therefore Christ, when he would sum up all miseries in one expression, tells the Pharisees they should die in their sins,' John viii. 28.

Use II. And let us consider further, that if sin be thus above measure sinful, that hell, that followeth death, is then likewise above measure fearful; and so it is intimated to be a punishment without measure, Jer. xxx. 11, compared with Isa. xxvii., 'Punish them as I punish thee,' says God to his own, 'but I will punish thee in measure.' And, indeed, sin being committed against God, the King of kings, it can never be punished enough. But as the killing of a king is amongst men a crime so heinous that no tortures can exceed the desert of it, we use to say all torments are too little, and death too good, for such a crime. Now, peccatum est Deicidium, as I said before, a destroying God as much as in us lies; and therefore none but God himself can give it a full punishment; therefore it is called 'a falling into God's hands,' Heb. x. 31, which, as he says there, is 'fearful.' For if his breath blows us to destruction, Job iv. 9, for we are but dust heaps, yea, his nod, he nods to destruction,' Ps. lxxx. 16; then what is the weight of his hands, even of those hands' which span the heavens, and hold the earth in the hollow of them'? Isa. xl. 12. And if God take it into his hands to punish, he will be sure to do unto the full. Sin is man's work, and punishment is God's, and God will shew himself as perfect in his work as man in his.

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If sin be malum catholicum, as hath been said, that contains all evils in it; then the punishment God will inflict shall be malum catholicum also, containing in it all miseries. It is a cup full of mixture,' so called Ps. lxxv. 8, as into which God hath strained the quintessence of all miseries, and the wicked of the earth must drink the dregs of it,' though it be eternity unto the bottom. And if one sin deserves a hell, a punishment above measure, what will millions of millions do? And we read that every sin shall receive a just recompence,' Heb. ii. 2. Oh let us then take heed of dying in our sins, and therefore of living in them; for we shall lie in prison till we have paid the very utmost farthing.

And therefore if all this that I have said of it will not engender answerable apprehensions of it in you, this being but painting the toad, which you can look upon and handle without affrightment, I wish that if without danger you could but lay your ears to hell, that standing as it were behind the screen, you might hear sin spoken of in its own dialect by the oldest sons of perdition there, to hear what Cain says of murdering his brother Abel; what Saul of his persecuting David and the priests of Jehovah; what Balaam and Ahithophel say of their cursed counsels and policies; what Ahab says of his oppression of Naboth; what Judas of treason; and hear what expressions they have, with what horrors, yellings, groans, distractions, the least sin is there spoken of. If God should take any man's soul here, and as he rapt his* into the third heavens, where he saw grace in its fullest brightness; so carry any one's soul into those chambers of death, as Solomon calls them, and leading him through all, from chamber to chamber, shew him the visions of darkness, and he there hear all those bedlams cry out, one of this sin, another of that, and see sin as it looks in hell! But there is one aggravation more of the evil and misery sin brings upon men I have not spoken of yet, that it blinds their eyes and hardens their hearts, that they do not see nor lament their misery till they be in hell, and then it is too late.

* That is, 'Paul's.'-ED.

Use III. But what, doth sin so exceed in sinfulness, and is the venom of it boiled up to such a height of mischief, that there should be no name in heaven and earth able to grapple with it and destroy it? Is there no antidote, no balm in Gilead more sovereign than it is deadly? Surely yes; God would never have suffered so potent and malicious an enemy to have set foot in his dominions, but that he knew how to conquer it, and that not by punishing of it only in hell, but by destroying it; only it is too potent for all the creatures to encounter with. This victory is alone reserved for Christ, it can die by no other hand, that he may have the glory of it; which therefore is the top of his glory as mediator, and his highest title, the memory of which he bears written in his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins,' Mat. i. 21. And therefore the apostle Paul, his chiefest herald, proclaims this victory with a world of solemnity and triumph, 1 Cor. xv. 55, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, that gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ;' which yet again adds to the demonstration of the sinfulness of it, for the strength of sin was such, that, like Goliah, it would have defied the whole host of heaven and earth. It was not possible the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin,' Heb. x. 4; nor would the riches of the world or the blood of men have been a sufficient ransom. 'Will the Lord be pleased with rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression?' No, says he, there is no proportion, for thy first-born is but the fruit of thy body, and sin is the sin of the soul,' Micah vi. 7. It must cost more to redeem a soul than so, Ps. xlix. 7. No; couldst thou bring rivers of tears instead of rivers of oil-which, if anything were like to pacify God, yet they are but the excrements of thy brains, but sin is the sin of thy heartyea, all the righteousness that we could ever do, cannot make amends for one sin; for suppose it perfect, whenas yet it is but dung,' Mal. ii. 8, and 'a menstruous cloth,' yet thou owest it already as thou art a creature, and one debt cannot pay another. If then we should go a begging to all the angels who never sinned, let them lay all their stock together, it would beggar them all to pay for one sin. No; it is not the merit of angels will do it, for sin is the transgression, the destruction of the law, and the least iota is more worth than heaven and all that is therein.

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

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

VOL. IV.

L

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

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

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

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AGGRAVATIONS OF SINNING AGAINST

KNOWLEDGE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

.

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

I. First, demonstrations.

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

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