(2.) Error is a worse part or effect of the mind's darkness, and gives great advantage to the law of sin. There is, indeed, ignorance in every error, but there is not error in all ignorance; and so they may be distinguished. I shall need to exemplify this but with one consideration, and that is of men who, being zealous for some error, do seek to suppress and persecute the truth. Indwelling sin desires no greater advantage. How will it every day, every hour, pour forth wrath, revilings, hard speeches ; breathe revenge, murder, desolation, under the name perhaps of zeal ! On this account we may see poor creatures pleasing themselves every day ; as if they vaunted in their excellency, when they are foaming out their own shame. Under their real darkness and pretended zeal, sin sits securely, and fills pulpits, houses, prayers, streets, with as bitter fruits of envy, malice, ■^vrath, hatred, evil sumiises, false speakings, as full as they can hold. The common issue "with such poor creatures is, the holy, blessed, meek Spirit of God withdraws from them, and leaves them visibly and openly to that evil, froward, wrathful, worldly spirit, which the law of sin hath cherished and heightened in them. Sin dwells not anywhere more secure than in such a frame. Thus, I say, it lays hold in particular of advantages to practise upon with its deceitful- ness, and therein also to exert its power in the soul; whereof this single instance of its improving the darkness of the mind unto its own ends is a sufficient evidence.
2. It useth means of relieving itself against the pursuit that is made after it in the heart by the word and Spirit of gTace. One also of its mles, in the way of instance, I shall name in this kind, and
2G0 TriR NATURE AND POWER OF INDWELLING SIN.
tliat is the alleviation of its oion guilt. It pleads for itself, that it is not so bad, so filthy, so fatal as is pretended; and this course of ex- tenuation it proceeds in two ways : —
(1 .) Ahsolutehj. Many secret pleas it will have that the evil which it tends unto is not so pernicious as conscience is persuaded that it is; it may be ventured on without ruin. These considerations it will strongly urge when it is at work in a way of surprisal, when the soul hath no leisure or liberty to weigh its suggestions in the balance of the sanctuary; and not seldom is the will imposed on hereby, and advantages gotten to shift itself from under the sword of the Spirit: — " It is not such but that it may be let alone, or suffered to die of itself, which probably within a while it will do; no need of that violence which in mortification is to be offered ; it is time enough to deal with a mc.:'i:terof no greater importance hereafter;" with other pleas like those before^ mentioned.
(2.) t?omparativel)/ ; and this is a large field for its deceit and subtlety to I'urk in : — " Though it is an evil indeed to be relinquished, and the soul i 's to be made watchful against it, yet it is not of that magnitude anc'P degree as we may see in the lives of others, even saints of God, m uch less such as some saints of old have fallen into." By these and the 'like pretences, I say, it seeks to evade and keep its abode in the soul ^when pursued to destruction. And how little a portion of its deceitrulness is it that we have declared !
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^' CHAPTER XIII.
art? Sevoriil wajs iivhereby the bringing forth of conceived sin is ohstvncteil.
Befob^I' ^e proceed to the remaining evidences of the power and efficacTj^j. £„^iie law of sin, we shall take occasion from what hath been deliv'^^^d to divert unto one consideration that offers itself from that Scripture which was made the bottom and foundation of our dis- course of the general deceitfulness of sin, namely, James i. 14. The a])ostle tells us that " lust conceiving bringcth forth sin;" seeming to intimate, that look what sin is conceived, that also is brought forth. Now, placing the conception of sin, as we have done, in the consent of the will unto it, and reckoning, as we ought, the bringing forth of sin to consist of its actual commission, we know that these do not necessarily follow one another. There is a Avorld of sin conceived in the womb of the wills and heaiis of men that is never brought forth. Our present business, then, shall be to inquire whence that comes to pass. I answer, then, —
OBSTRUCTIONS TO CONCEIVED SIN. 261
J. That this is not so, is no thanks unto sin nor the laAV of it. AVhat it conceives, it would bring forth ; and that it doth not is for the most part but a small abatement of its guilt. A determinate ivill of actual sinning is actual sin. There is nothing wanting on sin's part that every conceived sin is not actually accomplished. The obstacle and prevention lies on another hand.
2. There are two things that are necessary in the creature that hath conceived sin, for the bringing of it forth ; — first, Power; se- condly, Continuance in the ivill of sinning until it be perpeti'ated and committed. Where these two are, actual sin will unavoidably ensue. It is evident, therefore, that that which hinders conceived sin from being brought forth must affect either the power or the Avill of the sinner. This must be from God. And he hath two ways of doing it: (1.) By \\\q providence, whereby he obstructs the power of sinning. (2.) By his grace, whereby he diverts or changes the will of sinning. I do not mention these ways of God's dispensations thus distinctly, as though the one of them were always without the other; for there is much of grace in providential administrations, and much of the wisdom of providence seen in the dispensations of grace. But I place them in this distinction, because they appear most eminent therein ; — providence, in outward acts respecting the power of the crea- ture ; grace, common or special, in internal efficacy respecting his will. And we shall begin with the first: —