[1.] First, It is to no purpose for a man to turn from some sins, if he does not turn from all his sins : James L 26, ' If any man seem to be religious, and bridle not his tongue, butdeceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is in vain.' This at first sight may seem to be a hard saying, that for one fault, for one fault in the tongue, all a man's reli- gion should be counted vain ; and yet this you see the Holy Ghost does VOL. in. D d
418 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. III.
peremptorily conclude.' Let a man make never so glorious a profes- sion of religion, yet if he gives himself liberty to live in the practice of any known lust, yea, though it be but a sin of the tongue, his religion is in vain, and that one lust will separate him from God for ever. If a wife be never so officious^ to her husband in many things, and though she gives him content several ways, yet if she entertains any other lover into his bed besides himself, it will alienate his affections from her, and for ever separate him from her. The application is easy. To turn from one sin to another, is but to be tossed from one hand of the devil to another ; it is but, with Benhadad, to recover of one disease and die of another, it is but to take pains to go to hell. If a ship spring three leaks, and only two be stopped, the third will sink the ship; or if a man have two grievous wounds in his body, and take order only to cure one, that which is neglected will certainly kill him. It is so here ; if a man that has divers lusts fighting against the life of his precious soul, shall only mortify and slay some of them, the rest will certainly destroy him, and all his pains in subduing some of them will be lost. I have read of a devout man, who had amongst many other virtues the gift of healing, unto whom divers made resort for cure ; among the rest, one Chromatins being sick, sent for him. Being come, he told him of his sick- ness, and desired that he might liave the benefit of cure, as others had be- fore him. I cannot do it, said the devout person, till thou hast beaten all the idols and images in thy house to pieces. Oh that shall be done, said Chromatins ; here take my keys, and where you find any images let them be defaced, which was done accordingly. To prayer went the holy man, but no cure was wrought. Oh, saith Chromatins, I am as sick as ever ! Oh I am very weak and sick ! It cannot be otherwise, replied the holy man, nor can I help it ; for certainly there is one idol more in your house undiscovered, and that must be defaced too. True, says Chroma- tins, there is so indeed ; there is one all of beaten gold, it cost two hun- dred pounds, I would fain have saved it ; but here take my keys again, you shall find it locked up fast in my chest, take it and break it in pieces ; which done, the holy man prayed, and Chromatins was healed. The moral of this story is this : we are all spiritually sick, full of wounds and putrefied sores ; Christ our spiritual physician tells us, that if we will be cured, we must break off our sins by repentance. Now this we are willing to do in part, but not in whole ; we would fain keep one Delilah, one darling beloved sin, but it must not be ; there must not be one sin unrepented of ; we must repent as well for our Achans as our Absaloms, our Rimmons as our Mammons, our Davids as our Goliaths, our covert as well as our open sins, our loved as well as our loathed lusts, our heart abominations as well as our gross transgressions, our babe iniquities as well as our giant-like provocations. Our repentance must be universal, or it will be to no purpose.
Herod turned from many evils, but would not turn from his Herodias, and that was his ruin. Mat. vi. 18-20. Judas his life was as fair and as free from spots and blots as the lives of any of the apostles; no scandalous sin was to be found upon him ; only that golden devil covet-
' One stab at the lieart kills ; one act of treason makes a traitor ; one spark of fire sets the lionse on fire; one flaw in a diamond spoils the price of it; one pu(hlle, if we wallow in it, will defile us ; one head of garlic will poison a leopard, say the natu- ralists. '^ = serviceable. — G.
Chap. III.] a cabinet of jewels. 419
ousness was his sin, and his everlasting ruin. His apostleship, preach- ing, workinof of miracles, hearing of Christ, and conversing with him, &c., was to no purpose, because of that serpent he kept in his bosom, which at last stung him to death. If a man lives m the practice of any known sin, the union between sin and his soul is not dissolved; and if that union be not dissolved, Christ and his soul were never united, and therefore such a person can never be saved. Saul spared Agag and the witch of Endor, whom he should have destroyed, and so lost his crown, his kingdom, and his soul, which was saddest of all. Gideon had seventy sons, and but one bastard, and yet that one bastard destroyed all the rest, Judges viii. 18. The Jewish rabbins report, that the same night that Israel departed out of Egypt towards Canaan, all the idols and idolatrous temples in Egypt, by lightning and earthquakes, were broken down ; so, when a man truly repents, all the idols that were set up in his soul are cast down. But,