very nature of sincerity and uprightness, to set the heart against [ever?/] way of wickedness, Psal. cxxxix. 25, 24. Job xxxi. 13. and especially against that sin which was its darling in the days of his vanity, Psal. xviii. 23. True hatred (as the philosopher observes) is of the * whole kind : He that hates sin as sin, and so doth every upright soul, hates all sins as well as some.
Again, the soul that hath had a saving sight of Jesus Christ, and a true discovery of the evil of sin, in the glass both of the law and gospel, can account no sin small. He knows the demerit of the smallest sin is God's eternal wrath, and that not the least sin can be remitted without the shedding and application of the blood of Christ, Heb. ix. 22. which blood is of infinite value and price, 1 Pet. i. 19.
To conclude, God's people know, that little as well as great sins, are dangerous, deadly, and destructive in their own nature ; a little poison will destroy a man. Adrian was choaked with a gnat, Caesar stabbed with bodkins. A man would think Adam's sin had been no great matter, yet what dreadful work did it make ! It was not as a single bullet to kill himself only ; but as a chain-shot, which cut off all his poor, miserable posterity. Indeed, no sin can be little, because its object against whom it is committed is so great, whence it receives a kind of infiniteness in itself; and because the price paid to redeem us from it is so invaluable.
And is the smallest sin not only damning in its own nature, but will certainly prove the ruin of that soul that hides and covers it ; O then let my spirit accomplish a diligent search. Look to it, O my soul ! that no sin be indulged by thee ; set these considerations as so many flaming swords in the way of thy carnal delights and lusts : Let me never say of any sin as Lot did of Zoar, " It is a little one, spare " it."" Shall I spare that which cost the blood of Jesus Christ ? The Lord would not spare him, " AVhen he made his soul an offering for sin," Rom. viii. 82. Neither will he spare me, if I defend and hide it, Deut. xxix. 20. Ah ! if my heart were right, and my con- versation sound, that lust, whatever it be, that is so favoured by me, would especially be abhorred and hated, Isa. ii. 20. and xxx. 22. Whatever my convictions and reformations have been, yet if ther^ be but one sin retained and delighted in, this keeps the devil's interest in my soul. And though for a time he seem to de- part, yet at last he will return with seven worse spirits, and this is the sin that will open the door to him, and deliver up my soul, Matth. xii. 43, 44. Lord, let me make thorough work of it ; let me cut it off, and pluck it out, though it be as a right-hand, or eye. Ah ! shall I come so near the kingdom of God, and make such a fair offer for Christ, and vet stick at a small matter, and
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lose all for want of one thing ? Lord, let me shed the blood of the dearest lust for his sake that shed his dearest blood for me !
A here's many a souFs eternally undone For sparing sin, because a little one. But we are much deceived; no sin is small, That wounds so great a God, so dear a soul. Yet say it were, tlie smallest pen-knife may As well as sword or lance, dispatch and slay. And shall so small a matter part and sever Christ and thy soul 'i What ! make you part for ever .^ Or wilt thou stand on toys with him, when he Deny'd himself in greatest things for thee "t Or will it be an ease in hell to think How easily thy soul therein did sink "^ Are Christ and hell for trifles sold and bought .^ Strike souls with trembling. Lord, at such a thought 1 By little sins belov'd, the soul is lost, Unless such sins do great repentance cost.
Ships make mtich way when they a trade-wind get With such a wind the saints have ever met.
X HOUGH in most parts of the world the winds are variable, and sometimes blow from every part of the compass, by reason whereof sailing is slow and dangerous ; yet about the Equinoctial, seamen meet with a trade-wind blowing, for the most part one way ; and there they sail jocund before it, and scarce need to lower a topsail for some hundreds of leagues.
Although the people of God meet with many seeming rubs and set-backs in their way to heaven, which are like contrary winds to a ship ; yet they are from the day of their conversion to the day of their complete salvation, never out of a trade-wind's way to heaven. Rom. viii. 21 . " We know that all things work together for good to *' them that love God, to them that are called according to his pur- " pose.'' This is a most precious scripture, pregnant with its con- solation, to all believers in all conditions, a pillar of comfort to all distressed saints : Let us look a little nearer to it.
(We know) Mark the certainty and evidence of the proposition, which is not built upon a guess or remote probability, but upon the knowledge of the saints ; we know it, and that partly by Divine re*
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velatioii, God has told us so; and partly by our own experience we find it so.
(That all things) Not only things that He in a natural and direct tendency to our good ; as ordinances^ promises, blessings, ^c. but even such things as have no natural fitness and tendency to such an end ; as afflictions, temptations, corruptions^ desertions, 4*c. all these help onward. They
(Worh together) Not all of them directly, and of their own na- ture and incHnation ; but by being over-ruled and determined to such an issue by the gracious hand of God : nor yet do they work out such goods to the saints singly and apart, but as adjuvant causes or helps, standing under, and working in subordination to the su- preme and principal cause of their happiness.
Now, the most seeming opposite things, yea, sin in itself, which in its own nature is really opposite to their good, yet eventually contri- butes to it. Afflictions and desertions seem to work against us, but being once put into the raak and order of causes, they work together with such blessed instruments, as word and prayer to an happy issue. And though the faces of these things that so agree and work toge- ther, look contrary ways ; yet there are, as it were, secret chains and connexions of providence betwixt them, to unite them in their issue. There may be many instruments employed about one work, and yet not communicate counsels, or hold intelligence with each other. Jo- seph's brethren, the Midianites, Potiphar, &c. knew not one another's mind, nor aimed at one end, (much less the end that God brought about by them) one acts out of revenge, another for gain, a third out of policy ; yet all meet together at last, in that issue God had designed to bring about by them, even Joseph's advancement. Even so it is here, Christian, there are more instruments at work for thine eternal good than thou art aware of.