1.  There can no great change appear in thee, make what profession of Christ thou wilt, unless thou cast away thy bosom sin.  A man’s constitution-sin is, as I may call it, his visible sin; it is that by which his neighbors know him and describe him, whether it be pride, covetousness, lightness, or the like.  Now, if these abide with thee, though thou shouldst be much reformed in thy notions and in other parts of thy life, yet say thy neighbors, “He is the same man still:  his faith has not saved him from his darling.  He was proud before, and is proud still; was covetous before, and is covetous still; was light and wanton before, and is so still; he is the same man, though he has got a new mouth.”  But now, if thy constitution-sin be parted with, if thy darling be cast way, thy conversion is apparent; it is seen of all; for the casting away of that is death to the rest, and ordinarily makes a change throughout.

2.  So long as thy constitution-sin remains, as winked at by thee, so long thou art a hypocrite before God, let thy profession be what it will; also, when conscience shall awake and be commanded to speak to thee plainly what thou art, it will tell thee so, to thy no little vexation and perplexity.

The Christian professor admonished.

O thou professor! thou lamp-carrier! have a care and look to thyself; content not thyself with only that which will maintain thee in a profession, for that may be done without saving grace; but I advise thee to go to Aaron, to Christ the trimmer of our lamps, and beg of him thy vessel full of oil, that is, grace for the seasoning of thy heart, that thou mayest have wherewith not only to bear thee up now, but at the day of the bridegroom’s coming when many a lamp will go out and many a professor be left in the dark.

Sin is in the best of men; and as long as it is so, without great watchfulness and humble walking with God, we may be exposed to shame and suffering for it.  It is possible for Christians to suffer for evil-doing, and therefore let Christians beware; it is possible for Christians to be brought to public justice for their faults, and therefore let Christians beware.

A Christian can never be overcome unless he should yield of himself.

There is no way to kill a man’s righteousness but by his own consent.  This Job’s wife knew full well; hence she tempted him to lay violent hands on his own integrity.  Job 2:9.

Failings and sins of Christians.

“And Noah began to lie a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.  And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.”

This is the blot in this good man’s scutcheon; and a strange blot it is, that such a one as Noah should be thus overtaken with evil.  One would have thought that Moses would now have begun with a relation of some eminent virtues and honorable actions of Noah, since now he was delivered from the death that overtook the whole world; and was delivered, both he and his children, to possess the whole earth himself.  Indeed, he stepped from the ark to the altar, as Israel of old did sing on the shore of the Red sea; but as they, he soon forgot; he rendered evil to God for good.