A universal willingness to be rid of all sin, speaks the heart to be sound and sincere with God. The enmity that grace works in the heart against sin is against the whole kind ; it is against all sin, as well pro- fitable and pleasurable sins as disparaging and disgracing sins ; and as well against small sins as against great sins. True grace strikes at root and branch, at head and members, at father and son. A true Israelite would not have one Canaanite left in the holy land ; he would have every Egyptian drowned in the red sea of Christ's blood r Ps. cxix. 104, ' I hate every false way' : Ps. cxxxix. 24, ' Search me, O Lord ! and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlast- ing.' Saving grace makes a man as willing to leave his lusts, as a slave is willing to leave his galley, or a prisoner his dungeon, or a thief his bolts, or a beggar his rags. But now take a m.an that is in his natural condition, and he is as unwilling to part with his sins, as Abraham was to turn Hagar and Ishmael out of doors. Ambrose reports of one Theo- timus, that having a disease upon his body, the physician told him, That except he did abstain from intemperance, drunkenness, unclean- ness, &c., he was like to lose his eyes ; his heart was so desperately set upon his lusts, that he answered. Vale lumen a/micwm, Farewell, sweet light then ; he had rather lose his eyes than leave his sins. So they in Micah vi. 6, 7, do make very large offers for a dispensation to live in their sins ; they offer calves of a year old ; they offer thousands of rams, and ten thousand rivers of oil ; yea, they offer their first born for their transgressions, the fruit of their bodies for the sin of their souls. Sinners' hearts are so glued to their lusts, that they will rather part with their nearest, dearest, and choicest enjoyments, than part with their sins ; yea, when they are put hard to it, they will rather part with God, Christ, and all the glory of another world, than they will part with some base bosom lust. Witness that young man in the Gospel, who
' Restraining grace doth only suppress and abate the acts of sin, it doth never alter the disposition and will of a man as to sin. You may chain up a lion, but you cannot change the nature of a lion.
308 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. IT.
went away sorrowful, because he had great possessions, Mat. xix. 21, 22. Look, as a man leaves his wife and children, his country, estate, and trade, with tears in his eyes and sorrow in his heart ; so does an unre- generate man leave his lusts, with tears in bis eyes and sorrow in his heart. Very observable is the story of Phaltiel : David had married Michal ; Saul injuriously gave her to another. When David came to the crown, and was able to speak a word of command, he sends for his wife Michal ; her husband dares not but obey ; he brings her on her journey, and then, not without great reluctancy of spirit, takes his leave of her. But what, was Phaltiel weary of his wife that he now foreakes her ? Oh no ! he was forced to it, and though she was gone, yet he cast many a sad thought after her, and never leaves looking till he sees her as far as Bahurim, weeping and bemoaning her absence, 2 Sam. iii. 15, 16. And just thus it is with carnal and unregenerate men, who, though for fear, or some other reasons, they shake hands with their sins, yet they have many a longing heart after them ; they part, but it is upon a force ; they part, and yet they are very loath to part asunder.^ Look, as the mer- chant throws away his goods in a storm, because he cannot keep them, so carnal men, in times of sickness and distress, or in times of horror and terror of conscience, or when death, the king of terrors, knocks at their doors, or when they see hell gaping to devour them, and God as a terrible judge standing ready to pass an eternal doom upon them, then they are willing to cast overboard their usury, their drunken- ness, their swearing, their cursing, their lying, their flesh-pleasing, &c. ; but not out of any hatred to their lusts, but out of love to them- selves, and out of fear of being damned, &c. ; for could they but en- joy their sins and heaven too, sin and they would never part. But now, were there no danger, no wrath, no hell, no damnation, no sepa- ration from God attending sin, yet a gracious soul would be heartily willing to part with all sin, and to be rid of all sin, upon the account of the vile nature of sin, upon the account of the defiling and polluting nature of sin. Of all things in the world, sin is the most defiling thing ; it makes us red with guilt and black wath filth ; it is compared to a menstruous cloth, Isa. xxx. 22, which of all unclean things iu the law was the most unclean, as some observe ; and upon this very ac- count a gracious soul would be willingly rid of it.
[2.] Secondly, A constant habitual icillingness to he rid of all sin, is an infallible evidence of the truth of grace in the soul. 1 1 is not a transient willingness to be rid of sin, when a man is either under some outward trouble, or some inward distress, that speaks out the truth of saving grace, but a permanent, lasting, and abiding willing- ness to .be rid of sin does. Pharaoh in a fit, in a fright, when thunder and hail and frogs and flies were upon him, was then will- inir to let Israel go ; but when his fright was over, and the judg- ments removed, he grew prouder and harder than before. So many men, when they are a little sermon-sick, or under some smart pangs of conscience, or under some startling or amazing judgments, oh ! then
' Augustine, in his youth, before his conversion, prayed tluis: ' I said indeed with my lipa, Lord, give, and yet in my heart I was too willing to give longer day, and could have said, Lord, pray not yet, I was even afraid lest thou shouldst hear mo too soon, and too soon heal and suhduo my corruption for mo.' — Confessions.
Chap. II.] a cabinet of jewels. 809