his design in a siege : and darest thou venture to go into the fiehl upon his quarrel against (iod .' O earth, treiul)le thou at the presence of tlie Lord. Tiiis bloody Joab sets tliee where never any came oft' alive. () stand not where God's bullets fly ; throw down thy arms, or thou art a dead man. Whatever others do, O ye saints, abhor the thoughts of sinning willingly, which, when you do, you help the devil against God ; and what more un- natural, than for a chilli to be seen in arms against his father?
CHAPTER VII.
OF Satan's plot to defile the christian's spirit with heart-sins.
The second point follows.
Doct. 2. That these wicked spirits do chiefly annoy the saints with, and provoke them to, spiritual sins. Sins may be called spiritual u])on a double account; either from the subject wherein they are acted, or from the object about which they are conversant.
First, In regard of the subject; when the spirit or heart is the stage whereon sin is acted, this is a spiritual sin ; such are all impure thoughts, vile affections and desires; though the object be fleshly lust, yet are spiritual sins, because they are purely acts of the soul and spirit, and break not forth unto the outward man.
Secondly, In regard of the object; when that is spiritual, and not carnal, such as are idolatry, error, spiritual pride, unbelief, &c., both which Paul calls ' the filthiness of the spirit,' and distinguisheth them from ' filthiness of the flesh,' 2 Cor. vii. 1.
Section I. — First, Of the first, Satan labours what he can to provoke the Christian to heart-sins, to stir up and foment these inward motions of sin in the Christian's bosom ; hence it is, he can go about no duty, but these (his imps I may call them) haunt him ; one motion or other darts in to interrupt him, as Paul tells us of himself, ' When he would do good, evil was present with him.' If a Christian should turn back whenever these cross the way "of him, he should never go on his journey to heaven. It is the chief game the devil hath left to play against the children of God, now his field army is broken, and his commanding power taken away, which he had over them, to come out of these his holds where he lies skulking, and fall upon their rear with these suggestions. He knows his credit now is not so great with the soul as when it was his slave ; then no drudgery work was so base, that it would not do at his command ; but now the soul is out of this bondage, and he must not think to command another's servant as his own ; no, all he can do, is to watch the fittest season, when the Christian least suspects, and then to present some sinful motion handsomely dressed up to the eye of the soul, that the Christian may, before he is aware, take this brat up, and handle it in his thoughts, till at last he makes it his own by embracing it ; and this he knows will defile the soul : and may be this boy, sent in at the window, may open the door to let in a greater thief; or if he should not so prevail, yet the guilt of these heart-sins, yea, their very neighbourhood, will be a sad vexation to a gracious heart, whose nature is so pure that it abhors all filthiness; so that to be haunted with such motions, is as if a living man should be chained to a stinking carcase, tliat wherever he goes, he must draw that after him; and whose love is so dear to Chi'ist, that it cannot bear the company of those thoughts without amazement and horror, which are so contrary and abusive to his beloved. This makes Satan so desirous to be ever raking in the unregenerate part, that as a dunghill stirred, it may offend them both with the noisome steams which arise from it.
Section II. — Use 1. First, Let this be for a trial of thy spiritual state. What entertainment finds Satan when he comes with these spirituals of wickedness, and solicits thee to dwell on them? Canst thou dispense with ihe filthiness of thy spirit, so thy hands be clean ? Or dost thou wrestle agauist tliese heart-sins as well as others ? I do not ask whether such guests come within thy door; for the w(n-st of sins may be found, in the motions of them, not only passing by the door of a Christian, but looking in also; as holy motions may be found stirring in the bosom of wicked men. But I ask thee, whether thou canst find in th}-
K
j^^0 AGAINST SPIHITUAL ^VICKEUNESS.