Page images
PDF
EPUB

scarcely be surprised into, unless the liquor be mixed with some pernicious drug, or hath some peculiar quali. ty with which he is utterly unacquainted. But this, I suppose, is a case that rarely happens. It asually takes some time before a person be intoxicated; and drunkenness comes on by such gradual advances, that one hath sufficient opportunity to observe its approach, and to make his escape, if he is not otherwise determined.

So that all these sins are evidently presumptuous; and as they are too commonly practised among us, I thought it my duty to mention them in particular, for the sake of those wbo know themselves to be guilty, that they may not waste their precious time in seeking after excuses to defend them against the heavy charge of presumption, but may, without a moment's delay, humble themselves in the presence of that God whom they have so grievously offended, imploring bis pardoning mercy for what is past, and his powerful grace to restrain them for the future.

The great importance of his restraint to us all, or how much it concerneth us to be kept back from every presumptuous sin, was the second thing I proposed to illustrate. And this will appear from two considerations.

1st. That such sins are most heinous in their nature; and, 2dly, most pernicious in their effects and consequences.

1st. They are most heinous in their nature. The language of the proud sinner is, Who is Lord over me? He either disowns the authority of God, or bids him defiance, and provokes him to jealousy, as if he were stronger than he. Thus it is written. (Numbers xv. 3.) “ The soul that doeth ought presumptuously, reproacheth the Lord;" reproacheth his knowledge, as if God was ignorant of his wickedness; or his justice and truth,

VOL. I.

F

as if he would not punish it; or his power, as if he could not. And what horrid impiety is this! O sinners, think of it: your known wilful sins cannot possibly be vindicated from this charge: all I have now said, and a great deal more, shall be made good against you at last, when God shall enter into judgment with your souls. It is vain for you to plead that you do not directly intend these things. I verily believe you think so; for, proud and stubborn as you are, I am confident that you dare not utter such blasphemies before God, nor even avow them to your own hearts. But doth it follow from thence, that you are not chargeable with them? The fallacy of this reasoning can easily be detected. Tell us, , do you intend your own damnation? I need not wait for an answer; I am sure you do not. Pray, then, what meaning have you at all? You wilfully transgress the laws of God, but you do not intend to be punished for it: on the contrary, you shudder at the prospect of suffering, and would certainly oppose it with all your might. This is one side. On the other hand, you say, that you have no direct intention to injure or insult the majesty of God; you mean no prejudice to his authority; nor to any of his perfections, bis wisdom, holiness, justice, or almighty power. Can any body reconcile these two opposites? You are unwilling to be miserable; and yet you are willing that God should possess those tremen. dous attributes, by the exercise of which you must be made miserable. This is a flat contradiction. The case is plain, whether you perceive it or not; you would certainly dethrone God if you could; you would reverse his laws, or disarm his power, that you might follow your

, inclinations without fear or controul: And this is the disposition of every presumptuous sinner, though perhaps his heart may be so hard and unfeeling as not to perceive it. These remarks may suffice to show, of what a heinous nature presumptuous sios are. I added, in the

2d place, That they are likewise most pernicious in their effects and consequences.

Every wilful sin hardens the heart, and renders it less penetrable than it was before; one conviction overcome, makes way for the conquest of another, and that of a third, and so on; the sinner by degrees waxeth stout against God, till at length every bond that should restrain him is broken asunder, and his heart becomes

fully set in him to do evil.” This is the natural effect of presumptuous sinning: conscience being often violated, grows callous and insensible, or, in the language of Scripture, “seared as with a hot iron;" so that it not only loseth its authority, but in great measure its feeling also, and suffers the sinner to rush forward in his wicked course without check or remorse.

But this is not all: These presumptuous sins have not only a hardening influence upon the heart, but they likewise provoke God to inflict a judicial bardness upon it, which of all his judgments is by far the most terrible; for this, as it were, seals up the sinner to final condemnation, and renders his recovery not only difficult, but utterly impossible. “ Ephraim is joined to bis idols,” saith God; “ let him alone :" he is obstinately bent upon idolatry, give him no disturbance. By this awful sentence God lays an inhibition, if I may so speak, upon every thing that might either restrain or reclaim the of. fender; he withdraws his despised grace,' and suffers him to wallow in that filthiness he hath chosen, till the fire that is not quenched shall awaken him to a fruitless, despairing conviction of his folly.

But as this judgment is, in a peculiar manner, “ God's strange work,” to which he never proceeds till all re

"

;

claiming methods have been tried and baffled; let us suppose, if you please, that the sinner begins to awaken out of his lethargy; yet how dismal must the effects of his presumptuous sins be, even in this case? Oh! what horror will the remembrance of them raise in his mind ? How will they discourage him in his addresses for mercy, to that God whom he hath so impudently affronted and defied to his face? How will they damp his expectation sof pardon, when God sets them all in battle array before him, and conscience takes hold of that dreadful sentence against the presumptuous transgressor, (Numbers xv. 31.) “Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment; that soul shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him?" If so good a man as Heman was obliged to cry out, “ While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted;" what must be the condition of the newly awakened, presumptuous sinner?

Nay, let us suppose, that God hath spoken peace to his soul, and given him reason to hope that his iniquities are forgiven; yet these sins of presumption always leave behind them the scars of those gashes which they made upon the heart: and as deep bodily wounds, even after they have been closed, are apt to ache upon a change of weather; so any variation in the person's lot that is capable of being construed into a token of God's anger, will recal to his memory those pardoned iniquities, and make them a fresh occasion of grief and anguish to his doubting, perplexed soul.

Besides, though pardon secures against final condemnation, yet sins of this kind are seldom remitted without some visible testimony of God's displeasure. What calamities befel the author of this psalm, even after the Prophet had intimated to him, that “the Lord had put

away bis sin?” His daughter ravished; the incestuous brother slain; Absalom invades both his throne and his bed; the bulk of his subjects desert him; and he himself, accompanied with a few remaining friends, is driven into the wilderness, and hard put to it to shift for his life. And though David was chargeable with many failings, and some of them gross enough, yet in the character which the inspired bistorian hath given of bim, they are all passed over in silence, except his complicated guilt in the matter of Uriah; but that is expressly mentioned, and left as a blot upon the name of this great

a and good man, to deter others from such deliberate and presumptuous sins; for thus it is written (1 Kings xv. 5.) “ David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded bim all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.Nay, David with his own hand hath recorded his guilt in the 51st Psalm, where to this day he professes his shame and sorrow, and will continue to do so as long as God shall have a church upon earth. When these things are attended to, the impor. tance of being kept back from presumptuous sins must appear to us in the strongest and most affecting light.

Let me now address those whose consciences bear witness, that they have often transgressed in this manner, and are living perhaps at this very time in the ha. bitual indulgence of some presumptuous sin. Have you seriously considered the danger you are exposed to? David's case, which I just now mentioned, suggests te me ope argument that may possibly have weight with you. Some of you, perhaps, are sly offenders; so cunning in your way, that the world hath not found you out. But, say, would it not give you pain to think, that one day you should be discovered? Now, what assur

« PreviousContinue »