If, notwithstanding all that hath been said, you are still resolved to dally with sin, then you must resolve to live as a stranger to God, and as a stranger to assurance and peace ; you must expect sad trials with- out, and sore troubles within ; you must expect to find Satan playing his part both as a lion and as a serpent, both as a devil and as an angel of light. You must dxpect either no news from heaven, or but bad news from heaven ; and you must expect that conscience will play the part both of a scolding wife and of a lion that wants his prey ;' and this shall be your just reward for playing with sin. If you like the reward, then take your course, and dally with sin still; if otherwise, then sacrificeyour Isaac.''
Tlie fifth motive to work you to trample upon your bosom sins is, wisely to consider, that it is your duty and glory to do that every day, that you would willingly do upon a dying day. Ah ! how would you live and love upon a dying day ? How would you admire God, rest upon God, delight in God, long for God, and walk with God upon a dying day ? How would you hate, loathe, and abhor your bosom sins upon a dying day ? How would you complain of your bosom sins, and pray against your bosom sins, and mourn over your bosom sins, and watch against your bosom sins, and fly from all occasions that should tend to draw you to close with your bosom sins upon a dying day ?^
Ah! doubting souls, would you not for all the world gratify your bosom sins upon a dying day, and wiU you gratify them on other days, which, for anything you know to the contrary, may prove your dying day ? Thrice happy is that soul that labours with all his might to do that at first that he would fain do at last ; that doth that on every day, that he would give a thousand worlds to do on a dying day. No way to assurance like this ; no way to joy and comfort like this ; no way to rest and peace like this ; no way to the kingdom, to the crown, like this.
I earnestly beseech you, trembling souls, when you find your spirits running out to bosom sins, that you would lay your hands upon your hearts, and thus expostulate the case : O our souls, would you thus dally and play with sin upon a dying day ? would you thus stroke and hug sin upon a dying day ? would you not rather shew all the dislike and hatred that is imaginable against it ? would you not tremble at sin more than at hell ? and abhor the very occasions of sin more than the most venomous serpent in all the world ? would you not rather suffer the
1 Conscience is index, judex,, vindex.
' The leper under the law was still to keep his hair shaven, Lev. xiv. 6. So shcnld we be still a-cutting and shaving, that though the roots of sin remain, yet they may not grow and sprout.
' Some heathens and many profane persons have earnestly desired that they had done that at first that they would fain have done at last, but could not. The worst would be good, and do good at last ; but at last they will be found the best and wisest, [who] have made it their business to do that every day that every one would do upon a dying day.
EOM. VIII. 32-34] HEAVEN ON EARTH. 395
worst and greatest punishments, than to smile upon a darling sin upon a dpng day ? Yes ; oh would you fain do this upon a dying day ? Why not then every day ? Why not then every day, O our souls ?
The sixth motive to provoke you to fall with all your might upon bosom sins is, seriously to consider, that till this be done, fears and doubts will still hau7it the soul ; the soul will still be fearing that surely all is naught, and that that work that is wrought upon it is not a real but a counterfeit work ; that it is not a peculiar and special work, but a coTnmon work, that a man may have and perish. Till this be done, the soul can never be able to see grace in his own native beauty and glory.' The hugging of sin in a corner, will raise such a dust in the soul, that it cannot be able to see these pearls of glory sparkling and shining. Till this be done, doubting souls, you will be but babes, and shrubs,^ and dwarfs in Christianity. The hankering of the soul after sin, is the casting of water upon the Spirit ; it is the lam- ing of grace, it is the clipping the wings of faith and prayer ; so that the soul can neither be confident, nor fervent, frequent nor constant in religious services; so that it will unavoidably follow, such souls wiU be like Pharaoh's lean kine, poor and starveling.^ Look, as many men are kept low in their outward estates, by having a back door to some He- rodians ;* so many doubting souls are kept low in spirituals, by their hankering after some particular sins.
Kemember, Christians, sin is the soul's sickness, the soul's weakness. If the body be weak and diseased, it grows not. Sin is poison that turns all nourishment into corruption, and so hinders the growth of the soul in grace and holiness. Ah ! Christians, as ever you would be rid of your fears and doubts, as ever you would see the beauty and glory of grace, as ever you would be eminent and excellent in grace and hoHness, see that effectual justice be done upon that Achan, that Jonah, that darling sin, that hath occasioned storms within and tempests without.
It was a grievous vexation to King Lysimachus, that his staying to drink one draught of water lost him his kingdom. Ah ! Christians, it will grievously vex you, when you come to yourselves, and when you come to taste of the admirable pleasure that attends the conquest of sin, to consider that your hankering after this or that particular sin, hath been the loss of that joy and comfort, that peace and assurance, that is infinitely more worth than all the kingdoms of the world.*
Quest. But you may say to me, Oh we would fain have our bosom- sins subdued, we desire above all that they may be effectually mortified. These sons of Zeruiah we would have slain to choose ; but what course must we take to bring under our darling sins, to get off our golden fetters, to get out of these silken snares ?
To this question I shall give these answers :
The first means. If ever thou wouldst have mastery over this or that
^ One flaw in a diamond doth not only take away the beauty, glory, and price of it, but it puts men to question whether it be a diamond. Pa. xl. 12, mSv, I am not able to see ; sin had put out David's eyes. * Qu. ' scrubs' ? as before, p. 271. — O.
3 Gideon had seventy sons, and but one bastard ; and yet that one bastard destroyed all the rest. You may easily apply it. [Judges viii. 30, seq. — G ]
* Qu. Herodiases? Cf. Mat. xiv. 3.-6.
■^ If there be but one crack in the honey-glass, there the wasp will be buzzing ; and where there is but some one sin favoured, there Satan will be tempting and upbraiding.
396 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [RoM. VIII. 32-.34).