This drawing off by sin in believers is by the power of sin, in op-
XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 557
position to their will. Their wills lie against it to the utmost; they " would not/' as was showed, be so drawn off. But as for the others, as hath been shown, however their minds may be enlightened, and their consciences awakened, and their affections corrected and re- strained, their wills are wholly dead in sin.
2. When a man is i^sXx6/j,svoc, or drawn away, there are stricken out between the lust and the pleasing object some glances of the heart, with thoughts of sin. When lust hath gone thus far, if a violent temptation fall in, the person to whom it doth so befall may be carried, or rather hurried out and surprised, into no small advance towards the perpetration of sin, without the least delight in the sin or consent of the will unto it, if he be a godly man. So was it in the case of David, in the cutting off the lap of the garment of Saul. Lust stirred in him, drew him off from his frame of dependence on God, and by the advantage of Saul's presence stirred up thoughts of self-security and advantage in him, which carried him almost to the very act of sin before he recovered himself Then, I say, is a man " drawn away," not only in respect to the term from whence, but also of that whereunto, when the thoughts of the object presented as suit- able to lust are cast in, though immediately rejected. This I intend by this acting of lust; which although it be our sin, as having its rise and spring in us, and is continually to be lamented, yet, when it is not accompanied with any delight of the heart or consent of the will, but the thought of it is like a piece of fiery iron cast into water, which maketh a sudden commotion and noise, but yet is suddenly quenched, it is that which regenerate men are and may be sub- ject to, which also keepeth them humble all their days. There is more in this drawing away than a single thought or apprehension of evil amounts to (which may be without the least sin : " To know evil is not evil"), but yet it is short of the soul's consent unto it.
The second way wherein lust proceedeth in tempting is by entic- ing the soul ; and he who is so dealt withal by it is said to be ^gXsa- t^o/xivoc, — "to be enticed." There is something more in this than in being only drawn away. The word here used is twice mentioned in the Second Epistle of Peter, chap. ii. Once it is rendered to " beguile," dsXsdtlovTsg -^vy^^ag aarrjplxTovg, verse 14; and in the other "alluring," verse 18. It cometh (as is commonly known) from dsXiap, a "bait;" which is from BoXsap or doXog, "deceit," because the end of a bait is to deceive, and to catch by deceiving. Thence ^sXsa^w is to " entice, to allure, to entangle," as men do fishes and birds with baits. That which by this expression the Holy Ghost intendeth is the prevalency of lust in drawing the soul unto that which is by the casuists termed delectatio morosa, " a secret delight" in the evil, abiding some space upon it, so that it would do that which it is tempted and enticed unto were it not forbidden j as the fish liketh
558 DOCTllINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.
the bait well enough, but is afraid of the hook. The soul for a sea- son is captived to like the sin, and so is under the power of it, but is afraid of the guilt. It sticketh only at this, " How shall it do this great thing, and sin against the Lord?" Now, though the mind never frame any intention of fulfilling the evil wherewith the soul is thus entangled, or of committing that sin whereunto it is allured and enticed, yet the affections having been cast into the mould of sin for a season, and conformed unto it by delight (which is the conformity of the affections to the thing delighted in), this is a high degi'ee of sin ; and that because it is directly contrary to that " death unto sin," and the " crucifying of the flesh and the lusts thereof," which we are continually called unto. It is, in a sense, a making " provi- sion for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof" Provision is made, though the flesh be not suffered to feed thereon, but only delight itself with beholding: of it.
I shall not deny but this also may befall a true believer, it being chiefly implied in Kom. vii., but yet with a wide difference from the condition of other persons, in their being under the power of the deceits and beguilements of sin; for, —
1. This neither doth nor can grow to be the habitual frame of their hearts; because, as the apostle telleth us, "they are dead to sin, and cannot live any longer therein," Rom. vi. 2, and " their old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be de- stroyed," verse 6. Now, though a man should abstain from all actual sins or open committing of sin all his days, yet if he have any habitual delight in sin, and defileth his soul with delightful contem- plations of sin, he liveth to sin and not to God ; which a believer cannot do, for " he is not under the law, but under grace." To abide in this state is to "wear the garment spotted with the flesh." But now, take another person: however heightened and wrought up by convictions, unless it be when conscience is stirred up, and some affrightment is put upon him, he can, as his leisure affords, give his heart the swing in inordinate affections, or Avhat else pleaseth and suiteth his state, condition, temper, and the like.