SERMON XX.

THE MORAL IMPERFECTION OF CHRISTIANS THEIR GREATEST BURDEN.

O, WRETCHED man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ROMANS, vii. 24.

It has been a question among expositors, whether the apostle, in this chapter, is speaking of himself or of some other man; and, if speaking of himself, whether he is speaking of himself as in a state of nature or in a state of grace. Whoever will read through the chapter with attention, can hardly doubt whether he is not speaking of himself, and expressing his views and feelings both before and after he had experienced a saving change. From the sixth to the fourteenth verse, he is evidently speaking of the exercises of his heart, while in a state of nature; and from the fourteenth verse to the end of the chapter, he is evidently speaking of his alternate exercises of right and wrong affections. For he speaks of his own moral imperfection just as other good men speak of their moral imperfection. Job acknowledges before God, "If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me; if I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." Solomon asserts, that "there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not." It is very evident that the apostle, in the text, is speaking of himself as in a state of grace, and expresses the painful sense he had of his own moral imperfection. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Though he could sustain his infirmities, and even rejoice in tribulation, yet he was sometimes ready to sink under the burden of sin. This naturally leads us to inquire, why sin was so extremely burdensome to the apostle Paul. Here it may be observed,

1. That sin was very burdensome to him, because he was a subject of special grace. He was sanctified in part. He was a partaker of the divine nature. He imbibed the spirit of Christ. He had a pure, disinterested, impartial and universal love to all beings and creatures, which were capable of enjoying happiness, or suffering pain. He was holy as God is holy. And holiness in any being creates a perfect hatred and aversion to every species of iniquity. It is because God is perfectly holy, that he perfectly hates sin, and cannot look upon it but with absolute abhorrence. It was because Christ loved righteousness, that he hated and abhorred iniquity. And so if any man be holy as God is holy, and have the spirit of Christ, he will feel towards sin as God and Christ feel towards it; he will hate it with a perfect hatred. Paul was created in righteousness and true holiness after the image of God, and the same mind was in him, that was in Christ Jesus; he had therefore a perfect hatred to all sin, and especially his own sin. While in the exercise of holiness, he saw the criminality and turpitude of all the evil affections which were so apt to rise in his imperfectly sanctified heart, and they were extremely loathsome and burdensome to him. He could not forbear exclaiming, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" or from this dead body; speaking, as it is supposed, in allusion to a custom among the Romans, who sometimes put a criminal to death by fastening him to a dead body, till he was suffocated by its pollution and stench. So odious and detestable did Paul's sinful exercises appear to his pure and holy exercises. It is a burden to see, and much more so to be connected, with any hateful objects. And among all hateful objects, the holy apostle viewed sin as the most hateful to see and feel. And so did David. He says, " Mine iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the disquietude of my heart." Saints can bear any other burden more easily than the burden of sin, because it is so hateful to their holy feelings.

2. Sin was exceedingly burdensome to the holy apostle, because he had an enlightened and tender conscience. He was not only alarmed before his conversion, but made the subject of strong and genuine convictions. His conscience was effectually awakened to condemn the depravity of his heart. He was made to feel the heavy burden of guilt which he had contracted, and what an evil and bitter thing it was to violate the dictates of his conscience. Those christians who have had powerful and pungent convictions of conscience before their 33

VOL. VI.

hearts were renewed, are generally apt to have a more enlightened and tender conscience than others, afterwards. They never forget how they have felt under a sense of their own ill desert, and of God's just displeasure. Paul's convictions were probably very powerful and overwhelming; for they laid him prostrate in the dust, and shook his whole corporeal frame, and created an insupportable conflict between his corrupt heart and enlightened conscience. He deeply regretted that he disregarded the solemn and dying discourse of Stephen, and the great truths which he delivered. He deeply regretted the contempt he had poured upon Christ, and the gospel he preached. He deeply regretted his enmity to his harmless followers, his cruelly persecuting them, and making havoc of the church. Though, while he was doing these things, he verily thought he was doing God service, yet as soon as he was struck under sudden and pungent convictions, his conscience accused and condemned him, as acting a most stupid, obstinate and criminal part; and all his self confidence and self righteousness forsook him, and left him to feel the full weight of self condemnation. He felt the bitterness of spiritual death, and his giving up his hope was like giving up the ghost. Such clear and powerful convictions made an impression on his conscience, which he never could erase from his mind. His conscience, which had been so deeply wounded, was ever after extremely tender. Whenever he found his heart at variance with his conscience, it gave him a quick and painful sense of guilt. This rendered sin a continual and heavy burden. His conscience was not seared or hardened, but always alive and awake, to discern and condemn every unholy and sinful affection. He maintained an habitual spiritual warfare between his heart and conscience. Hence he said, "Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men." His tender conscience continually admonished him to keep his heart with all diligence, knowing that out of the heart are the issues of life. He was sensible that, if his heart were wrong, his actions proceeding from it would certainly be wrong; and whenever they were wrong, they were a burden to him, and created a self loathing and self condemnation, which was a spiritual conflict extremely heavy to bear.

3. His burden of sin and guilt was very great, because he made the divine law the rule of his duty. He did not mean to follow the false customs, and manners, and maxims of the men of the world, who lean to their own understandings, and trust in their own hearts, to direct them how to feel, and to act; but he made the law of God the infallible rule of his conduct. As soon as his carnal mind was slain by the divine law, he cor

dially approved of it as a rule of life.

"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known. sin, but by the law. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." He saw that the law is spiritual, but that he was carnal, sold under sin. He saw his heart in the glass of the divine law, which is exceeding broad, reaching to all the thoughts and intents of the heart, as well as to all the actions of life. This convinced him that the divine law condemned a thousand internal exercises and external actions, which the men of the world approve and applaud. He saw that every deviation from the divine commands, either in thought, word, or deed, was altogether and exceedingly sinful. He saw that just so far as he fell short of absolute perfection, he disobeyed God, and fell under the condemnation of the holy law of God, which he violated. He found, by comparing his heart with the divine law, it condemned him; and if his heart condemned him, God was greater than his heart, and knew all things, and must condemn him for much more than he condemned himself. The more holy the apostle was, the more he loved and delighted in the law of God after the inward man; and the more he loved the divine law, and made it the rule of duty, the more sensible he was of his numerous violations of it, and of the great criminality of violating it in the least degree. He knew his own heart better than the world knew it, and though the world saw little or no moral imperfection in him, he saw and groaned under a great deal of sin and guilt. And this is true of all, who sincerely desire to pay a universal and constant obedience to all the intimations of the divine will. When the commandment comes, and they compare their hearts with it, sin revives; they see more and more of their criminal imperfections and short comings in duty, which is a burden, and source of self condemnation and self loathing.

4. The apostle's sins were a heavy and distressing burden to him, because he had a clear and lively sense of their great aggravations. He saw his own sins to be far more aggravated than the same sins in others. He knew a vast deal more than other men and other christians. God had given him peculiar talents, privileges, and advantages to attain to high degrees in both human and divine knowledge; and he made great and rapid advances in mental improvements, both intellectual and

spiritual. He was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, where he studied Moses and the prophets, and their learned expositors, and the writings of the pagan historians, philosophers and poets, before his heart was changed. This prepared him, as soon as he was brought out of spiritual darkness into spiritual light, to gain clear and extensive views of the great plan of redemption, and of all the peculiar doctrines and duties of Christianity. He was, moreover, divinely inspired, and in vision carried to the third heaven, where he heard and saw the unutterable things of the invisible world. He knew far more than any other man then in the world, about God, about the Bible, about the church of Christ, about the depravity of mankind, and about the happy and the miserable spirits in heaven and in hell. These peculiar and discriminating favors the apostle habitually remembered, and ascribed to the astonishing grace of God towards him. His holy and grateful heart constrained him to say, "By the grace of God, I am what I am,” and "less than the least of all saints;" that is, the most unworthy and ill deserving. Though he knew and said he was not behind the chief of the apostles in respect to holiness, he was less than the least of them in respect to guilt. He was sensible that his sins were attended with the most aggravating circumstances, because he had sinned directly against God, against Christ, against the Holy Spirit, against the friends and cause of Christ, and against the greatest and most distinguishing blessings of providence and grace. It grieved him to the heart, that he had hated God, whom he then loved; that he had persecuted Christ, whom he then loved; that he had made havoc of the church, which he then loved; and that he then carried about with him the remains of moral corruptions which he hated, and which he had solemnly resolved and professed to renounce. He viewed himself as the most sinful and inconsistent man in the world, because he sinned against the greatest light, the greatest love, and the most endearing obligations, by which God had bound him, and he had bound himself. a deep and pungent sense of his aggravated guilt caused him to exclaim, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death," whose weight is so insupportable?

And

5. Sin was a heavy burden to the apostle, because he desired and endeavored to restrain it. Sin is no burden to those who live in the habitual and allowed practice of sinning. The profane person, who indulges himself in profaneness, feels no burden of that sin lying upon him. The Sabbath breaker, who allows himself in profaning that holy day, feels no burden of that sin lying upon him. The worldling, whose habitual prac