hath sufficient knowledge of his duty, and sufficient strengths of grace, and sufficient advertency of mind, to avoid such things as do great and apparent violence to piety and religion. No man can justly say that it is a sin of infirmity that he was drunk for there are but three causes of every sin; a fourth is not imaginable. First; if ignorance cause it, the sin is as full of excuse as the ignorance was innocent: but no Christian can pretend this to drunkenness, to murder, to rebellion, to uncleanness: for what Christian is so uninstructed but that he knows adultery is a sin? Secondly, want of observation is the cause of many indiscreet and foolish actions: now at this gap many irregularities do enter and escape, because in the whole it is impossible for a man to be of so present a spirit as to consider and reflect upon every word and every thought; but it is in this case in God's laws otherwise than in man's: the great flies cannot pass through without observation, little ones do; and a man cannot be drunk and never take notice of it; or tempt his neighbour's wife before he be aware therefore the less the instance be, the more likely is it to be a sin of infirmity; and yet if it be never so little, if it be observed, then it ceases to be a sin of infirmity. But thirdly, because great crimes cannot pretend to pass undiscernibly, it follows that they must come in at the door of malice, that is, of want of grace, in the absence of the Spirit; they destroy wherever they come, and the man dies if they pass upon him.

It is true there is flesh and blood in every regenerate man, but they do not both rule; the flesh is left to tempt, but not to prevail. And it were a strange condition if both the godly and the ungodly were captives to sin, and infallibly should fall into temptation and death, without all difference save only that the godly sins unwillingly, and the ungodly sins willingly. But if the same things be done by both, and God in both be dishonoured, and their duty prevaricated, the pretended unwillingness is the sign of a greater and a baser slavery, and of a condition less to be endured: for the servitude which is against me, is intolerable: but if I choose the state of a servant, I am free in my mind.

[Libertatis] servaveris umbram,

Si quidquid jubeare velis

Certain it is that such a person who fain would, but cannot, choose but commit adultery or drunkenness, is the veriest slave to sin that can be imagined, and not at all freed by the Spirit and by the liberty of the sons of God; and there is no other difference but that the mistaken good man feels his slavery and sees his chains and his fetters; but therefore it is certain that he is, because he sees himself to be, a slave. No man can be a servant of sin and a servant of

righteousness at the same time; but every man that hath the Spirit of God is a servant of righteousness: and therefore whosoever find great sins to be unavoidable, are in a state of death and reprobation as to the present, because they willingly or unwillingly, it matters not much whether of the two, are servants of sin.

2. Sins of infirmity, as they are small in their instance, so they put on their degree of excusableness only according to the weakness or infirmity of a man's understanding. So far as men, without their own fault, understand not their duty, or are possessed with weakness of principles, or are destitute and void of discourse or discerning powers and acts, so far, if a sin creeps upon them, it is as natural, and as free from a law, as is the action of a child; but if any thing else be mingled with it, if it proceed from any other principle, it is criminal, and not excused by our infirmity, because it is chosen ; and a man's will hath no infirmity but when it wants the grace of God, or is mastered with passions and sinful appetites; and that infirmity is the state of unregeneration.

3. The violence or strength of a temptation is not sufficient to excuse an action or to make it accountable upon the stock of a pitiable and innocent infirmity, if it leaves the understanding still able to judge; because a temptation cannot have any proper strengths but from ourselves; and because we have in us a principle of baseness which this temptation meets, and only persuades me to act because I love it. Joseph met with a temptation as violent and as strong as any man; and it is certain there are not many Christians but would fall under it, and call it a sin of infirmity, since they have been taught so to abuse themselves by sewing fig-leaves before their nakedness: but because Joseph had a strength of God within him, the strength of chastity, therefore it could not at all prevail upon him. Some men cannot by any art of hell be tempted to be drunk; others can no more resist an invitation to such a meeting than they can refuse to die if a dagger were drunk with their heart-blood, because their evil habits made them weak on that part: and some man that is fortified against revenge it may be, will certainly fall under a temptation to uncleanness. For every temptation is great or small according as the man is; and a good word will certainly lead some men to an action of folly, while another will not think ten thousand pound a considerable argument to make him tell one single lie against his duty or his conscience.

4. No habitual sin, that is, no sin that returns constantly or frequently; that is repented of and committed again, and still repented of and then again committed; no such sin is excusable with a pretence of infirmity: because that sin is certainly noted, and certainly condemned, and therefore returns, not because of the weakness of nature but the weakness of grace: the principle of this is an evil spirit, an habitual aversation from God, a dominion and empire of sin. And as no man for his inclination and aptness to the sins of

the flesh is to be called carnal, if he corrects his inclinations and turns them into virtues; so no man can be called spiritual for his good wishes and apt inclinations to goodness, if these inclinations pass not into acts, and these acts into habits and holy customs, and walkings and conversation with God. But as natural concupiscence corrected becomes the matter of virtue, so these good inclinations and condemnings of our sin, if they be ineffective and end in sinful actions, are the perfect signs of a reprobate and unregenerate state.

The sum is this: an animal man, a man under the law, a carnal man, (for as to this they are all one,) is sold under sin, he is a servant of corruption, he falls frequently into the same sin to which he is tempted; he commends the law, he consents to it that it is good; he does not commend sin, he does some little things against it, but they are weak and imperfect, his lust is stronger, his passions violent and unmortified, his habits vicious, his customs sinful, and he lives in the regions of sin, and dies and enters into its portion. But a spiritual man, a man that is in the state of grace, who is born anew of the Spirit, that is regenerate by the Spirit of Christ, he is led by the Spirit, he lives in the Spirit, he does the works of God cheerfully, habitually, vigorously; and although he sometimes slips, yet it is but seldom, it is in small instances; his life is such as he cannot pretend to be justified by works and merit, but by mercy and the faith of Jesus Christ; yet he never sins great sins: if he does, he is for that present fallen from God's favour, and though possibly he may recover, (and the smaller or seldomer the sin is, the sooner may be his restitution,) yet for the present, I say, he is out of God's favour, But he that remains in the grace of God, sins not by any deliberate, consultive, knowing act he is incident to such a surprise as may consist with the weakness and judgment of a good man; but whatsoever is or must be considered, if it cannot pass without consideration it cannot pass without sin, and therefore cannot enter upon him while he remains in that state. For he that is in Christ, in him the body is dead by reason of sin.' And the gospel did not differ from the law, but that the gospel gives grace and strength to do whatsoever it commands, which the law did not; and the greatness of the promise of eternal life is such an argument to them that consider it, that it must needs be of force sufficient to persuade a man to use all his faculties and all his strength that he may obtain it. God exacted all upon this stock; God knew this could do every thing: nihil non in hoc præsumpsit Deus, said one. This will make a satyr chaste, and Silenus to be sober, and Dives to be charitable, and Simon Magus himself to despise reputation, and Saul to turn from a persecutor to an apostle. For since God hath given us reason to choose, and a promise to exchange for our temperance and faith and charity and justice, for these (I say) happiness, exceeding great happi

[Vid. Rom. viii. 10.]

▲ a 2

ness, that we shall be kings, that we shall reign with God, with Christ, with all the holy angels for ever, in felicity so great that we have not now capacities to understand it, our heart is not big enough to think it; there cannot in the world be a greater inducement to engage us, a greater argument to oblige us, to do our duty. God hath not in heaven a bigger argument; it is not possible any thing in the world should be bigger; which because the Spirit of God hath . revealed to us, if by this strength of His we walk in His ways, and be ingrafted into His stock, and bring forth His fruits, 'the fruits of the Spirit,' then we are in Christ,' and 'Christ in us;' then we 'walk in the Spirit,' and 'the Spirit dwells in us;' and our portion shall be there where Christ by the Spirit maketh intercession for us,' that is, at the right hand of His Father, for ever and ever.

Amen.

SERMON III.

THE DESCENDING AND ENTAILED CURSE CUT OFF.

EXOD. XX. 5, 6.

I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me:

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments.

It is not necessary that a commonwealth should give pensions to orators to dissuade men from running into houses infected with the plague, or to entreat them to be out of love with violent torments, or to create in men evil opinions concerning famine or painful deaths: every man hath a sufficient stock of self-love, upon the strength of which he hath entertained principles strong enough to secure himself against voluntary mischiefs, and from running into states of death and violence. A man would think that this I have now said were in all cases certainly true; and I would to God it were: for that which is the greatest evil, that which makes all evils, that which turns good into evil, and every natural evil into a greater sorrow, and makes that sorrow lasting and perpetual; that which sharpens the edge of swords, and makes agues to be fevers, and fevers to turn into plagues; that which puts stings into every fly, and uneasiness to every trifling accident, and strings every whip with scorpions; you

know I must needs mean SIN; that evil men suffer patiently, and choose willingly, and run after it greedily, and will not suffer themselves to be divorced from it: and therefore God hath hired servants to fight against this evil; He hath set angels with fiery swords to drive us from it, He hath employed advocates to plead against it, He hath made laws and decrees against it, He hath despatched prophets to warn us of it, and hath established an order of men, men of His own family, and who are fed at His own charges, I mean the whole order of the clergy, whose office is, like watchmen, to give an alarum at every approach of sin, with as much affrightment as if an enemy were near, or the sea broke in upon the flat country; and all this only to persuade men not to be extremely miserable, for nothing, for vanity, for a trouble, for a disease: for some sins naturally are diseases, and all others are natural nothings, mere privations or imperfections, contrary to goodness, to felicity, to God himself. And yet God hath hedged sin round about with thorns, and sin of itself too brings thorns; and it abuses a man in all his capacities, and it places poison in all those seats and receptions where he could possibly entertain happiness. For if sin pretend to please the sense, it doth first abuse it shamefully, and then humours it: it can only feed an impostume; no natural, reasonable, and perfective appetite and besides its own essential appendages and proprieties, things are so ordered, that a fire is kindled round about us; and every thing within us, above, below us, and on every side of us, is an argument against, and an enemy to sin; and, for its single pretence that it comes to please one of the senses, one of those faculties which are in us the same they are in a cow, it hath an evil so communicative, that it doth not only work like poison to the dissolution of soul and body, but it is a sickness like the plague, it infects all our houses, and corrupts the air and the very breath of heaven: for it moves God first to jealousy, and that takes off His friendship and kindness towards us; and then to anger, and that makes Him a resolved enemy; and it brings evil not only upon ourselves but upon all our relatives, upon ourselves and our children, even the children of our nephews,

Ad natos natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis",

to the third and fourth generation. And therefore if a man should despise the eye or sword of man, if he sins he is to contest with the jealousy of a provoked God: if he doth not regard himself, let him pity his pretty children: if he be angry, and hates all that he sees, and is not solicitous for his children, yet let him pity the generations which are yet unborn; let him not bring a curse upon his whole family, and suffer his name to rot in curses and dishonours; let not his memory remain polluted with an eternal stain. If all this will not deter a man from sin, there is no instrument left for that man's virtue, no hopes of his felicity, no recovery of his sorrows and sick

[See p. 313 supr., and 'Doctrine of Repentance,' chap. ix. sect. 1. § 4.] [Edd. recent. ' alarm.']

[nephews, i.e. 'grandchildren;' so pp. 368, 79 infr.]

d

[Vid. Virg. Æn. iii. 98.]