Take
heed, professor, that thou dost not throw away thy old darling sin
for a new one. Men's tempers alter. Youth is for pride and
wantonness; middle age for cunning and craft; old age for the world
and covetousness. Take heed, therefore, of deceit in this thing.
Dost thou profess the name of Christ, and dost thou pretend to be a
man departing from iniquity? take heed lest thy departing from
iniquity should be but for a time. Some do depart from iniquity, as
persons in wrangling fits depart from one another, to wit, for a
time; but when the quarrel is over, by means of some intercessor
they are reconciled again. Oh, Satan is the intercessor between the
soul and sin; and though the breach between these two may seem to be
irreconcilable, yea, though the soul has sworn it will never more
give countenance to so vile a thing as sin is, yet he can tell how
to make up this difference, and to fetch them back to their vomit
again, who, one would have thought, had quite escaped his sins and
been gone. 2 Pet. 2: 18--22. Take heed, therefore, O professor, for
there is danger of this, and the height of danger lies in it; and I
think that Satan, to do this thing, makes use of those sins again to
begin, this rejoinder, which he findeth most suitable to the temper
and constitution of the sinner.
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