Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachi the…Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachy the…

2. Though Jesus Christ did sometimes converse with Sinners, yet he could receive no Infection by them: his divine nature was a sufficient Antidote against the contagion of sin. As the Sun cannot be defiled with the thick Vapours which are exhaled from the Earth, and fly into the middle Region: ⟨p. 50⟩so the black Vapours of sin could not defile the Sun of Righteousness. Christ was of that spotless purity that he had no receptibility of Evil; but the case is altered with us, we have a stock of corruption within: therefore it is dangerous to incorporate with the Wicked lest we be defiled.

Such as revere the divine Majesty dare not go near the borders of Sin. Those who went near the Fiery Furnace, though they did not go into it, were burned, Dan. 3.22. A wise Christian should in all his transactions put those three questions of ^*Bernard to himself; Whether is this I do lawful, or decent, or expedient.

1. *An liceat, an deceit, an expediat.An liceat, an deceat, an expediat.

3. He who Fears God, dares not sin secretly. An Hypocrite may forbear gross sin, because of the shame; but not clandestine secret sin. He is like one that shuts up his Shop-windows, but follows his Trade within doors: But a man Fearing God dares not sin, though he had Gyges's Ring and could walk invisibly, and no eye see him.