The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety, Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. A survey of the Mischiefs arising from Partial Obedience.
ANOTHER sort of preposterous Considerers there are, by whom the power and force of Christianity is no less obstructed: and those are they that contrive not how they may most comply with it, but how they may best bend it to comport with them. That rebate its edge, or turn it only against such of their corruptions as they have least kindness for. That weigh the Precepts with no other design but that of taking the lightest: those to which their constitutions or other circumstances carry least repugnance; and come unto the Gospel not to as a law, but to a Market; cheapen what they best like, and leave the rest for other customers.
THAT thus it is with, many needs no other proof than the variety visible in the lives of several professors. One man behaves himself modestly, and tells you his religion commands him humility, yet at the same time transgresses the as strict precept of Justice, and will defraud him he bows to. On the contrary another is Just but Insolent, and though his Sentence do not bend, expects his Clients should. That man owns the purity of his religion in visiting the fatherless and widows, yet disclaims it again by not keeping himself unspotted of the world. This person is Abstemious but Uncharitable, will drink no wine but thirsts for bloud. He prays much, yet curses more; whilest he is meek but indevout. Now while the Rule is one and the same, how should it come, that mens Practices should so vary, were it not for the unequal Application: did they take it entire, though there might be difference in the degrees, yet sure not in the kinds of their Vertues, and as men would not differ so from one another, so neither would they from themselves, there would be then no such thing as a charitable Drunkard, a devout Oppressor, a chast Miser; Monsters engendred by this unnatural commixture of light with darkness, but Piety would be uniform and extensive, and bring into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ, 2 Cor. 10. 5. And till it be thus, Christianity can never be thought to have atchiev'd any part of its design, which was not aim'd against any one single limb, but against the whole body of sin. Alas, 'tis not the lopping off one of the remote members, that will render the remaining ones any whit the less vital, the having a part less to animate, will rather serve to concenter the spirits, and make them more active in the rest: as we see the pruning of Trees, makes them more prolifick. And this effect is very obvious among men: he who has no general dislike to vice, if he repudiate one, 'tis commonly that he may cleave closer to another; and what he defalks from some dry, insipid sin, is but to make up a Benjamin's Mess for some other more gustful. If the Wanton be sober, 'tis odds he thinks excess a Rival to his lust, if the Proud man be liberal, 'tis because covetousness is inglorious; such unevennesses are caus'd not by an unkindness to any Sin (unless possibly that aversion which natural constitution raises in some) but by a partiality to one or more favourite Vices, for whose better accommodation, and securer reign, not only Vertue, but other Vices also must give place.
AND this 'tis much to be fear'd will upon a true account, be found to be the sum of many mens piety, something they think they must pay to the importunity of their Religion, which upbraids them so loudly that they are willing to stop its mouth, but yet would do it with as much frugality, and good managery as may be, and so consider what 'tis they can best spare: what refuse Sin which brings them in little of satisfaction, and is perhaps in competition with some other more agreeable: and this they can be content to devote to the slaughter, set it to receive all the impressions of the sword of the spirit; and so use it as a buckler to their darling lusts, to ward off those blows which must else fall heavy on them; but alas this is not to obey, but to delude: to ransom a greater Sin with a less, and to transcribe in this matter the Counsel of Caiphas: to let one die for the People, that the whole nation Perish not. To make one forlorn guilt a Patriot to the rest, whilest in the tempest which threatned a general shipwrack, the precious wares are preserv'd, by throwing the less valuable over board.
AND truly that is commonly the event, men are so jolly and triumphant when they have worsted a trivial inconsiderable sin, as if they had defeated the whole army: this poor despicable spoil, is set up as their Trophe, and must they think witness for them both to God and man, that they are good souldiers of Iesus Christ: they can like Saul with full confidence meet the Prophet, and tell him they have fulfilled the Commandment of the Lord, 2 Sam. 15. 13. though Agag and the best cattle, the reigning and fattest sins be spar'd: and while they are thus secure, their sins will certainly be so also, have no disturbance or disquiet from them, but lie at Ease and rest, feed like Canibals upon their own kind, be nourisht by the carkasses of those unlucky vices, on whom the exterminating lot hapned to fall: and by that means grow to a prodigious bulk and corpulency. And upon these terms Satan himself will allow us to mortifie some sins, nay will himself cast the first stone at them: and like a rooking gamester purposely lose these petty stakes, that he may afterwards sweep the board.
FOR if men should give themselves up universally to all sorts of Ill, if they should set themselves in a total opposition to all the documents of their profession, he would lose one of his most useful engins; there could be no such thing as a false delusive hope: they might possibly by obstinacy harden, or by diversion gag Conscience, but they could not bribe and corrupt it, make it sit down well pleas'd and satisfied with its self. For when the threats against disobedience shall occurr to the mind of one who has in all instances disobey'd, 'tis impossible he should find any salve, any way of Evading the Threats, they make so directly at him: but he who can alledge for himself that he obeys in some things, confronts that to all Objections, and resolves he is not in the list of the disobedient: One or two such comfortable instances are as mighty; as God promis'd the Israelites should be, Deut. 32. 30. one able to chase a thousand, and two to put ten thousand to flight; all fears and misgiving thoughts are dissipated and fled before them: and as once the French King in his return to the numerous swelling titles of the Spaniard, thought the bare repetition of France, France, France, was a full ballance to them all; so when whole files of great and scandalous Crimes present themselves, one single vertue is thought a sufficient counterpoize. He whose Conscience upbraids him with all Profaneness towards God, and in Sobriety towards himself: yet if he can but answer that he is just to his neighbour, he thinks he has quit scores, and fears no farther reckonings: he who is immerst in all the filthiness both of flesh and spirit, has abandon'd his Mind to pride and envie, his Body to lust and intemperance; and so sacrificed both those to Devils: yet if he cast but some grains of this estate upon the Altar; devote any small part of that to God, for the uses of Piety or Charity; he concludes that Incense will send up a Cloud thick enough, to obscure the other from the Eyes of Divine Justice, and yield so sweet a savour as will perfume him in spight of all that Noisomness: so extending old Tobits words beyond his meaning, that alms, though alone, delivereth from death, and cleanseth from all sin. He who is deep in sacriledge and rebellion, that can daringly swallow repeated deliberate perjuries; yet if he can get but the demure tenderness, to fear a sudden oath, he is Chymist enough to extract a confidence out of that fear, and presumes that formal Civility to Gods name, shall expiate all the real Violations and Contempts of him: and while men make such use of their partial peecemeal obedience, it can never be the Devils interest to disturb them in it, to awake them out of their pleasant dream, or to exact of them to deposite those poor unsignificant remains of their Christianity, which serve only to make them more Supine, not more Safe.
NAY indeed his affairs are so stated, that to some he can and does, and without danger allow a yet far greater indulgence, he can permit them to bid much fairer than this for Heaven, and yet knows the purchase is far from being made; he can see them cashier not some one single sin, but whole troops together, and yet not fear the sinking of his Cause: He can trust them so far, that as the young man in the Gospel, they may be pronounc'd, Not far from the Kingdom of God: yet as long as there is but one unmortified Lust, that can send them away sad from Christ, his tenure is firm enough. Herod may hear Iohn Baptist gladly, nay do many things upon it, yet let him but keep Herodias, and she will soon be able to secure both her self and Satan against the danger of that Competition. This is indeed his main advantage that he can hold fast by the smallest threed; and whereas to our bliss a conspiration and union of all Vertues is required; our ruine can spring from any one solitary Crime: many rounds make that Ladder wherewith we must scale heaven: whereas one step serves to precipitate us into the Abysse; so sadly verifying the Poetical Axiome, Facilis descensus Averni. In sum, while there is but any one single sin indulg'd to: that is the Devils tedder; and though it should be imagin'd so loose, as to give men scope to range over all other sorts of Vertues, to taste the sweet and feed liberally on them; yet still the beast is in the power of him who has fixt the line, not only to be finally led away to slaughter, but also to have the length shortned, and be either put out of the reach, or quite removed from the view of those pleasant pastures.
FOR though the security rais'd by such an ununiform piety is in many so exactly apportioned to Satans interest, that he has no cause to wish the change of his tenure; yet where the circumstances are such, as will make it useful, he can easily twist his thred into a Cable. When he thinks one Monarch Lust too mild a regiment, he can set up an Athenian Tyranny, or which is yet worse, let in the whole populacy of Sin upon the Soul, which like the Aegyptian Locusts shall overrun and devour it, not leave any green thing on the ground, and that this is in his power we have too much reason to conclude. He is we know a cunning sophister, and if he has abus'd us so far as to impose one sin upon us, he may thence very regularly deduce many more, as one false Premise admitted, may be improved into thousands of false Conclusions. Indeed supposing a man resolute to adhere to one sin, he may with very good Logick perswade him to multitudes of others. There are but two Objections usually made to any Temptation; either the offence, or the danger; and these are usually objectable to one sin as well as to another; so that this dilemma readily offers its self: either it is reasonable to buy a pleasure at that price, or it is not: If it be, then contrive that the crime be pleasant, and that brings its dispensation with it: If it be not, then why doest thou live in this one sin in despight of both guilt and punishment; the later part of the Dilemma 'tis no part of Satans business to press, but the former he has too much advantage of pursuing successefully; if he can but dress up a temptation to look invitingly, the business is done. So ridiculous a thing is an uneven Piety, that it even laughs it self out of countenance, and wants only temptation to become uniform Vice. How absurdly looks it, to see a man run away with Ioseph from the embraces of his Mistress, and yet with full as great a speed accompany Gehazi in the pursuit of a bribe; and how obvious is it to conclude that the former assault was improsperous only because not manag'd with the right weapon; that he might have been hir'd that would not be woed? What a mockery is it for a man to be zealous for God, and rebellious against his King? as in the reverse, for a man to be true to his King, and a rebel to his God: and who can but think, that had either of the averted Crimes been cookt to their Palats, they might have chang'd Messes. Indeed 'tis not imaginable by what rules of discourse, he that embraces one sin should reject another: if it be done only upon phancy and humour, as the repulst vice will have reason to complain of great partiality, when as bad as its self is receiv'd and cherish'd; so it points out a way to attacque him more prosperously: let it shape its self to the phancy, and sure Satan, who can transform himself to an Angel of light, can soon work that easie change: let the younger Brother get on the cloaths of the favourite Esau, transform its self into the shape and interest of the darling sin, and it need not doubt of a free admission. But all this while to pretend conscience for such an abstinence, is of all other pleas the must absurd, for why should he scruple at one, that abandons himself to another. As S. Iames argues concerning the guilt, so may we for the act of Sin: He that said do not commit adultery, said also do not kill; and 'tis abusive mockery, the Souldiers Ave Rex, to bow to his authority in the one, and resist it in the other. Thus unhappy is the case of him who entertains one sin, his enclosure is broken down, and he's a common for all: he is left destitute of a reply to any temptation, and like a bashful person will be in danger of yielding, because he is asham'd to deny: and this I doubt not, many have found experimentally true, some sins have been committed not so much upon the force of inclination, as to be consentaneous to themselves, to silence the upbraidings of their understandings for acting so unevenly, it being impossible to give a reasonable account, why this and not that, or that; for when by one bold wilful sin a man enter'd into a state of hostility with God, 'tis not a tenderness in all others will make up the breach: and then they think the rule of known enemies takes place, where all civilities are disclaim'd, and the quarrel manag'd to the most advantage. The resolv'd Adulterer could perhaps without much difficulty be just, but when he considers that that one Helena of his, will certainly make a war, he thinks 'tis an impertinent niceness to lose a good prize, or dismiss his covetousness while he resolves to retain his lust. The incorrigible drunkard could perchance easily enough be chaste, but when he remembers that drunkenness excludes him from the Kingdom of Heaven: having made that sale of his eternal inheritance, he thinks 'tis but good husbandry to get as much as he can for it: So treacherous a guest is any one Sin admitted, and lodg'd in the heart, it despoils it of all its armour of defence, leaves it nothing wherewith to guard its self against any assailant; and be it never so small a one, 'tis like those little thieves which being put in at the window set the doors open to all the rest.
BUT perhaps this danger may be thought in some degree warded by the natural temper and constitution of men, which necessarily renders them unapt to contradictory vices, and so will secure them at least from so many as are disagreeable to their Temper: but if this should be granted, yet it confessedly leaves them open to all others, and that were certainly bad enough: he that is as wicked, as his complexion can not only encline, but permit him to be, will not want much of the utmost number of sins: but whatever we can suppose that to strike off from the tale; yet in the second place, 'tis very much to be fear'd, that will defalk nothing of the weight; he that sins to the height of his appetite, perhaps power, shall he be ever the more innocent because there were some nauseated sins which he had not Self denial enough to commit. God absolves us in proportion to the rectitude of our Wills, not the niceness of our Complexions: he that wills to pursue whatever he can find gustful, how impious soever; shall it be vertue in him that some Sins are unsavoury and disagreeing to his Palate; if it should, there may so many extrinsick things be by Analogy brought in, either to swell or abate the accounts of our sin, that we shall be much to seek in the estimate of it.
BUT in the third place, even these very aversions are no infallible preservative, for if they happen to be more moderate and remiss, than the love of some other sin; that predominant inclination will subdue those dislikes, when ever its interest is to be serv'd, by those otherwise not gustful commissions. There is nothing more ordinary than to see one appetite pursued to the violation of another. A man perhaps hates drunkenness, not only as a bestial, but uneasie vice; yet if his love to Gain exceed his dislike to that; when that is requisite to make up the price of a good bargain, that aversion must stoop, and give way. A man despises swearing, as an insipid impertinent Sin, yet if he set any great value upon being in the mode, and complying with the gentile Dialect, that will soon debase him to what he so much contemn'd: and truly there is scarce any other account to be given of that great and foolish sin. But in no other instance is this so notoriously visible as in that of duelling. I need not single out any one mans particular inclination, the nature of mankind doth certainly avert both killing and being kill'd: yet when that Phantasm, that Chimera honour, has once possest the mind, no reluctance of humanity is able to make head against it: but it commands as uncontroul'dly, as the Centurion in the Gospel, sayes to this man go and he goes, to another come and he comes: nay as Tyrannically as the great Cham of Tartary, who as an Essay of his Soveraignty commands whole troops to ride down precipices; nay these Aversions are not only thus violently subdued by some foraign lust, but are many times destroy'd even by force of that very vicious principle which gave them birth: for we mistake if we think they are alwaies vertuous, or so much as innocently founded; Vice is often at civil wars with its self; and the vehement inclination to one, ingenders a displacency to another; but yet such a riddle is this mystery of Iniquity, that upon the very same basis is built both the abhorrence and commission of the same Sin. For example, a Proud man as much hates to fawn and flatter others, as he loves to be flatter'd himself; yet let his pride but once work the other way, and set him upon an ambitious project, then all the mean condescentions imaginable are with ease digested, he can crouch and prostrate, and as the Psalmist speaks, fall down and humble himself, that by that descent he may rebound to the height he aims at: but still pride is the common cause of these so distant effects. In like manner the Riotous Prodigal detests covetousness, looks upon it as so sordid and base, that he brands even prudent frugality as approaching too near it; yet let him but once find the springs to grow dry which should feed his luxury; when he feels his Riot begins to exhaust and prey upon its self, then even that despised Covetousness shall be call'd in to its aid, to dig mettal for the Furnace to melt, and so by a strange Antiperistasis, prodigality shall beget rapine. Thus unhappily prolifick is every Sin, that it carries in its bowels the seed and principle even of those that seem the most Heterogeneous; and then how shall a man that has admitted but any one such teeming lust be secur'd that it shall not thus propagate, till his Soul become a meer desart, fill'd with all sorts of wild and noxious creatures.
THERE is but one hope imaginable to interpose, and that is that Gods grace shall prevent this exorbitant growth of impiety in him, and I acknowledge that is sufficient to do it, where it may have its kindly operation; but where it has so, it will uniformly suppress all sin, and therefore where any one continues in Force and Vigour, 'tis manifest that operation of Grace is obstructed, and such a man I should desire soberly to consider what assurance he has, that he who has so evacuated Gods grace in one instance, shall not do so in another? If in spight of that grace he can be lustful, why shall he not be as able to resist it in favour of Drunkenness, Sacriledge, Rebellion, or any other crime to which he shall at any time have appetite. Can he imagine that God sends forth an irresistible strength against some sins, whilest in others he permits men a power of repelling his Grace? That were to transcribe the Syrians absurd Phansie, that he is a God of the hills and not of the valleys: No certainly, he who has his own unhappy experience to attest the possibility of frustrating the Divine succours in one particular, has too sure grounds to infer the like in others. Nay alas, it does not only infer it by way of argument and deduction, but it is very apt to produce it by way of cause and efficiency: We gain a readiness to any thing by custom and assuefaction, and he who has habitually oppos'd Grace in the defence of a Lust, has deliver'd himself from that modesty which makes the first defiance uneasie, and so runs on with ease and boldness to future resistance. It faring with men in this violation of Gods grace as it does in that of his Patrimony, the first Sacriledge is lookt on with some horrour, and men are fain to devise arguments and colours to delude their relucting Consciences; but when they have once made the breach, their scrupulosity soon retires; one draught of that impious gain, has such a stupifying effect, that they can without check swallow on, till the Sin flame so fiercely, that nothing but meer want of Matter can extinguish it. But admit it were possible for a man to be secur'd of his own compliance with some parts of restraining grace whilest he impugnes it in others, yet who shall ascertain him of that grace? It being Gods, implies 'tis not in our power, he may surely do what he will with his own, and though his promise has made a sure entail of it to all those, who humbly seek and diligently use it: yet it no where engages that it shall be the portion of any other; much less that it shall importunately and endlesly renew its assaults on those who have often repulst and put it to flight: In that case Gods resolution concerning the old world becomes appliable, My spirit shall not always strive with man; and Christ who forbids us to cast our pearls before swine, will certainly never prostitute what is infinitely more precious, his Grace to those, who have so long trampled it under their feet; and so those must be concluded to have done, who have persevered in any one sin: for Grace is uniformly opposite to all, and therefore the cleaving to any is defiance and affront to it. But we need not the help of inferences and deduction, the threats of God are express in this matter: The Talent is decreed to be taken from the unprofitable servant, who has not imployed it to the proper use, and such infallibly is every man who has not actuated the Grace given him to the subduing of every reigning sin; and the reprobate mind mention'd in Scripture as the most dismal of all Plagues, the foreign which yields not to the melting and the purging force of Fire, and therefore does consign to that of Hell, is founded upon the voluntary rejection of God in particular instances, Rom. 1. How then can he, that in any one single thing so rejects him, assure himself that shall not be the event of it: That he who would not have Christ rule entirely in his heart, shall at once be put out of his Government and protection: have all those spiritual aids withdrawn, which should either assist him to good, or fortifie him against ill; and like an outlaw'd person be expos'd to the outrage of all that will assault him.
AND now would God this might be sadly pondered, that men would not be their own Sirens, and entertain themselves with those deceitful melodies, which will end in howlings and gnashings of teeth; that they would not think their having some few vertues, and but some few vices will serve to satisfie the design, or procure them the rewards of their Christianity: for if they should continue in this posture, and not be tempted to grow worse, they may certainly conclude 'tis because Satan finds they need not. And can they be proud of that Vertue which the Devil himself will allow them? And think themselves good enough when they are as bad as he wishes them? But even in this they have no other tenure than his Will. When he pleases for his interest▪ or even for his divertisement and recreation he may hurry them to all that is most enormous; convert their Hypocrisie to profaneness, their partial Piety to universal Ungodliness; they have nothing to interpose in their own Defence, not so much as a reasonable Argument to oppose to him, they have made a voluntary sale of themselves for one or more beloved sin, and now as his vassals he may impose on them what others he pleases: and by their doting affection to their Rachel take advantage also to obtrude the despis'd Leah upon them. And how wretched, how deplorable is this state? What a Piety is this that we must owe to the Devil, while we can be no better than he will let us?
YET this is without Hyperbole, the condition of every man that is not sincerely uniformly Christian; every indulg'd sin gives Satan livery and seisin of his heart, and a power to dispose of it as he please. I know men are apt to flatter themselves with other hopes, and think that those obediences they pay to God shall like a pre-ingagement disannul all after contracts made by guilt, and put them into the possession of Him who is able to bind that strong man. But God will not be accessary to such a fraud, even towards the Devil while they keep the price, enjoy that pleasure or profit wherewith he bought them, God will never interpose to defeat him of his purchase.
AND as God will not thus forcibly wrest them out of his hands, much less will he descend to a capitulation and composition with him. God is a jealous God, and what jealous husband did ever by compact divide his right with the Adulterer. Where he finds a persevering disloyalty he gives a bill of divorce and disclaims his relation. Yet so besotted are men, as to hope God will ratifie that alienation they have made of one part of their heart, and contentedly enjoy the rest; and as competitors use sometimes to do, share with his Rival. But alas that immortal quarrel will not be thus taken up, the difference between these irreconcilable Antagonists will not be so compremised. God disdains such a Treaty, nor will ever come so much as to an interview with his enemy, within the lists and recesses of one Heart. And while men labour such an accord, they are but combining with Satan against God and their own Souls: he knows well that while he holds any part, God will have none, and so the whole falls to him, and then he may very safely be modest, and demand but moderately, and by that seeming difference and yielding, gain more than by all his most eager contendings. I suppose every man will disown the having this ridiculous design of compounding the strife between Heaven and Hell; but certainly it is the natural interpretation of such partial obediences, when two Litigants contend for something which I have in my keeping, if I divide it between them, is it not obvious to conclude I desire to compose the dispute and satisfie both parties, and is not this the very case here? 'Tis true indeed, it carries a very absurd sound, but then how more absurd is it for men to act at such a rate, that when 'tis represented to them in the truest colours, themselves are ashamed to own what they have done? And this calls loudly upon them to put themselves out of the lash of their own discipline: to recover such an innocence that they may not be forc't with David to sentence themselves, when that their crimes appear in the light disguise of a Parable.
AND this indeed is the only proper use of all these considerations, the danger and folly are as unuseful as unpleasant speculations, unless it be in order to the reforming that wherein both are founded. Let men consider themselves, as engaged in those wild projects which even themselves look on with scorn; as ensnar'd in that unhappy contract which has rendred them part of the Devils possession, and contrive how they may obliterate that reproach, and disentangle their Mortgag'd Souls.
AND for this there is but one way imaginable, and that is by quitting their hands of that which they took as the valuable consideration in that mad bargain; restoring Satans coyn to him, not only principal but use also: casting away the main sin and all the little appendages, which like offesets have shot out from that root; retaining nothing that has his mark and impress upon it, that so he may not pretend to any thing of theirs by right of barter or exchange. This, and this only is the way to disseise him of his Estate, to cancel those fatal Indentures which bound them to him, and till this be done, as long as they keep any part of his wages of iniquity, his title remains in full force, they are still his servants, his vassals.
EVEN that redemption of Christ has no efficacy towards the enfranchizing of such, for though it proclaim a universal Iubile, yet it forces liberty upon none, he that will nail his Ear to the door-post and defie a manumission, may continue his slavish state still, and indeed though Christs death was design'd to rescue us from the power of Satan; yet the first essay of that rescue was to redeem us from our vain conversation: And where that is not done, which is so essentially fundamental to all the rest, 'tis not possible any other part of that Redemption should be atchiev'd, unless we will confound the order of Nature as well as Grace, and make the consequent precede the antecedent.
LET no man therefore upon any vain hopes delay the one only expedient to his security, but pay back the earnest-penny he has received from Satan, fling away his sin, how pleasant or profitable soever, with the greatest Abhorrence, as knowing 'tis the price of blood, and that not only his Saviours, but his own too; and this immediately, lest the forfeiture be irreversible. We know the danger of lapsing time in case of Mortgage, but here our danger is greater, because the time is so uncertain, for though God had nothing else to do in the whole transaction ('twas wholly our own work) yet 'tis he that assigns the time of forfeiture: he alone knows how far we may go in sin, before we pass the possibility of a retreat; how long he will be provok'd before he suffer his whole displeasure to arise; and how many repellings of his Grace, and quenchings of his Spirit they are to which his desertions are apportion'd. Pharaohs heart was hardened by God after the Eighth resistance, and we have no security but ours may be sooner: yet if that should be taken as the standing measure, how dreadful an abode would it make to many of us? Who is there that has espoused any one beloved sin, that has not much oftner repeated the acts of it, every one of which is a resistance and a contumacy against God? Who is there that has not done it against so many express warnings and loud calls of God in his own Conscience, which renders it yet a fuller parallel, and 'tis to be fear'd, too many agree with it even in the last and highest circumstance, that of the Plagues too, by an obstinate persisting after so many Iudgements sent to mollifie and reclaim them; and then where the premises are the same, 'tis too likely the conclusion may be so also.
I SHALL not wish any Person so strictly to apply this case, as to conclude, that he is already in this state, but I should wish all men would apply it so far, as to infer how possible, nay how probable it is, that the very next resistance shall put them in it. 'Tis not Pharaohs being a Heathen and they Christians that will give them any security; it being no part of the Gospel-Covenant, that men shall be ever the longer allowed to trample upon Grace. All the difference it makes is rather on the other side; the contempts are enhans'd to a higher guilt, and consequently, the fewer acts may now serve to fill up the measure. And if their experience testifie to them, that in their particular God has us'd a greater long suffering, than he has given any grounds to expect, if the guilt of their Consciences testifie that they have committed many more acts; and yet some remaining tendernesses and regrets witness also, that they are not yet given up to an utter hardness and obduration, O let them not presume themselves safe, because they are not utterly desperate; but lay their hearts open to be stampt and imprest by grace, before they grow utterly inflexible; timely consider what is the design of this long animity, and without any more struglings and resistance suffer it to attain its aim and lead them to repentance.
FOR though their Souls be not yet wholly petrified, yet how know they in what an instant that unhappy Metamorphosis may be wrought, or if it should not be so sudden, yet 'tis certain every act of sin makes gradual approaches towards it: so that if God should not inflict it by way of punishment, yet the meer force of Habit would produce it by way of natural efficacy: And to be convinc'd of this, I should require no more, but that men would reflect, and see what effects it has already wrought, how far it has advanc'd towards that fatal point. Let them send their thoughts back through every stage and period of their sin, and observe whether as that has grown, so their tenderness and reluctance of Conscience has not abated and decreas'd: Let them but recollect what regrets and disquiets they had, when they ventur'd upon the first unlawful commission, and compare it with their present, and I doubt not they will discern a great inequality; they will find that every act of sin hath allayed somewhat of the sharpness of those pangs, and proportionably to the frequency of the repetition they approach toward insensible: and then let him whose older Habit has multiplied those Acts, sadly consider how few steps he has to the end of his unhappy journey, though no extrinsick concurrent should hasten his pace. But when Gods desertion shall, as for ought he knows, it may the next minute supervene: that as a full and violent Wind drives him in an instant, not to the Harbour, but on the Rock where he will be irrecoverably split.
NOR let any man fortifie himself against these terrors, by hoping that his one single (perhaps small) sin shall not have this destructive force; for if it be wilful it carries in it that which is properly the malignity of all sin, to wit, a resistance and opposition against God, and this is so mortal a Venome, that the least Dose of it is deadly, as a man may as certainly be poison'd by a dram of Arsenick, as with the largest draught.
THE more natural inference lies the other way, if it be but a single or petty sin, 'tis so much the easier to part with; he that is bound with a strong Cable, or with a multitude of lesser Cords, may pretend some necessity of his Captivity from the strength of his bonds; but he that is tied with one slender string, such as one resolute struggle would be sure to break: he is prisoner only to his own sloth or humour, and who will pity his thraldom, where 'tis so apparently his choice? Do not therefore say my sin is inconsiderable and therefore I need not relinquish it, but my sin is inconsiderable therefore I need not keep it. So slight a pleasure I may part with and find no miss: this pedling profit I may resign and 'twill be no breach in my Estate. And if Christ require a renunciation of those sins which are as the Hand and Eye, shall I scruple to deposite those which are but as the Hair or Nails.
NAY he may yet argue higher, and from the smalness of the sin deduce the enhansement of the Guilt: great acquisitions carry some temptation in their face, but despicable prizes do rather avert than tempt. 'Twas the sign of a common harlot to be hired with a Kid, Gen. 38. and sure he must be of a strange prostitute Soul, that can adulterate for such low trivial wages. To dishonour God, though the whole world were to be acquir'd by it, were great impiety, but to do it for handfuls of Barley and pieces of Bread, Ezek. 13. 19. himself brands as a yet higher pitch. And sure it argues a very light esteem of God, when one poor contemptible lust shall be able to overpoize him in our hearts.
NOR is the folly less than the profaneness, when there is but one Ionah to be cast over-board, 'tis the greater madness to hazard a wrack; and let such a man pretend what he pleases in extenuation of his sin, make that appear never so minute and despicable, yet 'tis apparent all the love which other men scatter and distribute upon several, he has united and concentred in this one lust. The most doting affection when it is summed up can amount to no more than this, that it makes a man expose himself to the greatest pain, the greatest loss for the thing beloved. And this is most visible here, Hell is as certainly acquir'd, and Heaven as certainly forfeited by one sin as many; and then though there may be odds in other respects, yet what is there in this, between this more modest and the most licentious Sinner, but that the former puts the same value upon one, that the other does upon many sins, and sells his Soul so much the cheaper.
AND now would God such men would review their bargain, soberly consider what there is in this Idoliz'd sin of theirs, which should exact such costly sacrifices. Let him whose long intimacy and experience has given him access to its most secret recesses, that has rifled its bowels, and knows the utmost whether of pleasure or profit that lies there conceal'd. Let him I say, that is thus qualified for it, make an exact inventory of its wealth, and then let him compare it with what he is to pay for it; weigh its flat and momentary Pleasures, with those most transcending and perpetual Ioys which are at Gods right hand; its base and perishing commodities, with those unfailing treasures in the Heaven; and then judge of his purchase in respect of that part of his prize: And if that be not convincement enough, let him weigh the other also; those sad pains which are too intolerable to be suffer'd, and yet so eternal, that they can never cease to be suffer'd, and think whether that be not too dear a rate for that pleasure, whose gust is so little, and whose duration is less: or what profit he will have in the revenue of his sin, that Gold and Silver which will finally eat his flesh as it were fire, Ia. 5. 3. and prove the unhappy fuel of his flames.
FROM all these premisses, certainly Reason and Religion do equally infer the same conclusion, to wit, that men should not tolerate themselves one minute in any known sin of how small a size soever it be; nor so impertinently betray their Souls to ruine for that which they call light and trivial; and is so indeed in respect of the acquest, but overwhelmingly ponderous in regard of the effects and pernicious consequents. And O that mens practices might evince them to have made this just deduction, that those who have in many things preserv'd an innocence, would not be so ill husbands as to forfeit all the advantage of that Care for want of extending it a little farther, nor suffer the whiter parts of their Soul to be discolour'd or tincted by the reflection of one crimson sin; but rather let their tears wash that into a whiteness, that they may be uniform and of a piece. For though Iacob clad his darling Ioseph in a party-colour'd garment; yet God owns none either for favourite Son, or so much as Servant that he finds so arrayed. The followers of the Lamb are all clad in white, and in that attire we must be sure to put our selves if we mean to go in with him to the marriage. And since the Gospel is the invitation to that feast, let none imagine he has complied with it till he have thus fitted himself: till then he affronts and baffles his Christianity, sends it away empty without its errand; nay, which is worse prostitutes and profanes it, makes it serve only for a Gourd, that he may sit under the shadow of it, and commit his sins the more undisturbed; but let him remember that he is all this while breeding that worm, which will smite this Gourd, and leave him unsheltred to that scorching wrath of God, which will make the improvement of Ionahs passionate Wish, that God would take away his life, his most rational Desire; render not Death only, but Annihilation also, as eligible as it will be impossible.