supergressa caput, they are got above our heads, above our strongest faculties; above us, in the nature of an arched roof, they keep God's grace in a separation from us, and our prayers from him, so they have the nature of a roof, and then, they feel no weight, they bend not under any judgment, which he lays upon us, so they have the nature of an arch. Above us, as a voice, as a cry; their voice is in possession of God, and so prevents our prayers; above us as waters, they disable our eyes, and our ears, from right conceiving all apprehensions; and above us, as lords, and tyrants, that came in by conquest, and so put what laws they list upon us. And these instructions have arisen from this first, the multiplicity, Mine iniquities are gone over my head, and more will from the other, the weight and burden, They are as a heavy burden, too heavy for me.

SERMON CIII.

PREACHED AT LINCOLN'S INN.

The second Sermon on PSALM XXXviii. 4.

For mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

As the philosopher says, if a man could see virtue, he would love it, so if a man could see sin, he would hate it. But as the eye sees everything but itself, so does sin too. It sees beauty, and honour, and riches, but it sees not itself, not the sinful coveting, and compassing of all these. To make, though not sin, yet the sinner to see himself, for the explication, and application of these words, we brought you these two lights; first, the multiplicity of sin, in that elegancy of the Holy Ghost, supergressæ sunt, Mine iniquities are gone over my head, and the weight and oppression of sin, in that, Gravata nimis, As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me; in the first, how numerous, how manifold hey are, in the other, how grievous, how insupportable; first,

how many hands, then how fast hold sin lays upon me. The first of these two was our exercise the last day, when we proposed and proceeded in these words, in which we presented to you, the dangerous multiplicity of sin, in those pieces, which constituted that part. But because, as men, how many soever, make but a multitude, or a throng, and not an army, if they be unarmed, so sin, how manifold, and multiform soever, might seem a passable thing, if it might be easily shaked off, we come now to imprint in you a sense of the weight and impression thereof, As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me; the particular degrees whereof, we laid down the last day, in our general division of the whole text, and shall now pursue them, according to our order proposed then.

First then, sin is heavy. Does not the sinner find it so? No marvel, nothing is heavy in his proper place, in his own sphere, in his own centre, when it is where it would be, nothing is heavy. He that lies under water finds no burden of all that water that lies upon him; but if he were out of it, how heavy would a small quantity of that water seem to him, if he were to carry it in a vessel! An habitual sinner is the natural place, the centre of sin, and he feels no weight in it, but if the grace of God raise him out of it, that he come to walk, and walk in the ways of godliness, not only his watery tympanies, and his dropsies, those waters which by actual and habitual sins he hath contracted, but that water, of which he is properly made, the water that is in him naturally, infused from his parents, original sin, will be sensible to him, and oppress him. Scarce any man considers the weight of original sin; and yet, as the strongest temptations fall upon us when we are weakest, in our death-bed, so the heaviest sins seizes us, when we are weakest; as soon as we are anything, we are sinners, and there; where there can be no more temptations ministered to us, than was to the angels that fell in heaven, that is, in our mother's womb, when no world, nor flesh, nor devil could present a provocation to sin to us, when no faculty of ours is able to embrace, or second a provocation to sin, yet there, in that weakness, we are under the weight of original sin. And truly, if at this time, God would vouchsafe me my choice, whether he should pardon me all those actual and habitual sins, which I

have committed in my life, or extinguish original sin in me, I should choose to be delivered from original sin, because, though I be delivered from the imputation thereof, by baptism, so that I shall not fall under a condemnation for original sin only, yet it still remains in me, and practices upon me, and occasions all the other sins, that I commit; now, for all my actual and habitual sins, I know God hath instituted means in his church, the Word, and the Sacraments, for my reparation; but with what a holy alacrity, with what a heavenly joy, with what a cheerful peace, should I come to the participation of these means and seals of my reconciliation, and pardon of all my sins, if I knew myself to be delivered from original sin, from that snake in my bosom, from that poison in my blood, from that leaven and tartar in all my actions, that casts me into relapses of those sins which I have repented! And what a cloud upon the best serenity of my conscience, what an interruption, what a discontinuance from the sincerity and integrity of that joy, which belongs to a man truly reconciled to God, in the pardon of his former sins, must it needs be still to know, and to know by lamentable experiences, that though I wash myself with soap, and nitre, and snow-water, mine own clothes will defile me again, though I have washed myself in the tears of repentance, and in the blood of my Saviour, though I have no guiltiness of any former sin upon me at that present, yet I have a sense of a root of sin, that is not grubbed up, of original sin, that will cast me back again. Scarce any man considers the weight, the oppression of original sin. No man can say, that an acorn weighs as much as an oak; yet in truth, there is an oak in that acorn: no man considers that original sin weighs as much as actual, or habitual, yet in truth, all our actual and habitual sins are in original. Therefore St. Paul's vehement, and frequent prayer to God, to that purpose, could not deliver him from original sin, and that stimulus carnis, that provocation of the flesh, that messenger of Satan, which rises out of that, God would give him sufficient grace, it should not work to his destruction, but yet he should have it: nay, the infinite merit of Christ Jesus himself, that works so upon all actual and habitual sins, as that after that merit is applied to them, those sins are no sins, works not so upon original sin, but that, though I be eased in the

dominion, and imputation thereof, yet the same original sin is in me still; and though God do deliver me from eternal death, due to mine actual and habitual sins, yet from the temporal death, due to original sin, he delivers not his dearest saints.

This sin is heavy in the seed, in the grain, in the acorn, how much more when it is a field of corn, a barn of grain, a forest of oaks, in the multiplication, and complication of sin in sin? And yet we consider the weight of sin another way too, for as Christ feels all the afflictions of his children, so his children will feel all the wounds that are inflicted upon him; even the sins of other men; as Lot's righteous soul was grieved with sins of others. If others sin by my example and provocation, or by my connivance and permission, when I have authority, their sin lies heavier upon me, than upon themselves; for they have but the weight of their own sin; and I have mine, and theirs upon me; and though, I cannot have two souls to suffer, and though there cannot be two everlastingnesses in the torments of hell, yet I shall have two measures of those unmeasurable torments upon my soul. But if I have no interest in the sins of other men, by any occasion ministered by me, yet I cannot choose but feel a weight, a burden of a holy anguish, and compassion and indignation, because every one of these sins inflict a new wound upon my Saviour, when my Saviour says to him, that does but injure me, Why persecutest thou me, and feels the blow upon himself, shall not I say to him that wounds my Saviour, Why woundest thou me, and groan under the weight of my brother's sin, and my Father's, my Maker's, my Saviour's wound? If a man of my blood, or alliance, do a shameful act, I am affected with it; if a man of my calling, or profession, do a scandalous act, I feel myself concerned in his fault; God hath made all mankind of one blood, and all Christians of one calling, and the sins of every man concern every man, both in that respect, that I, that is, this nature, is in that man that sins that sin; and I, that is, this nature, is in that Christ, who is wounded by that sin. The weight of sin, were it but original sin, were it but the sins of other men, is an insupportable weight.

But if a sinner will take a true balance, and try the right weight of sin, let him go about to leave his sin, and then he shall see how

VOL. IV.

close, and how heavily it stuck to him. Then one sin will lay the weight, of silliness, of falsehood, of inconstancy, of dishonour, of ill-nature, if you go about to leave it: and another sin will lay the weight of poverty, of disestimation upon you, if you go about to leave it. One sin will lay your pleasures upon you, another your profit, another your honour, another your duty to wife and children, and weigh you down with these. Go but out of the water, go but about to leave a sin, and you will find the weight of it, and the hardness to cast it off. Gravata sunt, mine iniquities are heavy, (that was our first) and gravate nimis, they are too heavy, which is a second circumstance.

Some weight, some ballast is necessary to make a ship go steady; we are not without advantage, in having some sin; some concupiscence, some temptation is not too heavy for us. The greatest sins that ever were committed, were committed by them, who had no former sin, to push them on to that sin: the first angel's sin, and the sin of Adam, are noted to be the most desperate and the most irrecoverable sins, and they were committed, when they had no former sin in them. The angel's punishment is pardoned in no part; Adam's punishment is pardoned in no man, in this world. Now such sins as those, that is, sins that are never pardoned, no man commits now; not now, when he hath the weight of former sins to push him on. Though there be a heavy guiltiness in original sin, yet I have an argument, a plea for mercy out of that, Lord, my strength is not the strength of stones, nor my flesh brass'; Lord, no man can bring a clean thing out of uncleanness; Lord, no man can say after, I have cleansed my heart, I am free from sin, I could not be born clean, I could not cleanse myself since. It magnifies God's glory, it amplifies man's happiness, that he is subject to temptation. If man had been impeccable, that he could not have sinned, he had not been so happy; for then, he could only have enjoyed that state, in which he was created; and not have risen to any better; because that better estate, is a reward of our willing obedience to God, in such things, as we might have disobeyed him in. Therefore when the apostle was in danger, of growing too light, lest he should be exalted out of measure, through the abundance of revelation2,