(1.) When sin is conceived, the Lord obstructs its production by his providence, in taking away or cutting short that j)oiver which is absolutely necessaiy for its bringing forth or accomplishment;
[1.] Life is the foundation of all power, the principle of operation; when that ceaseth, all power ceaseth with it. Even God himself, to evince the everlasting stability of his own power, gives himself the title of " The living God." Now, he frequently obviates the power of executing sin actually by cutting short and taking away the lives of them that have conceived it. Thus he dealt with the army of Sen- nacherib, when, according as he had purjDosed, so he threatened that " the Lord should not deliver Jeiiisalem out of his hand," 2 Kings xviii. 35. God threatens to cut short his power, that he should not execute his intendment, chap. xix. 28 ; which he performs accordingly, by taking away the lives of his soldiers, verse 35, without whom it Avas impossible that his conceived sin should be brought forth. This providential dispensation in the obstruction of conceived sin, Moses excellently sets forth in the case of Pharaoh: Exod. xv. 9, 10, '' The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the s2:)oil ; my lust shall be satisfied upon them ; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered
262 THE NATURE AND POWER OF INDWELLING SIN.
them : they sank as lead in the mighty waters." Sin's conception is fully expressed, and as full a prevention is annexed unto it. In like manner he dealt with the companies of fifties and their captains, who came to apprehend Elijah, 2 Kings i. 9-12. Fire came down from heaven and consumed them, when they were ready to have taken him. And sundry other instances of the like nature might be re- corded. That which is of universal concernment we have in that great providential alteration which put a period to the lives of men. Men living hundreds of years had a long season to bring forth the sins they had conceived; thereupon the eai'th was filled with violence, injustice, and rapine, and " all flesh corrupted his way," Gen. vi. 12, 13. To prevent the like immdation of sin, God shortens the course of the pilgrimage of men in the earth, and reduces their lives to a much shorter measure. Besides this general law, God daily thus cuts off persons who had. conceived much mischief and violence in their hearts, and prevents the execution of it: " Blood-thirsty and deceitful men do not live out half their days." They have yet much work to do, might they have but space given them to execute the bloody and sinful purposes of their minds. The psalmist tells us, Ps. cxlvi. 4, " In the day that the breath of man goeth forth, his thoughts perisli : " he had many contrivances about sin, but now they are all cut off. So also, Eccles. viii. 12, 13, " Though a sinner do evil a hun- dred times, sind his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him : but it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God." How long soever a wicked man lives, yet he dies judicially, and shall not abide to do the evil he had conceived.
But now, seeing we have granted that even believers themselves may conceive sin through the power and the deceitfulness of it, it may be inquired whether God ever thus obviates its production and accomplishment in them, by cutting off and taking away their lives, so as that they shall not be able to perform it. I answer, —
\st. That God doth not judicially cut off and take away the life of any of his for this end and purpose, that he may thereby prevent the execution or bringing forth of any particular sin that he had con- ceived, and which, without that taking away, he would have perpe- trated ; for, —
(1st) This is dii'ectly contrary to the very declared end of tlie patience of God towards them, 2 Pet. iii. 9. This is the very end of the long-suffering of God towards believers, that before they depart hence they may come to the sense, acknoAvledgment, and repentance of every knoAvn sin. This is the constant and unchangeable rule of God's patience in the covenant of grace; which is so far from being
OBSTPJJCTIONS TO CONCEIVED SIN. 263
in them an encouragement unto sin^ that it is a motive to universal watchfulness against it, — of the same nature with all gospel grace, and of mercy in the blood of Christ. Now, this dispensation whereof we speak would lie in a direct contradiction unto it.
{2dly.) This also flows from the former, that whereas conceived sin contains the whole nature of it, as our Saviour at large declares. Matt. V. ; and to be cut off under the guilt of it, to prevent its farther progress, argues a continuance in the purpose of it without repent- ance, it cannot be but they must perish for ever who are so judi- cially cut off. But God deals not so with his; he casts not off the people whom he did foreknow. And thence David prays for the patience of God before mentioned, that it might not be so with him : Ps. xxxix. 13, " O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more." But yet, —