Inadvertency in compleat Acts of crying Sins Secondly There is no pretence for Inadvertency if we had any Misgivings within or Warnings without concerning that particular Sin into which we fell afterwards much less if we cherish ill Motions till they grow too strong for us And Last of all if we repeat the same Sin frequently and contemptuously And to this I may add he cannot be said to Sin through Surprise who throws himself into the Way of Temptation even though he be conscious of his own Infirmity 3ly As to those Moral Defects which flow from natural Infirmity they will not destroy us if the Infirmity it self be pardonable There are Infirmities which we acquire Infirmities which grow stronger by Indulgence Infirmities which continue meerly because we do not take Pains to subdue them Our Moral Defects must not flow from these kinds of Infirmities but from such as considering Human Nature and the State of this World 't is impossible utterly to root out These moral Defects will do us no harm if First we take Care to settle in our Minds the Habits of those Vertues that are directly opposite to them Secondly If we watch and fight against our natural Infirmities and endeavour to reduce our Appetites even our natural Appetites within strict and narrow Bounds Thirdly If we wash off the Stains of our Slips and Defects by a general Repentance For upon the Notion I have here given of Venial Sin Repentance appears to be very necessary for I require in them something of Voluntary someting of Freedom enough to make an Action sinful though not to prove the Heart corrupt or wicked And because the Degrees of Voluntary and Involuntary are not so easily distinguishable from one another 't is plain our best security against any ill Consequence of our Defects and Frailties is a Godly Sorrow And therefore I wonder not if David charge himself more severely than God does my Sins are more in number than the hairs of my head this was a Confession that became the Humility and Sollicitude of a Penitent That became the Reflections of a wise and Perfect Man and the Corruption of Human Nature the Alloy of Human Performances the slips and Defects the Interruptions Neglects and Deviations of the best Life CHAP. VI. Of Liberty as it imports Freedom or Deliverance from Mortal Sin HERE I will Enquiry into three Things 1. What Mortal Sin is or what kind of Sins they be which are on all hands acknowledg'd to be Inconsistent with a state of Grace and Favour 2. How far the Perfect Man must be set free or deliver'd from this kind of Sins or how remote he is from the Guilt of them 3. Which way this Liberty may be best attained S. 1. The First thing necessary is to state the Notion of that Sin which passes under the Name of Mortal Wilful Presumptuous or Deliberate Sin For these in Writers are equivalent Terms and promiscuously used to signifie one and the same thing Sin saith St. John 1 Ep. 3.4 is the Transgression of the Law This is a plain and full Definition too of Sin For the Law of God is the Rule of Moral Actions 't is the Standard and Measure of Right and Wrong of moral Good and Evil whatever is not within the Compass of the Law is not within the Compass of Morality neither whatever cannot be comprehended within this Definition cannot have in it the entire and compleat Notion of Sin or which is all one it cannot be Sin in a strict proper and adequate Sense of the Word Hence St. John in the same Verse tells us That whosoer sinneth transgresseth a Law and St. Paul Rom. 4.15 where there is no Law there is no Transgression Sin then must alwaies suppose a Law without which there can be neither Vice nor Vertue Righteousness nor Wickedness For these are nothing else but the Violation or Observation of the Law of God or Habits and States resulting from the one or the other But this is not all Two Things more must be remark'd to render this Definition which the Apostle gives us of Sin clear and full First The Law must be sufficiently reveal'd Secondly The Transgression of it must be truly Voluntary 1. By sufficient Revelation of a Divine Law every one understands That the Law must be so publish'd to the Man who is to be govern'd by it that the Authority and Sense of it may be if it be not his own fault render'd evident to him If the Divine Authority of any Rule or Precept be doubtful and uncertain the Obligation of it will be so too And it is as necessary that the sense of the Law should be evident as its Authority The Law that is pen'd in dark and ambiguous Terms is properly speaking no Law at all Since the Mind of the Law-giver is not sufficiently made known by it Whatever is necessarily to be forborn or done by us must be fully and clearly prescribed in the Law of God and if it be not it can never be necessary Men through Weakness or Design may Enact Laws that are but a heap of Letters a Crowd of dubious Delphick Sentences But God can never do so because this is repugnant both to his Wisdom and Goodness and to the very End of a Law too which is to be a Rule not a Snare 't is to give Understanding to the Simple to be a Light to our Feet and a Lamp to our Paths not like an Ignis fatuus to betray us into Brakes and Precipices and Ruin and Death 2. Transgression must be a Voluntary one And this imports two Things 1. A Knowledge of Law 2. A Consent to the Breach of it First As to the Knowledge of the Law All that I have to say here in few words is That Ignorance of the Law excuses a Transgression when it is it self excusable but if the Ignorance it self be Criminal the effect of it must be so too We must never think of excusing our Sins by alledging an Ignorance into which not our own Incapacity or any other reasonable Cause but Neglect or Contempt of the Truth or some other vicious Lust or Passion has betray'd us Secondly As to the Consent of the Will This is necessary to demonstrate any Action sinful or vertuous without this the Mind will be no Partner in the Sin and by Consequence cannot be involved in the Guilt of it Whatever we cannot help is our Misfortune not our Fault Actions meerly natural or meerly forc'd can neither be good nor evil The concurrence of Reason and Choice is indispensably necessary to the Morality of an Action All this is plainly taught us by St. James 1.14 15. But every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Which words do certainly imply That the Spring and Principle of Sin is within our selves That 't is our natural Corruption that entices
10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to Man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it The Design of which Words is certainly to encourage Christians against the bigest Temptations by an Assurance of Relief from God proportionable to our Necessities and consequently must imply that if we yield to a Temptation 't is our own fault God expects we should stand firm under the highest Trials Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 But whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven Matt. 10.33 If therefore by Sins of Infirmity Men mean such as are consistent with the state of Grace i. e. such as good Men may frequently fall into without forfeiting the Peace of Conscience and the Favour of God I cannot possibly think that any Deliberate Sin can be such upon the score of the Temptation or that any of those Sins reckoned in the Catalogue Gal. 5. and Eph. 5. can be such on the account of the Violence or Perseverance with which they attack us But Secondly if by Sins of Infirmity they mean such Sins as Righteous Men are liable to I know not what they are from which they are exempted But if Lastly by Sins of Infirmity they mean such for which God is more easily entreated then there is no Question to be made but that there is a Difference in Sins which is to be estimated by the different Measures of Grace and Knowledge by the different Degrees of Deliberation and Surprise and by the Force or Weakness the Continuance or Shortness of a Temptation And Finally by the different Effects and Tendencies of Sins To all which I do not question but that the Spirit has regard in those Directions which it gives us for our Behaviour towards such as fall Gal. 6.1 Brethren if a Man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the Spirit of Meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted And of some have compassion making a difference And others save with fear pulling them out of the fire Jude 22 23. § 2. A Second sort of Actions are such as we call Involuntary that is those wherein we exercise no Deliberation no Choice Some have reduced Sins of Infirmity to this Head but with what Colour of Reason any one may judge For since Actions truly Involuntary are neither the Object of the Understanding nor Will 't is hard to conceive what Morality there can be in them The Grounds on which this Opinion is built are such as these First the Measure say they of Good and Evil is the Law of God But Involuntary and unavoidable Actions are not a proper Subject of Laws for to what purpose is it to prescribe Rules or to propose Rewards and Punishments to such Actions as are no way subject to our Choice Secondly they tell us 't is inconsistent with the Goodness of God and the Riches of Gospel Grace to impute those things to a Man as Damnable Sins which fall not within the Compass of his Power of Deliberation Now I must confess I am so far from denying any Actions that can lay a just claim to this Apology to be Venial that I cannot forbear thinking that they are not sinful For where there is no Law there is no Transgression But how does this way of arguing for the Excusableness of Involuntary Transgressions consist with those other Doctrines which they maintain concerning them namely That we are bound to Repentance for them That these Sins are not Venial in their own Nature but only through the Favour of God For the Law taken in its Rigour denounces Death against all Sin in general without Limitation or Exception so that if God should judge rigorously even Involuntary Sin would fall under that Sentence the wages of Sin is Death This I must confess seems to me very incoherent For if an Action be of that Nature that it cannot properly be the Matter or Subject of a Law how can it fall under the Condemnation of Law If it be of that Nature that it is incapable of any Moral Regulation nor subject to the Influence of Reward or Punishment how can it be meer Matter of Grace that a Man is not Damned for it In a word if an Action be truly and properly Involuntary it can by no means be Sin and if it be Voluntary it is subject to the Regulation of Laws 'T is a proper Instance of Deliberation and Freedom and capable of Rewards and Punishments And the Truth is the one needs no Apology and the other is not capable of any the one is a Mortal Sin and the other no Sin at all And therefore we must look for Venial Sin in some other Species of Action § 3. The last Class of Actions are those which are of a mixt Nature partly Voluntary and partly Involuntary And here I think we must place Sins of Infirmity by whatever Names we may call them For these surely if they are be rankt as by all they are amongst Actual Sins must be such Actions as have in them something of Voluntary something of Involuntary much of Human Frailty and something of Sinful much of unavoidable and something of Moral Obliquity These are the Transgressions which the Scripture seems to me to intend by Errors Defects Slips Motes the Spots of God's Children and these certainly if any must be the Sins that can consist with a state of Grace For these do not imply a Deliberate Wickedness in the Will much less an Habitual one nay they do not include in them any Wickedness at all strictly speaking but are truly the Effects of Human Frailty and the unhappy Circumstances of this Mortal Life Thus then I describe a Venial Sin it has in it so much of Voluntary as to mak it Sin so much of Involuntary as to make it Frailty it has so much of the Will in it that it is capable of being reduced and yet so much of Necessity in it it is never utterly to be extirpated it has some thing in it Criminal enough to oblige us to watch against it repent of it and yet so much in it pitiable and excusable as to entitle us to Pardon under the Covenant of Grace And thus I distinguish Venial from Mortal Sin Mortal Sin proceeds from a Heart either Habitually corrupted or deceived and captived for the time but Venial Sin results from the Imperfections and Infelicities of our Nature and our State Mortal Sin is truly Voluntary and Deliberate in the Rice and Birth of it and mischievous and injurious in its Consequence But
and allures us and 't is our Consent to its Enticements that gives Being to Sin and defiles us with Guilt From all this now put together 't is easie to conclude what sort of a Description we are to form of Mortal Sin 'T is such a Transgression of the Law of God as is vicious in its Original deliberate in its Commission and Mischievous in its Tendencies or Effects The Heart is corrupted and misled by some Lust or other and so consents to the Breach of the Moral Law of God a Law of Eternal and Immutable Goodness or if the Sin consists in the Breach of any Positive Law it must yet imply in it some moral Obliquity in the Will or in the Tendency of the Action or both So that Presumptuous or Mortal Sin call it by what Name we Will is a Deliberate Transgression of a known Law of God tending to the Dishonour of God the Injury of our Neighbour or the Depravation of our Nature Such are those sins which the Prophet Isaiah exhorts those who will repent to cease from And such are those we have a Catalogue of Eph. 5. Gal. 5. and elsewhere Now the Works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such-like These are the sins of which as of so many Members the Body of sin consists These constitute the old Man These are sometimes called the filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit Vngodliness Wickedness Iniquity the Lusts of the Flesh worldly Lusts and such-like These and the like sins have as I said in them very apparent Symptoms of Malignity and Mortality They are always the Effect of some carnal and worldly Lusts prevailing over the Law of the Mind and they imply a contempt of God Injustice to our Neighbour and some kind of Defilement and Pollution of our Nature And that these are the plain Indications of such a Guilt as excludes a Man from Heaven and the Favour of God is very plain from the account which the Scripture gives us both of the Origine and Influence of sin from the Care it takes to fortifie the Heart against all Infection from the constant Representations it makes us of the shamefulness and the Mischief of sin even in Reference to this World as well as the other I cannot see any thing further necessary to the Explication of Deliberate or Presumptuous sin unless it be here fit to add That it is Mortal though it proceed no further than the Heart There is no need at all that it should be brought forth into Action to render it Fatal and Damnable This is evident not only from the Nature of Divine Worship which must be entire sincere and spiritual and therefore can no more be reconciled to the Wickedness of our Hearts than of our Actions but also from the express words of our Saviour Out of the Heart proceed Fornication Adultery Theft c. And elsewhere he pronounces the Adultery of the Heart Damnable as well as that of the Body Mat. 5.28 But I say unto you that whosoever looketh upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery already with her in his Heart S. 2. I am next to give some account of the Liberty of Perfect Man in reference to the sin I have been discoursing of I shall not need to stop at any General or Preliminary Observations as That Abstinence from sin regards all the Commandments of God alike and to do otherwise were to mutilate and maim Religion and to dishonour God while we pretend to worship and obey Him For the Breach of any single Commandment is a manifest Violation of the Majesty and Authority of God whatever Observance we may pay all the rest For he that said do not commit Adultery said also do not kill Now if thou commit no Adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a transgressor of the Law Jam. 2.11 That the Restraints Man is to lay upon himself relate no less to the Lusts of the Soul than the Actions of the Body Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.10 That to begin well will avail us little unless we finish well too Universality Sincerity and Perseverance are generally acknowledged to be essential and indispensable Properties of Saving Justifying Faith These things therefore being but just mentioned I proceed to the Point to be enquir'd into and resolve 1. To be free from the Dominion and Power of Mortal Sin is the first and lowest step this is indispensable to sincerity and absolutely necessary to Salvation Let not Sin reign in your mortal Bodies to fulfil the Lusts thereof Rom. 6.12 And the advancing thus far does I acknowledge constitute Man in a state of Grace For in Scripture Men are Denominated righteous or wicked not from single Acts of Vice or Vertue but from the Prevalence and Dominion from the Habit or Custom of the one or the other know ye not that to whom ye yeild your selves Servants to obey his Servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of Sin unto Death or of Obedience unto Righteousness Rom. 6.16 But then I must here add two Remarks by way of Caution 1st We must not presume too soon of Victory over an Habitual Sin An evil Habit is not soon broken off nor is it an easie Matter to resolve when we have set our selves free from the Power of it Sometimes the Temptation does not present it self as often as it was wont or not with the same Advantages sometimes one Vice restrains us from another sometimes worldly Considerations or some little Change in our Temper without any thorough Change in our Minds puts us out of humour for a little while with a darling Sin and sometimes the Force and Clearness of Conviction produces some pious Fits which though they do not utterly vanquish a Lust do yet force it to give way and retreat for a while and interrupt that Love which they do not exstinguish All this may be and the work not yet be done nor our Liberty yet gain'd If therefore we fall though but now and then and though at some Distance of time into the same sin we have great reason to be jealous of its Power and our Safety Nay though we restrain our selves from the outward Commission of it if yet we feel a strong Propension to it if we discern our selves ready to take fire on the Appearance of a Temptation if we are fond of approaching as near it as we can and are pleas'd with those Indulgencies which are very near a kin to it we have reason to doubt that our Conquest is not yet entire Nay the Truth is we cannot be on good Grounds assured that we are Masters of our selves till we have a setled Aversion for the sin which before we doted on and shun the Occasions which before