tion; his conception of them was come unto rage and madness, and a full purpose of exercising them all to the utmost; so the story relates it, Acts ix. so himself declares the state to have been with him, Acts xxvi. 9—12, 1 Tim. i. 13. In the midst of all this violent pursuit of sin, a voice from heaven shuts up the womb, and dries the breasts of it, and he cries, "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" Acts ix. 6. The same person seems to intimate, that this is the way of God's procedure with others, even to meet them with his converting grace, in the height of their sin and folly. For he himself, he says, was a pattern of God's dealing with others; as he dealt with him, so also would he do with some such like sinners. "For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering as a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting," 1 Tim. i. 16. And we have not a few examples of it in our own days. Sundry persons, on set purpose, going to this or that place, to deride and scoff at the dispensation of the word, have been met withal in the very place wherein they designed to serve their lusts and Satan, and have been cast down at the foot of God: this way of God's dealing with sinners is at large set forth in Job xxxiii. 15-18. Dionysius the Areopagite is another instance of this work of God's grace and love; Paul is dragged either by him, or before him, to plead for his life, as a setter forth of strange gods, which at Athens was death by the law. In the midst of this frame of spirit God meets with him by converting grace, sin withers in the womb, and he cleaves to Paul and his doctrine, Acts xvii. 18-34. The like dispensation towards Israel we have, Hosea xi. 7-10. But there is no need to insist on more instances of this observation. God is pleased to leave no generation unconvinced of this truth, if they do but attend to their own experiences, and the examples of this work of his mercy amongst them. Every day, one or other is

taken in the fulness of the purpose of his heart to go on in sin, in this or that sin, and is stopt in his course by the power of converting grace.

Secondly, God doth it by the same grace in the renewed communications of it, that is, by special assisting grace. This is the common way of his dealing with believers in this case. That they also, through the deceitfulness of sin, may be carried on to the conceiving of this or that sin, was before declared. God puts a stop to their progress, or rather to the prevalency of the law of sin in them, and that by giving in unto them special assistances, needful for their preservation and deliverance. As David says of himself, "His feet were almost gone, his steps had well nigh slipt," Psal. lxxiii. 2; he was at the brink of unbelieving, despairing thoughts and conclusions about God's providence in the government of the world, from whence he was recovered, as he afterwards declares. So is it with many a believer, he is oftentimes at the very brink, at the very door of some folly or iniquity, when God puts in by the efficacy of actually assisting grace, and recovers them to an obediential frame of heart again. And this is a peculiar work of Christ, wherein he manifests and exerts his faithfulness towards his own: "He is able to succour them that are tempted," Heb. ii. 18. It is not an absolute power, but a power clothed with mercy, that is intended. Such a power as is put forth from a sense of the suffering of poor believers, under their temptations. And how doth he exercise this merciful ability towards us? He gives forth, and we find in him, "grace to help in time of need," Heb. iv. 16; seasonable help and assistance for our deliverance, when we are ready to be overpowered by sin and temptation. When lust hath conceived, and is ready to bring forth, when the soul lies at the brink of some iniquity, he gives in seasonable help, relief, deliverance, and safety. Here lies a great part of the care and faithfulness of Christ towards his poor saints;

he will not suffer them to be worried with the power of sin, nor to be carried out unto ways that shall dishonour the gospel, or fill them with shame and reproach, and so render them useless in the world; but he steps in with the saving relief and assistance of his grace, stops the course of sin, and makes them in himself "more than conquerors." And this assistance lies under the promise; "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it." 1 Cor. x. 13. Temptation shall try us, it is for our good; many holy ends doth the Lord compass and bring about by it. But when we are tried to the utmost of our ability, so that one assault more would overbear us, a way of escape is provided. And as this may be done several ways, as I have elsewhere declared, so this we are now upon is one of the most eminent, namely, by supplies of grace, to enable the soul to bear up, resist, and conquer. And when once God begins to deal in this way of love with a soul, he will not cease to add one supply after another, until the whole work of his grace and faithfulness be accomplished. An example hereof we have, Isa. lvii. 17, 18; poor sinners there are so far captivated to the power of their lusts, that the first and second dealings of God with them, are not effectual for their delivery; but he will not give over, he is in the pursuit of a design of love towards them, and so ceaseth not until they are recovered. These are the general heads of the second way whereby God hinders the bringing forth of conceived sin, namely, by working on the will of the sinner. He doth it, either by common convictions, or special grace, so that, of their own accord, they shall let go the purpose and will of sinning that they are risen up unto. And this is no mean way of his providing for his own glory, and the honour of his gospel in the world, whose professors would stain the

whole beauty of it, were they left to themselves, to bring forth all the evil that is conceived in their hearts.

on the

Besides these general ways, there is one yet more special, that at once worketh both upon the power and will of the sinner; and this is the way of afflictions, concerning which, one word shall close this discourse. Afflictions, I say, work by both these ways, in reference unto conceived sin. They work providentially power of the creature. When a man hath conceived a sin, and is in full purpose of the pursuit of it, God oftentimes sends a sickness, and abates his strength, or a loss cuts him short in his plenty, and so takes him off in the pursuit of his lusts, though it may be, his heart is not weaned from them. His power is weakened, and he cannot do the evil that he would. In this sense it belongs to the first way of God's obviating the production of sin. Great afflictions work sometimes, not from their own nature immediately and directly, but from the gracious purpose and intendment of him that sends them. He insinuates into the dispensation of them, that of grace and power, of love and kindness, which shall effectually take off the heart and mind from sin. "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I learned thy commandments," Ps. cxix. 67. And in this way, because of the predominancy of renewing and assisting grace, they belong unto the latter means of preventing sin,

And these are some of the ways whereby it pleaseth God to put a stop to the progress of sin, both in believers and unbelievers, which at present we shall instance in; and if we would endeavour farther to search out his ways unto perfection, yet we must still conclude, that it is but a "little portion which we know of him."

CHAPTER XIV.

The Power of Sin farther demonstrated by the Effects it hath had in the Lives of Professors. First, In actual sins; secondly, In habitual declensions.

WE now are to proceed unto other evidences of that sad truth, which we are in the demonstration of. But the main of our work being past through, I shall be more brief in the management of the arguments that do remain.

That, then, which in the next place may be fixed upon, is the demonstration which this law of sin hath in all ages given of its power and efficacy, by the woful fruits that it hath brought forth, even in believers themselves. Now these are of two sorts. First, The great actual eruptions of sin in their lives. Secondly, Their habitual declensions from the frames, state, and condition of obedience, and communion with God, which they had obtained; both which, by the rules of James before unfolded, are to be laid to the account of this law of sin, and belong unto the fourth head of its progress, and are both of them convincing evidences of its power and efficacy.

First, Consider the fearful eruptions of actual sins, that have been in the lives of believers, and we shall find our position evidenced. Should I go through at large with this consideration, I must recount all the sad and scandalous failings of the saints, that are left on record in the Holy Scripture. But the particulars of them are known to all; so that I shall not need to mention them, nor the many aggravations that in their circumstances they are attended with; only some few things, tending to the rendering of our present consideration of them useful, may be remarked. As,

First, They are, most of them, in the lives of men