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…

Fifthly, One sin allowed, wallowed and tumbled in, is §5sufficient to deprive a man for ever of the greatest good. Moses came within the sight of Canaan, but for one sin, viz. not sanctifying God's name at the water of Meribah, he was shut out; for him to be so near the holy Land,¹ and yet so far off from entering into it, was doubtless of all strokes the hardest that ever he felt. In the Law,² the Leper that had the spot of leprosy in any one part of his body, was accounted a Leper, although all the rest of his body were sound and whole, and accordingly he was to be shut up, and shut out from the society and company of the people of God; so one sin, one leprous spot, allowed and beloved, will for ever shut a man out from the glorious presence of God, Christ, the Spirit, Angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect; one sin wallowed in, will as certainly deprive a man of the blessed vision of God, and of all the treasures, pleasures and delights that be at God's right hand, as a thousand. It was a sore vexation to King Lysimachus, that he should lose his earthly kingdom for one draught of water. O Sirs! 'twill be an everlasting vexation to such, who for one lust shall at last lose not an earthly, but a heavenly kingdom. One sin stripped the fallen Angels of all their glory; and one sin stripped our first parents of all their dignity and excellency.³ Satan by one loud lye to Adam and Eve made fruitless all that God had preached to them immediately before.⁴ To turn from some sins, but not from all, is gross hypocrisy; one sin set up in the love and service of it, will keep Christ out of his throne; it speaks sin to be rampant, and Satan to be victorious; and what can be the issue of these things, but ruin and damnation?⁵ One fly in the box of precious ointment, spoils the whole box; one thief may rob a man of all his treasure, one disease may deprive a man of all his health, one strong wind may blow down and blow away all a man's comforts, and so one sin delighted and wallowed in, will make a man miserable for ever. Though this or that particular sin be very pleasant to the flesh, and delightful to the fancy, yet he is the wisest man, and he is the best man, and the only blest man in all the world, that keeps furthest from it; and therefore the