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Use III. But what, doth sin so exceed in sinfulness, and is the venom of it boiled up to such a height of mischief, that there should be no name in heaven and earth able to grapple with it and destroy it? Is there no antidote, no balm in Gilead more sovereign than it is deadly? Surely yes; God would never have suffered so potent and malicious an enemy to have set foot in his dominions, but that he knew how to conquer it, and that not by punishing of it only in hell, but by destroying it; only it is too potent for all the creatures to encounter with. This victory is alone reserved for Christ, it can die by no other hand, that he may have the glory of it; which therefore is the top of his glory as mediator, and his highest title, the memory of which he bears written in his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins,' Mat. i. 21. And therefore the apostle Paul, his chiefest herald, proclaims this victory with a world of solemnity and triumph, 1 Cor. xv. 55, ' O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, that gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ; which yet again adds to the demonstration of the sinfulness of it, for the strength of sin was such, that, like Goliah, it would have defied the whole host of heaven and earth. It was not possible the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin,' Heb. x. 4; nor would the riches of the world or the blood of men have been a sufficient ransom. Will the Lord be pleased with rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression?' No, says he, there is no proportion, for thy first-born is but the fruit of thy body, and sin is the sin of the soul,' Micah vi. 7. It must cost more to redeem a soul than so, Ps. xlix. 7. No; couldst thou bring rivers of tears instead of rivers of oil-which, if anything were like to pacify God, yet they are but the excrements of thy brains, but sin is the sin of thy heartyea, all the righteousness that we could ever do, cannot make amends for one sin; for suppose it perfect, whenas yet it is but' dung,' Mal. ii. 3, and "a menstruous cloth,' yet thou owest it already as thou art a creature, and one debt cannot pay another. If then we should go a begging to all the angels who never sinned, let them lay all their stock together, it would beggar them all to pay for one sin. No; it is not the merit of angels will do it, for sin is the transgression, the destruction of the law, and the least iota is more worth than heaven and all that is therein.

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Only, though it be thus unconquerably sinful by all created powers, it hath not gone beyond the price that Christ hath paid for it. The apostle compares to this very purpose sin and Christ's righteousness together, Rom. v. 15, 20. It is true, says he, that'sin abounds,' and that one sin, rò Tagára, and instanceth in Adam's sin, which staineth all men's natures to the end of the world; yet, says he, the gift of righteousness by Christ abounds much more,' abounds to flowing over, geλóvade, says the apostle, 1 Tim. i. 14, as the sea doth above mole-hills, Mal. vii. 14.* Though therefore it would undo all the angels, yet Christ's riches are unsearchable, Eph. iii. 8. He hath such riches of merit as are able to pay all thy debts the very first day of thy marriage with him, though thou hadst been a sinner millions of years afore the creation to this day; and when that is done, there is enough left to purchase thee more grace and glory than all the angels have in heaven. In a word, he is able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him,' Heb. vii. 5, let their sins be what they will.

But then we must come to him, and to God by him, and take him as * This is of course a misprint. I suppose the reference is to Micah vii. 19.-ED.

VOL. IV.

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our lord, and king, and head, and husband, as he is freely tendered; we must be made one with him, and have our hearts divorced from all our sins for ever. And why not now? Do we yet look for another Christ? and to allude to us as Naomi said to Ruth, Is there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? So say I, Hath God any more such sons? Or is not this Christ good enough? or are we afraid of being happy too soon in being married to him?

But yet if we will have Christ indeed, without whom we are undone, 'how shall we then continue in sin,' Rom. vi., which is thus above measure sinful? No, not in one. The apostle speaks there in the language of impossibility and inconsistency. Christ and the reign of one sin, they cannot stand together.

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And, indeed, we will not so much as take Christ until first we have seen more or less this vision here, and sin appear to us, as to him, above measure sinful. Naturally we slight it, and make a mock of, and account it preciseness to stick and make conscience of it; but if once sin thus appears to any but in its own colours, that man will look upon the least sin then as upon hell itself, and like a man affrighted fear in all his ways lest he should meet with sin, and starts at the very appearance of it: he weeps if sin do but see him, and he do but see it in himself and others, and cries out, as Joseph did, How shall I do this, and sin?' And then a man will make out for Christ as a condemned man for life, as a man that can no longer live, Oh, give me Christ, or else I die; and then, if upon this Christ appears to him, and manifests himself,' as his promise is to them. that seek him, John xiv. 21, his heart thereupon will much more detest and loathe it; he saw it evil afore, but then it comes to have a new tincture added, which makes it infinitely more sinful in his eyes, for he then looks upon every sin as guilty of Christ's blood, as dyed with it, though covered by it.' The grace of God appearing, teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts.' 'The love of Christ constrains him.' Thinks he, Shall I live in that for which Christ died? Shall that be my life which was his death? Did he that never knew sin undergo the torment for it, and shall I be so unkind as to enjoy the pleasure of it? No; but as David, when he was very thirsty, and had water of the well of Bethlehem brought him, with the hazard of men's lives, poured it on the ground, for, says he, 'It is the blood of these men,' so says he, even when the cup of pleasures is at his very lips, It cost the blood of Christ, and so pours it upon the ground. And as the love of Christ constrains him, so the power of Christ doth change him. Kings may pardon traitors, but they cannot change their hearts; but Christ pardons none he doth not make new creatures, and all old things pass away,' because he makes them friends, favourites to live with and delight in; and if men put on Christ, and have learned him, as the truth is in Jesus, they put off as concerning the former conversation the old man, with the deceitful lusts,' Eph. iv. 21, 22, and he ceaseth from sin, that is, from the course of any known sin. They are the apostle's own words which shall judge us; and if we should expect salvation from him upon any other terms, we are deceived, for Christ is the author of salvation to them only that obey him,' Heb. v. 9.

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AGGRAVATIONS OF SINNING AGAINST

KNOWLEDGE.

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.-ROM. I. 21.

THERE are two general aggravations the apostle insists on, in these two chapters, of the Gentiles' sinfulness: First, their unthankfulness, ver. 21, in despising the riches of God's goodness,' chap. ii. 4; secondly, of rebellion, in sinning against knowledge, that when they knew him, they glorified him not as God. And of all other, he inculcateth this of sinning against knowledge as the greatest, for, bringing in a long, large, and particular indictment of many several sins, idolatry, ver. 23, unnatural uncleanness, ver. 26, &c., and all kinds of unrighteousness, ver. 29, he doth, both in the beginning and end of the bill, bring in this aggravation, that they sinned against knowledge in all these. So, ver. 18, he begins the indictment and promulgation of God's wrath above all for this, that they withheld the truth in unrighteousness,' which was as much as all that unrighteousness committed, barely in itself considered. And then again, in the end, when he comes to pronounce sentence, he comes in with this, after all particulars had been reckoned up, Who, knowing the judgment of God against those which do such things, yet do them.'

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So that this doctrine is clear from hence, that to sin against knowledge, either in omitting good duties which we know we ought to perform, or committing of sins we know we ought not to do, is the highest aggravation of sinfulness.

I put both in; both sins of omission and commission-for so the particular sins the Gentiles are taxed for here are of both sorts, as not glorifying or worshipping God, as well as turning his glory into a lie, &c.-to omit prayer when your consciences tell you you ought to do it, to omit holy discourse, examining the heart, when you know you ought to do them, are as well sins against knowledge as to tell a lie against your knowledge, or as to steal and forswear, or murder, or be drunk, &c.

Now, when I say it is an aggravation to these sins, my meaning is this, that, take any sin thou thinkest most gross, and view it barely in the act of it, put the act nakedly in the one scale, be it a sin of uncleanness or drunkenness, and then put this circumstance which was added to it in the

other scale, that before and when thou didst it thou knewest it to be a sin, this alone weighs as much, yea, more than the sin itself doth; that as it is said of Herod that he added this to all his other sins, that he cast John in prison,' who told him of his Herodias, and so is made as much as all his former sins, so is this brought in here, that in and unto all their unrighteousness this was added, they withheld the truth, the light of their consciences (which is as a prophet from God) they did imprison in unrighteousness, ver. 18. And therefore when Daniel would convince Belshazzar of his deservedness to lose his kingdom, and that he was not able to hold weight in the balance,' Dan. v. 22, what puts he into the other scale against him to weigh him up, and to shew he was too light? ver. 21, 22, he tells him how his father knew the God of heaven, and how that his knowledge cost him seven years the learning among wild beasts, and 'thou' (says he) his son knewest all this, and yet didst not humble thyself.' Here is the aggravation weighs down all; he knew the God of heaven against whom he sinned, and that judgment on his father for his pride; and then withal he tells him, that this God, in whose hands is thy breath, and all thy ways, thou hast not glorified.'

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I name this place among many others, because it is parallel with this in the text. I'll name no more, but give reasons and demonstrations for it.

I. First, demonstrations.

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The greatness of this kind of sinning might many ways be made appear; we will demonstrate it only by comparing it with other kinds of sinning. To sin, though out of simple ignorance, when that ignorance is but the causa sine quá non of sinning, that is, so as if a man had known it a sin, he had not done it, doth not yet make the fact not to be a sin, though it lesseneth it. For, Luke xii. 48, He that did not know his master's will was beaten,' when the thing committed was worthy of stripes, though he did not know so much, because the thing deserves it. And the reason is, because the law being once promulged, as first to Adam it was, and put into his heart, as the common ark of mankind, though the tables be lost, yet our ignorance doth not make the law of none effect. For the law of nature for ever binds, that is, all that was written in Adam's heart, because it was thereby then published in him, and to him for us. But positive laws, as I may call them, as to believe in Christ, &c., anew delivered, bind not but where they are published. Josiah rent his clothes when the book of the law was found, because the ordinances were not kept, although they had not known the law of many years; yet because they ought to have known it, therefore for all their ignorance he feared wrath would come upon all Israel. So also, Lev. v. 17, sins of ignorance were to be sacrificed for; yet however it lesseneth the sin, therefore he shall be beaten with few stripes.'

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And sure, if ignorance lesseneth them, knowledge aggravates; for contrariorum eadem est ratio, therefore he that knows shall be beaten with many stripes.' Yea, such difference is there that God is said to wink at sins of ignorance. Acts xvii. 30, The time of this ignorance God winks at.' Whiles they had no knowledge, God took no notice; yea, and he abates something for such sins, because the creature hath a cloak, hath something to say for itself (as Christ says, John xv. 22); but when against knowledge, they have no cloak. Yea, farther, Christ makes a sin of ignorance to be no sin in comparison: so there, 'If I had not spoken and done those works never man did, they had had no sin,' that is, none in com

parison; but now they have no cloak,' no shelter to award* the stripes, or plea to abate of them.

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1. And that you may see the ground of this vast difference between sins of ignorance and against knowledge, consider first, that if a man sin (suppose the act the same) out of ignorance merely, there may be a supposition that if he had known it he would not have done it, and that as soon as he doth know it he would or might repent of it. So, 1 Cor. ii. 8, If they had known, they had not crucified the Lord of glory.' The like says Christ of Tyre, Sodom, and Gomorrah, that if the same things had been done in them, they would have repented.' But now, when a man knows it afore, and also considers it in the very committing it, and yet doth it, then there is no room for such a supposition, and less hope. For what is it that should reduce this man to repentance? Is it not his knowledge? Now if that had no power to keep him from his sin, then it may be judged that it will not be of force to bring him to repentance for it; for by sinning the heart is made more hard, and the knowledge and the authority of it weakened and lessened, as all power is when contemned and resisted, Rom. i. 21, 'Their foolish heart becomes darker.' Aristotle himself hath a touch of this notion in the third of his Ethics, that if a man sin out of ignorance, when he knows it, he repents of it; if out of passion, when the passion is over, he is sorry for what he hath done; but when a man sins deliberately, and out of knowledge, it is a sign he is fixed and set in mischief, and therefore it is counted wickedness and malice. And hence it is that those that have been enlightened with the highest kind of light but that of saving grace, Heb. vi. 4, 5, and Heb. x., if they sin wilfully after such a knowledge of the truth,' God looks on them as those that will never repent. And therefore likewise the school gives this as the reason why the devils sin obstinately, and cannot repent, because of their full knowledge they sin with; they know all in the full latitude that it may be known, and yet go on.

2. Secondly, The vast difference that in God's account is put between sins of knowledge and of ignorance, will appear by the different respect and regard that God hath to them, in the repentance he requires and accepts for them; and that both in the acts of repentance and also in the state of grace and repentance, upon which God accepts a man, or for want of which he rejecteth him.

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First. When a man comes to perform the acts of repentance, and to humble himself for sin, and to turn from it, God exacteth not, that sins of ignorance should particularly be repented of. But if they be repented of but in the general, and in the lump, be they never so great, God accepts it. This is intimated, Ps. xix. 12, Who can understand his error? cleanse me' from my secret sins;' that was confession enough. But sins of knowledge must be particularly repented of, and confessed, and that again and again, as David was forced to do for his murder and adultery, or a man shall never have pardon. Yea, farther, greater difference will appear in regard of the state of grace and repentance, for a man may lie in a sin he doth not know to be a sin, and yet be in the state of grace, as the patriarchs in polygamy, and in divorcing their wives; but to lie in a sin of knowledge is not compatible with grace, but unless a man maintaineth a constant fight against it, hateth it, confesseth it, forsaketh it, he cannot have mercy. This cannot stand with uprightness of heart. A friend may keep correspondency with one he suspects not to be an enemy unto his friend, and be * That is, to ward off.'-ED.

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