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…

¹Wicked men are wonderful prone to watch for the Saints haltings; Christians are lights upon a high Hill; yea, they ⟨p. 123⟩are Stars in the Firmament of the Church, and therefore every mans eye is upon them, and if wicked men can but discern the least indecency, the least appearance of any eccentric, or irregular motion, O how readily will they let fly against God, and the Gospel; against Religion, and against all that have a Profession of Religion upon them. Now the honour of God, and the credit of the Gospel, should be so dear and precious in the eyes of every Christian, that he should rather choose to dye, than to venture upon the least apparition of sin, whereby the honour of God may be clouded, or the credit of the Gospel impeached or eclipsed; or the Soul of a poor sinner endangered or worsened; both the least sin, and the least appearance of sin must be avoided and prevented, the Cockatrice must be crushed in the Egg, else it will soon become a Serpent; the very thought of sin, if not thought on, will break out into action, action into custom, custom into habit, and then both body and Soul are in the ready way of being irrecoverably lost. Camerarius tells us a sad story of two Brothers, who walking out in the evening, and seeing the Element full of bright spangling Stars, one of them being a Grassier, wished that he had as many Oxen as there were Stars in the Firmament; then said the other Brother, If I had a Pasture as big as all the World, where would you keep the Oxen? he answered, In your Pasture: What said the other, whether I would or no? Yes said his Brother. The matter was very light, 'twas but a little evil, or an appearing evil, but it fell out very heavily, for presently they fell to words, and then drew one upon another, and in the close killed one another. O friends, as you love the lives of sinners, and as you love the Souls of sinners, keep off from all appearance of evil. But,

¹Wicked men are wonderful prone to watch for the Saints haltings; Christians are lights upon a high Hill; yea, they ⟨p. 123⟩are Stars in the Firmament of the Church, and therefore every mans eye is upon them, and if wicked men can but discern the least indecency, the least appearance of any excentrick, or irregular motion, O how readily will they let fly against God, and the Gospel; against Religion, and against all that have a Profession of Religion upon them. Now the honour of God, and the credit of the Gospel, should be so dear and precious in the eyes of every Christian, that he should rather chuse to dye, than to venture upon the least apparition of sin, whereby the honour of God may be clouded, or the credit of the Gospel impeached or eclipsed; or the Soul of a poor sinner endangered or worsned; both the least sin, and the least appearance of sin must be avoided and prevented, the Cockatrice must be crushed in the Egg, else it will soon become a Serpent; the very thought of sin, if not thought on, will break out into action, action into custome, custome into habit, and then both body and Soul are in the ready way of being irrecoverably lost. Camerarius tells us a sad story of two Brothers, who walking out in the evening, and seeing the Element full of bright spangling Stars, one of them being a Grasier, wished that he had as many Oxen as there were Stars in the Firmament; then said the other Brother, If I had a Pasture as big as all the World, where would you keep the Oxen? he answered, In your Pasture: What said the other, whether I would or no? Yes said his Brother. The matter was very light, 'twas but a little evil, or an appearing evil, but it fell out very heavily, for presently they fell to words, and then drew one upon another, and in the close killed one another. O friends, as you love the lives of sinners, and as you love the Souls of sinners, keep off from all appearance of evil. But,