and we find in him, " grace to help in a time of need;" 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 to 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.” 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. is provided. And as this may 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 onee 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 ac

be

complished. An example of this we have, Isa.
Ivii. 17, 18. Poor sinners there are so far capti-
vated 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 to.
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.

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 to conceived sin. They work providentially on the power of the creature. When a man hath conceived a sin, and is in full purpose 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 be

of .

longs 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 intention 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," And in this way, because of the predominancy of renewing and assisting grace, they belong to 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 to 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, belong to 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 that were not of the lowest form, or ordinary sort of believers, but of men that had a peculiar eminency in them, on the account of their walking with God in their generations. Such were Noah, Lot, David, Hezekiah, and others. They were not men of an ordinary size, but higher than their brethren, by the shoulders and upwards, in profession, yea, in real holiness. And surely that must needs be of a mighty efficacy, that could hurry such giants in the ways of God, into such abominable sins as they fell into. An ordinary engine could never have turned them out of the course of their obedience. It was a poison that no athletic constitution of spiritual health, no antidote could withstand.

Secondly, And these very men fell not into their great sins at the beginning of their profession, when they had had but little experience of the goodness of God, of the sweetness and pleasantness of obedience, of the power and craft of sin, of its impulsions, solicitations, and surprisals, but after a long course of walking with God, and acquaintance with all these things, together with innumerable motives to watchfulness. Noah, according to the lives of men in those days of the world, had walked up