actual sins, but because they do not mortify heart sins? Suppress the first risings of pride, lust, passion; original sin unmortified, will prove such a root of bitterness, as will bring forth the cursed root of scandalous sin. A. 2. If you would be kept from actual sins, think what an odious thing sin is. Besides what you have heard, remember, sin is the accursed thing,' Josh. vii. 13. It is the abominable thing God hates, Jer. xliv. 4., "O do not this abominable thing that I hate!" Sin is the spirits of toward man." He hath an hard bargain, that doth purchase the world with the loss of his soul. (5.) Sin being so deadly an evil, take heed of the appearance of sin." Abstain not only from apparent evil, but the appearance of evil; if it be not absolutely a sin, yet if it looks like sin, avoid it. He who is loyal to his prince, not only forbears to have his hand in treason, but he will take heed of that which hath a shew of treason. Joseph's mistress tempted him, and he fled and would not be with her, Gen. xxxix. 12. An appearance of witchcraft; it is the devil's excregood is too little, and an appear- ment; it is called filthiness,' ance of evil is too much. 1. The James i. 21. If all the evils in appearance of evil is oft an occa- the world were put together, and sion of evil; dalliance is an ap- their quintessence strained out, pearance of evil, and oftentimes they could not make a thing so it occasions evil. Touching the filthy as sin doth. So odious is a forbidden fruit, may occasion tast- sinner, that God loathes the sight ing dancing in masquerades, of him, Zech. xi. 8., " My soul hath often been the occasion of loathed them." He who defiles uncleanness. 2. The appearance of evil may scandalize another, 1 Cor. viii. 12., "When ye sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ:" sinning against a member of Christ, is a sinning against Christ. Thus you see sin being so deadly an evil, we should avoid all sin, sins of omission,-secret sins, complexion sins,-sins that attend our particular calling,yea, the appearance of evil. QUEST. What means shall we use to be kept from the acts of sin? Ans. 1. If you would be preserved from actual and scandalous sins, labour to mortify original sin. If you would not have the branches bud and blossom, smite at the root. I know original sin cannot in this life be removed, but labour to have it subdued. Why do men break forth into himself with avarice, what is he but a serpent licking the dust? He who defiles himself with the lust of uncleanness, what is he but a swine with a man's head? He who defiles himself with pride, what is he but a bladder, which the devil hath blown up? He who defiles himself with drunkenness, what is he but a beast that hath got the staggers? To consider how odious and base a thing sin is, would be a mean to keep us from sinning. A. 3. If you would be kept from actual sins, get the fear of God planted in your hearts, Prov. xvi. 6., " By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil." Cavebis si pavebis. Fear is a bridle to sin, and a spur to holiness. Fear puts an holy awe upon the heart, and binds it to its good behaviour. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. When the empress Eudoxia threatened to ba and he sent messengers and took her, and defiled himself with her, 2 Sam. xi. 2. O therefore look to your eyes! Job made a covenant with his eyes, Job xxxi. 1. If the eye be once inflamed, it will be hard to stand out long against sin; if the outworks are taken by the enemy, there is great danger of taking the whole castle. nish Chrysostom, "Tell her self, and she was, saith the text, (saith he) I fear nothing but sin." " very beautiful to look upon,' Fear is janitor anima; it stands as a porter at the door of the soul, and keeps sin from entering; all sin is committed for want of the fear of God, Rom. iii. 14, 15, 18, "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; there is no fear of God before their eyes." Holy fear stands sentinel, and is ever watching against security, pride, wantonness. Fear is a Christian's life-guard to defend him against the fiery darts of temptation. Si vis esse securus semper time. The way to be safe, is always to fear, Prov. ii. 14. A. 5. If you would be kept from actual gross sin, study sobriety and temperance, 1 Pet. v. 8., Sobrii est, be sober.' Check the inordinancy of appetite; sin doth frequently make its entrance this way. By gratifying the senA. 4. If we would be kept from s tive appetite, the soul, that is actual sins, let us be careful to a-kin to angels, is enslaved to the avoid all the inlets and occasions brutish part. Many drink, if not of sin; run not into evil com- to drunkenness, yet to drowsipany; he that would not have ness. The not denying the senthe plague, will not go into an in-sitive appetite, makes men's confected house. Guard your senses, which may be the inlets to sin. Keep the two portals, the eye and the ear; especially, look to your eyes; much sin comes in by the eye, the eye is oft an inlet to sin, sin takes fire at the eye,the first sin in the world, began at the eye, Gen. iii. 6., “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and was pleasant to the eyes, then she took of the fruit thereof." Looking begat lusting. Intemperance begins at the eye: looking on the wine when it is red and gives its colour in the glass, causeth excess of drinking, Prov. xxi. 31. Covetousness begins at the eye, Josh. vii. 21., "When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and a wedge of gold, I coveted and took them." The fire of lust begins to kindle at the eye: David walking upon the roof of his house, saw a woman washing her sciences so full of guilt, and the world so full of scandal. If you would be kept from running into sin, lay restraint upon the flesh. What hath God given reason and conscience for, but to be a bridle to check inordinate desires? A. 6. If you would be kept from actual sins, be continually upon your spiritual watch. 1. Watch your thoughts, Jer. iv. 14., "How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?" Sin begins at the thoughts. First, men cherish revengeful thoughts, then they dip their hands in blood. Set a spy over your thoughts. 2. Watch your passions: passions of anger, passions of lust. The heart is ready to be destroyed by its own passions, as the vessel is to be overturned by the sail. Passion transports beyond the bounds of reason; it is brevis insania, SENECA, A short fren zy.' Moses in a passion spake unadvisedly with his lips, Ps. cvi. xxxiii. The disciples in a passion called for fire from heaven. A man in a passion is like a ship in a storm, that hath neither pilot nor sails to help it, but is exposed to the waves and rocks. 3. Watch your temptations. Satan continually lies in ambush, and watcheth to draw us to sin. Stat in procinctu diabolus: he is fishing for our souls, he is either laying of snares, or shooting of darts, therefore we had need watch the tempter, that we be not decoyed into sin. Most, sin is committed for want of watchfulness. A. 7. If you would be kept from the evils of sin, consult with the oracles of God, be well-versed in scripture, Ps. cxix. 11., " Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee."The word is, anceps gladius,a two-edged sword, to cut asunder men's lusts. When the fogs and vapours of sin begin to arise, let but the light of scripture shine into the soul, and it dispels those fogs; "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly," Col. iii. 16. Alphonsus, king of Arragon, read over the bible fourteen times. The word shews the damnable evil of sin; it furnisheth us with precepts, which are so many recipes and antidotes against sin. When Christ had a temptation to sin, he beat back the tempter, and wounded him three times with this sword of the Spirit, "It is written." Why do men live in sin, but because they either do not read the word or do not believe it? A. 8. If you would be preserved from gross, presumptuous sin, get your hearts fired with love to God. Love hath great force in it, it is "strong as death," it breaks the league between the heart and sin. Two things in God cause love. 1. His glorious beauty : Moses desired to see some glimpse of it. "Lord, shew me thy glory." 2. His amazing love. What a prodigy of love was it, to give his Son out of his bosom, and lay such a jewel to pawn for our redemption! These two,―the glories of God's beauty, and the magnitude of his love,-may, like two loadstones, draw our love to God; and if we love him, we will not sin against him; he that loves his friend, will not by any means displease him. I have read of four men meeting together, who asked one another, what it was that kept them from sinning? One said, the fear of hell; another said, the joys of heaven; the third said, the odiousness of sin; the fourth said, that which keeps me from sin, is, love to God; shall I sin against so good a God? shall I abuse love? Love to God is the best curbing-bit to keep from sin. A. 9. If you from the evil of in a calling. omnia vendunt. would be kept sin, be diligent Dii laboribus Adam in paradise must till the ground. Such as live idly, expose themselves to sin; if we have no work to do, Satan will find us work; he sows most of his seed in fallow-ground. A woman being much tempted to sin, came to the Rev. Mr Greenham for advice, what she should do to resist the temptation? He gave her this answer: Be always well employed, that so when Satan comes, he may find thee busied in thy calling, and thou mayest not be at leisure to listen to his temptation. A. 10. If you would be kept from sin, fix the eye of your mind upon 'the beauty of holiness,' Holiness consists in our conformity to God; holiness is the sparkling of the divine nature, a beam of God shining in the soul. How lovely is Christ's bride, when decked and besplangled with the jewels of holiness? What makes the seraphims angels of light, but their holiness? Do but think with yourselves what a splendid, glorious thing holiness is, and it will cause a disgust and hatred of sin, which is so contrary to it. The beholding of beauty makes one out of love with deformity. of sin, but how soon may death come, and then I who have burned in lust, must burn in hell: this sure would strike a damp into him; and make him afraid of going after strenge flesh. A. 12. If ye would be kept from gross scandalous sins, beware of a covetous heart. Covetousness is a dry drunkenness. He who thirsts insatiably after the world will stick at no sin, he will betray Christ and a good cause for money. Cui nihil satis, eidem nihil turpe, TACITUS. 1 Tim. vi. 10., "The love of money is the root of all evil." From this root comes, First, theft: Achan's covetous humour made him steal the wedge of gold, Josh. vii. 21. Covetousness makes the gaols so full. Secondly, from this root comes murder. Why did Ahab possess his vineyard? 1 Kings xxi. 13. Covetousness hath made many swim to the crown in blood. Thirdly, from this bitter root of covetousness proceeds cozenage; it is the covetous hand holds false weights. Fourthly, from this comes un A. 11. If you would keep from the evil of sin, meditate frequently on death: First, the unavoidableness of it, Heb. ix. 27., "It is appointed unto all men once to die.' We are not so sure to lie down this night in bed, as we are to lie down in the grave. Se-stone Naboth to death, but to condly, The uncertainty of the time. We are but tenants at will -we hold our life at the will of our landlord, and how soon may God turn us out of this house of clay? Death oft comes when we least look for it. The flood, as some learned writers observe, came in the month Ziph, or April, -in the spring,-when the trees were blossoming, and the birds singing, then came the flood, when they least looked for it: so oft in the spring of youth, when the body is most healthy, and the spirits most sprightly and vigorous, and death is least thought on, then it comes. Could we think often and seriously of death, it would give a death's-wound to Keep back thy sersin. No stronger antidote against vant from presumptuous sins." sin than this: I am now singing, We have no power inherent to and to-morrow may be dying? keep ourselves from evil. ArnolWhat if death should take me dus saith, that man, in his cordoing the devil's work, would it rupt estate, hath aliquas reliquias not send me to him to receive my vitæ spiritualis,-some reliques of wages? Would but the adul-spiritual life left. And Arminias terer think, I am now in the act saith, man hath a sufficiency of root of covetousness A. 13. Let us be much in prayer to God, to keep us from ingulphing ourselves in sin, Ps. xix. 13., grace in himself, whereby he may defile the breasts of her virginity. abstinere a malo, abstain from Sin doth ill become any, but doth evil; free-will is a sufficient curb worse become professors. Dung to check and pull him back from is unhandsome in the street; but sin. But then what needed Christ to see it in the temple, how offento have taught us this prayer: sive is it? Leprosy in the foot Libera nos a malo, "Deliver us doth ill, but to see a leprous sore from evil?" If we have power in the face is much worse; to see of ourselves to keep from sin, sin break forth in them who have what need we pray to God for a face of religion, is most to be power? Alas! if David and abominated. The sins of the Peter, in an habit of grace, fell, for want of a fresh gale of the Spirit to hold them up, much more will they be in danger of falling who have only the power of free-will to hold them. Let us therefore sue to God for strength to keep us from sinning; pray that prayer of David, Ps. cxix. 117., "Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe." And that other prayer, Ps. xvii. 5., "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.' Lord, keep me from dishonouring thee,keep me from the defiling sins of the age, that I may not be worse for the times, nor the times the worse for me," Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins." Lord, whatever I suffer, keep me from sin. The child is safe in the nurse's arms; and we are only safe from falling into sin, while we are held up in the arms of Christ and free-grace. The 2d Branch of the exhortation hath an aspect to God's children. You that are professors, and carry Christ's colours, I beseech you, above all others, to take heed of sin; beware of any action that is scandalous and unbecoming the gospel. You have heard what a prodigious hyperbolical evil sin is. Come not near the forbidden fruit, Hos. iv. 15., "Though thou Israel play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend." So, though wicked men run into sin, yet let not the spouse of Christ wicked are not so much wondered at, Dan. xii. 10., "The wicked shall do wickedly." It is no wonder to see a toad spit poison; it was not so much wondered to see Cain or Ahab sin; but to see Lot's incest,-to see David's hands stained with blood,-this was strange. When the sun is eclipsed, every one stands and looks upon it; so when a child of light is eclipsed by scandalous sin, all stand and gaze at this eclipse. The sins of God's people do, in some sense, more provoke God than the sins of the wicked. We read " of the provoking his sons and daughters," Deut. xxxii. 19. The sins of the wicked anger God, but the sins of his people grieve him. The sins of God's people have a more malignant aspect, and are of a blacker dye, than others; there are those aggravations in the sins of God's people, as are not to be found in the sins of the unregenerate, in eight particulars. For, 1. The godly have something which may ponere obicem, restrain them from sin. Wicked men, when they sin, have no principle to restrain them; they have wind and tide to carry them, but have nothing to pull them back from sin; but a child of God hath a principle of grace to give check to sin; he hath the impulses of God's Spirit dissauding him from evil; therefore, for him to commit sin, is far worse |
