able to give any other reason why we will do this or that, but only BECAUSE we will; we then rush headlong into those dreadful sins, from which David in the text so earnestly prays to be withheld-Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins!

SERMON XVII.

FROM SANDERSON.

PART II.

PSALM XIX. 13.

ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE TRANSLATION.

Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright; and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

WITH respect to presumptuous sins, we have seen WHAT they are, in my morning's discourse; let us now consider, how great and mischievous they are. And certainly were there not something in their nature more heinous than in ordinary sins, David would never pray against them in so especial a manner as he does in the words of the text.

It has been already intimated, that presumptuous sins arise from the perverseness of the will, as the most direct and immediate cause. Indeed, it is the will, that has the chief influence in all moral actions,

in rendering them good or bad, better or worse. Though, no doubt, there be many circumstances of considerable effect in the aggravation, extenuation, and comparison of sins one with another; yet the consent of the will is of so much greater importance than all the rest, that (without taking any thing else into consideration) every sin is so much the greater or the less, in proportion as it is more or less voluntary. Hence David's sin, in murdering (though but) his servant, was far greater than either Peter's in denying his Master, or Paul's, in blaspheming and persecuting his Saviour.

Presumptuous sins, moreover, not only originate from a worse cause than others, and thence are more sinful; but also produce worse effects; and therefore are more dangerous. They harden the heart. They almost annihilate the conscience. All reasons, admonitions, and reproofs, are vain. For who is so blind as he that will not see? or who so deaf as he that will not hear?

Thus is it with the wicked who are appointed to destruction. And not much better, indeed, is it for God's faithful servants, if they fall into any presumptuous sin. How wretched (may we not suppose) was the condition of David, after he had seduced the wife, and slain the husband! What music, think you, could he find in his own anthems? With what comfort or satisfaction could he say his prayers? Could his tongue do other than cleave to the roof of his mouth? And had not his right hand

well-nigh forgot her cunning? Such, before his repentance, was the servant of God; lying under the guilt of a presumptuous sin. And even after his repentance, how hard was the struggle ere his spirit was subdued!

Let no man fancy, therefore, that presumptuous sins can be removed by ordinary humiliations. The remedy must be proportioned to the malignity of the distemper, or it will never effect the cure. As cloth that has been deeply stained cannot be cleaned by such ordinary washings as will fetch out lighter spots; so, to cleanse the heart, defiled with these deeper pollutions, these red and scarlet sins, and to restore it white as snow or wool; a more solemn and lasting course of repentance is requisite, than for inferior transgressions. It requires more sighs, more tears, more indignation, more revenge; a stronger infusion of all those sovereign ingredients that are prescribed by St. Paul, in the seventh chapter of his second Epistle to the Corinthians; before there can be any comfortable hope that it is pardoned. They that have mightily offended, if they repent not, shall be mightily tormented. And therefore it is but reasonable that they should be mightily humbled, when they do repent.

Presumptuous sins are generally attended with the most serious effects. It is but seldom that a man has sinned presumptuously, but he afterwards has experienced the most grievous consequences; even after the renewing of himself by repentance,

rarely escapes

Let David be

and the sealing of his pardon from God. Like a grievous wound, that is not only difficult of cure ; but leaves also some remembrance behind it, some scar in the flesh after it is cured. First, a presumptuous sinnner without some outward affliction. the instance. What mischief, what misery, did he bring upon himself, for almost the whole of his subsequent life, by that single presumptuous deed in the matter of Uriah. The prophet Nathan, at the very time that he delivered to him God's gracious pardon (the Lord hath put away thy sin) yet read to him its bitter consequences. And, even as it was foretold, so did it befal him. His daughter defiled by her brother: that brother slain by another brother: a conspiracy raised against him by his own son: his concubines openly defiled by that same son himself afflicted with the untimely death of that son who was so dear to him: reviled and cursed to his face by a base unworthy companion. Indeed, all his life long, but few were his hours of peace. And even on his death-bed he was not a little disquieted with the tidings that his two sons were almost flying to arms respecting the succession.

Secondly, presumptuous sins are often scandalous; leaving an indelible stain on the memory of the offender. And David must be our instance even in this also. There can be little pleasure in prying into the infirmities of God's servants. It would better become our charity, perhaps, to cast a mantle