Ai « 276 A Box of precious Ointment : Or, tight of Gofpel-grace, the more fin will be difcountenanced, fefifted, hated, and totally &placed.; A man may as truly af- fert) that the seahurns, or that the fire cooks, or that the Sun darkens the Air, as he may affert that the light, fenfe, or fvveet of,Gofpd-grace Will breed fecurity or carnality, loot . nefs or wickednefs, in a gracious heart. The true penitent never ceafes.repenting; till he ceafes liv ; he goes to hea- ven with the joyful tears of repentance irAis eyes ; he knows that his whole life-is but a day of fowing tears, that he may at l if reap everlafling joyes. True repentance makes 'a final and everl ailing -feparation between fin and the foul ; it makes fuch an ,.abfolute sand compleat divorce between fin and the foul,' and calls them fo far afunder, that no power nor poli- cy can ever bring them-to meet as lovers together. The true penitent looks upon fin as an enemy, and deals-with it, as Amnon dealt with r.sm:Ir, 2-Sam. t 3. 15. And Amnon hated her exceedingly,. fo that the hatred nhereaith he hated her, was greater than the love wherewith he bad loved her ; and Amnon fail unto her,,ariferbe gone. And juft thus doth the penitent foul ;carry it towards fin. He that truly repents, fo turns froM his fins, that he never returns to the bondage and fervice of his fins anymore, Ifa. 30.2/. re .hall defile alto the covering of thy graven images of filver, and the ornament o( thy molten images of gold ; thou (halt calf them away as a menfirous cloth ithosilhalt fay unto it, Get th;:e hence. But now the repentance of hypocrites is not confiant but inconitant, 'tis not fiedfaft but unftedlaft, 'tis not permanent but tranfient, 'tis quickly on, as quickly off ; Come, fay they, in that, Hofea 6. I. and let cm return unto the Lord. But ver. 4. 0 Ephraim ! ohm- {hall I do Nato thee ? 0 Judah, what fhall I do unto thee ? for your goodnets. is as a morning cloud, and as the early dem it goeth away. The hypocrites repentance is like Yo- nah's Gourd; which came tip in a night, and perifhed in a night, Tonah 4.10. An hypocrites repentance fprings from mutable grounds, caufes, confederations and circumftances-; and therefore it is compared to a deceitful bow, Ho/ea 7; 16. "tis as variable as the wand. An hypocrite is only conflant in
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=