S'

SIN

IN is so far from being nothing as that there is nothing else but sin in us; sin hath not only a place, but a palace,

a throne, not only a being, but a dominion, even in our best actions: and if every action of ours must needs be denominated from the degrees of good or of bad that are in it, howsoever there may be some tincture of some moral goodness, in some actions, every action will prove a sin, that is, vitiated and depraved with more ill, than rectified with good conditions. And then every sin will prove læsio Dei a violence, a wound inflicted upon God himself, and therefore it is not nothing.

God spake not only of the beasts of the forest, but of those beasts, that is, those brutish affections, that are in us, when He said, "Subjicite et dominamini"-" Subdue and govern the world; " and in sinning we lose this dominion over ourselves, and forfeit our dominion over the creature too. Qui peccat, quatenus peccat, seipso deterior; Every sin leaves us worse than it found us, and we rise poorer, ignobler, weaker, for every night's sin than we lay down. "Plerumque non implemus bonum propositum, ne offendamus eos quibuscum vivimus" (Augustine); If any good purpose arise in us, we dare not pursue it, for fear of displeasing those with whom we live, and to whom we have a relation, and a dependence upon them. We sin, and sin, and sin, lest our abstinence from sin should work as an increpation, as a rebuke upon them that do sin; for this they will call an ambition in us that being their inferiors, we go about to be their betters, if we will needs be better, that is, less vicious than they. First then, personally in himself, prophetically in us, David laments our state, quia peccata, because we are under sin, sin which is a depravation of man in himself, and a deprivation of God from man. And then our next cause of lamentation is the propriety in sin, that they are nostra, our own, "Iniquitates meæ," says David-My sins, mine iniquities are gone over my head.

We are not all Davids, amabiles, lovely and beloved in that measure that David was, men according to God's heart; but we are all Adams, terrestres, and lutosi, earth, and dirty earth, red, and bloody earth, and therefore in ourselves, as derived from him, let us find, and lament all these numbers, and all these weights of sin. Here we are all born to a patrimony, to an inheritance; an inheritance, a patrimony of sin; and we are all good husbands, and thrive too fast upon that stock, upon the increase of sin, even to the treasuring up of sin, and the wrath of God for sin. How naked soever we came out of our mother's womb, otherwise, thus we came all apparelled, apparelled and invested in sin; and we multiply this wardrobe with new habits, habits of customary sins, every day. Every man hath an answer to that question of the apostle, "What hast thou, that thou hast not received from God?" Every man must say, "I have pride in my heart, wantonness in mine eyes, oppression in my hands; and that I never received from God." Our sins are our own; and we have a covetousness of more; a way to make other men's sins ours too, by drawing them to a fellowship in our sins. I must be beholden to the loyalty and honesty of my wife, whether my children be mine or no; for he whose eye waiteth for the evening, the adulterer, may rob me of that propriety. I must be beholden to the protection of the law, whether my goods shall be mine or no; a potent adversary, a corrupt judge, may rob me of that propriety. I must be beholden to my physician, whether my health and strength shall be mine or no; a garment negligently left off, a disorderly meal may rob me of that propriety. But without asking any man leave, my sins will be my own. When the presumptuous men say— "Our lips are our own, and our tongues are our own" (Psalm xii. 4), the Lord threatens to cut off those lips, and those tongues. But except we do come to say our sins are our own, God will never cut up that root in us, God will never blot out the memory in Himself of those sins. Nothing can make them none of ours, but the avowing of them, the confessing of them to be ours. Only in this way, I am a holy liar, and in this the God of truth will reward my lie; for, if I say my sins are mine own, they are none of mine, but by that confessing and appropriating of those sins to myself, they are made the sins of Him who hath suffered enough for all, my blessed Lord and Saviour

Jesus Christ. Therefore, that servant of God, St. Augustine, confesses those sins, which he never did, to be his sins, and to have been forgiven him; Peccata mihi dimissa fateor, et quæ mea sponte feci, et quæ te duce non feci; Those sins which I have done, and those which, but for Thy grace, I should have done, are all my sins. Alas, I may die here, and die under an everlasting condemnation of fornication with that woman that lives and dies a virgin, and be damned for a murderer of that man that outlives me, and for a robbery, and oppression, where no man is damnified nor any penny lost. The sin that I have done, the sin that I would have done, is my sin. We must not, therefore, transfer our sins upon any other. We must not think to discharge ourselves upon a peccata patris; to come to say, 'My father thrived well in this course, why should not I proceed in it? My father was of this religion, why should not I continue in it?" How often is it said in the Scriptures of evil kings, He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in via patris, in the way of his father? father in the singular; it is never said plurally, in via patrum-in the way of his fathers. God's blessings in this world are expressed so, in the plural, Thou gavest this land patribus, to their fathers, says Solomon (1 Kings viii. 48), in the dedication of the temple; and Thou broughtest patres, our fathers, out of Egypt; and again, Be with us, Lord, as Thou wast with our fathers; so in Ezekiel (Ezek. xxxvii. 25), Where your fathers dwelt, you, their children, shall dwell too, and your children, and their children's children forever. His blessings upon His saints, His holy ones in this world, are expressed so, plurally; and so is the transmigration of His saints out of this world also; Thou shalt sleep cum patribus, with thy fathers, says God to Moses (Deut. xxxi. 13); and David slept cum patribus, with his fathers (1 Kings ii. 10); and Jacob had that care of himself, as of that in which consisted, or in which was testified the blessing of God. I will lie cum patribus, with my fathers, and be buried in their burying-place, says Jacob to his son Joseph (Gen. xlviii. 30). Good ways and good ends are in the plural, and have many examples, else they are not good; but sins are in the singular; he walked in the way of his father is in an ill way, but carry our manners, or carry our religion high enough, and we shall find a good rule in our fathers. "Stand in the way," says God in Jeremiah,

"and ask for the old way, which is the good way" (Jer. vi. 16). We must put off veterem hominem, but not antiquum; we may put off that religion which we think old, because it is a little. elder than ourselves, and not rely upon that it was the religion of my father. But antiquissimum dierum, Him, whose name is He that is, and was, and is forever, and so involves and enwraps in Himself all the fathers, Him we must put on. Be that our issue with our adversaries at Rome, by the fathers, the fathers in the plural, when those fathers unanimely deliver anything dogmatically for matter of faith, we are content to be tried by the fathers, the fathers in that plural. But by that one father, who begets his children not upon the true mother, the Church, but upon the court, and so produces articles of faith according as state business and civil occasions invite him-by that father we must refuse to be tried; for to limit it in particular to my father, we must say with Nehemiah, "Ego et domus patris mei” (Neh. i. 6). If I make my father's house my church, my father my bishop, I and my father's house have sinned, says he; and with Mordecai to Esther (Esther iv. 14), Thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed.

They are not peccata patris, I cannot excuse my sins upon the example of my father; nor are they peccata temporis, I cannot discharge my sins upon the times, and upon the present ill disposition that reigns in men now, and do ill because everybody else does so. To say, there is a rot, and therefore the sheep must perish; corruptions in religion are crept in, and work in every corner, and therefore God's sheep, simple souls, must be content to admit the infection of this rot. That there is a murrain, and therefore cattle must die; superstition practised in many places, and therefore the strong servants of God must come to sacrifice their obedience to it, or their blood for it. There is no such rot, no such murrain, no such corruption of times, as can lay a necessity, or can afford an excuse to them who are corrupted with the times. As it is not pax temporis, such a state peace, as takes away honor, that secures a nation, nor such a church peace as takes away zeal, that secures a conscience, so neither is it peccatum temporis, an observation what other men incline to, but what truth, what integrity thou declinest from, that appertains to thy consideration.

It is not peccatum ætatis, not the sin of thy father, not the

sin of the times, not the sin of thine own years. That thou shouldest say in thy old age, in excuse of thy covetousness, "All these things have I observed from my youth; " I have lived temperately, continently all my life, and therefore may be allowed one sin for mine ease in mine age. Or that thou shouldst say in thy youth, "I will retire myself in mine age, and live contentedly with a little then; but now, how vain were it to go about to keep out a tide, or to quench the heats and impetuous violence of youth?" But "Fuge juvenilia desideria "—" Fly also youthful lusts" (2 Tim. ii. 22); and lest God hear not thee at last, when thou comest with that petition, "Remember not the sins of my youth" (Psalm xxv. 7); “Remember thou thy Creator now in the days of thy youth" (Eccles. xii. 1); for if thou think it enough to say, "I have but lived as other men have lived, wantonly," thou wilt find some examples to die by too; and die as other old men, old in years and old in sin, have died too, negligently or fearfully, without any sense at all, or all their sense turned into fearful apprehensions and desperation.

They are not peccata ætatis, such sins as men of that age must needs commit, nor peccata artis, such sins as men of thy calling or thy profession cannot avoid; that thou shouldest say, "I shall not be believed to understand my profession as well as other men, if I live not by it as well as other men do." Is there no being a carpenter but that after he hath warmed him by the chips, and baked and roasted by it, he must needs make an idol of his wood, and worship it? (Isa. xliv. 13.) Is there no being a silversmith, but be must needs make shrines for Diana of the Ephesians, as Demetrius did? (Acts xix. 24.) No being a lawyer without serving the passion of the client? No being a divine without sewing pillows under great men's elbows? It is not the sin of thy calling that oppresses thee; as a man may commit a massacre in a single murder, and kill many in one man, if he kill one upon whom many depended, so is that man a general libeller that defames a lawful calling by his abusing thereof; that lives so scandalously in the ministry as to defame the ministry itself; or so imperiously in the magistracy as to defame the magistracy itself, as though it were but an engine, an instrument of oppression; or so unjustly in any calling, as his abuse dishonors the calling itself. God hath instituted