Have
you named it? Well, it was for that that this reprobate was laid by the
heels on the immediately hither side of the cross and the sepulchre. Not
that the iron might not have been taken off his heels again on certain
conditions, even after it was on; but, even so, he would never have been
the same man again that he was before his presumptuous sin. You will
easily know a man who has committed much presumptuous sin,--that is to
say, if you have any eye for a sinner. I think I would find him out if I
heard him pray once, or preach once, or even select a psalm for public or
for family worship; even if I heard him say grace at a dinner-table, or
reprove his son, or scold his servant. Presumptuous sin has so much of
the venom and essence of sin in it that, forgiven or unforgiven, even a
little of it never leaves the sinner as it found him. Even if his
fetters are knocked off, there is always a piece of the poisonous iron
left in his flesh; there is always a fang of his fetters left in the
broken bone. The presumptuous saint will always be detected by the way
he halts on his heels all his after days.
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