ON HOSEA XIV. -VERSE 1, 2. 35 that comes like water out of a spring, with a volun- tary freeness ; not like water out of a still, which is forced with fire. The third duty is weariness and detestation of all sin ; for we call not to have a thing removed till we be weary of it. Thus we are taught in the scriptures to be ashamed, and confounded ; to loathe, and abhor, to judge and condemn ourselves ; to throw sin away as a detestable thing, though it be a golden or silver sin. A spiritual judgment looks on all sin as filthy and stinking ; shows a man to himself as a vessel filll of dung and scum, and makes him out of quiet till he be thoroughly purged. For hatred is against the whole kind of that which we hate. The fourth duty is an acknowledgment of our own impotence to remove sin from ourselves. We have no more power than a slave in chains has to get out of his bondage till another ransom him, than a dead body in a grave till Christ raise it. Our iniquity takes hold on us, and keeps us down, that we cannot hearken or be subject to the will of God. If sin were not removed by a greater strength than our own, it would most certainly sink us into hell. The last duty is an imploring of God's mercy and grace, that what we cannot do ourselves, he would be pleased to do for us. In works of art it is hard to build, but easy to destroy. But in works of sin, though our weakness is able to commit them, yet none but God's power is able to demolish them. None but Christ is strong enough to overcome the strong man. His person only hath strength enough to bear the curse of sin : his sacrifice only merit enough to make expiation for sin. His grace only virtue enough to remove the pollution of sin. Though we should take nitre and much soap, our sin would be marked still;
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