A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures

¹Secondly, Consider, In the commission of great Sins, you do not avoid the commission of less Sins; but only add to th• guilt of them, and to that Damnation ⟨p. 85⟩that will follow upon them. It is true, if a mere Civil Man, whose highest Attainments are but some commendable external Virtues; if he could change the guilt of all the little Sins that he hath committed in his whole Life, for the single guilt of some great and heinous Sin, (though I pretend not to know the size or quantity of wrath that every Sin deserves) yet possibly his eternal punishment might be hereby somewhat diminished. But this is the Misery of great and presumptuous Sinners, that they stand guilty of as many little sins as they do that perish under the guilt of no other but little sins. Where do you see a Person that is given up to vile Abominations, but he lives also in a constant course and practice of lesser Sins? The Drunkard, the unclean Person, and the rest of them, are they not always sinful in their Thoughts, frothy and vain in their Discourses? And is it nothing to you, that you incur Damnation by little Sins, unless you can advance your own destruction; unless you can promote your selves to be next of all in torments to the Devil himself, by your greater Provocations and Impieties? As you ⟨p. 86⟩see in Rivers, the natural course of them tends to the Sea; but the Tide joining with them, makes the Current run th• swifter and the more forcibly; so is it wit• Sin; little sins are the natural stream o• a Man's Life, that do of themselves ten• Hell-ward, and are of themselves enough to carry the Soul down silently and calmly to destruction; but whe• greater and grosser sins join with them they make a violent Tide, that hurry the Soul away with a more swift an• rampant motion down to Hell, tha• little sins would or could do of themselves. Therefore when you hear ho• much evil there is in little sins, presume not to think there is nothing more in great sins; yes certainly, God is more provoked by them, your own Consciences are more wounded by them, Hell i more inflamed by them, and your own Souls are more widened and capacitated by these great sins to receive fuller and larger Vials of God's wrath, than they would be by the commission of lesser sins only.