A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures

¹Fourthly, When at any time you commit a Sin, consider what the Temptations are that assault you, and how you behave your selves under those Temptations; for from thence you may conjecture whether your Sins be presumptuous or not. Temptations as they are strong Inducements unto Sin, so sometimes they are great mitigations of Sin; the more violently the Soul is bated and wearied with Temptations, the less presumption is it guilty of if at length it yields; this God doth judge to be weakness not wilfulness, he knows our Frame that we are but Dust and Ashes, that we are no match for Principalities and Powers; and those mighty Enemies that we are to combat with, we can no more stand before them than so much loose Dust before a fierce and rapid ⟨p. 171⟩Whirlwind; yea, were there no Devil •o tempt, yet the Corruptions of our •wn Hearts are much too hard for us; •ut when both our own Lusts and the Devil shall conspire together, the one •o betray us with all its Deceitfulness, •nd the other to force us with all its Power; who then can stand if God at such a time as this is withdraw his Grace •nd Spirit, as sometimes he doth from the best of his Servants, where is the Christian that ever coped with these Temptations, and was not vanquished and captivated by them? It is true when God assists him the weakest Christian proves victorious over the strongest Temptations: A Dwarf may beat a Giant when he is manacled that he cannot stir or resist; God sees that Satan •is an over-match for us, and therefore he ties his hands before he sets us out to the Conflict, and what wonder is it if we then conquer, when God hath trodden Satan under us, no wonder if as weak as we are we can then trample upon him too; but that all our Success may appear to be not from our own strength but from God's Might, he leaves us sometimes to Satan, and lets loose Satan ⟨p. 172⟩upon us in all his rage, he leads u• into Temptation, and he leaves u under Temptation; and when we are buffeted we then yield and fall, and th Devil shamefully triumphs over us: l this Case which is one of the sadde that a Christian can be in, though th Sin be very foul and heinous; yet th same Power of Temptation that make us sin heinously, keeps us from sinning presumptuously. Presumptuous Sins are not to be measured by the bulk and ugliness of the Action, but by the forward and headlong Consent of the Will unto it;