2dl'i/. There are some cases wherein God may and doth take away the lives of his oiun, to prevent the guilt that otherwise they would be involved in ; as, —
(1st.) In the coming of some great temptation and trial upon the world. God knowing that such and such of his would not be able to withstand it and hold out against it, but would dishonour him and defile themselves, he may, and doubtless often doth, take them out of the world, to take them out of the way of it: Isa. Ivii. 1, " The righteous is taken away from the evil to come ;" not only the evil of punishment and judgment, but the evil of temptations and trials, which oftentimes proves much the worse of the two. Thus a captain in war will call off a soldier fi'om his Avatch and guard, when he knows that he is not able, through some infirmity, to bear the stress and force of the enemy that is coming upon him.
(2dly.) In case of theii* engagement into any v/ay not acceptable to him, through ignorance or not knowing of his mind and will. This seems to have been the case of Josiah. And, doubtless, the Lord doth oftentimes thus proceed with his. When any of his own are engaged in ways that please him not, through the darkness and ignorance of then- minds, that they may not proceed to farther evil or mischief, he calls them off from their station and employ- ment and takes them to himself, where they shall err and mistake no more. But, in ordinary cases, God hath other ways of diverting his own from sin than by killing of them, as we shall see afterward.
[2.] God providentially hinders the bringing forth of conceived sin, by taking away and cutting short the poiver of them that had con- ceived it, so that, though their lives continue, they shall not have that power witliout which it is impossible for them to execute what the}^ had intended, or to bring forth what they had conceived. Hereof also we have sundrv instances. This was the case with the builders
264 THE NATURE AND POWER OF INDWELLING SIN.
of Babel, Gen. xi. Whatever it were in particular that they aimed at, it was in the pursuit of a design of apostasy from God. One thing requisite to the accomplishing of what they aimed at was the one- ness of their language ; so God says, verse 6, " They have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be re- strained from them, that they have imagined to do." In an ordinary way they will accomplish their wicked design. What course doth God now take to obviate their conceived sin? Doth he bring a flood upon them to destroy them, as in the old world some time before? Doth he send his angel to cut them off, like the army of Sennacherib afterward? Doth he by any means take away their lives? No; their lives are continued, but he " confounds their language," so that they cannot go on with their work, verse 7, — takes away that wherein their power consisted. In like manner did he proceed with the Sodomites, Gen. xix. 11. They were engaged in, and set upon the pursuit of, their filthy lusts. God smites them with blindness, so that they could not find the door, where they thought to have used violence for the com- passing of their ends. Their lives were continued, and their will of sinning; but their power is cut short and abridged. His dealing with Jeroboam, 1 Kings xiii. 4, was of the same nature. He stretched out his hand to lay hold of the prophet, and it withered and became useless. And this is an eminent way of the effectual acting of God's providence, in the world, for the stopping of that inundation of sin which would overflow all the earth were every Avomb of it opened. He cuts men short of their moral power, whereby they should effect it. Many a Wretch that hath conceived mischief against the church of God hath by this means been divested of his power, whereby he thought to accomplish it. Some have their bodies smitten with diseases, that they can no more serve their lusts, nor accompany them in the perpetrating of folly; some are deprived of the instruments whereby they would work. There hath been, for many days, sin enough conceived to root out the generation of the righteous from the face of the earth, had men strength and ability to their will, did not God cut off and shorten their power and the days of their j^revalency. Ps. Ixiv. 6, "They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep." All things are in a readiness; the design is well laid, their counsels are deep and secret; what now shall hinder them from doing whatever they have imagined to do? Verses 7, 8, " But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded. So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves." God meets with them, brings them down, that they shall not be able to accomplish their de.sign. And this way of God's iircventing sin seems to be, at least ordinarily, peculiar to the men of the world;