The first irnotive to provoke you to put out all your strength and might against bosom sins, that you are so apt to play withal, is seriously to consider, that this ivill be a strong and choice demonstration and evidence of the sincerity and uprightness of your hearts: Ps. xviii. 23, ' I was also upright with him,^ and I kept myself from mine iniquity.* I kept a strict and diligent watch upon that particular sin that I found myself most inclined unto. And this, says David, is a clear evidence to me of the uprightness of my heart with God. The truth is, there is no hypocrite in the world but doth dandle and dally with some bosom sin or other ; and though at times, and upon carnal accounts, they seem to be very zealous against this and that sin, yet at the very same time their hearts stand strongly and affectionately engaged to some bosom sin, as might be shewed in Saul, Judas, and Herod, Job xx. 12, 13. Therefore, as ever you would have a sure argument of your uprightness, trample upon your Delilahs. This very evidence of thy uprightness may yield thee more comfort and refreshing in a day of trouble and darkness, than for the present thou dost apprehend, or hast faith to believe. Some there be that can tell thee, that the joy of the bride- groom, nor the joy of the harvest, is not to be compared to that joy that arises in the soul from the sense and evidence of a man's own upright- ness, 2 Cor. i. 12. Sincerity is the very queen of virtues ; she holds the throne, and will be sure to keep it. Yea, the very sight of it in the soul makes a man sit cheerful and thankful, Noah-like, in the midst of all tempests and storms. Look, as the playing with a bosom sin speaks out hypocrisy, so the mortifying of a bosom sin speaks out sincerity.
The second motive to provoke doubting souls to trample upon their bosom sins, is solemnly to consider, that the conquest of their darling sins will render the conquests of other sins easy.
When Goliah was slain, the rest of the Philistines fled, 1 Sam. xviL 51, 52. When a general in an army is cut off, the common soldiers are easily routed and destroyed. Ah ! complaining, doubting souls, did you but take the courage and resolution to fall with all your might and spiritual strength upon those particular sins that stick so close unto you, and that do so easily captivate you, you would find, that the great mountains that are before you would soon be made a plain, Zech. iv. 7. Other sins will not be long-lived, when justice is done upon your bosom sins. Thrust but a dart through the heart of Absalom, and a complete conquest will folio w,^ 2 Sam. xviii. 14.
' "iDy, gnimmo, with him.
* The Lacedaemonians, in all battles, resolved to go home conquerors, or to die con- quered.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 393
The third motive to provoke you to crucify your bosom sins, be they what they will, is, seriously to consider the very great damage that your souls have already sustained by your bosom sins.
Saul, by casting an amorous eye upon Agag, lost his crown and king- dom ; Samson, by dallying with his Delilah, lost his strength, sight, hght, liberty, and life. But what are these losses to thy loss of spiritual strength, to thy loss of communion with God, to thy loss of the Spirit of light, life, liberty, and glory ; to thy loss of joy unspeakable, and peace that passes all understanding ; and to thy loss of those fresh and sparkling hopes of glory that were once sparkling in thy breast ?^
Mark Antony was so far bewitched with his Cleopatra, that in the heat of the battle of Actium, when the empire of the world, his life, and all lay at stake, that he fled from Augustus to pursue her, to the ruin and loss of all.^ So many there are bewitched to some Cleopatra, to some darling sin or other, that they pursue the enjoyment of them to the loss of God, Christ, heaven, and their souls for ever.
Ah ! Christians, that the sense of what you have formerly lost, and of what you daily lose by your playing witli sin, might provoke you to set upon some effectual course for the mortifying of them !
It was a blasphemous speech of Henry the Second, who said, when Mentz, his city, was taken, ' That he should never love God any more, who suffered a city so dear to him to be taken from him.' But it will be a blessed and happy thing for you, in uprightness to say. Oh, we wiU never love, we will never favour, we will never dally with our bosom sins more ; for they have damnified us in our spiritual enjoyments, and in our spiritual returns from heaven. Shall the sense of outward losses by this and that instrument, work us out of love with them ? And shall not the sense of our spiritual losse.=? by bosom sins, work us much more out with them. Ah, Lord ! of what iron mettle is that heart that can look upon those sad losses that hath attended playing with bosom sins, and yet still dally with those Delilahs 1^
The fourth Tnotive to provoke you to be the death of your darling sins, is, solemnly to consider, that the conquest and effectual mortify- ing of one bosom sin, will yield a Christian more glorious joy, com- fort, and peace, than ever he hath found in the gratifying and com- miMing of all other sins* The pleasure and sweetness that follows victory over sin, is a thousand times beyond that seeming sweetness that is in the gratifying of sin. The joy that attends the subduing of sin is a noble joy, a pure joy, a peculiar joy, an increasing joy, and a lasting joy ; but that joy that attends the committing of sin is an ig- noble joy, a corrupt joy, a decreasing joy, a dying joy. The truth is, were there the least real joy in sin, there could be no perfect hell, where men shall most perfectly sin, and be most perfectly tormented with their sin.
I Some there be that had rather lose their hearts than their conceits ; others had rather lose their souls than their sins : these shall be chronicled in hell for fools and bedlams.
» Dion. Cassius, lib. xii. leq., and xxxi. seq. ; and Antony and Cleopatra of Shake- speare, iii. 7. — G.
3 Nay, how many in these days are mad against public instruments for seeming losses?
*<The heathens, as many professors now, had not the right art of mortifying sin. Sapientia eornm pkrumgne abseondit vitia, non abscindit, all their wisdom was to hide a lost, not to quench it ; therefore their joy was like the crackling of thorns under a pot.
394 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
Ah ! doubting Christians, as ever you would have good days, as ever you would walk in the light, as ever you would, like the angels, have always harps in your hands, and hallelujahs in your mouths, be rest- less, till in the spirit and power of Jesus, you have brought under the sin that sticks so close unto you. Remember this, nothing below the conquest of bosom sins can make a jubilee in the heart. It is not a man's whining and complaining over sin, but his mortifying of sin, that will make his life a paradise of pleasure.