infinitely weak and foolish? I shall tell you. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven," saith Christ. It is impossible to nature; it is impossible to them that are given to vanity; it is impossible for them that delight in the evil snare but Christ adds, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." What we cannot do for ourselves, God can do for us, and with us. What nature cannot do, the grace of God can. So that the thing may be done; not indeed by ourselves, but gratia Dei mecum,' saith St. Paul; God and man together can do it. But if it can be done any way that God has put into our powers, the con'sequent is this; no man's good will shall be taken in exchange for the real and actual mortification of his sins. He that sins, and would fain not sin, but sin is present with him whether he will or no, let him take heed; for the same is the law of sin,' and the law of death,' saith the apostle; and that man's heart is not right with God. For it is impossible men should pray for deliverance, and not be heard; that they should labour, and not be prosperous; unless they pray amiss, and labour falsely. Let no man, therefore, please himself with talking of great things, with perpetual conversation in pious discourses, or with ineffective desires of serving God: he that does not practise as well as he talks, and do what he desires, and what he ought to do, confesses himself to sin greatly against his conscience; and it is a prodigious folly to think that he is a good man, because though he does sin, yet it was against his mind to do so. A man's conscience can never condemn him, if that be his excuse, to say that his conscience checked him and that will be but a sad apology at the day of judgment. Some men talk like angels, and pray with great fervour, and meditate with deep recesses, and speak to God with loving affections, and words of union, and adhere to him in silent devotion, and when they go abroad are as passionate as ever, peevish as a frighted fly, vexing themselves with their own reflections: they are cruel in their bargains, unmerciful to their tenants, and proud as a barbarian prince : they are, for all their fine words, impatient of reproof, scornful to their neighbours, lovers of money, supreme in their own thoughts, and submit to none; all their spiritual life they talk of, is nothing but spiritual fancy and illusion; they are still

:

under the power of their passions, and their sin rules them imperiously, and carries them away infallibly. Let these men consider, there are some men think it impossible to do as much as they do: the common swearer cannot leave that vice, and talk well; and these men that talk thus well, think they cannot do as well as they talk; but both of them are equally under the power of their respective sins, and are equally deceived, and equally not the servants of God. This is true; but it is equally as true, that there is no necessity for all this; for it ought, and it may be otherwise if we please: for I pray, be pleased to hear St. Paul; "Walk inthe Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh;" there is your remedy: "For the Spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit;" there is the cause of it; iva un Tote, "so that ye may not, or cannot, do the things ye would; " that is the blessed consequent and product of that cause. That is plainly,―as there is a state of carnality, of which St. Paul speaks in my text, so that in that state a man cannot but obey the flesh, so there is also a state of spirituality, when sin is dead, and righteousness is alive; and, in this state, the flesh can no more prevail, than the Spirit could do in the other. Some men cannot choose but sin; "for the carnal mind is not subject to God, neither, indeed, can be," saith St. Paul; but there are, also, some men that cannot endure any thing that is not good. It is a great pain for a temperate man to suffer the disorders of drunkenness, and the shames of lust are intolerable to a chaste and modest person. This also is affirmed by St. John: "Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him."" So that, you see, it is possible for a good man not to commit the sin to which he is tempted. But the apostle says more: "He doth not commit sin, neither indeed can he, because he is born of God."

And this is agreeable to the words of our blessed Saviour: "A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit;"o that is, as the child of hell is carried to sin, 'pleno impetu,' he does not check at it, he does it, and is not troubled; so, on the other side, a child of God is as fully convinced of righteousness, and that which is

1 Gal. v. 16.

m Rom. viii. 7.

n 1 John, iii. 9.

。 Matt. vii. 18.

unrighteous is as hateful to him as colocynths to the taste, or the sharpest punctures to the pupil of the eye. We may see something of this in common experiences. What man of ordinary prudence and reputation can be tempted to steal? or, for what price would he be tempted to murder his friend? If we did hate all sins as we hate these, would it not be as easy to be as innocent in other instances, as most men are in these? and we should have as few drunkards as we have thieves. In such as these, we do not complain in the words of my text, "What I would not, that I do; and what I would, I do not." Does not every good man overcome all the power of great sins? and can he, by the Spirit of God and right reason, by fear and hope, conquer Goliah, and beat the sons of the giant; and can he not overcome the little children of Gath? or, is it harder to overcome a little sin than a great one? Are not the temptations to little sins very little? and yet are they greater and stronger than a mighty grace? Could the poor demoniac, that lived in the graves, by the power of the devil break his iron chains in pieces? and cannot he, who hath the Spirit of God, dissolve the chains of sin? "Through Christ that strengthens me, I can do all things," saith St. Paul; "Satis sibi copiarum cum Publio Decio, et nunquam nimium hostium fore," said one in Livy; which is best rendered by St. Paul, "If God be with us, who can be against us?" Nay, there is an ὑπερνικῶμεν in St. Paul, "We are more than conquerors." For even amongst an army of conquerors there are degrees of exaltation; some serve God like the centurion, and some like St. Peter; some like Martha, and some like Mary; μετ' εὐκολίας ἁπάσης, ἄνευ πόνων καὶ ἱδρώτων, all good men conquer their temptation, but some with more ease, and some with a clearer victory; and more than this,-"Non solùm viperam terimus, sed ex ea antidotum conficimus; —We kill the viper, and make treacle of him;" that is, not only escape from, but get advantages by, temptations. But we, commonly, are more afraid than hurt: "Let us, therefore, lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us:" so we read the words of the apostle; but St. Chrysostom's rendition of them is better; for the word suregíoraros is a perfect passive, and cannot signify the strength and irresistibility of sin upon

P Heb. xii. 1.

us, but quite the contrary, regíoraros àpagría signifies the sin that is so easily avoided,' as they that understand that language know very well. And if we were so wise and valiant as not to affright ourselves with our own terrors, we should quickly find, that by the help of the Spirit of God, we can do more than we thought we could. It was said of Alexander, "Benè ausus est vana contemnere," he did no great matter in conquering the Persians, because they were a pitiful and a soft people; only he understood them to be so, and was wise and bold enough not to fear such images and men of clouts. But men, in the matter of great sins and little, do as the magicians of Egypt: when Moses turned his rod into a serpent, it moved them not; but when they saw the lice and the flies, then they were afraid. We see, that, by the grace of God, we can escape great sins; but we start at flies, and a bird out of a bush disorders us; the lion in the way troubles us not, but a frog and a worm affright us. Remember the saying of St. Paul," Christ came to redeem to himself a church, and to present it, pure and spotless, before the throne of grace;" and, if you mean to be of this number, you must endeavour to be under this qualification, that is, as Paul laboured to be, "void of offence, both towards God and towards man." And so I have done with the second proposition. It is necessary that all sin, great and little, should be mortified and dead in us, and that we no longer abide in that state of slavery, as to say, "The good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do."

III. In the next place, we are to inquire in what degree this is to be effected; for though in negatives, properly, there are no degrees, yet, unless there be some allays in this doctrine, it will not be so well, and it may be, your experiences will for ever confute my arguments; for, Who can say that he is clean from his sin?' said the wise man. And, as our blessed Saviour said, "He that is innocent among you all, let him throw the first stone at the sinner," and spare not.

To this I answer, in the words of St. Gregory, All man's righteousness will be found to be unrighteous, if God should severely enter into judgment; but, therefore, even after our innocence we must pray for pardon, " ut quæ succumbere discussa poterat, ex judicis pietate convalescat," 'that our

4 Liv. ix. 17.

innocence, which, in strictness of Divine judgment, would be found spotted and stained, by the mercy of our Saviour may be accepted.' St. Bernard expresses this well: "Nostra siqua est humilis justitia, recta forsitan, sed non pura ;— Our humble righteousness is, perhaps, right in the eyes of God, but not pure;" that is, accepted by his mercy, but it is such as dares not contend in judgment. For as no man is so much a sinner, but he sometimes speaks a good word, or does some things not ill, and yet that little good interrupts not that state of evil; so it is amongst very good men, from whom, sometimes, may pass something that is not commendable; and yet their heart is so habitually right towards God, that they will do nothing, I do not say which God, in justice, cannot, but which, in mercy, he will not, impute to eternal condemnation. It was the case of David; "he was a man after God's own heart;" nay, it is said, "he was blameless, save in the matter of Uriah;" and yet we know he numbered the people, and God was angry with him, and punished him for it; but, because he was a good man, and served God heartily, that other fault of his was imputed to him no further. God set a fine upon his head for it; but it was salvo contenemento, — the main stake was safe.'

For concerning good men, the question is not, whether or no God could not, in the rigour of justice, blame their indiscretion, or impute a foolish word, or chide them for a hasty answer, or a careless action, for a less devout prayer, or weak hands, for a fearful heart, or a trembling faith: these are not the measures by which God judges his children; "for he knoweth whereof we are made, and he remembers that we are but dust." But the question is, whether any man that is covetous or proud, false to his trust, or a drunkard, can, at the same time, be a child of God? No, certainly he cannot. But then we know that God judges us by Jesus Christ, that is, with the allays of mercy, with an eye of pardon, with the sentences of a father, by the measures of a man, and by analogy, to all our unavoidable abatements. God could enter with us into a more severe judgment, but he would not; and no justice tied him from exercising that mercy. But, according to the measures of the Gospel," he will judge every man according to his works." Now what these measures are, is now the question. To which I answer, first, in general, and then more particularly.