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…

The second Answer.

Secondly, A true penitential turning is an universal turning, Ans. 2 a turning not from some sins, but from all sins, Ezek. 18.30. Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions. Ver. 31. Cast away from you all your transgressions. 2 Cor. 7.1. Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit. Psal. 119.101. I have refrained my feet from every evil way. Ver. 128. I hate every false way. Ezek. 14.6. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, repent and turn your selves from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. Chap. 18.28. Because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he ⟨p. 258⟩shall surely live, he shall not die. True repentance is a turning from all sin, without any reservation or exception; he never truly repented of any sin, whose heart is not turned against every sin. The true penitent casts off all the rags of old Adam, he throws down every stone of the old building, he will not leave a horn nor a hoof behind. That which Nehemiah speaks of himself in that, Neh. 13.7, 8. is very observable to our purpose. And I came to Jerusalem and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God, and it grieved me sore (but he rests not there, but goes further) therefore I cast forth all the household-stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber. What should Tobiah do with a chamber? therefore he not only outs Tobiah, but outgoes all his stuff too. Thus the true penitent, when he considers all the evil that sin has done, how it has taken up not only one chamber, but every chamber in the soul, and how it has for many years quite shut out God, and Christ, and the Spirit, and every thing that is good; he is grieved sore, and so falls upon the outging of every lust, being highly resolved that neither Satan nor any of his retinue shall ever find the least entertainment in his soul any more. Such as are resolved against turning from any sin, are horrible profane; such as turn from some sins, but close with others, are hideous hypocrites; such as turn from one sin to another, or change their sins as men do their fashions, are most sadly blinded, and desperately deluded by Satan; but such as turn not from some sins, but from every sin, are sincerely penitent.