These are, as _I_ may call them, the
master-sins, they suit, they agree with the temper of the soul.
These, as the little end of the wedge, enter with ease, and so make
way for those that come after, with which Satan knows he can rend
the soul in pieces. Wherefore,
To help this, take heed of parleying with thy sins again, when once
thou hast departed from them: sin has a smooth tongue; if thou
hearken to its enchanting language, ten thousand to one but thou art
entangled. Take heed, therefore, of listening to the charms
wherewith sin enchanteth the soul. In this, be like the deaf adder;
stop thine ear, plug it up to sin, and let it only be open to hear
the words of God.
THE UNHOLY PROFESSOR.
A professor that hath not forsaken his iniquity, is like one that
comes out of the pest-house, among the whole, with his plague-sores
running upon him. This is the man that hath the breath of a dragon;
he poisons the air round about him. This is the man that slays his
children, his kinsmen, his friend, and himself. What shall _I_ say?
A man that nameth the name of Christ, and that departeth not from
iniquity, to whom may he be compared? The Pharisees, for that they
professed religion but walked not answerably thereto, unto what doth
Christ compare them but to serpents and vipers; what does he call
them but hypocrites, whited walls, painted sepulchres, fools, and
blind, and tells them that they made men more the children of hell
than they were before? Matt.
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