to be his sister only. What he did was with an upright heart, so far; ignorantly consenting to adultery: but yet, because he might have made farther inquiry, and might have informed himself better, if he had had patience, and had not been too precipitate; he was therefore not wholly innocent: a sin he was guilty of, but a sin of ignorance; and therefore he found mercy at the hands of God.

A second example, but more approaching to a sin of