THE

Spiritual Magazine;

OR,

SAINTS' TREASURY.

"There are Three that bear record in heaven; the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST; and these Three are One."

"Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."

1 John v. 7. Jude 3.

MARCH, 1835.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE INFIRMITIES OF THE SAINTS AND THE SINS OF THE UNGODLY.

BELOVED, this is a weighty question, and the clear resolution thereof may through God's blessing be very conducive to your spiritual good and advantage, both for the preventing and removing discouragements and bondage, thoughts of fear out of the hearts of weak christians, and also for the preventing and removing carnal confidence which may possibly arise in the hearts of others. For the sins and falls of saints do usually very much disturb the peace of their own consciences, and they are as frequently a snare to carnal hearts to encourage them to sin, and therefore it will be well worth while truly to resolve the question placed at the head of our paper.

Godly men sin and wicked men sin, but there is a vast disparity and a manifold difference between the sinning of the one and the other, and what that difference is, I shall now endeavour to discover to you.

1. A godly man doth not make a trade of sin; he is not a customary sinner, though possibly he may sometimes sin over the same sin, and renew the same transgression, yet the soul putteth in its plea and complaint against it, as the apostle doth where he cries out, "Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death!" It is here, as in civil matters, if we make our challenge or demand a custom is at end, though possibly, such may be the power of the opposite party that the acts may be renewed. So a godly man putteth in his plea against sin; and although through his own weakness, and the violence of Satan's temptations, he may be again overtaken with it, yet he resolveth against it, and prays against it, and complaineth to God of the strength of his corruptions, VOL. XI.-No. 133.]

K

and doth not allow himself in the least sin. David professeth, Ps. cxix. 30. that he had chosen the way of truth," and yet he slipped with his tongue more than once, as when he answered Abimelech the priest: "the king hath commanded me a business, and he hath said unto me, let not any man know any thing of the business whereabout I send you, and what I have commanded thee; and I have appointed my servant to such a place," I Sam. xxi. 2.; and he faltered again with his tongue, and spake either falsely or doubtfully, when the king of the Philistines asked him, "Whither have ye made a road to-day? And David said, against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites," 1 Sam. xxvii. 10., when his invasion was against other countries. Nevertheless David did not make a trade of lying, for he had "chosen the way of truth," and he professed afterwards in the same Psalm, that he "hated every false way." And this is the meaning of that place, 1 John iii. 9. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin;" he doth not trade in sin, and make it his work and his business. But wicked men make a trade of sin; they devise, plot, and contrive sin, which acts denominate them workers of iniquity: they are so far from putting in a plea against sin, that they will rather plead for their sins, and they will labour more to make excuses for them than to get the conquest over them. They are so far from making preparation to resist the lusts of the flesh, that "they make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof," Rom. xiii. 14.

2. A godly man doth not sin with the full consent of his will; he doth not yield a willing subjection to the commands of sin-he doth not yield a ready and free obedience to it, as to a natural lord, but only a forced and involuntary obedience as to a usurping tyrant. Sin cannot say of believers, as the centurion said of his servants, "I say to this man go, and he goeth; and to another come, and he cometh; and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it," Matt. viii. 9. For a saint's heart riseth against the imperious commands of sin, and the soul complaineth and crieth to God for help against it. A godly man sinneth with much reluctancy, his heart never cometh up heartily to the commands of sin, but the evil which he would not, that he doeth. There may be indeed a kind of negative consent in a godly inan as to some particular acts of sin, into which he may perhaps be carried forth without any open resistance; as when a thing is put to the question, a man that is silent may be said to give some kind of consent; and when he doth suspend his own vote, and not openly declare his consent, nor yet directly his dissent. But yet, though a godly man may be overborn sometimes, and hurried into some particular acts of sin, yet he doth not directly or determinately consent thereunto. It is the sad complaint, and the mournful voice of grace, "The evil which I would not, that I do." But, "I do sin, and I will sin; I do work iniquity, and I will work it," is the stubborn voice of sinful nature. In the godly man, even when drawn to the acting of sin, yet there remaineth in the will a prin

ciple of opposition to it. As Jacob and Esau struggled together in Rebecca's womb, so there is constantly a spiritual struggling between the flesh and the spirit in a believing soul; "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh." Now, where there is this struggling and lusting against corruption, there cannot be a full consent of the will against corruption. I told you before, that sin acteth the part of a tyrant in a godly man; now you know all the service that is done to a tyrant is out of violence, not out of obedience. A tyrant hath only a coactive power over the persons, but a king, besides that, hath a sweet power over the wills and affections of his subjects; they love his person, and delight in his service; which rule, though it be not always true in civil governments, (for the unwillingness of some to obey their sovereign, may arise from their own rebellion, and not from his tyranny) yet it is most general and certain in the state of sin, which is never a king over rebellious subjects, who reject its yoke and government. Sin may play the tyrant, and use saints like captives sold under it, as Paul complaineth of himself, that "he was sold under sin." We read of Ahab that he was sold to sin, but in a different sense. Ahab became a voluptuary in the service of sin; but Paul was sold by Adam, and from this captivity he could not utterly extricate himself, though he were, as one expresseth it, in bondage to sin," as the creatures are to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of his act, that had subjected him long before." But unregenerate men do readily obey sin's commands, they yield their members servants to uncleanness and iniquity, Rom. vi, 19. They have no principle of grace within to restrain them from sin, but only principles of rebellion whereby they are impetuously carried forth into the ways of sin in a full career, or like a ship under sail with a full wind.'

3. A godly man doth not sin with a full purpose of heart. When a godly man sinneth he is out of his road, for purposes are the road of our hearts as custom is of our lives. The honest traveller purposeth to keep on strait to his journey's end, and if he do at any time mistake his way, it is besides his purpose. So, though Peter denied his Master, yet it was against the purpose of his heart, yea, against the promise of his mouth. Judas betrayed his Master, but he was resolved before so to do, as appeareth by his contract with the scribes and pharisees. As for Peter, he denied his Master, not because he purposed to do it, but because he purposed not to do it, without depending upon Christ for strength to preserve him from the violence of such a temptation. His fall indeed was dreadful and terrible, but it was a sudden surprize, the fixed purpose of his heart was against it.

It is possible that a godly man may deliberate upon the committing of some sin, when an occasion is presented; but, I conceive, it is impossible for a godly man to deliberate how he may find out occasions of sin. David, when he was on the house-top, had an object presented, but he did not go up thither with an intention to

seek one. Godly men may be surprised, and be hurried into the external acts of those sins, which they never intended, and against which their purposes and resolutions were most strongly carried forth. But now a wicked man sinneth with full purpose of heart, he sinneth and resolveth to sin, even when he seemeth to pray and protest against it. As Augustine confesseth that before his conversion, when he prayed to the Lord to mortify his corruption, he was afraid that the Lord would grant his prayer, and mortify that lust which he rather desired should be satisfied, A wicked man sinneth, and the purposes of his heart are that way, as those whom the prophet mentions, who said, (Isaiah lvi. 12.) “Come ye, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.”

4. The falls of a godly man do not spring from the propensions of his nature, but from the strength and violence of temptation. That temptations are exceeding powerful to hurry the best of men into sin is evident, by that special direction that our Saviour giveth us, to pray against temptation, and God's special promise to preserve us therein. There is (saith a worthy divine) a great difference when a man sinneth from his own habituated principles in wickedness, and from the overpowering force of some importunate temptation. David professeth that he hated every false way;" and yet, as you heard before, he is overtaken again and again with that fault. A godly man doth in his inner man delight in the law of God, and hates those sins into which he is drawn by the overpowerings of temptation; his heart and those sins are upon terms of defiance.

But on the contrary, the sins of unregenerate men proceed from propensions of nature; nature is wholly set upon sin. You need not drive a dog to his vomit nor a sow to the mire, it is natural both to the one and the other. A natural man may indeed be restrained for awhile from his violent acting of his wonted impieties, it may be by restraining grace, or perhaps only for fear of the magistrate, or want of opportunity, or some such occasion or other which may intervene to hinder him from furiously running on to all excess of ungodliness, but there is still in him such a natural propension and inclination to the ways of sin, that like water that hath been for awhile bayed up, if once the banks be broken down, or the floodgates opened, it rusheth forth with the greater violence, so if once those restraints by which formerly a wicked man hath been held in be taken off, he will break forth with the greater violence into his former ungodly practices. A natural man may not unfitly be compared to a lion or bear, that may be for the present chained up to prevent his doing mischief, but still retains his ravenous disposition, and hath a natural inclination to do mischief. So the heart of a wicked man, if only chained up by restraining grace, or fear of the magistrate, and not changed by renewing and sanctifying grace-if he can but get loose from these restraints, will soon return to his former vomit. A natural man when he sins, is like a fish in the

water in his proper element. The ways of sin are the proper element, if I may so speak, as they are the most agreeable to a natural

man.

5. A godly man cannot sin with delight, but sin is a burden for him. Though a godly man sin, yet he hates the evil that he doeth with a deadly and inconceivable hatred. Indeed sin is a godly man's affliction, and not his pleasure, as is evident by the apostle's bitter complaint, "Oh wretched man that I am," &c. The original words signify, Beza saith, one wearied with troublesome and continual combats.' Calvin saith, it is the voice of one breathing and panting, desiring to be delivered from this servitude.' But a wicked man sinneth with delight. Hence he is said to "love evil more than good;" to "choose their own way, and their souls to delight in their abominations," and " to have pleasure in unrighteousness." The comforts of their lives come in by fulfilling their lusts, so that they are discontented when their lusts are not satisfied. Witness Ahab, who was sick till he got Naboth's vineyard; and Ammon till he could possess his sister Tamar. Such is their delight in sinning, that they are unwearied therein. Solomon gives us a notable description of their restlessness and unweariedness in sinning, "They sleep not, except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall."

Lastly. A godly man doth not persevere in sin," the just man falleth seven times a day, but he riseth again." Hence it is, that the scripture, as it records the falls of any of the people of God, so it records their rising again; as it records David's adultery and murder, Hezekiah's pride, Peter's denial, and the falls of the saints, so it records also the tears and the sighs, the groans, the meltings, the humiliations, and the repentance of those precious saints. In the fifty-first Psalm you may read of David's repentance at large; and although "Hezekiah's heart was lifted up," yet you may read that "Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart." Peter fell fearfully, but a look, a glance of love from Christ melted him into tears," he went forth and wept bitterly." But wicked men persist and persevere in the ways of sin, insomuch that neither judgments threatened nor judgments inflicted reclaim them, they sin and care not, they sin and fear not. "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him."

Thus I have given six differences in which I consider the sins of the godly and the unregenerate to differ, and I pray God that he may bless it to the reader's profit.

I. S -D.

FRAGMENT.

There are but two sights which the Spirit shows to all the elect, as necessary to salvation; these are:-1. The evil of sin. 2. The glory of Ghrist.