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APOSTASY FROM THE HOLINESS OF THE GOSPEL, 179
corrupt heart of men by any means at liberty from an awe and
reverence of the holiness of God and his law with respect unto the
inward actings and frames of the soul, with a sense of guilt where
they are irregular, and a necessity of constant humiliation before God thereon, and an equally constant application of itself unto the Lord Christ for grace and mercy, and it is wholly in vain to think of fixing any bounds unto the progress of sin. The ignorance hereof is that which hath produced in some the proud imagination of per- fection, when they are far enough from bringing their consciences and lives to the rule of the gospel, but only aggravate their guilt by attempting to bend that inflexible rule unto their own perverse and crooked minds.
(2.) In this case, carnal interest, which takes in and compriseth all the circumstances of men, calls for an indulgence unto some one sim or other, which the gospel will not admit of. Pride ov ambi- tion, covetousness or love of this present evil world and the perish- ing things of it, uncleanness or sensuality in eating and drinking, self- exaltation and boasting, vain-glory, idleness, one or other must be spared. One thing or other, I say, on the account of carnal interest, —either because small, or useful, or general, or suited unto a natural temper, or, as is supposed, made necessary by the occasions of life,— must be reserved. Where this resolution prevails, as men are abso- lutely excluded from any real interest in gospel holiness, which will
‘admit of no such reserves, so it will not fail to lead them into open
apostasy of one kind or other; for,—
[1.] Such persons are wnapproved of God in all that they do, and so have no ground for expectation of his blessing or assistance; for the allowance of the least sin is such an impeachment of sincerity as casteth a man out of covenant communion with God. This is that “offending in one point” which ruins a man’s obedience, and renders him guilty against the whole law, James 11,10. Any one
actual sin makes a man guilty of the curse of the whole law as it
contains the covenant of works; and the willing allowance of a man’s self in any one sin habitually breaks the whole law as it contains the rule of our obedience in the covenant of grace. And if in this
disapproved condition men meet with outward prosperity in the
world, their danger will be increased as well as their guilt aggra- vated. And the utmost care of professors is required in this matter; for there seems to be among many an open indulgence unto habitual disorders, which hazards their whole covenant interest, and must fill them with uncertainty in their own minds. High time it is for all such persons to shake off “every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset them, and to run with redoubled diligence” the re- mainder of “ the race that is set before them.”
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180 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY.
[2.] This indulgence unto any one sin will make way in the minds, consciences, and affections of men, for the admission of other suns also. It will be like a thief that is hidden in a house, and only waits an opportunity to open the doors unto his other companions; to this end he watcheth for a season of sleep and darkness, when there is none to observe his actings. Let a person who thus alloweth him- self to live in any sin fall into temptation whilst he is a little more than ordinary careless, his allowed corruption shall open his heart unto any other sin that offers for admission. ‘“ Look not,” saith the wise man, “ upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things,” Prov. xxiii. 31, 33. Onesin liked and loved will make way for every other. There is a kindred and alliance between sins of all sorts, and they agree ® the same end and design. Where any one is willingly entertained, others will intrude themselves beyond all our power of resistance.
[3.] It will divert the soul from the use of those means whereby all other sins should be resisted, and thereby apostasy prevented; for there is no means appointed or sanctified by God for the resist- ance or mortification of sin, but it opposeth sin as sin, and conse- quently every thing that is so, and that because it isso. Wherefore, whoever willingly reserves any one sin from the efficacy of the means God hath appointed for its mortification doth equally reserve all.
And as those means do lose their power and efficacy towards such |
persons, so they will insensibly fall off from a conscientious attend- ance unto any of those ways and duties whereby sin should be op- posed and ruined. .
8. Many of the graces in whose exercise this evangelical holi- ness doth principally consist are such as are of no reputation in-
the world. The greatest moralists that ever were, whether Phari- sees or philosophers, could never separate between their love and practice of virtue on the one hand, and their own honour, glory, and reputation on the other. There was in them, as the poet expresseth it in one instance,—