that laid the corner-stone in that land of darkness, for before sin there was no hell, Judges v. 8 ; Ps. cvii. 34 ; Deiit. xxviii. 21. It was sin that crucified the Lord of glory, Rom. viii. 7. Now, oh how great must that evil be that has ushered in all these great evils into the world ! Sin is enmity against God ; God hath no enemy in the world but sin, and those whom sin hath made him. Sin hath set all the world against the Lord of glory. It is sin that has turned men into incarnate devils, and that has drawn them out to fight against God, and Christ, and their own souls, and the things of their everlast- ing peace. Now, when a man looks upon sin as the greatest evil in the world, and his heart rises and is enraged against it, because of the vile, filthy, odious, and heinous nature of it, it is a clear evidence that such, a man has the divine nature in him. Take that one instance for all : Ps. xix. 12, 13, ' Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins.' But why does David pray thus? ' So,' says he, ' shall I be innocent from the great transgression.' Mark, he does not pray thus : Lord, keep me from presumptuous sin, that so I may be free from troubles without, and from terrors within, or from hell beneath ; but, Lord, keep me from presumptuous sins, that so I may be innocent from the great transgres- sion. He does not say, So shall I be free from the great correction, but. So shall I be free from the great transgression. That is a heart worth gold, that is more sensible and more affected with the evil that is in sin than with the evil that comes by sin. It was a weighty saying of Austin : ' That man,' says he, ' which fears hell, he doth not fear to sin, but fears to burn ; but that man fears to sin, that fears sin as he would fear hell.'' Common grace never works a man thus to fear sin, but renewing grace doth. Common convictions carry the soul out to look more on the evil that comes by sin, than on the evil that is in sin ; and hence it comes to pass, that souls under common convictions are more affected and afflicted at the fear of hell and dread of wrath and damnation, than they are affected or afflicted at the vileness, odious- ness, and heinous nature of sin. When an unsanctified person is angry with sin, and chides sin, and falls out with sin, and makes some head against sin, it is either because it hath cracked his credit, or clouded his honour, or hindered his profit, or embittered his pleasure, or provoked his friends, or incensed the magistrate, or enraged his conscience, or exposed him to shame, disgrace, or contempt here and hell hereafter; but never because a holy God is dishonoured, a righteous law trans- gressed, a blessed Saviour frequently crucified, or the blessed Spirit greatly grieved. The child will not touch the coal because it will burn him, and the prudent man will not touch the coal because it Avill smut him. A gracious heart rises against sin because of its defiling and pol- luting nature, but an unsanctified heart rises against sin because of its burning and damning nature. A sanctified person hates sni, because it pollutes his soul, but an unsanctified person hates it because it destroys his soul. A sanctified person loathes sin, and abhors sin, because it fights against God's holiness ; but an unsanctified person loathes it, and abhors it, because it provokes and stirs up God's justice. A sanc- tified person detests sin, because of the hell that is in sin ; but an
' Augustine, Epist. 144.
SI 8 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. II.
unsauctified person detests sId, because of the hell that follows sin, &c. But,
[7.] Seventhly, Where there is an irreconcileahle opioosition in the soul against sin, there is a saving work of God uijon that man! a heart} Where there is such a detestation of sin, and such an enmity raised in the soul against sin, as that the soul cannot, nor will not, upon no terms in the world, admit of any truce or reconciliation with sin, there is Christ and grace formed in the heart. The war between a gracious heart and sin, is like the war between Rehoboam and Jero- boam : 1 Kings xiv. 30, ' There was war between Rehoboam and Jero- boam all their days.' The oracle said to the Cirrheans, nodes diesque belligerand'uni, they could not be happy unless they waged war night and day ; no more can we, except we perpetually fight against our lusts. O friends ! a gracious heart that is weary of sin, will certainly and ha- bitually fall a-striving against it : Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh : for these two are contrary the one to the other.' Now contraries are naturally expulsive each of other. Such a pair as a Jacob and an Esau ; such twins as an Isaac and an Ishmael, cannot lie quietly together in the same womb ; no, nor live quietly together in the same house, but there will be a mutual prosecuting and persecuting each of other. Fire and water may as well agree in the same vessel, as grace and sin in the same heart. True grace hath a real repugnancy and contrariety to all sin ; and remem- ber this once for all, that saving grace is not contrary to sin because it is open and manifest, nor to sin because it is private and secret, nor to sin because it is of this or that consequence, but to sin as sin, whether public or private, because both the one and the other are contrary to the law of God, the will of God, the glory of God, the nature of God, the designs of God, &c. As it is with true light, though it be but a beam, yet it is universally opposite to all darkness ; or as it is with heat, though there be but one degree of it, yet it is opposite to all cold ; so true grace, it is opposite to all sin, it cannot comply with any known sin. Look, as sin and grace were never born together, and as sin and grace shall never die together, so sin and grace can never be reconciled together. There is a natural contrariety between sin and grace, and therefore you can never reconcile them in the heart. The opposition that grace makes against sin is inward a« well as outward ; it is against sin wheresoever it is. Nothing will satisfy a gracious soul but the destruction of sin : Rom. vi. 6, ' Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.' The Greek word y.araoyrid^, that is here rendered destroyed, signifies weakened, and the strength of it broken, and made idle, fruitless, and ineffectual. So Ps. li. 2, ' Wash me throughly' (or multiply to wash me, or play the fuller upon me), 'from mine iniquity;' — David looked upon his sin, his stain, to be so inveterate, so ingrained, that it would hardly be ever gotten out till the cloth were almost rubbed to pieces, — ' and cleanse me from my sin.'