soul, with silence and quietness to bear the indignation of the Lord, and accept of the punishment of sin,' it removeth the temptation and malignity of it from the conscience. And thus as Protagoras', by his natural dexterity, ordered the burden which he was to bear, with more ease and advantage; so piety makes judgements, by spiritual prudence, more easy to be borne: and the light yoke of Christ, as bladders in a deep water, bears up the spirits of men from sinking, and lighteneth every other burden. And therefore as he in Plutarch said of the Scythians, That though they had no music nor vines amongst them, yet they had gods; so whatever other things may be wanting to a people, yet if God be their God, they are not destitute of any happiness. Yea, as those roses are usually sweetest, which grow nearest unto stinking weeds; so the comforts of God's Spirit are strongest, when a man is otherwise perplexed with the greater difficulties. It was promised unto Josiah, that he should die in peace; and yet we find, that he was slain in ward: his weeping and humiliation altered the very nature of trouble, and made war to be peace unto him.

b

SECT. 9. Now for the use and application of this point. This serveth, first, To instruct us how to deprecate calamities, when God shakes his rod over us. There is nothing in all the world that God is angry with, but sin: for all other things are his own works, in the goodness of which he rested with singular complacency and delight. Sin is that against which God's arrows are directed; and as the arrow sticks in the butt unto which the mark is fastened; so the judgements which are shot at sin, must needs light upon us unto whom sin cleaveth. The way then to divert the arrow, is to remove the mark. It is true, God doth sometimes bring afflictions, without respect to the provocations of sin, upon his best servants. As if a man should shape, out of a mass of gold, some excellent vessel,-though the gold be never so pure, yet it must pass through the fire and the hammer again. But it is certain too, that no afflictions come in anger, but

y Mic. vii. 9. Lev. xxvi. 41. Jer. x. 19.. συμπόσ. ἑπτὰ σοφῶν.

d 2 Chron. xxxv. 24.

Aul. Gell. 1. 5. c. 3. • Plut. b Plut. de Sanitate tuend. * 2 Chron. xxxiv. 28. · Usque ad delictum hominis Deus tantum bonus,

exinde Jude et severus, &c. Tertul, contra Marc. 1. 2. c. 11, 14.

with respect to sin. And the anger of God is the bitterest thing in any calamity.

Now for diversion of this, there is no way but to get sin removed. Take the bark from a tree, and the sap can never find way to the boughs. Sin is the vehiculum,' which conveys shame and sorrow to the soul: take away that, and a judgement hath no commission. You may find an error in it, if you be not the same men that you were, when it issued forth; for God shoots no arrows to hurt the body of his Son. It is true, Job complains, that "God's arrows did stick in him;" but these were not for destructions, but for trial; as men shoot bullets against armour of proof, not to hurt it, but to praise it. Job in this case was brought forth, not as a malefactor to suffer, but, as a champion, to triumph. Let a man take what course he can, to keep off God's judgements, and hide himself in the closest protection that human power or policy can contrive; so long as he keeps his sin with him, God's arrows will get through at one joint or other. A naked man, with innocency, is better armed than Goliah in brass or iron.

h

We are apt, in our distresses, to howl and repine, to gnaw our tongues, and tear our flesh in the anguish of our sufferings. Like the silly hart, which runs mourning and bleeding, but never thinks of getting out the fatal dart which sticks in his side. We look upward, to see whether help will drop into our mouths; and we look downward, to see whether human succours will avail us: but we look not inward, to find out the plague of our own hearts, that we may be rid of that. And till this be done, sin doth as naturally draw and suck judgement to it, as the loadstone doth iron, or turpentine fire. Indefatigable have been the pains of this High Court, to make up the breaches that threaten us, and to heal the land. Whence comes it, that our distractions remain unremoved? Certainly, our leaks are not stopped; our sins are not thrown away: we labour at the pump to get the water out, but we do not take care to cure the pas

f Job. vi. 4. g Verberat nos et lacerat? non est sævitia; certamen est. Sen. de Prov. c. 4. 11.-Tentationibus non vincitur fides, sed probatur. Cypr. de Mort. -Aug. de Civ. Dei, 1. 1. c. 29, 30. 1. 4. c. 3. 1 Kings, xxii. 34.

viii. 21, 22.

k1 Kings viii. 38.

i Isai.

sage at which it enters in: we are old bottles still, and "God will not put new wine into old bottles." If men would spend their murmurings and reproaches rather upon their sins than upon their physicians, the work would be sooner done. When the temple of God was to be new built, and a public restitution of the face of things unto glory and splendour was in agitation, the prophets call upon God's people in special then to repent. Impenitency puts obstructions to God's mercy, and to all noble enterprises. So long as our lives are as bad as before, how can we expect that our condition should be better? In that case, mercies themselves become no mercies: as in the case of repentance, judgements would be no judgements. If we turn from our evil ways, God hath engaged himself by a solemn promise, that "he will do us no harm"." Otherwise, to busy ourselves in outward ceremonies of repentance, bodily fasting, and verbal praying, is indeed but to flatter God, and, if we could, to deceive him. And God will answer such men, not according to the prayer of their lips, but according to the idol of their hearts"."

SECT. 10. Secondly, This teacheth us how to pray against sin; it must be against all, and in all respects. In the Hebrew text, there is a kind of a usual transposition of the words, wn- the word all is first P. Methinks it doth intimate an intentness of the church upon that point, to have, if it were possible, all taken away at the very first. If there be one leak in a ship, one gap in a wall, one gate in a city, unprovided for; it is enough to sink a ship, to drown a country, to betray a city. One little boy, thrust in at a window, can unlock the door for all the rest of the thieves. It was but one Jonah that raised a tempest, but one Achan that troubled a camp; and one sin, generally unrepented of, were enough to undo a kingdom. Do not say "It is a little one, and my soul shall live." Even the philosopher telleth us q, that sometimes ἀδικήματα ἐλάχιστα are μέγιστα, the smallest errors prove most dangerous. How little soever it be in its own nature, it becomes heinous by thy allowance. It is as much treason for a private man to coin pence as

Matth. ix. 17.

In Hag. i. 6. Zech. i. 2.

n Jer. xxv. 6.

• Ezek. q Arist.

xiv. 4, 5. P Duncan's Stereotype Hebrew Bible, vol. ii. p. 233. Rhet. 1. i. et Polit. 1. 5. c. 8.

twenty-shilling pieces; because the royal authority is as much violated by the one as the other.

This, then, we must first and principally remember, To set ourselves against all sin. In confession, none to be dissembled; in supplication, none to be excepted; in conversion, none to be reserved; never give it over so long as any is left." O Lord, yet it works, yet it lives, yet it tempts, yet it pains me. Sin hath not done accusing of me; let not thy mercy have done forgiving of sin. Sin hath not done rebelling in me; let not thy grace have done subduing of sin."-When men kill snakes or vipers, so long as they see them pant, or offer to thrust out a sting, they strike them still. Sin, like the thief on the cross, when it is fast nailed, and kept from its old tyranny, yet will, as much as it can, revile and spit out venom upon Christ. O therefore give it not over; break the legs of it; crucify it clean through, till it be quite dead. None can pray, or turn unto God in truth, or hope to be delivered from judgements in mercy, so long as he holds fast any known sin. Can any man look to receive benefit by the blood of Christ, who hugs the villain that shed it? Is it not treason, knowingly to harbour and entertain a traitor? Whosoever loves and holds fast sin, lies unto God in every prayer that he makes.

This serveth to prove and humble us for our hypocrisy and halvings with God in our conversions from sin, and confessions of it. We are willing to pray for the pardon of them all, we would have none hurt us; but when it comes to parting, and taking all away, this we cannot away with. Some are fat, delicate, golden sins; we would fain spare these, as Saul did Agag; and hide them, as Achan did his wedge. Herod hears John' gladly in many things; but if he restrain him of his Herodias, he must expect to be himself restrained. Agrippa" will be almost a Christian, but altogether may chance bring a chain with it. Jehu will down with Baal and his priests; but he knows not how to part with his calves, lest he venture his kingdom. Policy is ever entering caveats against piety. Thus men huck, and stand upon abatements with Christ, in the bargain of salvation; not con

r1 Sam. xv. 9. x 2 Kings x.30, 31.

X

Josh. vii. 11.

t Mark vi. 20.

u Acts xxvi. 28.

sidering, that the purchase of Heaven is like the buying of the Sibyl's prophecy; the longer we stand off, the dearer every day it will cost us; the more tears, the harder repentance, the deeper sorrow, the stronger cries. These men know not the price of a soul, nor the worth of a Saviour.

O! if Christ should have served us so in dying for sin, as many of us do serve him in turning from sin, what a condition had our souls been in! if he had died for some sins, and not for others; if he had been unwilling to save us to the uttermost,' as we are to serve him to the uttermost; if he should have stopped before he came to consummatum est,' and left any one drop of that bitter cup for us to drink after him; would it not have caused our belly to swell, and our thigh to rot, and made us for ever incapable of any other mercy, than only a less damnation?

Well, beloved, Christ expecteth, that as he died for all sin, so we should die to all: he will be counted worthy of all acceptation, before he will bestow himself: he will not suffer his blood and his mercy to mingle with sin, or to be a protection to it: he cannot endure mingling of the holy seed with the profane; swearing by God, and swearing by Malcham"; Samaritan services", to be for the Lord in one thing, and, for the world and flesh, in another; one step straight, and another crooked; one speech Ashdod, and another Canaan; to let our conversation be 'Yea and Nay,' a mungrel service :- In this, I will do as you bid med, but in that, I will not ;'-like the Jews, that would buy Christ's blood with money, but not take the money into the treasury; they were fearful to defile their chests, but not to defile their consciences. This Christ cannot away with. It is dangerous to say with the Pharisee, This I am not, and that I am not;' or with the young man', 'This and that I have done;' and, in the mean time, to have one thing lacking, to have one door locked up still, to keep Christ and

a Zeph. i. 5.

1 Reg. xvii. 33.

# 1 Tim. i. 15. e Neh. xiii. 24. d Alternæ inter cupiditatem nostram et poenitentiam vices sunt. Sen. de Otio Sap. c. 27. Maximum judicium malæ mentis fluctuatio. ep. 120.-Vir bonus dueraμέλητος. Arist. Ethic. 1. 9. c. 46. Τετράγωνος. 1. 1. c. 10. Μοχθηροὶ τὸ βέβαιον οὐκ ἔχουσιν, 1. 8. c. 3. Οὐκ ἐφ ̓ ὧν μὲν, ἐφ ̓ ὧν δ' ού, ἀλλ ̓ ἐν ἕξει εὐποιίας. Clem. Aler. Strom. 1. 4. Nulli servorum licet, ex his quæ dominus imperat, quod placuerit assumere, quod displicuerit repudiare. Salv. de Prov. 1 3 * Luke. xviii. 11. f Mark x. 20.

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