Twenty Sermons, Sermon 4
AD AULAM. Sermon IV.
BEVVOYR JULY 1636.
Psalm 19.13.
Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins: Let them not have dominion over me. So shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
1. THis Psalm is one of Davids Meditations. That it is Davids, we have it from aTo the chief Musician, a Psalm of David ▪ verse 1.the Title in the beginning: That it is a Meditation, from bLet—and meditation of my heart be, &c. verse 14.the close in the end of it. Now there are but two things especially, whereon to employ our meditations with profit, (to the right knowledg whereof cCalvin. 1. Instit. 1. Huic duplici considerationi tota hac vestra vacatio tribuatur: sicut Sanctus orabat, Deus, Noverim me, Noverim te. Bernard. serm. 2. de diversis.some have therefore reduced the whole body of Divinity:) God, and our selves. And the meditation is then most both compleat and fruitful, when it taketh in both. Which is to be done; either viâ ascensus, when we begin below and at our selves, and so build upwards, raising our thoughts higher to the contemplation of God: or viâ decensus: when we begin aloft and with him, and so work downwards, drawing our thoughts home upon our selves.
2. This later is the method of this Psalm: in the former part whereof David beginneth as high, as at the most Highest; and then descendeth as low as to himself, in the later. For the succouring of his Meditations there, he maketh use of the aEst Natura liber primus, Scriptura secundus: Altera Posse docens, altera Velle Dei. Jo. Rai. chiliad. Epigr.two great Books: that of Nature, or of the Works of God; and that of Scripture, or of the Word of God. In that, he readeth the Power: in this, the Will of his Maker. That declareth his Glory: this revealeth his Pleasure. That from the beginning of the Psalm, (The heavens declare the glory of God &c.) to the end of the sixth verse: This from the beginning of the seventh verse (The Law of the Lord is perfect &c.—) to the end of the eleventh verse.
3. Hence coming to reflect upon himself, he hath now use of aVnicui que est liber sua conscientia: & ad hunc librum discutiendum▪ & emendandum▪ omnes alij inventi sunt. Bern de inter. domo. c. 28.a third Book; that of his own conscience, wherein are enrolled the principal acts and passages of his whole life: That by a just service of the particulars therein enregistred, he might observe what proportion he had held in the course of his by-past life, both with that actual obedience, which some other creatures perform in their kindes, as also (and that especially) with that b— Conferamus ita que libros nost…os cum libro vitae. Ibid.exact obedience, which the Law of God requireth in his word. At the very first opening whereof, before he read a line of the particulars, his known sins presenting them in such numberless troops unto his thoughts, besides a world of unknown ones: as not a little agast to see so large a Roll so full and so thick written (intus & à tergo;) he is forced to break out into this passionate acknowledgment, Quis intelligit? What living soule is able to understand all his errors? Who can tell how oft he hath offended? in the next former verse.
4. But quid tristes querimoniae? Misery findeth small ease in bare and barren aforeign. Homer. Iliad. foreign.complaints: it rather craveth real and speedy succour. The Prophet therefore upon the first apprehension of the multitude of his sins, instantly addresseth himself unto God for remedy by Prayer. And his suit therein is double: the one for Mercy, for the time past; the other for Grace, for the time to come. The one, that he might be freed from the guilt and defilement of the sins he had hitherto done, known or unknown: (O cleanse thou me even from my most secret sins:) in the remainder of that verse. The other, that he might be preserved from contracting the guilt or falling under the dominion of any sin thence forward, especially of any high grievous presumptuous sin, in this thirteenth verse (keep back— &c.
5. The words then are a Prayer: wherein we may observe distinctly and apart, the Object matter of the Prayer, the Petitions made concerning that Object; and the Reasons brought to enforce those Petitions. The Particulars in all five. First, and principally, the Object matter of the whole Prayer; those sins, concerning and against which the Prayer is made: stiled here in our translations, Presumptuous Sins. Secondly, and Thirdly, two Petitions concerning those sins: The one antecedently, that God would not suffer him to fall into them, [keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins;] 3. The other by way of reserve, that at least he would not suffer him to fall under the dominion of them, [Let them that have dominion over me.] Fourthly, and fifthly, two Reasons fitted to the aforesaid Petitions. The one fitted to the former Petition, taken from his relative condition, as being one of Gods servants. Of all sorts of men, Presumption is most hatefull in a servant; and such am I to thee O Lord: keep back thy servant therefore from presumptuous sins. 5. The other Reason fitted to the later Petition, taken from the benefit he should reap by the grant. If God should please to keep him free from the dominion of those sins, he should not doubt (his many failings otherwise notwithstanding) but by his mercy to stand rectus in curiâ, innocent and upright (through his gracious acceptation) from the great transgression of totall and finall Apostacy. [Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.]
6. My purpose is not, to treat of each of those particulars, as I have proposed them, apart: but to insist principally, upon that which is the most principal, to which also (as being the common matter or argument of the whole verse,) they do all in some sort referr, and upon that account will be occasionally taken in every one of them somewhere or other in our passage, in the handling thereof; I mean the Object; here expressed by the name of Presumptuous sins. Wherein I know not how to proceed, more pertinently to the scope of the Text, and profitably to edification; then by making this threefold plain discovery. First, of the Nature of these sins; that we may the sooner learn to know them: Secondly, of their danger; that we may be the more carefull to shun them: and Thirdly, of the means of their prevention; that by the help of God we may be the better able to escape them.
7. Some difference there is in the reading. Which as I may not wholy baulke; (for without the clearing of that, all the ensuing discourse might be suspected to labour of impertinency:) so I shall not long insist upon; for the profit would not countervail the pains. The Septuagint have, foreign, and the Vulgar Latine following them, ab alienis parce— &c. Some of the Fathers, and most of the Expositors of the middle and later Ages, led (as commonly they are) by one of those Translations, conceive the meaning, as if David had here prayed, to be kept from communicating with other men in their sins, and from enwraping himself (by any kinde or degree of consent) within the guilt of their transgressions. Which truly is a very needfull prayer; and the thing it self worthy the care of every good man. But this difference needeth not hinder us in our proposed passage. First, because, although that were granted the truer reading, the words might yet without much enforcement bear a construction agreeable to our present entendment: and accordingly aSensus ferè idem est. Bellarm. hîc.some that follow that reading have so understood them. But secondly, and especially, because the mistake in the Greek and Latin translations grew apparently from the neer affinity of character between the two Hebrew letters foreign and foreign which hath occasioned the like mistake in sundry other words, noted in the bSee Engelbert. Eng. praefat. ad Schindler. lex. pentaglot.Hebrew Lexicons: and some also between these very words cAs Mal 3.15; 4.1. Zach. 12.10, &c.Zarim and Zadim in other places of Scripture, as well as in this. But since the constant reading in all Copies extant is with Daleth and not Resh; and so not onelyonly the old Hebrew Doctors, with dVatablus, Junius, &c.the learnedest Expositors of this last Age, but some of the ancient Fathers also, eS. Hieron. vertit. à Superbis. Bellarm.St Hierom by name (who was among them all incomparably the best skilled in the Original) have expounded it: we need not put our selves to any farther business for this matter, but take the common reading as it is in our English translations both Old and New, [Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins.
8. And then the first thing we have to do, is to lay open the Nature of these presumptuous sins: for that is ever the first question that every man will ask concerning any thing proposed to debate under any name or notion; What doth that name or word import? To presume then, in the common use and notion of the word with us, importeth ever a kinde of confidence or boldness in the Presumer. And it may be taken, either in a good, or in a bad sense: but more usually in the bad; as (by reason of common abuses) most other indifferent words are. He that hath a fast friend, that he thinketh will support him, will sometimes adventure upon an undertaking, which he is not able to go through with all alone, nor durst undergo, if he had not such a friend to rely upon. When a man doth so; we say, he presumeth upon that friend: that is, he is confident, that friend will not fail to assist him therein to his utmost power: Now if a man be bold to do but what he may and should do, and that withall he have some good ground for his confidence, (from the consideration of his friends ability, the experience of his love, some former promises on his friends, or merit on his own part, or other like) so as every man would be ready to say he had reason to presume so far of his friend: this is a good, reasonable, and warrantable presumption. But if he fail in either respect, as if he presume either to do unlawful, unworthy, or unbefitting things; or to do even lawful things, when there appeareth no great cause why any man should think his friend obliged by the laws of friendship to assist him therein: then is such his presumption, a faulty and an evil presumption. And whatsoever may bear the name of a Presumptuous sin in any respect, is some way or other tainted with such an evil irrational presumption.
9. But we are further to note, that presumption in the worser sense, and as applied to sin, may be taken either Materially, or Formally. If these termes seem obscure; with a little opening I hope the difference between these two will be easily understood. Taken materially, the sin of Presumption is a speciall kinde of sin, distinguished from other species of sins by its proper Object or Matter: when the very matter wherein we sin, and wherby we offend God, is Presumption: and so it is a branch of Pride. When a man presuming either upon his own strength, or upon Gods assisting him, undertaketh to do something of himself, not having in himself (by the ordinary course of nature, and the common aid which God affoordeth to the actions of his creatures in the ordinary wayes of his providence) sufficient strength to go through therewithall: or expecteth to receive some extraordinary assistance from the Mercy, Power &c. of God, not having any sufficient ground (either from the general promises conteined in the Scriptures, or by particular immediate revelation) that God will certainly so assist him therein.
10. All those men, that over-value themselves, or out of an overweening conceit of their own abilities attempt things beyond their power; That lean to their own understandings, as Solomon;Prov. 3.5. Rom. 12.16. Psal. 131.1. That minde high things, and are wise in their own conceits, as St Paul; That exercise themselves in great matters, and such as are too high for them, as David expresseth it. All those that perswade themselves they can persist in a holy course without a continual supply of Grace; or that think they can continue in their sins so long as they think good, and then repent of them and forsake them at their leasure whensoever they list; or that doubt not but to be able by their own strength to stand out against any temptation: All these I say, and all other like, by presuming too much upon themselves, are guilty of the sin of Presumption: To omit the Poëts, who have set forth the folly of this kind of Presumption in the Fables of Phaethon, and Icarus: A notable example we have of it in the Apostle Peter, (and therein a fair warning for others not to be high minded but to fear) who in the great confidence of his own strength,Rom. 11.20. could not believe his Master (though he knew him to be the God of truth) when he foretold him he would yield; but still protested,Mat. 26.33. that if all the world should forsake him, yet he would never do it.Praesumptio non modò circ… proprias vires, sed etiam circa divinam potentiam vel misericordiam, contingere potest. Aquin. 22. qu. 21.1.
11. Nor onelyonly may a man offend in this kinde, by presuming upon himself too much: but also by presuming even upon God himself without warrant. He that repenteth truly of his sins, presuming of Gods mercy in the forgiveness thereof; or that walketh uprightly and conscionably in the wayes of his calling, presuming of Gods Power for his protection therein; sinneth not in so presuming. Such a presumption is a fruit of Faith, and a good presumption: because it hath a sure ground, a double sure ground for failing; first in the Nature, and then in the Promise of God. As a man may with good reason presume upon his friend, that he will not be wanting to him in any good office, that by the just Laws of true friendship one friend ought to doe for another. But, as he presumeth too much upon his friend, that careth not into what desperate exigents and dangers he casteth himself, in hope his friend will perpetually redeem him, and relieve him at every turne: So who ever trusteth to the Mercy, or to the Power of God, without the warrant of a promise, presumeth farther then he hath cause: and though he may flatter himself, and call it by some better name, as Faith, or Hope, or Affiance in God; yet is it in truth no better then a groundless and a wicked Presumption. Act. 13.—16.Such was the presumption of those Sons of Sceva, who took upon them (but to their shame and sorrow) to call over them that had evil spirits the name of the Lord Iesus in a form of adjuration Acts 19. when they had no calling or warrant from God so to do. And all those men, that going on in a wretched course of life, do yet hope they shall finde mercy at the houre of death: All those that cast themselves into unnecessary either dangers or temptations, with expectance that God should manifest his extraordinary Power in their preservation: All those that promise to themselves the End without applying themselves to the Means that God hath appointed thereunto; (as to have Learning without Study, Wealth without Industry, comfort from children without carefull education &c.) for as much as they presume upon Gods help without sufficient warrant, are guilty of the Sin of Presumption, taken in the former notion, and Materially.
12. But I conceive the Presumptuous sins here in the Text to belong clearly to the other notion of the word Presumption, taken formally, and as it importeth (not a distinct kinde of sin in it self, as that Groundless Presumption whereof we have hitherto spoken doth, but) a common accidentall difference, that may adhere to sins of any kinde: even as Ignorance and Infirmity, (whereunto it is opposed,) also may. Theft and Murther, which are sins of speciall kinds, distinguished either from other by their special and proper Objects; are yet both of them capable of these common differences: in as much as either of them may be committed, as sometimes through Ignorance, and sometimes through Infirmity, so also sometimes through wilfulness or Presumption.
13. The distribution of Sins into sins of Ignorance, of Infirmity, and of Presumption, Aquin. 1.2. qu. 76. &c.is very usual, and very usefull, and compleat enough without the addition (which some make) of a fourth sort, to wit, Sins of Negligence or Inadvertency, all such sins being easily reducible to some of the former three. The ground of the distinction is laid in the Soule of man; wherein there are three distinct prime faculties, from which all our actions flow: the Vnderstanding, the Will, and the sensual Appetite or Affections. If nothing were amiss in any of these, all our actions issuing thence would be perfect, and free from all stain of sin. But it is a truth, and our misery, that in this state of corruption the whole soule is out of frame, and all the faculties thereof depraved. Much Blindness and Errour in the Vnderstanding; much Rashness and Impetuousness in the Affections; much stubbornness and perversness in the Will: which rendreth our whole lives full of Swervings, Weaknesses, and Rebellions. Yea by reason of the joynt concurrence of those three faculties in their operations: there is in most sinfull actions, (especially those that are compleatly such) a mixture of Ignorance, Infirmity, and Wilfulness or Presumption. Whence it is, that all Sins are in the Scriptures indefinitely and indifferently called, sometimes Errors, sometimes Infirmities, and sometimes Rebellions.
14. But when we would speak more exactly of these three differences, and so as to distinguish them one from another by their proper appellations: the enquiry must be, when a sin is done, where the fault lay most; and thence it must have the right denomination. 1. If the Vnderstanding be most in fault, not apprehending that good it should, or not aright: the sin so done, though possibly it may have in it somewhat both of Infirmity and Presumption with all, is yet properly a Sin of Ignorance. 2. If the main fault be in the affections, through some sudden passion or perturbation of minde; blinding, or corrupting, or but outrunning the Judgement; as of Fear, Anger, Desire, Ioy, or any of the rest: the Sin thence arising, though perhaps joyned with some Ignorance or Presumption withall, is yet properly a sin of Infirmity. 3. But if the Understanding be competently informed with knowledge, and not much blinded or transported with the incursion of any sudden, or violence of any vehement perturbation, so as the greatest blame must remain upon the untowardness of the Will, resolvedly bent upon the Evill: the Sin arising from such Wilfulness, though probably not free from all mixture of Ignorance and infirmity withall, is yet properly a wilfull Presumption; such a Presumptuous sin, as we are now in treaty of.
15. Rules are soonest learned, and best remembred, when illustrated with fit Examples. And of such, the rich storehouse of the Scripture affordeth us in each kinde, variety and choice enough: whence it shall suffice us to propose but one eminent one of each sort. The Men, all of them for their holiness, of singular and worthy renown: David, S. Peter, and S. Paul. The Sins, all of them for their matter, of the greatest magnitude: Murthering of the innocent, Abnegation of Christ, Persecution of the Church. Pauls persecution, a grievous Sin, yet a Sin of Ignorance, Peters denial, a grievous Sin, yet a Sin of Infirmity: Davids Murther a far more grievous sin then either of both, because a sin of Presumption.
16. St Paul before his conversion, whilest he was Saul, persecuted and wasted the Church of God to the utmost of his power: making havock of the professors of Christ,Gal. 1.13. entring into their very houses, and aforeign. Chrys. ibid. Acts 9 2. and 22, 5. foreign. Acts 26.11.haling thence to prison both men and women; Acts 8.3.and posting abroad with letters into remote quarters, to do all the mischief he could every where, with great fury, as if he had been mad, breathing out where ever he came nothing but threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord. His —bPhil. 3.6. foreign. Chrys. ubi supra. Acts 26.9.Affections were not set against them through any personal provocations, but meerly out of zeal to the Law: and surely his zeal had been good, had it not been blind. Nor did his will run cross to his judgment, but was led by it; for he verily thought in himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Iesus: —9.1.and verily his Will had been good, had it not been mis-led. But the errour was in his understanding: his judgment being not yet actually convinced of the truth of the Christian Religion. He was yet fully perswaded that Iesus was an impostor, and Christianity a pestilent sect raised by Satan to the disgrace and prejudice of Moses and the Law. If these things had indeed been so, as he apprehended them, his Affections and Will, in seeking to root out such a sect, had been not onelyonly blameless, but commendable. It was his erroneous Iudgment that poisoned all; and made that, which otherwise had been zeal, to become Persecution. But however, the first discernable obliquity therein being in the Understanding, that Persecution of his was therefore a Sin of Ignorance: foreign.so called, and under that name condemned by himself, 1 Tim. 1.13.
17. But such was not Peters denial of his Master. He knew well enough who he was: having conversed so long with him, and having long before so amply confessed him.Mat. 16.16. And he knew also, that he ought not for any thing in the world to have denied him: That made him so confident before that he would not do it, because he was abundantly satisfied that he should not do it. Evident it is then, that Peter wanted no knowledg, either of his Masters person, or his own duty: and so no plea left him of Ignorance, either Facti or Iuris. Nor was the fault so much in his Will, as to make it a sin properly of Presumption. For albeit de facto he did deny him when he was put to it,Mark 14.71. and that with fearful oaths and imprecations; yet was it not done with any prepensed Apostacy or out of design. Yea he came rather with a contrary resolution: and he still honoured his Master in his heart, even then when he denied him with his tongue: and as soon as ever the watch-word was given him by the second cock, to prefer to his consideration what he had done, it grieved him sore that he had so done,—72. Luke 22.62. and he wept bitterly for it. We find no circumstance in the whole relation, that argueth any deep obstinacy in his Will. But in his Affections then▪ Alas, there was the fail. A sudden aforeign. Chrys. in Mat. 26.75.qualm of fear surprising his soul, when he saw his Master so despightfully used before his face, (which made him apprehensive of what hard usage himself might fall under; if he should then and there have owned him) took from him for that time the benefit and bforeign. Arist. 5. Ethic. 10.use of his reason: and so drew all his thoughts to this one point, how to decline the present danger, that he had never a thought at so much liberty, as to consult his judgment, whether it were a sin, or no. And thus, proceeding from such a suddain distemper of passion, Peters denial was a sin properly of Infirmity.
18. But Davids sin in contriving the death of Vriah, was of a yet higher pitch, and of a deeper dye, then either of these.2 Sam. 11. per totum. He was no such stranger in the Law of God, as not to know that the wilful murther of an innocent party, such as he also knew Vriah to be, was a most loud crying sin: and therefore nothing surer, then that it was not meerly a sin of Ignorance. Neither yet was it a sin properly of Infirmity: and so capable of that extenuating circumstance, of being done in the heat of Anger, as his uncleanness with Bathsheba was in the heat of Lust, (although that extenuation will not be allowed to pass for an excuse there, unless in tanto only, and as it standeth in comparison with this fouler crime.) But having time and leasure enough to bethink himself what he was about, he doth it in coole bloud, and with much advised deliberation: plotting and contriving this way and that way to perfect his design. He was resolved, whatsoever should become of it, to have it done: in regard of which setled resolution of his Will, this sin of David was therefore a high presumptuous sin.
19. By the light of these Examples we may reasonably discover what a Presumptuous sin is, and how it is distinguished from those of Ignorance and Infirmity. Take the sum of all thus. When a man sufficiently convinced in his understanding, that the thing he would do was unlawful, and displeasing unto God; or at least hath sufficient means so to convince him, if he be not willingly wanting to himself in the use thereof, so as he cannot justly plead Non putaram; And then besides hath time and leisure to advise with himself, to examine the case and every circumstance of it, and to apply the light that is in his understanding thereunto; And yet when all is done, resolveth contrary to the dictates of his own reason, and the checks of his own conscience, to go on, to put his wicked intentions into act, and to fulfill his own will, the apparent inconformity thereof unto the will of God notwithstanding: this is a wilfull and a fearfull Presumption. Her speech in the Poet expresseth it in part,
Medea apud Ovid. foreign &c. Eurip. in Hippol. act. 2.—Video meliora, probóque;
Deteriora sequor —
I see I should do that, and I know I should do better to doe that: but I have a minde rather to this; and therefore I will do this. When we advance our own Wills, not only against the express will of our great God, but even against the clear light of our own Consciences; and are not able (nor indeed careful) to give any other reason why we will do this or that, but only because we will (pro ratione voluntas;) so making our own will (a piece of no good Logick) both the Medium and the Conclusion: we do then rush headlong into those sins, from which David here prayeth so earnestly to be with-held [Keep back thy servant O Lord from Presumptuous Sins.
20. Now we see what Presumptuous sins are: we are to consider next, how great and mischievous they are. Certainly if there were not something in them, more then in other ordinary sins; David would not pray against them in such a special manner as here we see he doth: and that in foure particulars.
21. First, because those other sins are quotidianae subreptionis, such as the servant of God, though he walke never so warily, may yet be (and often is) overtaken with, through incogitancy, and the frequency of such temptations as lie so thick in our way every where,foreign. Gal. 6.1. that the most watchfull eye cannot alwayes be aware of them all: his prayer therefore concerning them is, that as he is ever and anon gathering soyle by them, so God would be ever and anon cleansing him from them, [O cleanse thou me from my secret faults.] But as for these greater and presumptuous sins, he desireth the powerfull aidance of Gods holy spirit to with-hold him wholy from them, and to keep him back from ever approaching too near unto them [Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins. As a travellor in a deep rode, will be choise of his way throughout, to keep himself as clean as he can from bespotting even with mire and dirt: but if he spie a rotten bog or a deep precipice just before him; he will make a sudden stop, hold back, and cast about for a safer way, he will be sure (for fear of lying fast, or venturing a joynt,) to keep out of that howsoever: So David here; Cleanse me from those, but kep me back from these.
22. Secondly, in his petition he maketh mention of his service and dependance. He often professeth himself the servant of God, Truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid. Psal. 116.16.And he often remembreth it to good purpose, and presseth it for his advantage, upon sundry occasions in this book of Psalms: as he doth here very seasonably and pertinently, [keep back thy servant—] Impl…ying, that these Presumptuous Sins are more unbecoming the servant of God, and more unpardonable in him, then those other faults are. As a discreet Master will pass by many oversights in his servant, if sometimes for want of wit; and some negligences too, if haply for want of care, he doe now and then otherwise then he would have him. But it would exceedingly provoke the spirit of the most suffering Master, to see his servant, though but once, to do that which he knew would offend him in a kinde of bravery, and out of a sawcy and aIdem delictum in duobus non eodem modo afficiet: si alter per negligentiam admisit, alter curavit ut nocens esset. Senec. l. de ira. 16.self-willed Presumption: (as who say, I know it will anger my Master, but all is one for that; I will do it tho:) no Patience would endure this. So the servant of God, by one presumptuous sin doth more grieve and exasperate the holy spirit of his gracious Master, and more highly provoke his just indignation, then by many Ignorances or Negligences.
23. Thirdly, he speaketh here of Dominion, [Let them not have the Dominion over me.] Any small sin, may get the upper-hand of the sinner, and bring him under in time, and after that it is once habituated by long custome: so as he cannot easily shake off the yoak, neither redeem himself from under the tyranny thereof. We see the experiment of it but too often and too evidently in our common Swearers and Drunkards. Yet do such kinde of sins for the most part, grow on by little and little, steal into the throne insensibly, and do not exercise Dominion over the enslaved soule, till they have got strength by many and multiplied Acts. But a Presumptuous sin worketh a great alteration in the state of the soule at once, and by one single act advanceth marvellously: weakning the spirit, and giving a mighty advantage to the flesh, even to the hazard of a compleat Conquest.
24. Lastly, he speaketh of the great offence: Totall and Final Apostacy; which some understand to be the very sin against the Holy Ghost: which cutteth off from the offender all possibility of pardon and reconcilement, because it is supposed to be attended with finall impenitency; and without pennance there is no hope of reconcilement, or place for pardon. David petitioneth to be kept back from these Presumptuous sins, and free from their Dominion, that so he might be upright and innocent from the great transgression. As if these Presumptuous sins did make some nearer approaches to that great transgression: and as if no man could well secure himself against the danger of final impenitencie, but by keeping out of the reach of these Presumptuous sins.
15. From all these intimations in the Text we may conclude, there is something more in Presumptuous sins, then in sins of Ignorance and Infirmity: the Obliquity greater, and the Danger greater. Which we are now a little farther to discover, that so our care to avoid them may be the greater. Their Obliquity is best seen in the Cause: their Danger, in the Effects. It hath been cleared already, that Presumptuous sins spring from the perversness of the Will, as the most proper and Immediate cause: and it is the Will, that hath the chief stroke in all moral actions, to render them good or bad, better or worse. It is a Maxim among the Casuists, Involuntarium minuit de ratione peccati: l. qui injuriae. F. de surtis. 47.253.and Voluntas distinguit maleficia, say the Lawyers. So that albeit there be many circumstances, as of Time, Place, Persons, &c. and sundry other respects, especially those of the Matter, and of the End, very considerable for the aggravating, extenuationg, and comparing of sins one with another: yet the consent of the Will is of so much greater importance then all the rest, that (all other considerations laid aside) every sin is absolutely by so much greater or lesser, by how much it is more or less voluntary. Sithence therefore in sins of Ignorance and Infirmity there is less Wilfulness; the will being misled in the one by an Errour in the Judgment, and in the other transported by the violence of some Passion: and in sins of Presumption there is a greater wilfulness; wherein the will, wanting neither information nor leisure to resolve better, doth yet knowingly and advisedly resolve to do ill: it will necessarily follow, that Presumptuous sins are therefore far greater sins, then either of the other are. The Will being abundantly and beyond measure wilful, maketh the sin to be abundantly and beyond measure sinful. Doubtless far greater was Davids sin, in murthering (though but) his servant: then either Peters, in denying his Master; or Sauls, in blaspheming and persecuting his Saviour.
26. Nor only do Presumptuous Sins spring from a worse Cause then the other, and thence are more Sinful: but do also produce worse Effects then they, and so are more Dangerous. Whether we look at them before, or at the time of Repentance, or after. Before Repentance, they harden the heart wonderfully; they waste the conscience in a fearful manner, and bring such a callous crust upon the inner man: that it will be *Tardiùs peccatum solvitur, quod per consilium solidatur. Gregor. de cura pastor. part. 3.a long and a hard work, so to supple, soften, and intender the heart again, as to make it capable of the impressions of Repentance. For alas! what hope to do good upon a Wilful man? The most grave admonitions, the most seasonable reproofs, the most powerful exhortations, the most convincing Reasons that can be used to such a man; are but Tabula caeco, as a curious picture to a blinde man; (for who so blinde, as he that will not see?) and Fabula surdo, a pleasant tale to a deaf man; (for whoso deaf as he that will not hear?)
27. Thus it is with wicked men and cast-aways, whose brawny hearts are by these wilful rebellions fitted for, and fatted up unto destruction. And verily not much better then thus is it with Gods faithful servants for the time; if at any time they hap to fall into any presumptuous sin. In what a sad condition may we think poor David was, after he had layen with the wife, and slain the husband? What musick could he now (trow ye) find in his own Anthems? with what comfort could he say his Prayers? Did not his tongue, think ye, cleave to the roof of his mouth? and had not his right hand welnigh forget her cunning? To the judgment of man, no difference for some moneths together (during his unrepentance) betwixt holy David, the man after Gods own heart, and a profane scorner, that had no fear of God before his eyes. Such waste and havock had that great sin made, and such spoil of the graces and pledges of Gods holy Spirit in his soul. Look how a sober wise man, who when he is himself is able to order his words and affairs with excellent discretion; when in a sharp burning-fever his bloud is inflamed, and his brain distempered, will rave, and talke at randome, and fling stones and dirt at all about him, and every other way in his speeches and motions, behave himself like a fool or mad-man: so is the servant of God, lying under the guilt of a Presumptuous sin, before Repentance.
28. And then when he doth come to repent; Lord what ado there is with him, before that great stomach of his will come down, and his masterful spirit be soundly subdued! And yet down it must, subdued it must be; or he getteth no pardon. What shrinking and drawing back, when the wound commeth to be searcht? And yet aAlto vulneri diligens & longa medicina non desit. Cyprian serm. 5. de lapsis. —foreign. Nazianz. Ar…an. carm. 8.searcht it must be, and probed to the bottome; or there will be no perfect recovery. Presumptuous sins, being so grievous as hath been shewed, let no man think they will be removed with Esay 1.18. 2 Cor. 7.11.mean and ordinary Humiliations: The Remedy must be proportioned, both for strength and quantity, (Ingredients and Dose) to the Quality and Malignity of the distemper; or it will never do the cure. As stains of a deep dye will not out of the cloath, with such ordinary washings, as will fetch out lighter spots: so to cleanse the heart defiled with these deeper pollutions, these crimson and scarlet sins, and to restore it pure white as snow or wooll; a more solemn and lasting course is requisite, then for lesser transgressions. It will cQuàm magna deliquimus, …àm granditer desleamus. Cyprian. ibid.ask more sighs, more tears, more indignation, more revenge; a stronger infusion of all those soveraign ingredients prescribed by St Paul 2 Cor. 7. before there can be any comfortable hope that it is pardoned. The Will of a man is a sowre and stubborne piece of clay, that will not frame to any serviceable use, without much working. A soft and tender heart indeed is soon rent in pieces: like a silken garment, if it do but catch upon any little nail. But a heart hardened with long custome of sinning, especially if it be with one of these presumptuous sins, is like the knotty root-end of an old Oak, that hath layen long a drying in the sun. It must be d—duro nodo durus cuneus. Adag. —gravissimus nodus non potest expelli nisi gravissimo oppressorio. Ambros.a hard wedg that will enter, and it must be handled with some skill too to make it do that: and when the wedg is entred, it will endure many a hard knock, before it will yield to the cleaver, and fall in sunder. And indeed it is a blessed thing, and to be acknowledged a gracious evidence of Gods unspeakable mercy, to those that have wilfully suffered such an unclean spirit to enter in, and to take possession of their souls, if they shall ever be enabled to out him againe, though with never so much fasting and Prayer. Potentes potenter, they that have mightily offended, shall be sure to be mightily tormented, if they repent not: and therefore it is but reason they should be mightily humbled, when they do repent.
29. After Repentance also, Presumptuous sins for the most part have their uncomfortable Effects. Very seldome hath any man taken the liberty to sin presumptuously; but he hath after met with that which hath been grievous to him: either in outward things, or in his good name, or in his soule; in some or other of these, if not in all, even after the renewing of himself by repentance, and the sealing of his pardon from God. Like a grievous wound or sore, that is not only of a hard cure, but leaveth also some remembrance behinde it, some scarr in the flesh after it is cured.
30. First, a Presumptuous Sinner rarely escapeth without some notable outward Affliction. Not properly as a debt payable to the Justice of God by way of satisfaction: for there is no proportion between the one and the other. But partly, as an evidence of Gods high displeasure against such a high provocation; and partly as a fit chastisement, wherewith he is pleased in mercy to correct his servants when they have demeaned themselves so presumptuosly: that both they and others may be admonished by that example to do so no more. Be David the instance. What a world of mischief and misery did he create unto himself by that one presumptuous fact in the matter of Uriah, almost all the days of his life after? The Prophet Nathan at the very same time, when he delivered him Gods royall and gracious pardon for it, under seal (Transtulit peccatum, 2 Sam. 12.13.the Lord hath put away thy sin:) yet did he withall read him the bitter consequents of it; as you have them set down 2 Sam. 12. And as he foretold him, accordingly it fell out with him. His daughter defiled by her brother:2 Sam. 13.14. — 29. that brother slain by another brother: a strong conspiracy raised against him by his own son: his Concubines openly defiled by the same son:2 Sam. 15.12. — 16.22. — 18.33. 2 Sam. 16.5. &c. himself afflicted with the untimely and uncomfortable death of that son, who was his darling: reviled and cursed to his face by a base unworthy companion: besides many other affronts, troubles, and vexations continually. He had few quiet hours all his life long: and even upon his deathb-ed not a little disquieted with tidings of his two sons, almost up in arms about the succession.1 King. 1.17. &c. We use to say, The wilful man never wanteth woe: and truly David felt it by sad experience, what woe his wilfulness wrought him.
31. Secondly, Presumptuous sins are often Scandalous; leaving an indeleble stain and blot upon the name and memory of the guilty offender; not to be wholy wiped off, so long as that name and memory lasteth. David must be our instance here too: who sinned many other times and wayes, besides that in the matter of Vriah. It can be little pleasure to us to rove into the infirmities of Gods servants, and bring them upon the stage: it would perhaps become our charity better to cast a mantle over their nakedness, where the fact will with any tolerable construction bear an excuse Yet sith all things that are written are written for our learning, and that it pleased the wisdome of God,Rom. 15.4. for that end to leave so many of their failings upon record, as glasses to represent unto us our common frailties, and as monuments and marks to minde us of those rocks whereat others have ship-wrackt: it cannot be blamed in us, to take notice of them, and to make the best use we can of them for our own spirituall advantage. His diffidence then, and anxiety,1 Sam. 27.1. 1 Sam. 21.12. & 27.10. & 28.8. 1 Sam. 25.22. lest he should perish one day by the hands of Saul, when he had Gods promise that he should outlive him. His deep dissimulation with and before Achis; especially when he tendred his service to him in the wars. His rash cholerick vow to destroy Nabal and all that belonged to him; who had indeed played the churle and the wretch with him (as covetous and unthankfull men sometimes will doe,) but yet in rigore had done him no wrong. His double injustice to his loyall subject Mephibosheth (and therein also his forgetfulness of his old and trusty friend Ionathan) first, in giving away all his lands upon the bare suggestion of a servant,2 Sam. 16.4. and that to the false informer himself, and that without any examination at all of the matter; and then,— 19.29. — 18.5.33. in restoring him but halfe again, when he knew the suggestion to be false. His fond affection to his ungracious son Absalom; in tendring his life before his own safety and the publick good, and in taking his death with so much unmanly impatience. His lenity and indulgence to his other son Adonijah, who was no better then he should be neither; to whom he never said so much at any time, as Eli did to his sons,1 King. 1.6. 2 Sam. 24.1. &c. why hast thou done so? His carnall confidence in the multitude of his subjects, when he caused them to be numbred by the pole. These (and perhaps some other) sinfull oversights, which doe not presently occur to my memory, are registred of David, as well as the murther of Vriah. Yet as if all these were as nothing in comparison of that one: that one alone is put in by the holy Ghost by way of exception, and so inserted as an exception in that glorious testimony, which we finde given of him …. King. 15.5. [David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the dayes of his life, save only in the matter of Vriah the Hittite.] That is, he turned not aside so foulely, and so contemptuously, so presumptuously and so provokingly in any other thing, as he did in that business of Vriah. All his Ignorances, and Negligences, and Inconsiderations, and Infirmities are passed over in silence: only this great Presumptuous Sin standeth up as a pillar or monument erected ad perpetuam rei memoriam, to his perpetual shame in that particular; for all succeeding generations to take warning and example by.
32. Yet were this more tolerable, if besides a Stain in the Name, these Presumptuous sins did not also leave a Sting in the Conscience of the sinner: which abideth in him many times a long while after the sin is repented of and pardoned; ready upon every occasion to smite him and to gall him with some touch and remorse of his old presumption. Like as a man, that having gotten some sore bruise in his youth, and by the help of Surgery and the strength of youth overworn it; may yet carry a grudging of it in his bones or joynts by fits, perhaps to his dying day. And as for the most part such grudgings of an old bruise are aptest to recur upon some new distemper of body, or upon change of weather: so the grief of an old presumptuous sin is commonly most felt, upon the committing of some new sin, or the approach of some new affliction. Do you think David had not in all those afflictions that after befel him, and at the apprehension of every sinful oversight into which he fell, a fresh remembrance withall of the matter of Vriah, not without some grief and shame thereat? As the distress Iosephs brethren met with in Egypt Gen. 42. brought to their remembrance their treacherous dealing with him:Gen. 42.21-22 V. Iacob. Armach. Annales a. m. 2276. —2315. —50.15—17. which was (by probable computation) at the least twenty years after the thing was done. Yea and after their fathers death, (which by the like probable computation was near upon twenty years more) the remorse of the same sin wrought upon their consciences afresh, perplexing their hearts with new fears and jealousies. True it is, the sinner once throughly purged of the sin by repentance, hath no more conscience of that sin, in that fearful degree (ordinarily) as to be a perpetual rack to his soul, and to torment him with restless doubtings of his reconcilement even to despair: yet can it not chuse but put some affrightment into him, to remember into what a desperate estate he had before plunged himself by his own wilful disobedience, if God had not been infinitely gracious to him therein. Great presumptions will not suffer him that hath repented them, for ever quite to forget them: and he shall never be able to remember them, without shame and horrour.
33. Great cause then had David to pray so earnestly (as we see here he doth) against them; and as great cause have the best of us to use our best care and endeavour to avoid them: being they spring from such cursed root, and are both so grievous to the holy spirit of God, and of such bitter consequents to the guilty offender. Our next business will be, (the sin and danger being so great) to learn what is best to be done on our part, for the avoiding and preventing both of sin and danger. Now the means of prevention (our third Discovery) are, First to seek help from the hand of God, by praying with David here that the Lord would keep us back; and then to put to our own helping hand, by seconding our prayers with our best endeavours, to keep our selves back, from these presumptuous sins.
34. A Iove Principium. We have no stay, nor command of our selves; (so masterful are our Wills, and headstrong:) but that, if God should leave us wholly to the wildness of our unruly nature, and to take our own course, we should soon run our selves upon our own ruine. Psal. 32.9.Like unto the horse and mule that have no understanding, to guide themselves in a right and safe way; but they must be holden in with bit and bridle put into their mouths: else they will either do or finde mischief. If we be not kept back with strong hand (and no other hand but the hand of God is strong enough to keep us back:) we shall soon run into all extremities of evil with the greatest impetuousness that can be, as the horse rusheth into the battle; Jerem. 8.6. 1 Pet. 4.4. Eph. 4.19.running into every excesse of riot as fast as any temptation is set before us, and committing all manner of wickedness with all kinde of greediness. David knew it full well; and therefore durst not trust his own heart too far: but being jealous over himself with a Godly jealousy, evermore he made God his refuge. If at any time he had been kept back from sinning, when some opportunity did seem to tempt or provoke him thereunto; he blessed God for it: for he saw it was Gods doing, more then his own (Blessed be the Lord,1 Sam. 25 32. —34. that hath kept his servant from evil) in the the case of Nabal, 1 Sam. 25. If at any time he desired to be kept back from sinning, when Satan had laid a bait for him without, sutable to some lust stirring within; he sought to God for it: for he knew that he must do it; himself could not, (keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins) here in the Text. Without his help and blessing all endeavours are in vain: his help and blessing therefore must be sought for in the first place by Prayer.
35. But we may not think, when we have so done, that we have done all that lieth upon us to do; and so an end of the business. It is Gods blessing, I confess, that doth the deed; not our endeavours: but we are vain, if we expect Gods blessing, without doing our endeavours. Can we be so sensless as to imagine it should serve our turn to say, Lord keep us back: and yet our selves in the mean time thrust forward as fast as we can? No: if we will have our prayers effectual, (and in their efficacy is our chiefest hope and comfort;) we must second our faithful prayers with our faithful endeavours. Oculus ad coelum; manus ad clavum. Then may we with confidence expect, that God should do his part in keeping us back, when we are duly careful to do our part also towards the keeping our selves back from presumptuous sins.—foreign. 1 John 5.18. Against which sins, the best and most soveraign preservatives, I am yet able to prescribe, are these four following. It is every mans concernment: and therefore I hope it shall be without offence, if after the example of God himself in delivering the Law, I speak to every mans soul (as it were) in particular.
36. For the avoiding then of Presumptuous sins: First, be sure never to doe any thing against the clear light of thine own Conscience. Every known sin hath a spice of wilfulness and presumption in it. The very composure of Davids Prayer in the present passage implieth as much; in passing immediately, after the mention of his secret and unknown sins, to the mentioning of these presumptuous Sins: as if there were scarce any medium at all between them. And every sin against conscience is a known sin. A man hath not a heavier Foe then his own Conscience, after he hath sinned; nor before he sin, a faster Friend. O take heed of losing such a Friend: or of making it, of a Friend, an Accuser. If I should see one that I loved well fall into the company of a cheater, or other crafty companion, that would be sure to inveigle him in some ill bargain, or draw him into some hurtful inconvenience, if he should close with him, of whom yet he had no suspicion: I should but doe the part of a Friend to take him aside, tell him who had him in hand, and bid him look well to himself, and beware a cheat. But if he should after such warning given grow into farther fammiliarity with him; and I should still give him signes one after another, to break off speech, and to quit the company of such a dangerous fellow, and all to no purpose: Who could either pity him, or blame me, if I should leave him at last to be gulled and fooled, that set so little by aforeign. Homer. Ilia. foreign.the wholsome and timely admonitions of his friend? Much greater then his is thy folly, if thou bO te miserum, si contemnis hunc testem. Senec. Epist. 43.neglectest the warnings, and despisest the murmurings of thine own Conscience. Thou sufferest it but deservedly, if thy Conscience having so ofen warned thee in vain, at length grow weary of that office, and leave thee to take thine own course; and so thou become a prey to the Devil, and fall into sundry grievous presumptions. Quis enim invitum servare laboret?Hor. 1. Ep. 20. Be carefull not to grieve thine own spirit by offending thy Conscience: and thou shalt not lightly grieve the spirit of God by sinning Presumptuously.Eph. 4.30.
37. Secondly, strive to be Master of thine own will. We count our horses unserviceable till they be broken: and the more headstrong, the more unserviceable: And it is a point of the greatest skill in the art of Education, for Parents betimes to break their children of their wills. If David had done so with his Absolon, and his Adoniah; for ought we know, he might have had more comfort of them. Why shouldest not thou carry as steddy and severe a hand over thine own soule, as a discreet father would do over his childe? and be as carefull to break thy self of thine own will; as he his childe, of his? And to get the mastery over thy self in greater matters, it will behove thee to exercise this discipline first in lesser things: as he that would be a skilfull Wood-man, will exercise himself thereunto first by shooting sometimes at a dead mark. In thy meats and drinks, in thy pastimes and society, in other delights and things, such as are in themselves both lawfull and honest; exercise this soveraignty now and then over thine own will. When thou observest it eagerly bent upon some one thing, (that may without sin or folly be left undone;) sometimes deny thy self and thine own will therein; curbe thy desires, though they be somewhat importunate: and thou shalt finde in time incredible benefit by it. There are some other, but this is one of the best uses of Fasting, and (to my seeming) the most proper and immediate good that cometh by it: not so much to tame the Flesh, and take down the body (though that also) as to cross the appetite, and pull down the Will. That proverbial form of afflicting the soule, usual among the Hebrews, Esay 58.5. Prov. 23.2. 1 Cor. 9.27.and that peculiar to Solomon of putting a knife to the throat, do both look this way. And so doth S. Pauls foreign 1 Cor. 9. which is an athletique pugilar word: as those that beat one another with their fists, striving for the mastery; —25. 1 Cor. 7.37. Knolles.so did he to bring his body in subjection, that so he might have (as the phrase is otherwhere in the same Epistle) foreign, power over his own will.
38. The fact was barbarous, but yet the story memorable of Amurath the great Turke, in cutting off with his own hands the head of his beautifull minion Irene, upon no dislike at all; but meerly that his Princes (who were displeased to see his minde, by doating upon her, drawn off from all care of the publick affairs,) might withall see, how he could command himself, and conquer his own affections. But we need not seek out so far for an example: having one more innocent, and of a far better man then he in the scriptures; even our David. Who longing with an earnest appetite to drink of the water of the well by the gate of Bethlehem: 2 Sa. 23.15.16.yet when he had it brought him, by the brave attempt of three of his Worthies, he would not taste a drop of it, but (in condemnation of the inordinacy of his appetite, which had exposed such worthy persons to the hazard of their lives,) poured it out unto the Lord. What a mass of Sin and misery had he escaped could he have so denied himself in the matter of Vriah. Verily, there is no conquest like this, for a man to conquer himself: and he that hath aQuem magis admiraberis, quàm qui imperat sibi, quàm qui se habet in potestate? Gentes facilius est barbaras▪ &c. Senec. 5. de benef. 7. Prov. 16.32. 2 Tim. 2.26.subdued his own will, hath done a braver thing, then he that hath taken a town, or scaled the walls of a Castle. It is wilfulness only, that begetteth Presumption: the more therefore thou canst master thine own will, the safer thou art from sinning Presumptuously. That is the second.
39. Thirdly, beware of engaging thy self to sin. It is a fearful thing, when sin hath got a tye upon a man. Then is one properly in the snare of the Devil; when he hath him as it were in a string, and may lead him captive to what measure of presumption he will. And sundry wayes may a man thus entangle himself: by a Verbal, by a Reall, by a Sinfull Engagement. He shall do best to keep himself out of all these snares. But if once he be in; there is no way out again but one: even this, To loose his pledge, to break in sunder the bonds wherein he is tied,Judges 16.9. as Sampson did the green withs, and to cast away those cords from him.
40. A man hath bound himself rashly by some promise, vow, or covenant, to do something he may not do, or not to do something he ought to do. He is now engaged in a sin: the Devil hath got this tye upon him. And though his conscience tell him he cannot proceed without sin; yet because of his Vow, or his Oath, he is wilful, and must on. It was Herods Case; for taking off the Baptists head. It was against his conscience to do it: for he knew he had not deserved it: Ey, and it was against his minde too to do it;Mark 6.20. —26. for the Text saith, he was exceeding sorry that his niece should put him upon it. But yet, saith the story withall, for his oath sake, and because the great ones about him should not say but the King would be as big as his word, he resolved it should be done, & gave commandement accordingly to have it done. This I call a Verbal Engagement.
41. There is a Reall one too, as ill as this. For example. A man heareth of a bargaine which he apprehendeth will be for his profit; or spieth out a likely way for his advancement: and being unwilling to lose the opportunity, perhaps disburseth some moneys, or putteth his great friends upon it, to further his design. It may be afterwards upon better consideration, he espieth a flaw in it, which he saw not before: or some intervening accident, which he could not probably foresee, hath cast such a rub in his way, that he cannot go on fairly, as at first he hoped, but he must strain his conscience a little to remove that rub. This he knoweth he should not do: but alas, he is now engaged. The Devil hath this tye upon him; It would not be for his ease to lose so much money, as he is out of purse already in the adventure: And he shall hazard the loss of his great friends hereafter, if having put them upon a business, he should now relinquish it: And so he resolveth to go on. It was Amaziah's Case in part, when to aid him against the Edomites he had hired a hundred thousand men of Israel for an hundred talents of silver. 2 Chron. 25.6.A Prophet cometh to him, and telleth him it was the Lords pleasure he should dismiss the Souldiers he had hired; for God would not be with them: and if he did employ them, he should not prosper. The King was troubled at it not a little. He might fear lest the cashiered souldiers should do him some displeasure as they returned back: and so they did, and that a shrewd displeasure too. But the thing he stuck at most,—13. was the moneys he was out, (What shall we do, —9.saith he, for the hundred talents, which I have given to the army of Israel.) He thought it went hard, to part with such a round sum for nothing. Indeed the Prophet put him into the right way; even to give it for lost, and to rest upon the goodness of God, who was able to give him much more then that. And the King did very well and wisely, to hearken to the counsel of the Prophet, and to be content to sit down with the loss: And so he came well off at the last, though he was dangerously engaged onward.
42. Besides that verbal, and this Real; there is yet a third, which I call a sinful Engagement, (because it is such originally, and à principio; for the two former also are sinful à termino, and in the Event:) far worse then either of both. And that is, when a man hath already done some evill, from which he cannot handsomly acquit himself, but to his loss or shame, or other punishment; unless he either cover it or maintain it, or some other way help himself, by laying aScelera sceleribus …uenda sunt Senec. 1. de clem. 13.another sin upon it, as untoward children and naughty servants are wont, when they have done a fault, and yet would shun the blame, to shift it off with a lie. This is bQuid eo infelicius, cui jam esse malo necesse est? Ibid.the most dangerous tye of all other: and there is nothing that so desperately casteth a man upon a wilfull resolution of sinning; as when the committing of one Sin bringeth with it a seeming necessity of doing another. This makes men, like the Gyants in the Poets, imponere Pelion Ossae, to heap sin upon sin, to pile up transgressions one upon another, and to adde thirst to drunkenness. Esay. 30.1. Deut. 29.19.It was Davids very case in the matter of Uriah. He had never proceeded to such black thoughts, as to plot the murder, of a person so worthy and so innocent in so base a manner, and with so much palpable hypocrisy; had he not been deeply ingaged before by another dishonest act already by him committed. He had layen with the wife: she proving with childe, and all his other shifts, whereby he had attempted to cloak it, taking no effect, the thing was like to come to publick knowledge to his everlasting disgrace, if not also to the great reproach of Religion. No way now to help it, but to take the husband out of the way, and to marry the widdow. He resolveth upon it therefore: cforeign. Eurip. Hecuba act. 4.so it must be, come what will come on it. Iacta est alea: David was already in, and now no remedy but he must on.
43. These be fearfull things. Therefore as wary men in the world love to keep themselves out of bonds; so do thou beware of these Engagements. Seldom doth a man fall into a Presumptuous Sin, but where the Devil hath got such a hanke over him, as one of these three, I have now mentioned. But he that hath suffered himself to be thus ensnared, hath this only way left for his escape, even to disengage himself out of hand, by breaking through the snare, if he cannot fairely unty it: …s Alexander cut the great knot in pieces with his sword, which he could else never have unloosed▪ …now that neither Oath, Vow, Curt. lib. 3.nor other tye whatsoever is allowed by almighty God to be Vinculum iniquitatis, to binde thee to any sinful inconvenience. Whatsoever seeming necessity there is of doing evill; consider it groweth but by a later contract: but God is able to plead a precontract; by vertue whereof there lyeth upon thee an absolute necessity of Obedience. Oppose then, against all thy rash promises and vows, that solemn promise and vow, thou madest unto God in the face of the Congregation, and tookest the holy Sacrament upon it in thy baptism, to keep his holy Commandements, and to continue his faithful servant and souldier unto thy lives end. Let Equity teach thee, that the first bond should be first discharged: and Reason, that if an Oath or Vow must stand, the first should rathest. That is the Third preservative.
44. Lastly and in a word: Obdura, Harden thy self with a holy obstinacy and wilfulness; and Obtura, Stop thy ears, like the deaf adder; against all the inchantments of Satan and his instruments, when they would by any cunning entisement charm thee into any kinde of Sin. It is Solomons receipt, and a sure one;Prov. 1.10. no antidote like it: My Son, if Sinners entise thee; consent thou not. Yet even from these Sinners thou maist learn this point of Wisdom: behold how resolute and wilfull they are in their courses. Disswade them therefrom with the best art you can devise: they will, it may be, give you the hearing; perhaps confess you speak reason. But they hold the Conclusion still, in despite of all Premises: when you have said what you can, they will do what they list. Why canst not thou be as obstinately good, as they are obstinately evil? and notwithstanding all the sophisms of Satan, perswasions of carnal Reason, allurements or discouragements in the world, say and hold; that thou wilt not for all that depart from the obedience of thy Maker.Psal. 119.115. Away from me ye wicked, for I will keep the Commandments of my God; saith David, Psal. 119. As if he had said, Talk no more of it; save your breath; I am resolved of my course, I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep the Commandements of my God:— 106. with Gods help there will I hold me, and all the world shall not wrest me from it.
45. The Devil is an arrand Sophister; and will not take an answer, though never so reasonable and satisfactory, but will ever have somewhat or other to reply. So long as we hold us but to Ob. and Sol. to argument and answer; he will never out: but wrangle in infinitum. You may see it in Mat. 4. how ready he was with his Replies, even upon our blessed Saviour himself; and that with Scriptum est too:Matth. 4.6. as if he meant to drop quotations with him. But as there Christs foreign Avoid Satan, — 10.non-plust the Tempter, beyond all the Reasons and Authorities, that could be produced: so the safest way for us to come off clear from him, is to give him a flat deniall without further reason, and let him take that for an answer, if he will any. Thus to be Wilful, is a blessed Wilfulness; a resolution well becoming the servant and childe of God, and a strong preservative against wilfull Presumption. The fort is as good as half lost, (having to treat with such a cunning enemy,) if you do but once admit of a Treaty, therefore stand off.
46. But when we have done all, we must begin again. When we have resolved and endeavoured what we can; unless aforeign. Eurip. Supplic. Act. ….the Lord be pleased to set his Fiat unto it, and to confirm it with his royall assent, all our labour is but lost. As he is the Alpha, so is he to be the Omega too: and therefore we must set him at both ends. And as we were to begin with him, so are we to conclude with him: pray first, pray last: Pray before all, that we may have grace to do our Endeavours; Pray after all, that he would give a blessing to our endeavours. That so when Satan, the World, and our own Flesh shall all conspire against us to drive us forward to the works of sin, we may by his grace and blessing be kept back therefrom, and enabled to persevere in true faith and holiness all the dayes of our lives. Which God our heavenly Father grant us for his mercies sake, and for the merits of Iesus Christ his only son our Lord: to both whom with the Holy Ghost, &c.