Caution. Abuse not this doctrine, to think light of fin because of it. It is the worst of diseases which moft men die in, and no man is perfectly cured of until death. Make not your way to hell the eafier, because of the difficulties in the way to heaven: for they that ftrive towards perfection here will get it at death, when ye fitting ftill at your ease will be carried down the stream to destruction.

Keep not ye fome particular luft, because none are perfect: for all the faints are perfect in parts, though not in degrees; so far perfect, as to "hate every known fin," Pfal. cxix.

128.

Inf. 1. There is no juftification, favour, and peace with God, by our own works, Pfal. cxliii. 2. "In thy fight fhall no man living be juftified." Far lefs can there be works of fupererogation. We must be juftified by the righteousness of Chrift received by faith, or not at all.

2. Whatever your attainments be, be not proud of them; your wants and defects may always keep you humble. The barren branches are towering ones, while the fruitful boughs hang down their heads.

3. Inexpreffibly miferable is the case of unbelievers. They are without Chrift; they must stand or fall by the law, and it is quite beyond their power to keep it.

4. Bear one another's burdens; for every man offends. We are in a hospital, where most are dying of ther disease, and the best but in the way of recovery.

Laftly, Let the ftruggling faints long for heaven, for there the perfection they would fain be at fhall be attained, and not till then. And this may comfort them under all their failures, which they mourn over, that in the other world they shall arrive at full perfection in holiness.

Bb 2

OF SIN IN ITS AGGRAVATIONS.

EZEK. Viii. 15.-Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt fee greater abominations than thefe.

IF

we look on fin abfolutely, and in itself, as it is a tranf greffion of the divine law, no fin is fmall, but a great evil, greater than any evil of fuffering, which men can be expofed to: but if we look on fin comparatively, one fin compared with another, all are not alike, but fome greater than others, as we fee from these words. Wherein may be obferved,

1. Great fins which the prophet had seen, fhewn to him in vifion by the Lord himself, who knows the fins of all men, with their nature and qualities, ver. 5. 11. 14.

2. Greater fins he was yet to fee. He had feen the image of jealoufy, namely, the image of Baal, fet up at the gate of the altar, ver. 5.; the chambers of imagery in fome of the courts, and the ancients of Ifrael, at their idolatrous fervice, ver. 10. 11.; the women weeping for Tammuz in the court of the women, or of the priests, by which the Lord's courts were turned into stews. These were great abominations, and yet greaterth an any of these was their worshipping of the fun, ver. 16. and that in God's account; for it was done in a more facred place, at the very door of the temple; it was more public, and had greater contempt of God in it, than the rest.

The text affords this doctrine:

DOCT. "All fins are not alike;" but "fome fins in them. felves, and by reafon of feveral aggravations, are more hain, ous in the fight of God than others."

In difcourfing from this doctrine, I shall fhew,

I. What is understood by the hainousness of sin.

II. In what refpects fome fins are more hainous than others.

III Apply.

I. I am to fhew, what is understood by the hainousness of fin. Its great offensiveness is hereby understood. Sin may be offenfive unto men; but we confider it here as fin, and offenfive to God. So for fin to be hainous in the fight of God, implies,

1. That it is offenfive to God, difpleafing to him, and grieving to his Spirit, Jer. xliv. 4. "Oh! do not this abominable thing that I hate." He cannot away with it, he cannot endure it before his eyes, but fhews his indignation against it. It is an abominable thing before the Lord; hence it is called filthiness, uncleanness, vomit, &c. all which provoke loathing; fo Rev. iii. 16. it is faid "I will fpue thee out of my mouth." It is contrary to his nature and will, and gives him displeasure and offence; and, if it were poffible, it would disturb his repofe, as smoke doth to the eyes, If. lxv. 5. "These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day."

2. It is greatly offenfive to God; for that alfo is implied in the notion of hainoufnefs; every fault is offenfive, but fome faults are hainous offences. Such an offence is fin to God. It gives him great offence, Pfal. v. 4, 5. “Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickednefs: neither fhall evil dwell with thee. The foolifh fhall not ftand in thy fight; thou hateft all workers of iniquity." Hab. i. 13. "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." There is no fin that God is indifferent about, none that he can pass without a mark of his indignation on it: He "will by no means clear the guilty," Exod.

xxxiv. 7.

Now here mark well two things.

1. That all fin is hainous in the fight of God, viz. greatly offenfive. There are are no small fins before God, though some are greater than others; but the least of them is great in itself, and great in his fight, Hab. i. 13. forecited. This is plainly implied, while it is faid, "Some fins are more hainous than others."

2. That there are degrees of hainousness. Though the fin which the blinded foul acounts but a mote, is a mountain in the eyes of God and of an enlightened confcience, yet all are not alike for all that; but as fome mountains, fo fome fins, are greater than others.

II. I fhall fhew, in what respects fome fins are more hainous than others.

First, Some fins are in themselves, and in their own nature, more hainous than others. There are fome capital offences, as it were, which God's wrath does in a special manner burn against, and which are most provoking to the eyes of his glory: fuch as murder, Gen. iv. 10.; oppreffion, Hab. ii. 11.; which are noted to be crying fins; blafphemy and contempt of God, Exod. v. 2.; idolatry, Ezek viii.; unbelief, rejecting of Christ, and disobeying the gofpel, Matth. xxii. John iii. 19. 2 Theff. i. 8. But of all fins the most hainous is the fin against the Holy Ghoft, Matth. xii. 31.

Secondly, Some fins are more hainous than others by their aggravations; and the greater and more numerous the aggravating circumstances be that attend any fin, it is the more hainous. Now, fins are aggravated, or made greater or more hainous than others,

1. From the perfons offending; the more notable they are, the more hainous are their fins; as the greater the fire is, the more mischief will it do, if it go out of its place; the greater the tree is, the more mischief will it do by its fall. Thus one and the fame fin is greater in magiftrates, minifters, parents, and the aged, than in subjects, people, children, and the younger fort. For men's places and offices, which respect the government of others in the way of holiness and juftice, aggravate their fins, Rom. ii. 21. "Thou which teachest another, teachest thou not thyfelf? thou that preacheft a man fhould not fteal, doft thou steal." And fo do the greater gifts and profeffion that one hath, Luke xii. 47. 48. "That fervant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, fhall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, fhall be beaten with few ftripes. For unto whomfoever much is given, of him fhall be much required and to whom men have committed much, of him will they afk the more." And fo doth the greater experience of God's goodness which they have had, as in the case of Solomon, of whom it is faid, 1 Kings xi. 9. "The Lord was angry with Solomon, becaufe his heart was turned from the Lord God of Ifrael, which had appeared unto him twice." For fuch advantages make their fins more pernicious, in refpect of the influence of their example on others, as in the

effect of Peter's diffimulation at Antioch, Gal. ii. 13. of whom it is faid, " And the other Jews diffembled likewise with him; infomuch that Barnabas alfo was carried away with their diffimulation." And these advantages carry them over greater obligations they are under to the Lord.

2. From the parties offended. Let men confider whom their fins ftrike againft, if they would fee how hainous they For as a thruft in a leg or arm is not fo much grievous as one at the heart, fo is it in this cafe.

are.

1ft, Sins immediately against God, his Son, and his Spie rit, are more hainous than fuch fins against man, any man whatsoever, 1 Sam. ii. 25. "If one man fin against another, the judge fhall judge him: but if a man fin against the Lord, who fhall intreat for him?" Thus lying and diffembling to God, is more hainous than lying to men, as appears in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, Acts v. 4. because of the infinite distance of the immediate objects of the fin. Thus, whereas in all fins of the second table, there is a fault against God, and against man too; yet the fault against God, and the injury done to his glory, is the bittereft ingredient in it. Thus David's fin in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah was a great fin in respect of these perfons; but fee how he confeffes it, Pfal. li. 4. "Against thee, thee only have I finned, and done this evil in thy fight."

2dly, Sins against fuperiors in the church, state, and family, are more hainous than the fame fins are, if done against perfons of their own rank and condition. The reason is, becaufe fuperiority given of God is fuch a divine imprefs on a man, that it makes his character in fome fort facred, as in the case of mofes, Num. xii. 8. Hence it is that disobedience to parents is fo hainous a fin, Prov. xxx. 17. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley fhall pick it out, and the young eagles fhall eat it.”

3dly, Sins against those whom we are under special engagements and obligations to, are more hainous than fuch fins against others we have no fuch concern in. Religion teaches gratitude, and sets a black mark on ingratitude, Pfal. lv. 12. "For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it; neither was it he that hated me, that did magnify himself against me, then I would have hid myfelf from him."