38. That where sin proves hateful, it shall not prove hurtful

Another principle by which a believer should walk, is this: That wheresoever sin proves hateful, it shall not prove hurtful.

What an apology doth a sorrowful Saviour make for his sleeping saints! The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Take a carnal man, and what he can do, that he will not; take a Christian man, and what he would do, that he cannot.

Now impotency shall be pitied, when obstinacy shall be punished. God has mercy for his own can-nots, but none for the devil's will-nots. Adam's want was rather in his will than in his power; but a saint's want is rather in his power than in his will. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! —A saint's will begins, where his work ends. Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Lord,

I see, enlighten my darkness; I hear, but cure my deafness; I move, but quicken my dullness;

I desire, but help my unwillingness; I remember, but remove my forgetfulness.

In playing over a tune upon an instrument, a single string may jar and slip, and yet the main be musical. It would be folly, indeed, to think our fields had no corn in them, because there is chaff about the wheat; or that the ore had no gold in it, because there is dross among it. In heaven there is service alone without any sin, in hell there is sin alone without service: but on earth, there is sin and service in the same man, as there is light and shade in the same picture.

Christian reader, to condemn your evil, is good;

but to condemn your good, is evil. Here believers are like the Israelites, who in their darkest night had a pillar of fire; and in their clearest day, a pillar of a cloud. Above us there is light without any darkness; below us there is darkness without any light; but in this world, it is neither day nor night, but in the evening time it shall be light.

Though the lowest believer be above the power of sin, yet the highest believer is not above the presence of sin. It is in a living Christian that lust is to be mortified, but it is only in a dying

Christian that it is to be destroyed.

When the body and the soul are separated by mortality, sin and the soul will be separated to eternity. Though a forced subjection be sufficient to satisfy a tyrant; yet it is only a ready obedience that proves homage to a king.

Sin never ruins, but where it reigns. It is not destroying, where it is disturbing. The more evil it receives from us, the less evil it does to us. It is only a murderer, where it is a governor.

The rose is a fragrant flower, though it be surrounded with piercing thorns. The passover was a feast, though the Israelites ate it with bitter herbs.

There is always too much of the wild olive in those who are ingrafted into the true olive. Our graces are our best jewels, but they do not yield their brightest lustre in this world. The moon, when she shines brightest, has her spots; and the fire, when it burns the hottest, hath its smoke. I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes; nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication. Who would have thought those prayers should ever have had any prevalency in God's ear, which were mixed with so much infidelity in the petitioner's heart? Sin is an enemy at the Christian's back, but not a friend in his bosom. Although believers should be mournful, because they have infirmities; yet they should be thankful, because they are but infirmities. It is true, they have sin in them, and that should make them sorrowful; but it is as true, that they have a Saviour for them, and that should make them joyful. It is not the interposition of a cloud, but the departure of the sun, which constitutes a night. Take the purest believer in the world, and you will find him fuller of sin than be is of prayer. There is too much of the earth in his most heavenly employments. But as Alexander's painter could find a finger to conceal the scar on his master's face; so when Jesus Christ draws the picture of the saint's excellency, he can find a covering for all the scars of his infirmities.

The Saviour looks over that which is his own, and overlooks that which is his people's. Where there is no sin allowed by them, there shall be grains of allowance to them. He will not throw away his pearls, for every speck of dirt which may be on them. Though Christ honours grace in its maturity, yet he owns it in its minority. O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Poor Peter had faith enough to keep him from drowning, but not enough to keep him from doubting. The least buds draw sap from the root, as well as the greatest branches. Though one star exceeds another in magnitude, yet both are alike seated in the heavens. Though one member of the body be larger than another, yet each hath an equal conjunction with the head. The conduct of a Christian may sometimes be spotted with infirmity, when the heart is sound in the love of sanctity. Jacob halted, and yet was blessed. As his blessing did not take away his halting, so his halting did not keep away his blessing.

Hagar will have a room in Sarah's house, till death turns her out of doors. As death leaves the body soulless, so it leaves the soul sinless. For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. God doth not expect the cock to run with pleasant water, when there is none put into the cistern. R 3

The heavenly Bridegroom will not put out a believer's candle, because of the dimness of its burning; nor overshadow a believer's sun, because of the weakness of its shining.

Though that vice may be found in us, for which he might justly damn us; yet that grace is to be found in him, by which he can easily save us. He comes not with water to extinguish the fire, but with wind to disperse the smoke.

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord: because the incense savours of the hand that offers it. Not only the wicked man's designs against the godly are sinful; but all his prayers to God are also hateful. Not so for the righteous; for, the prayer of the upright is his delight. If the vessel of the heart be clean, he will taste of the sweet wine which is drawn from it. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs; let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. 10.