ofsirmesDfignor~nce: ) 18) fuchjinne!: that through ignorance or any other wiy l cl·n: not difcern. Tb.ercfore our Tranflators do well adde jinne.r,. though in adifferent charatler, to fhew it is not in the originall. Now a finne may be fa id to be fecret _or hidden two waies: ' , Firft, Jn refpetl: of others, That others do not know it; - and thus many men commit groffe ~nd yile finnes; which their ownconfciences accufe and condemn, only they labour· to conceal them from others. Thus the Apoflle fa id, lt w.u a fbame to J?eak__what W.u done by fame in fecret, Eph. 5.1- 2. and· they are called 2 Cor, 4·I4. The hidden ' thing:r of dijhonefty, becaufe it"'s the property of every man like Adam to hide and cover his fin from others,... and ifpoffible from God him- .felf. NowDaviddoth not mean fuch fecret finnes here ; for. howfoever it be true, that a godly man dare not allow him– feff in any fecret known fin, as we fee in 1Q(eph, Ho~ clfln I , do thi& 11ndftn againft God! yet David reacheth to an higher · degree of grace in this Text, }le is fo far from cori'hi~ing at any fin known to'himfclf, though fecret to otmers, That he is afraid and praieth againfl: enn thife jinneJ that may be in him, andyet he not k._no"" thtm. Secondly, Afinne may be faid to be fecret or bidden, ~ot only in refpetl: of the knowledge of others,but al(o our own knowledge, fo that the man who doth fuch a thing, yet doth not at all think he finnetb therein, and this Davidpr&i· eth againfi in the Text. Now it may be objeCted, How any oh ·~a~ . thing that cometh meer!J through ignorance can he aJinne., if it be 1 - 'Wholly ftom ignerance it's involuntary, and if it be involuntary h"w can it be aji;1,{eeing there u nr~ confent?Hence an axiome of Auftins is urged by tbe Papifis (who would not have that lufl: riling up in us againfi our confents, and antecedently to out reafon and deliberation,- to be truly and formally a. finne,) vi~. tl1at u/q; adt{), -pecctltUm eft vo,luntl{'rium malum, ut null-o modi) fit peccatum, fi non fit voluntari'um, and is it not an.other rul.e,.inviHcibili& ignordntia excuf~Zt a toro? To anfwer .An[~thts : the Scnpture makes the formall nature of a f1nne to I) e in this, that it be a tranfgrtjfionof the Law, as appeareth by ]chmdefinition, I Joh.3. w~ether it be ipvoluntary or come · from
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