Lynda,
Read Thomas Watson's "Degrees of Sin", which can be found in the Article of the Month archives.He says among other things ,the following:To sin presumptuously, is to sin against convictions and illuminations, or an enlightened conscience. ‘They are of those that rebel against the light.’ Job 24:13. Conscience, like the cherubim, stands with a flaming sword in its hand to deter the sinner; and yet he will sin. Did not Pilate sin against conviction, and with a high hand, in condemning Christ? He knew that for envy the Jews had delivered him. Matt 27:18. He confessed he ‘found no fault in him.’ Luke 23:14. His own wife sent to him saying, ‘Have nothing to do with that just man.’ Matt 27:19. Yet for all this, he gave the sentence of death against Christ. He sinned presumptuously, against an enlightened conscience. To sin ignorantly does something to extenuate and pare off the guilt. ‘If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin,’ that is, their sin had been less. John 15:22. But to sin against illuminations and convictions enhances men’s sins. These sins make deep wounds in the soul; other sins fetch blood; they are a stab at the heart.

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