condition Sixthly and lastly There was murder in this sin for Adam kill'd himselfe and all his posterity For by one man sin entred into the World and death by sin so that in him all have sinned and so all dyed therfore Adams sin was so cloathed with hainous aggravations that made it very great Look on Davids sin in numbring the people it was a very small sin and indeed interpreters justifie the fact in it selfe it was no sin for a King to number his Army yet there were some circumstances with which this fact was cloathed that made Davids fact very sinfull there were six hainous aggravations in that fact of Davids numbring the people First of all there was pride and vain glory this Tostatus saith that pride and vain glory was Davids sin Secondly There was carnal dependance in his sin he would number his people that seeing how strong he was he might depend on the multitude this saith Zanchius was Davids sin too Thirdly There was covetousnesse in the sin too Zanchius saith this was Davids sin It is observable that when in Israel the souldiers were mustered and the subjects numbred there was a tax by pole that every one should pay this was Davids sin that he would needlesly number the people for covetousnesse sake Fourthly There was curiosity for David did a needlesse act for what need David know every particular man in his kingdome Ioab said to David 1 Chron. 21. 4. Why doth my Lord require this thing why wilt thou muster up thy forces in a time of peace we are all true and loyall to thee yet vain curiosity made David do it Fifthly there was the sin of sacriledge this Zanchius notes for when the people were numbred there was to be given for the use of the Sanctuary halfe a shekel as you have the story Exod. 30. 12. When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number then shall they give every man a ransome for his soule unto the Lord when thou numbrest them that there be no plague amongst them when thou numbrest them Vers 13. This they shall give every one that passeth among them that are numbred halfe a shekel after the shekel of the Sanctuary compare this with Exod. 38. 25. And the silver of the that were numbred of the Congregation was an hundred talents and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels after the shekel of the Sanctuary c. David some suppose did defraud the Sanctuary of that mony Sixthly In this sin there was an express breach of Gods Law this Deodat saith for his Law was the people should not be numbred that were under 20 years but only those above 20 years now David did number those that were under 20 year Exo. 30 14 Every one that passeth among them that are numbred from 20 years old and above shall give an offering unto the Lord Numb 1. 3. From 20 years old and upward all that are able to goe forth to war in Israel Now David numbring those that were under those years did transgresse the command of God That is a third consideration to you that say you never run into scandalous sins yet consider that little sins may bee so aggravated by circumstances as that they become grievous suppose thy sin be secret lust and passion and secret pride thy sins may have such circumstances as to make them great suppose thy sins be against checks of conscence they are great sins because they are against Gods officer in man Conscience is Gods officer in thee and Gods Register and Vicegerent in man and for thee to controll thine own conscience against the accusations and against the convictions and checks of thy conscience though the sin be but a smal trifie yet it is very great He that doubteth is damned if he eats The Apostle saith it is no sin to eat meat but if thou thinkest it is a sin to eat meat and dost it thou sinnest against conscience If thy conscience telleth thee that it is unlawfull to do this or that and yet thou wilt venture on it the Apostle saith He that doubteth is damned if he eats If thou doest any any thing against the rebukes of conscience it is a great crime because conscience is Gods Officer in thee to eat meat is but a trifle the Question was whether they might eat meat offered to an idoll the Apostle saith they might do it I but suppose conscience in a man might say I am perswaded that if I should eat this meat that was offered to an Idoll I should approve of Idolatary then saith the Apostle thou art damned if thou eat to shew that if in so small a thing as eating flesh then in other matters also if thy conscience telleth thee that thou sinnest if doest it and yet doest it thy little sin is become a great sin Secondly the smallest sin may be aggravated if there be a complacency in thy heart to a small sin A small sin that is indulged is a more aggravating sin then a greater sin thou doest fall into with resistance It is very observable in Lev. 13. 12. And if a leprosie break out abroad in the skin and the leprosie cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even unto his foot wheresoever the Priest looketh Ainsworth admires and wonders what God intends by this Law the meaning is the leprosie betokens sinne Now if the leprosie or the plague or the small pox if it comes out into a scab and comes into the flesh and strikes outward there is no disease within but then there is danger when sores strike inward and do not come out in the flesh this Law hath this use in it if the leprosie were onely on the skin the man was not unclean though there was sin in his life yet sin was not in his heart I but saith God if the scab be in sight deeper then the skin then pronounce him unclean to shew if sin be in thy heart and in thy life too though it be but a small sin yet it is a sin that will damn thee If I regard iniquity in my heart Psal 66. 18. the Lord will not hear me Therefore you that are morall men that say you thank God that you have not broke out into grosse sins consider though sin be small yet your small sins may have such circumstances as may make them very great sinning against your consciences or else sin seising upon the heart Fourthly to morall men that a great and grosse sinner may be pardoned when morall men who never brake out into such grosse wickednesse may live and dye in an unpardoned estate I will give you tow instances the one of the Pharisee and the other of the young man in the the Gospell First of the Pharisee in Luk. 18. I thanke God saith he I am no extortioner no drunkard no adulterer I am not this nor that the Pharisee was a man that never broke out into
of God in thy esteem A famous story of Austin when God converted him and smote his conscience for the vanity of his youth how doth he aggravate his sin when he was a boy for robbing of an Orchard he doth aggravate that sin with many circumstances First I robbed an Orchard meerly out of vanity not out of need to steale for need is more tolerable though not justifiable but when he had enough that was vanity then it was not for the goodnesse of the fruit but meerly for the lust of the eye then I did not rob the Orchard alone but I got others with me then it was an unseasonable time of night then he went to rob the Orchard after he had spent all the day in vain sport then what they could not eat they gave to the hogs then saith he I wronged and injured an honest neighbour that never did me wrong O see how hee clothed that sin with many hainous crimes and circumstances canst not thou cloath thy uncleannesse thy oppression thy extortion thy unjust dealing with hainous circumstances let me direct you a little in this rule First To aggravate thy sin consider all sins against the manifestation of Gods love are great when God speaks peace to thee if thou shouldst then return to foolishnesse Psal 85. 8. this greatnes sin it was an aggravation of Solomons sin that he sinned against the Lord after God had revealed himselfe twice to him 1 King 11. 9. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel which had appeared to him twice Secondly It aggravates sin when you commit a sin upon a slight temptation for a man to sin when he hath little or no provocation that greatens sin What made the sin of the Devil so great it was this that those Angels had none to tempt them for thee to follow the stews for thee to follow thy lusts when the Devil doth not tempt thee to doe it when the provocation is meerly from thine own heart this greatens a mans sin and thus in the Prophet Micah that men should sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a paire of shoes O when thou shalt recollect and say how have I dishonoured God how have I run the hazard of an immortall soul when the Devil hath laid no temptation to me this greatens sins exceedingly A third thing to greaten sin by is when a man doth sin against the checks and rebukes of his own conscience Conscience saith doe not sin doe not wickedly and the man saith I must I must I shall lose all else When Conscience shall arrest thee and accuse thee of sin and thou shalt stifle and put by all this aggravates thy sin Fourthly The frequency of the acts of sinne to commit a sin once is not so much but to fall often into the same sin this greatens sin Fifthly Complacency of heart in sin when sin is not onely the sin of thy practise and of thy life but thou delightest in sin if sin be rivetted and rooted in thy heart thou art unclean canst thou go to God say Lord what grace is here land what mercy is here that thou hast pardoned great transgressions and those sins that I can aggravate by many hainous circumstances I have read my pardon and yet I have now blotted my pardon canst thou say I have sinned and upon a very trivial occasion and on a smal temptation I am a drudge to the Devil on an easie temptation when the Devill can draw thee by a silken thread to a sin O it is a great aggravation when Conscience arrests thee for sin and thou wilt still be stifling the cries of conscience would you greaten sin you are in a ready way to greaten mercy pardoning grace that is a 4th direction Fifthly If God doth out of the riches of his grace pardon aggravated sins take you heed that when you have obtained great and gracious pardons for great and grievous sins you do not extenuate your sins do not say of your sins as Lot of Zoar Is not this a little one doe not say of wilfull enormities as Jacob did Peradventure it was an oversight do not mince the matter and doe not lessen sin but greaten sin The reason why thou shouldst not doe it consider first by extenuating sin and making it smal and little in your eye you will lessen the greatnesse of Gods pardoning grace who will value the skill and Physick of a kitchin woman That Physitian is valued that can cure a deadly and dangerous disease when a mans spirits are gone and strength is consumed the Physician is prized thou by lessening thy sin dost lessen pardoning grace 2. By the extenuating thy sin thou doest lessen the value of Christs bloud 3. Thou wilt lessen thine own repentance and humiliation for what man will labour after great humiliation for small transgessions therfore there is a world of wrong done to thy own soule when God hath pardoned great transgressions if thou shouldst extenuate and lessen the greatness of thy evils Sixthly Content not your selves with slight and superciall repentance so falling into great and gross evils be not like Lewis the eleventh King of France when he did an evill against his conscience he pulled off his hat and tooke his Crucifixe and cryed God mercy for what he had done so many men if they can but cry God mercy in ordinary and generall tearms they think they have made a Compensation to Divine Justice And thus have I done with the second branch of the use in these six particulars The third and the last branch shall be by way of Consolation to troubled and perplexed Consciences that by reason of their falling into aggravated and hainous sins do entertain doubtfull thoughts of their own pardon five Consolations I shall lay down to you from the scripture who have repented of great and many sins First Consider for thy comfort that conversion and repentance for sin before God wipes off the ignominy and the infamy of thy former miscarriages suppose thou hast been an ignominious notorious soul creature yet repentance puts a vail over thy ignominious lusts Secondly Take this for thy comfort that Jesus Christ doth manifest more love to those men who have fallen into gross sin after repentance and humiliation then he did to any other sorts of men in the world It is observable of Peter Peter did sin more then all the Disciples unless Judas that was the cast-away after Peter did humble himselfe and repent of his denyall Christ did shew more love to Peter then to all the other Disciples First Christ appeared to Peter after his Resurrection before he appeared to any other so Paul tels you in 1 Cor. 15. 5. And that he was scen of Cephas and then of the twelve there was love in Christ Peter did deny but three daies before and Peter must first see him Again When Christ was risen from the dead
gave it her and came in unto her and she conceived by him Then you read of Rachab a common harlot in Heb. 11. 31. By faith the Harlot Rachab perished not with them that beleeved not when she had received the spies with peace Matth. 1. 5. And Salmon begat Boaz of Rachab c. A third woman mentioned in the Genealogy is Ruth what was she she was not so infamous as the rest were yet she ran into a grievous scandal Ruth came of Moab whom Lot begat of his own daughter you have the story in the Book of Genesis 19. 36. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their Father vers 37. And the first borne bare a Son and called his name Moab What was she for her person she was a good woman but as all Divines observe of her she did an action that had appearance of evill what did she read the story in the third of Ruth beginning at verse 5. c. the story saith that she came alone at midnight to Boaz there was an action full of infamy which was a shamefull thing that a woman should come to a man lying alone Secondly she came and lay by him in the night season but it is true the Scripture câ—ears her for any thing following vers 14. And she lay at his feet untill morning and she rose up before one could know another there was no vanity no folly and no evill yet it was a grievous scandall for a woman to be with a man and Boaz did fear the scandall of it too yet this woman is reckoned in the Genealogy of Christ The fourth woman is Bathsheba she was unclean with David What is the Mystery of this truely all Interpreters give this There are but four women named in the genealogy al of them blame-worthy some in a higher and some in a lower degree and it is recorded that Christ came from these four to take off the ignominy and infamy of your sins that you have fallen into before conversion suppose God should suffer thee to fall into execrable villanies reall and sound conversion to God takes off the reproach and ignominy therefore Christ to take off the ignominy and reproach from these women would honour them so far as to reckon them in his own Genealogy The point was this That such are the riches of Gods pardoning grace that hee forgives his people the great sins that are cloathed with many hainous and aggravated circumstances Now lest any might abuse this Doctrine and suck poyson from these flowers that are mâ—st sweetly scattered up and down the Scripture I shall labour so to handle the matter as to keep off presumptuous men that they be not emboldned in a wicked course of sin Therefore my use shall be to two sorts of men Use 1 First of all it shall bee directed to morall and civill honest men if God doth forgive men great sinnes cloathed with many hainoâ—s and aggravated circumstances as Davids sinne was as Peters sinne was and Paul sinnes were then I have great hopes of pardon mine are but sinnes of an ordinarie incursion therefore I have hopes my sinnes are pardoned because they have not been crying great sins First of all consider That God hath shewn as much displeasure against small and little sins as against greater and grosser enormities I will give you some instances First of the neglect of Moses to circumcise his son one would think that for forbearing the circumcising of a childe when a man was in a journey and had urgent businesse lying upon him his businesse should have been a plea to excuse him yet for the bare omission of that on the eight day the Lord met him and would have killed him Exod 4. 24. And it came to passe by the way in the Ione that the Lord met him and sought to kill him Another time thâ— Psalmist tels us of Moses sin in the wilderness Moses spake unadvisedly with his lips onely a rash word and what was the issue of that sin the Lord would never suffer Moses to enter into the land of Canaan Another instance of Uxzah one would thinke it but â—mail thing for Vzzah to put his hand to uphold the falling Arke it was out of a good intention that the Arke should not fall yet you know how the hand of God smote Uzzah for it So likewise of David you would thinke it but a small matter for a King to number his people yet you know how many thousands in Israel God did take away by the Plague for that very sin so that beloved suppose thou hast not fallen into hideous and hainous wickednesses yet thou seest little sins displease God as well as great because sin though little yet is against a great God and little sins displease as well as great Secondly That though grosse sins may carry a greater infamy yet little secret sins may carry a greater guilt in them to God Beloved the sin of Angels it was but a small sin a spirituall sin onely one sin and a sin in thought too not of act yet you know that for that sin God did tumble the Angels out of heaven Indeed gross sins carry a greater infamy but little small sins may carry as great a guilt Third Consideration is this That small and little sins may be aggravated and cloathed with such cricumstances as may make them great two instances in Adams sin and Davids sin First Adams sin you would account it a small matter to eat an apple or some other fruit but yet that small fact of eating the forbidden fruit was so cloathed with many circumstances which made it a great and grievous sin for First if you consider the state of Adam he was not as we are but Adam was a perfect and an innocent creature and it is a greater evill for a perfect creature to sin then for us that are imperfect Secondly Consider the place where Adam was it was in Paradise and yet there to sin Thirdly Consider the publicknesse of his person hee did not sin for himself but in his sin we all sinned for a private man to sin is an evill but for a publicke person representing other men his sin is other mens sin Fourthly How many aggravations were in the bowels of Adams sin there are six First There was unbliefe in his sin God did not tell them with an if or an and but told them peremptorily they should dye Secondly There was this aggravation that Adam did believe the Devil before God Thirdly there was pride in this sin for saith the Devill Ye shall be as Gods and that pleased them it was not enough to be man and woman but they must be gods Fourthly There was curiosity in that sin You shall be as gods knowing good and evil now out of meer curiosity to know more then they did know though they knew enough to make them happy and blessed did they plunge themselves into this sin Fifthly They were not contented with their