OBSTRUCTIONS TO CONCEIVED SIN. 269
more wicked and hellish than before; and if they do not, they are filled with vexation and discontentment. This is the portion of them who know not the Lord nor the power of his grace. Envy not their condition. Notwithstanding their outward, glittering show, their hearts are full of anxiety, trouble, and sorrow.
4it]dy. Do we see sometimes the flood-gates of men's lusts and rage set open against the church and interest of it, and doth prevalency attend them, and power is for a season on their side? — let not the saints of God despond. He hath unspeakably various and effectual ways for the stifling of their conceptions, to give them dry breasts and a miscarrying womb. He can stop their fury when he pleaseth. " Surely," saith the psalmist," the wrath of man shall praise thee : the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain,"' Ps. Ixxvi. 10. When so much of their wrath is let out as shall exalt his praise, he can, when he pleaseth, set up a power greater tlian the combined strength of all sinning creatures, and restrain the remainder of the wrath that they had conceived. " He shall cut off the spirit of princes : he is terrible to the kings of the earth," verse 12. Some he will cut off and destroy, some he will terrify and affright, and prevent the rage of all. He can knock them on the head, or break out their teeth, or chain up their wrath ; and who can oppose him ?
5thly. Those who have received benefit by any of the ways men- tioned may know to whom they owe their preservation, and not look on it as a common thing. When you have conceived sin, hath God weakened your power for sin, or denied you opportunity, or taken away the object of your lusts, or diverted your thoughts by new pro- vidences?— know assuredly that you have received mercy thereby. Though God deal not these providences always in a subserviency to the covenant of grace, yet there is always mercy in them, always a call in them to consider the author of them. Had not God thus dealt with you, it may be this day you had been a terror to your- selves, a shame to your relations, and under the punishment due to some notorious sins which you had conceived. Besides, there is com- monly an additional guilt in sin brought forth, above what is in the mere conception of it. It may be others would have been ruined by it here, or drawn into a partnership in sin by it, and so have been eternally ruined by it, all which are prevented by these providences ; and eternity will witness that there is a singularity of mercy in them. Do not look, then, on any such things as common accidents; the hand of God is in them all, and that a merciful hand if not despised. If it be, yet God doth good to others by it: the world is the better; and you are not so wicked as you would be.
Qthly. We may also see hence the great use of magistracy in the world, that great appointment of God. Amongst other things, it is
270 THE NATURE AND POWER OF INDWELLING SIN.
peculiarly subservient to this holy providence, in obstructing the bringing forth of conceived sin, — namely, by the teiTor of him that bears the sword. God fixes that on the hearts of evil men, which he expresseth, Rom. xiii. 4, " If thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute vi^rath on them that do evil." God fixes this on the hearts of men, and by the dread and teiTor of it closeth the womb of sin, that it shall not bring' forth. When there was no king in Israel, none to put to rebuke, and none of whom evil men were afraid, there was woful work and havoc amongst the children of men made in the world, as we may see in the last chapters of the book of Judges. The greatest mercies and blessings that in this world we are made partakers of, next to them of the gospel and covenant of grace, come to us through this channel and conduit. And, indeed, this whereof we have been speaking is the proper work of magistracy, — namely, to be subservient to the providence of God in obstructing the bringing forth of conceived sin.
These, then, are some of the ways whereby God providentially prevents the bringing forth of sin, by opposing obstacles to the power of the sinner. And [yet] by them sin is not consumed, but shut up in the womb. Men are not burdened for it, but with it ; not laden in their hearts and consciences with its guilt, but perplexed with its power, which they are not able to exert and satisfy.
(2.) The way, that yet remains for consideration, whereby God ob- viates the production of conceived sin is his working on the will of the sinner, so making sin to consume Hway in the womb.
There are two ways in general whereby God thus prevents the bringing forth of conceived sin by working on the will of the sinner; and they are, — [1.] By restraining grace; [2.] By renewing grace. He doth it sometimes the one way, sometimes the other. The first of these is common to regenerate and uuregenerate persons, the latter peculiar to believers; and God doth it variously as to particular's by them both. We shall begin with the first of them: —