Now a true penitential turning from all sin lies in these six things, and therefore you had need look about you ; for if there be any one way of wickedness wherein you walk, and which you are resolved you will not forsake, you are no true penitents, and you will certainly lose your souls, and all the great and glorious things of another world.
* In ' Cur Deus homo ?' — G.
2 See Judges xxiii. ; Esod. xxiii. 7 ; Prov. xxii. 3, and xxvii. 12 ; Prov. v. 8.
428 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. III.
Ans. 3. Thirdly, A true penitential turning is a constant and con- tinued turning from sin, 2 Chron. vii. l-i. As it is total in respect of the act, so it is final in respect of the time. True repentance takes an everlasting farewell, an everlasting adieu of sin. It saith with the spouse, Cant. v. 3, 'I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on V I have found the smart of sin, I have put off the garments of the old man, the rags of old Adam, and how shall I put them on again ? The burnt child will dread the fire. The man that hath smarted for suretyship will by no means be persuaded to come into bonds. Though you urge him to it never so frequently, never so strongly, never so rlietoricall}^ yet he will tell you he has smarted for it, he has paid dear for it, and there- fore you must excuse him ; he has peremptorily resolved, nay, he hath seriously vowed against it ; and though he be never so much entreated, and by variety of arguments importuned, yet still he remains inexorable, A Christian that hath truly repented, is so sensible of the freeness and sweetness of the grace of God on the one hand, and of the weight of sin and wrath of God on the other hand, that he is highly resolved never to have any more to do with idols, never to meddle more with those burn- ing coals, Ps. xl. 12, Hos. xiv. 8. True repentance is a continued act, * a repentance never to be repented of.' The true penitent is every day a-turning further and further from sin, and nearer and nearer to God. There is nothing that fetches so many tears from a penitent man's eyes, nor so many siglis and groans from a penitent man's heai't, as this, that he can get no further off from sin, and that he can get no nearer nor no closer to God. Repentance fo^r sin, and a willing continuance in sin, cannot consist in the same subject. A sincere penitent makes as much conscience of repenting daily, as he doth of believing daily, and he can as easily content himself with one act of faith, or love, or fear, or hope, or joy, or obedience, as he can content himself with one act of repent- ance. ' My sins are ever before me,' Ps. li. 3. This is the voice of every true penitent : Oh that I might sin no more ! Oh that I might never dishonour God more ! Oh that I might never walk contrary to Jesus Christ more ! Oh that I might never grieve the Spirit of grace more ! To sin is common to man, yea, to the best man in all the world ; but to continue in a course of sin, is only proper to a wicked man.' To err and fail, that is human ; but to maintain a league or friendship with sin, that is diabolical. Though a true penitent dares not continue in a trade, a path of sin, whilst he lives in this world, yet sin will continue in him whilst he continues in this world. Though sin and grace were not born together, and though sin and grace shall never die together, yet whilst a penitent man lives in this world they must live together. It is one thing for sin to continue in us, and it is another thing for us to continue in sin. The apostle having closed the fifth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, in the triumph of gospel grace, that ' As sin hath reigned unto death, so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord,' begins the next with a pre- vention of tho abuse of this grace ; ' What shall we say tlicn ? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? God ft«"bid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?' Eom. vi. 1, 2. To live 1 1 John i. 8, 10, v. IQ ; Isa. xxviii. 15, 18 ; Ps. cxxxix. 24 ; Rom. vii. 22, 23.
Chap. III.] a cabinet of jewels. 429
in sin, in the face of gospel grace, is most unreasonable, and to a gracious and ingenuous nature impossible. The very question implies a kind of impossibility. Such as were once dead in sin, and now by gospel grace are dead to sin, such can no longer continue in sin. Look, as it is not the mere falling into the water that drowns a man, but his lyin^ aud continuing in it ; so it is not a mere falling into sin that damns a man, that drowns a man, that everlastingly undoes a man, but his livino- in it, his continuing in it. It is bad to sin, but it is infinitely worse to continue in sin. The first best is not to sin, the next best" is not to continue in sin, no not for an hour, as Paul speaks in another case GaL ii. 5, 'To whom we gave place by subjection, no not for an hour.' Certainly to argue from gospel mercy to sinful liberty, is the devil's logic. The more a man lives in the sight of gospel grace, the more sin will be discountenanced, resisted, hated, and totally displaced. A man may as truly assert that the sea burns, or that the fire cools, or that the sun darkens the air, as he may assert that the sight, sense, or sweet of gospel grace will breed security or carnality, looseness or wickedness, in a gracious heart. The true penitent never ceases repenting, till he ceases living. He goes to heaven with the joyful tears of repentance in his eyes ; he knows that his whole life is but a day of sowino- tears, that he may at last reap everlasting joys. True repentance makes a final and everlasting separation between sin and the soul. It makes such an absolute and complete divorce between sin and the soul, and casts them so far asunder, that no power nor policy can ever brino- them to meet as lovers together. The true penitent looks upon sin as an enemy, and deals with it as Amnon dealt w^ith Tamar: 2 Sam. xiii. 15, ' And Amnon hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred wherewith he hated her, was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her ; and Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone.' And just thus doth the penitent soul carry it towards sin. He that truly repents, so turns from his sins, that he never returns to the bondage and service of his sins any more, Isa. XXX. 22, ' Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold : thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth ; thou shalt say unto it. Get thee hence.' Isa. i. 16, Ps. Ixxxv. 8.