him be at peace with thy sin also ? Is it not enough to he justified from thy sin, hilt wouklst thou have God hetray his own honour, by justifying tliee in thy sin? Did you ever liear a prince give a patent to another to cut his own throat? What security canst thou give to God of thy love tn him, if thou wilt not renounce that which is the only thing that seeks his life ? Peccafiim est de- cidium. As long as the traitor is in favour within, God will not raise his siege, or hear a peace without. They cannot reign together ; choose which you will have of them ; and be not so far deluded, as to think it is enough to send thy lust out of the way for a while, as princes use to do their favourites in a po- pular commotion, to please the people, and then call for them home, when the hubbub is over. No, God will not be thus dogged and mocked. See how the promise runs, and this he will stand to, Isa. Iv. 7 : ' Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly par- don.' See how cautious God is in the terms : no corner is left for the least sin to skulk and save its life in — ' he nmst forsake.' That implies, First, A deli- berate choice in the soul : he does it freely. Some men's sins forsake them ; ' the unclean spirit goes out,' and is not driven out ; occasions to sin cease, or bodily ability to execute the commands of sin is wanting. Here is no forsaking sin in all this; but to break from it with a holy indignation and resolution when temptation is most busy, and strength most active ; now, as David said, when his enemies compassed him as bees, in the name of the Lord to rebel and resist them, this is to forsake. This is the encomiinn of Moses; he forsook the court when he was grown up ; not for age, as Barzillai, but when his blood was warm in his veins. A man doth not forsake his wife when he is detained from her in prison, but when he puts her away, and gives her a bill of divorce. Secondly, To forsake sin, is to leave it without any thought reserved of returning to it again. Every time a man takes a journey from home about business, we do not say he hath forsaken his house, because he meant, when he went out, to come to it again. No ; but when we see a man leave his house, carry all his stuff away with him, lock up his doors, and take up his abode in another, never to dwell there more ; here is a man who hath, indeed, forsaken his house. It were strange to find a drunkard so constant in the exercise of that sin but some time you may hud him sober ; and yet a drunkard he is, as well as if he was then drunk. Every one hath not forsaken his trade, that we see now and then in their holiday suit ; then the man forsakes his sin, when he throws it from him, and bolts the door upon it, with a purpose never to open more to it; Hosea xiv. 8, ' Ephraim shall say. What have I to do any more with idols?' Again, Observe, before pardon can be sealed, he must forsake not this sin, or that, but the whole law of sin. ' Let the wicked forsake his way.' A traveller may step fi-om one path to another, and still go on the same way of sin, leave a dirty, deep, and rugged path, for one more smooth and even ; so many finding some gross sins uneasy, and too toilsome to their awakened con- .sciences, step into a more cleanly path of civility ; but alas, poor creatures ! all they get is to go a little more easily and cleanly to hell than their beastly neigh- bours. But he forsakes the way of sin, that turns out of the whole road. In a word, thou must forsake the blindest path of all in sin's way, that which lies behind the hedge, as I may so say, in the thoughts of the heart, ' and the un- righteous his thoughts:' or else thou knockest in vain at God's door for pardon- ing mercy; and, therefore, poor soul, forsake all or none; save one lust, and you lose your soul. If men mean to go to hell, why are they so mannerly ? this halving with sin is ridiculous. Art thou afraid of this sin, and not of a less, which hinders thy peace, and makes thy damnation as sure, only without so much distraction to thy drowsy conscience at present? This is as ridiculous as it was with him, who being to be hanged, desired that he might by no means go through such a street to the gallows, for fear of the plague that was there. What wilt thou get, ^loor sinner, if thou goest to hell, though thou goest thither by thy ignorance, unbelief, spiritual pride, &c., yet led about so as to escape the plague of open profaneness? O, sirs, consider but the equity, the honour- ableness of the terms that God oft'ers peace upon. What lust is so sweet or profitable, that is worth burning in hell for ? Darius, when he fled before Alex- . ander, that he might run the faster out of danger, 'threw away his massy crown
THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. g^g