is not promised except to those who sincerely strive to work out their own salvation. But when all our own efforts would avail us nothing, we are taught to look with faith to that sacrifice, which has been offered for us; to him who was made sin for us, although himself without sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Seeing then that these things are so, with what care should we watch the most secret motions of our hearts; with what diligence should we use the means appointed for our salvation; and with what earnestness should we join in the pious prayer of David, "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults."

p 2 Cor. v. 21.

LECTURE XI.

PRESUMPTUOUS SINS.

Psalm XIX. 13.

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

Although all sin is in itself hateful to God, yet reason and revelation agree in representing it as susceptible of different degrees. There may be sins of ignorance, and other secret faults, from which, as we have lately seen, David prays to be delivered: or there may be sins of surprise, such as sudden temptation produces, followed by immediate humiliation and repentance. With what degree of mercy it may please our Almighty Father to visit these errors of human infirmity, how extreme he may be in marking all that is done amiss, must remain to be shewn at the great day

of account. And we have all reason to pray, that we may obtain an individual interest in that holy dispensation, by which alone we shall then be able to stand.

But there exist other sins of a deeper dye, and deadlier nature. Sins aggravated by every circumstance of long continuance, and wilful indulgence; which have grown with our growth, and strengthened with our strength: which have gone on from year to year, unchecked by reason, uninfluenced by the hopes of religion, undaunted by her terrors: sins so heinous, that whoever is unstained by them is represented as comparatively innocent-a transgression so flagrant, as to be distinguished by the peculiar epithet of great. To these

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sins our attention is directed by David's earnest prayer, Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

Sins of this kind are mentioned in Scripture in terms which sufficiently declare their flagrant nature. A person, who persists in presumptuous sin, is said to harden his heart ;a to harden his face; to harden himself against

a Deut. xv. 7.
b Prov. xxi. 29.

1 Sam. vi. 6. Mark vi. 52.

d

God; to resist the Holy Ghost; to grieve, and do despite unto the Spirit of grace. And David, who prays only to be cleansed from secret faults, beseeches the Almighty to restrain him altogether, to keep him back, from presumptuous sins.

I. The distinction, between a sin of presumption and any other, consists not so much in the offence itself, as in the circumstances, under which it is committed. Whatever the sin be, if the offender be conscious, at the time of committing it, that the action is forbidden, that sin is a presumptuous sin.

Under this description, then, will be included all those numerous sins, which are committed against sufficient warning.

1. There are some offences, which the common consent of all mankind indelibly marks as presumptuous sins. Whoever commits such crimes as murder, theft, adultery, must be conscious, at the time he commits the act, that he is violating laws, which have been established almost in every country and in every age, for the security of life, property, and happiness. He, to whom the Scriptures of God have been revealed, knows also, that against crimes of this nature, the especial

< Job ix. 4.

* Eph. iv. 30. Heb. x. 29.

d Acts vii. 51.

wrath of the Almighty is most explicitly denounced. Whoever, therefore, after these warnings is led into such transgressions, assuredly incurs all the guilt attached to a presumptuous sin.

2. There are many other sins, of which human laws can take no cognizance, which yet we know to be open to the eye of Him with whom we have to do. There are few, who are not sometimes led to think with anxiety upon their conduct, by hearing, or reading, or meditating upon the word of God. The sin of each individual, with all its seducing train of causes, and all its fearful consequences, is found described in the sacred volume so clearly, so pointedly, that the most thoughtless cannot fail to recognize his own portrait. For some time, at least, the sinner must feel that the very indulgence, which he encourages, is one of those, against which the displeasure of God is denounced; that the path, which he treads, is one of those marked out in the great chart, as leading surely to destruction. During the time that these impressions are made, he feels alarm for his own state. He resolves, perhaps, to repent and to amend. But these sensations continue but for a while. The current of his evil life is for an instant checked, but it is not rolled backward