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…

To sin is common to man,¹ yea to the best man in all the world, but to continue in a course of sin, is only proper to a wicked man. To err and fail that's humane, but to maintain a league or friendship with sin, that is diabolical. Though a true penitent dares not continue in a trade, a path of sin, whilst he lives in this world, yet sin will continue in him whilst he continues in this world; though sin and grace were not born together, and though sin and grace shall never die together, yet whilst a penitent man lives in this world they must live together. 'Tis one thing for sin to continue in us, and 'tis another thing for us to continue in sin. The Apostle having closed the fifth Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, in the triumph of Gospel grace; That as sin hath reigned unto death, so grace might reign through righteousness •nto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord, ²begins the next with a prevention of the abuse of this grace; What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? To live in sin, in the face of Gospel-grace is most unreasonable, and to a gracious and ingenious nature impossible; the very question implies a kind of impossibility. Such as were once dead in sin, and now by Gospel-grace are dead to sin, such can no longer continue in sin. Look, as 'tis not the mere falling into the water that drowns a man, but his lying and continuing in it; so it is not a mere falling into sin that damns a man, that drowns a man, that everlastingly undoes a man, but his living in it, his continuing in it. It is bad to sin, but 'tis infinitely worse to continue in sin. The first best is not to sin, the next best is not to continue in sin, no not for an hour, as Paul speaks in another case (Gal. 2.5.) To whom we gave place by subjection, no not for an hour. Certainly to argue from Gospel-mercy to sinful liberty, is the Devil's Logic. The more a man lives in the ⟨p. 276⟩sight of Gospel-grace, the more sin will be discountenanced, resisted, hated, and totally displaced. A man may as truly assert, that the Sea burns, or that the fire cools, or that the Sun darkens the Air, as he may assert that the sight, sense, or sweet of Gospel-grace will breed security or carnality, looseness or wickedness, in a gracious heart. The true penitent never ceases repenting, till he ceases living;