A29686:268
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...
London : Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock ..., 1669
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Fourthly, That Soul that does not (nor, through Grace §4assisting, will not) allow himself, or indulge himself in a course of sin, or in the common practise of any known sin, that Soul is certainly a gracious soul. The evil that I do, 1I allow not. So Psal. 119.1, 3. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, that walk in the Law of the Lord, they also do no iniquity; that is, they allow not themselves in the practice of any iniquity. Blessed souls live not in the service of sin, they live not in an ordinary practice of any iniquity. 1 John 3.9. Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. He that has the seed of God, the seed of Grace and Regeneration in him, he cannot allow himself in away of sin, he cannot give himself over to a voluntary serving of sin, he cannot make a Trade of sin. So Prov. 16.17. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil, (that is) it is the ordinary, usual, constant course of an upright man to depart from evil. An honest Traveller may step out of the Kings Highway into a house, a Wood, a Close, but his work, his business is to go on in the ⟨p. 98⟩Kings Highway. So the business, the work of an upright man is to depart from evil; 'tis possible for an upright man to step into a sinful path, or to touch upon sinful facts; but his main way, his principal work and business, is to depart from iniquity: As a Bee may light upon a Thistle, but her work is to be gathering at Flowers; or as a Sheep may slip into the dirt, but its work is to be grassing on the Mountains, or in the Meadows. Certainly there is no man in the world so abominable wicked, but that he may now and then (when he is in a good mood, or when he is under distress of Conscience, or bleeding under a smarting rod, or beholding the hand-writing upon the Wall, or under a sentence of death) depart from evil; but this is not his course, this is not his business, this is not his work, this is not his highway. Thieves do but now and then step into the Kings Highway to take a purse, they do not keep the Kings Highway. But now the upright mans Highway, his common and ordinary course, is to depart from evil, and therefore he cannot allow himself liberty to walk in an evil way.