4. As the one must be done in order to the other, so our care in the first place must be to avoid evil, or to stand at a distance from every known sin. He begins with that as necessary to the other ; first, ' I refrained my feet/ and then, ' that I might keep thy law ; ' he was to be more exact in a course of obedience. In planting of grace Grod keeps this method, he roots up the weeds, and then plants us wholly with a right seed, and so far as we are active under God in the work, we first ' put off the old man with his deceitful lusts,' and then, ' put on the new man,' Eph. iv. 22. We put off the rags of sin before we put on the garments of salvation. The plants of righteousness will not thrive in an unhumbled, proud, impenitent heart ; therefore God's first work is the destruction of sin, and then the introduction of grace. The heart is purified for faith, as well as purified by faith. First, It must be purified for faith, that being the work of the Spirit of God ; for John v. 44, ' How can ye ])elieve that seek honour one of another ?' As long as any fleshly lust remains unmortified, be it ambition, vain- glory, affecting honour, reputation, esteem in the world, the heart is not purified. Secondly, The heart is purified by faith, Acts xv. 9 ; more and more this corruption is wrought out. And then the heart is purified for fear : ' I will give a new heart,' Jer. xxxii. 40. And then purified by fear, as Job feared God, Job i. 1. So the heart is purified for love and by love ; for love : Deut. xxx. 6, ' And the Lord will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul.' A believer is to be considered in the act of conversion and in the state of conver- sion ; in the act of conversion, so first we turn from evil by a sound remorse : true grace is first planted, first purified for grace, then puri-
28 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CVII.
fied by grace : Job feared God, then escliewed evil. Preparing; grace is implanted in us, then it hath an exercise upon us for the weakening of sin more and more.
5. Kee{)ing at a distance from evil ; it must be as it is evil and contrary to the holy nature and will of God. I observ^e this, because David did not rei'rain his feet from evil upon any foreign and acciden- tal reasons, for fear of men, or any sinister and by respect, but merely out of tender love and respect to the law of God, to testify his obedience to him : ' I refrained my feet from every evil way.' And what was his motive ? ' That I might keep thy word.' A child of God hates sin, as it is contrary to his drift and pui-pose. If we do not love good for good's sake, it is not good we love, but some other thing that cleaves to it, the temporal benefit that we think will come thereby. So if we do not hate evil as evil, but because of the loss and detriment that attends the practice of it, it is not sin that we hate, but incon- veniences. As Austin saitli of the eternal reward. There are many lion peccare metuunt, sed ardere — they are not afraid to sin, but are afraid to be damned. So a natural conscience may upon foreign and accidental reasons stand aloof from sin, as a dog may forbear a morsel for fear of the cudgel ; convinced men may Ibrbear sin out of horror of conscience, and not out of any serious dislike of heart against it. Briefly, there is custom, education, penalty of law, infamy, shame of the world, difficulty of compassing sin, shame in practising. These are but accidental reasons, these may make us refrain, they may breed a casual dislike, but not a natural hatred ; for a gracious refraining must be upon a religious reason. David gives an account, not only of his practice, but his motive : ' I refrained my feet from every evil way.' And why ? ' That I might keep thy word.'
6. This refraining must be from every sinful course. The grace of justification will teach this, and the grace of sanctification ; the grace of justification, that pardoneth all sin, will teach us to deny all, Titus ii. 12 ; and the grace of sanctification will teach us to deny not one, but all, for that introduceth a settled hatred against sin in the soul. Now hatred is tt/^o? ra yivT], to the whole kind ; he that hates one sin as sin, hates all sin, as Haman thought scorn to lay his hands upon Mordecai alone, but sought to destroy all the seed of the Jews, Esther iii. 6. So this hatred is universally carried out against all sin. Indeed they do not mortify any sin that do not mortify every sin ; one lust remaining unmortified keeps the devifs interest afoot in the soul. Pharaoh, when the Israelites would have gone, would fain have a pawn of their return, their flocks, their herds, or their children, that they might be sure to come back again. So Satan, if a man be touched in con- science, and will bethink himself, and look after religion, if he can get but a pawn, a corner of the heart, one sin, he knows his interest is still kept. Herod did many things, but he had his Herodias, and that held him fast and sure to Satan. The young man had a sense of eternal life upon him. Mat. xix. 22, and he did many things, 'All these have I kept from my youth,' but he was worldly. There are certain tender parts in the soul that are loath to be touched ; but now if we would be sincere with God, we must refrain from every evil way. Anyone man entertained besides the husband, it breaks the marriage covenant ; any