mit be a sin of infirmity? I answer, No; because he hath no spiritual life, and infirmity is in one that hath life; and therefore a wicked man being dead, his sin that he commits cannot be called a sin of infirmity.*

If you ask whether any great, gross, foul, scandalous sin be or can be a sin of infirmity? I answer, No; because it is a sickness, as Austin well observes, and not a weakness; for, saith he, there is a great deal of difference between ægrotus and infirmus. If a man have some distemper and ailment in his body, and yet he bears up to his meat and to his work, he is not sick, but he hath an infirmity; this is weakness: but if a man have a distemper and illness in his body, whereby he is driven both from meat and work, and doth lie by it, then it is not an infirmity but a sickness. So spiritually, if a man have a failing, and yet through the grace of God he bears up to meat and work, it is an infirmity; but if he sin, and thereby be driven both from meat and work, through the commission of some gross sin, this is a sickness, this is no weakness or infirmity. So then, properly, the sin of infirmity is that sin which is committed by one that is spiritually alive unto God, and which doth arise from want of strength to resist, and not from will to commit. And thus you see, briefly, what the nature of this sin of infirmity is.†

But yet this doth not come near enough. When may a man be said to sin a sin of infirmity, and how shall I know whether my sin be of that rate of sins or no; for if the Lord will not cast a man off for a sin of infirmity, it concerns me to consider what kind of sins my sins are: there are some sins that God doth reject men for, as in the case of Saul, God rejected him for his sin; when may a man, therefore, be said to sin out of infirmity?

For answer unto this, First, I shall speak unto some mistakes. Secondly, I will speak something unto it negatively, and something affirmatively.

Some

For mistakes. There are mistakes on both hands. think that the sins which they commit are not sins of in

* Infirmity cannot properly be said to be in them, in whom sin hath firmity and strength, and where there is no power of grace at all.-Perkins' Cases, book i. chap. 2

† Sicut corpori noxium est escam corporalem non posse percipere, ita animæ periculosum est spiritales delitias fastidire.-Augustin.

firmity, when indeed they are; and some think that their sins are sins of infirmity when indeed they are not. Both on the right hand and on the left hand, men are mistaken about this

matter.

On the left hand, men think that their sins are infirmities, when indeed they are not, and that upon a four-fold account because their sin is but small in bulk; or because that they are tempted and drawn into their sin by others; and because they do strive against their sin; and because they are troubled after it.

I think, will some say, that my sin is a sin of infirmity because it is but small. But if you look into 1 Sam. xv. you may read that Saul's sin, for which the Lord rejected him, was of no great outward bulk; for he spared the fatlings that he might sacrifice thereby; and though he spared the king Agag, it was neither murder that he committed, nor adultery, nor drunkenness; yet saith the Lord unto him, "Thy sin is as the sin of witchcraft." A great many small sins may make as great a bulk as one gross sin; yea, possibly there may be much sinfulness and evil in committing of a small sin; for as amongst men, it is the greatest incivility to break with another for a small matter; so with God, to break with God for a small thing, is a great unworthiness and ingratitude. Thus did Adam in eating the forbidden fruit; the smallness of the thing to be done aggravated his sin; and the smaller the thing is, the more unworthiness it is to break with God in so little; a small leak neglected may sink the ship, as well as the most boisterous and greatest wave: and much skill may be seen in a small work; a little watch, &c. So your skill in sinning may be seen in a small sin; his sin is never small that thinks it small. And if this be true, that there is no sin that a wicked man commits which is a sin of infirmity, because he is dead; then a man may commit a sin that is but small in the bulk, and yet no sin of infirmity.*

* Minuta peccata si negligantur, occidunt minutiæ sunt guttæ quæ flumina implent, minuta sunt grana arenæ, sed si multa arena imponatur, premit atque opprimit; hoc facit sentina neglecta, quod facit fluctus irruens, Paulatim per sentinam intrat sed diu intrando et non es hauriendo mergit navim. August. Tom. vi. 9. Tract. 13. in Joan. 2.

Ne putemus parvum esse has culpas quæ sunt plures, arenulæ parvæ sunt sed

But I think my sin is a sin of infirmity becouse I am tempted to it, and because I am drawn on by others. But I pray, was not Adam tempted unto the eating of the forbidden fruit by Eve? And was not Eve tempted by Satan? And will you call that a sin of infirmity that condemned all the world as Adam's sin did? And I pray you, was not Aaron put upon making the golden calf by the people; and will you call that sin of idolatry a sin of infirmity? Possibly a man may be tempted, drawn unto sin by others, and put it by others, and yet the sin may be no sin of infirmity. But I think my sin is a sin of infirmity because I do strive against it. And, I pray, did not Pilate strive against the crucifying of Christ? He would have delivered him from the Jews, calls for a bason of water, and washed his hands, saying, I am free from the blood of this man, used means, and did strive against it, and yet the sin of Pilate no sin of infirmity: Possibly therefore a man may strive against his sin, and yet the sin be no sin of infirmity.

upon

But my sin is a sin of infirmity because I am troubled after it. And was not Esau troubled after he had sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage; did he not seek it with tears? And when Judas had betrayed his master, and our Saviour, it is said that he repented of what he had done, and was troubled. Surely then, though the sin that I commit, may be lesser in bulk, than another's sin, and small comparatively, and though I be drawn into it by others, and though I do strive against it, and though I am troubled after it, yet it may be no sin of infirmity. Yet, good Lord, how many poor souls are there that deceive themselves, and think that their sins are but sins of infirmity; and thus are mistaken on the left hand.

But as some are mistaken on the left hand, thinking that their sins are sins of infirmity, when indeed they are not:

tot possunt esse ut obruant citius quam saxum ingens, infirma res est una locusta sed quæ plaga maior agris quam multitudo illarum. Euseb. Nieremberg. de adoratione, Lib. ii. Cap. 13.

Cum Deus tantus sit nihil est parvum quod ei displicet aut quod ei placet quicquid est bonum statim est magnum quicquid malum statim hic non est

parvum.

Non est parvum quod censetur minimum cum in minimis stet perfectio.

Erubesse te vinci a parvis nam ad hoste exili et pumilione sterni turpissimum et ignavi signum. Id. Cap. 14.

so others on the right hand are mistaken, and think that their sins are not sins of infirmity, but of a worse nature, when indeed they are: and that upon these accounts:

Because they sin knowingly.

Because they fall into the same sin again and again, and do lie therein.

Because they fall into the sin after admonition.

Oh, saith one, I fear my sin is no sin of infirmity, for I sin knowingly, and with deliberation; I sin against my knowledge, and against my conscience, and therefore my sin, can be no sin of infirmity.

But for answer hereunto, you must know, it is one thing for a man to sin knowingly, and another thing for a man to sin out of knowledge, or against his knowledge. As in the case of ignorance; it is one thing for a man to sin ignoranter, and another thing to sin ex ignorantia. A man sins ignorrantly when ignorance is the companion of his sin only: a man sins out of ignorance, when ignorance is the only cause of his sin, and not the companion only. As for example: Suppose a man be in fight, in a great battle, and he kill another; he kills him because he did not know him, if he had known him in the battle, he would not have killed him ; here his ignorance is not the companion only, but the cause of it so that it is one thing to sin ignorantly, and another thing to sin out of ignorance. A man sins ignorantly, when ignorance is the companion of his fact: a man sins out of ignorance, when ignorance is the cause of it. So a man sins knowingly, when knowledge is the companion of his fact: but a man sins out of knowledge, or he sins against knowledge, when knowledge is the cause thereof; as when a man doth use his knowledge to make distinctions and shifts for his sin, whereby he is emboldened to it, and continues in it. Knowledge is sometimes only a companion of sin; as when a man knows that the first risings of sin are evil; this knowledge is no cause of them, but merely a companion: sometimes knowledge is the cause of sin; as when a man doth know that his way is naught, and he doth deliberately consult and devise excuses and lies to hide the same; here his knowledge is the cause of those sinful excuses, and the man doth not only sin knowingly and with knowledge, but out of knowledge, and against his knowledge; and this cannot

stand with infirmity, but the former may for the disciples knew that it was evil for them to sleep; yet their sin was a sin of infirmity.*

Oh, but I fear that my sin is no sin of infirmity, because I fall into it again and again, and do lie in it.

But do ye know what it is to lie in sin? there is much mistake about lying in sin. Possibly a man may lie in a sin, yet never fall into the gross acts thereof; he may lie in the breach of the seventh commandment, and yet never commit the gross act of adultery; he may lie in the sin of covetousness, yet never be any great oppressor. So on the other side, a man may possibly fall divers times into the same sin, and yet not lie therein; for properly a man is said to lie in sin, when he doth continue in it, and not purge it out; so he that is born of God sinneth not, because his heart is as a fountain or spring, that purifies itself from that dirt and filth of sin which doth fall into it: but as the apostle speaks, "The whole world lies in wickedness;" why? because a wicked man's heart is as a lake or standing pool, which keeps all that dirt which is thrown into it. Now if you do thus keep and lie in your sin, why do you so complain? this your complaining argues that there is some purging out, and therefore you do not lie in sin.

Oh, but I fear my sin cannot be a sin of infirmity, because I fall into it after I have been admonished of the evil of it. To that I say no more, but desire you to consider the instance that is here before you. The disciples slept, our Lord and Saviour Christ comes and wakens them; yea, and he chides them too: 66 What (saith he) cannot ye watch with me one hour! watch and pray;" and yet they slept again: and he comes and wakens them again, and admonisheth them again, and yet they slept again. Possibly, therefore, a man may fall into the same sin again and again, yea, even after

* Adrian. sic definit peccatum ex infirmitate, est actus vel omissio culpabilis sine deliberatione propter passionis impetum facta: hac tamen definitione non complectitur omne peccatum ex infirmitate; nam potest peccatum ex infirmitate accidere cum deliberatione imo vero ut sit peccatum debet esse aliqua deliberatio Vasquez. xii. Q. 77. A. 3.

Utrum sit possibile quod aliquis sciens ex infirmitate peccat.

Dicendum quod communiter ab omnibus ponitur aliqua peccata ex infirmitate committi quæ a peccatis ex ignorantia non distinguerentur nisi contingeret aliquem scientem ex infirmitate peccare. Tho. Aquinas Quest. Disputat. de causa peccati. Art. ix. p. 96.