[2.] Secondly, God has so connexed the duties of his law one to an- other, that if there he not a conscientious care to walk according to all that the laiv requires, a man hecorties a transgressor of the ivhole kivj, according to that of St James, chap. ii. 10, ' Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all.'' The bond of all is broken, the authority of all is slighted, and that evil disposi- tion, that sinful frame of heart, that works a man to venture upon the breach of one command, would make him venture upon the breach of any command, were it not for some infirmity of nature, or because his purse will not hold out to maintain it ; or for shame, or loss, or because of the eye of friends, or the sword of the magistrate, or for some sinister respects ; and might the breach of any other of the commands of God serve his turn, and advance his ends, he stands as strongly pressed in spirit to transgress them all, as to transgress any one of them. He that gives himself liberty to live in the breach of any one command of God, is qualified with a disposition of heart to break them all. Every single sin contains virtually all sin in it. He that allows himself a liberty to live in the breach of any one particular law of God, he casts contempt and scorn upon the authority that made the whole law, and upon this account breaks it all. And the apostle gives the reason of it in ver. 11, * For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now, if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a trans- gressor of the law.' Not that he is guilty of all distributively, but col- lectively; for the law is copulative ; there is a chain of duties, and these are all so linked one to another, that you cannot break one link of the chain, but you break the whole chain. All the precepts of the law are, as it were, a string of pearls strung by the authority of God. Now break this string in any place, and all the pearls fall to the ground. No man can live in the breach of any known command of God, but he wrongs every command of God ; and this at last he shall find to his cost, without sound repentance on his side, and pardoning grace on God's. But,
[3.] Thirdly, One sin never goes alone. Cain's anger is seconded
' He -who prevaricates with God as to any one particular commandment of his, his
heart is naught, stark naught, and he is guilty of all. He hath no real regard to any
of the commandments of God, that hath not a regard to all the commandments of
420 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. III.
with murder ; Ahab's covetousness is attended with bloody cruelty ; and Jeroboam's rebellion with idolatry ; and Judas his thievery with treason. I might give instances of this in Adam and Eve, and in Lot, Abraham, Noah, Jacob, Joseph, Job, David, Solomon, and Peter, &c., but a touch on this string is enough. One sin commonly disposes the heart to another sin. A small sin many times draws the heart to a greater, and one great sin draws the heart to another great sin, and that to a greater, till at last the soul comes to be drowned in all excess. Augustine relates the story of Manicheus, who being tormented with flies, was of opinion that the devil made them and not God. Why then, said one that stood by, if the devil made flies, then the devil made worms, and not God, for they are living creatures as -vyell as flies. True, said he, the devil did make worms. But said the other, if the de\'il did make worms, then he did make birds, beasts, and man. He granted alL And thus, saith that old father, by denying God in the fly, he came to deny God in man, and so consequently the whole creation.^ And thus yielding to lesser sins, draws the soul to the commission of greater, yea, often to the greatest of all. I have both heard and read a story of a young man, who being often tempted by the devil and his own wicked heart, to commit three sins, viz., to kill his father, to lie with his mother, and to be drunk ; the two former his heart would not jaeld to, as being things abhorrent to the light and law of nature, and therefore to free himself from the temptation, he yielded to the last and least ; but when he was drunk, he killed his father, and ravished his mother. Thus these two abominable sins, murder and incest, were ushered in by one that was not of so deep a dye." There is something in sin, like the radical virtue that is in the seed of herbs and plants. The seed is but a small inconsiderable thing in itself, yet let it be but cast into the ground, and there rest quietly a time, and it will take root, and grow up to a great stock, and bring forth many flourishing branches ; like the grain of mustard-seed. Mat. xiii. 31, 32, which though it be the lea.st of seeds, yet being cast into the ground, grows up to be the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Satan will be sure to nest himself, to lodge himself in the least sins, as birds nest and lodge them- selves in the smallest branches of a tree, and there he will hatch all manner of wickedness. A sinful motion, if it be not rejected, will pro- cure consent, and consent will break forth into act, and one act will procure another act, imtil the multiplying of acts have begot a habit, and that habit hath choked and .stifled conscience ; and when once con- science is stifled and benumbed, it will be ready upon all occasions to lay the soul open, and to prostrate it to the basest and worst of sins. Oh there is a prodigious evil in the least of sins ; it will quickly mul- tiply itself into all manner of evils. Unless sin be cut oft' in the first motion, it will proceed to action, and from action to delectation, and from delight to custom, and from custom to a habit ; and so the soul will be in eminent danger of being undone for ever. A little thief put in at the window, may open the doors for stronger and greater to come in, that may take away both life and treasure at once. A little wedge
1 Expoait. in Evang. St Jolin, Tract, cap. i.
" Told, with authority, iu Wanley's M'onders, as before. See luilcx sub nomim'.—Q.
Chap. Ill] a cabinet of jewels. 421