These duties, I say, amongst others (for we have only chosen them for an instance, not excluding some others from the same place, office, and usefulness with them), do make an especial opposition to the very being and life of indwell- ing sin, or rather faith in them doth so. They are perpe- tually designing its utter ruin. I shall therefore upon this instance, in the pursuit of our present purpose, do these two things :
(1.) Shew the suitableness and usefulness of this duty, or these duties (as I shall handle them jointly), unto the ruining of sin.
(2.) Shew the means whereby the deceitfulness of sin endeavours to draw off the mind from a due attendance unto them.
(1.) For the first observe,
[1.] That it is the proper work of the soul in this duty, to consider all the secret workings and actings of sin, what advantages it hath got, what temptations it is in conjunc- tion withal, what harm it hath already done, and what it is yet farther ready to do. Hence David gives that title unto one of his prayers ; Psal. cii. ' A prayer ofthe afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.' I speak of that prayer which is attended with a due consideration of all the wants, straits and emergencies of the soul. Without this, prayer is not prayer ; that is, whatever shew or appearance of that duty it hath, it is no way useful, either to the glory of God, or the good ofthe souls of men. A cloud it is without water, driven by the wind ofthe breath of men. Nor was there ever any more present and effectual poison for souls found out, than the binding of them unto a constant form and usage of I know not what words in their prayers and supplications, which themselves do not under- stand. Bind men so in their trades, or in their businesses in this world, and they will quickly find the effect of it. By
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this means are they disenabled from any due consideration of what at present is good for them, or evil unto them; with- out which, to what use can prayer serve, but to mock God, and delude men's own souls ? But in this kind of prayer which we insist on, the Spirit of God falls in to give us his assistance, and that in this very matter of finding out and discovering the most secret actings and workings of the law of sin ; Rom. viii. 26. * We know not what to pray for as we ought, but he helps our infirmities :' he discovers our wants unto us, and wherein chiefly we stand in need of help and relief. And we find it by daily experience, that in prayer, believers are led into such discoveries and convictions of the secret deceitful work of sin in their hearts, as no con- siderations could ever have led them into. So David, Psal. li. designing the confession of his actual sin, having his wound in his prayer searched by the skilful hand of the Spi- rit of God, he had a discovery made unto him of the root of all his miscarriages in his original corruption, ver. 5. The Spirit in this duty is as the candle of the Lord unto the soul, enabling it to search all the inward parts of the belly. It gives a holy, spiritual light into the mind, enabling it to search the deep and dark recesses of the heart, to find out the subtle and deceitful machinations, figments, and imagi- nations of the law of sin therein. Whatever notion there be of it, whatever power and prevalency in it, it is laid hand on, apprehended, brought into the presence of God, judged, con- demned, bewailed. And what can possibly be more effectual for its ruin and destruction ? For together with its discovery, application is made unto all that relief which in Jesus Christ is provided against it, all ways and means whereby it may be ruined. Hence it is the duty of the mind, 'to watch unto prayer ;' 1 Pet. iv. 7. To attend diligently unto the estate of our souls, and to deal fervently and effectually with God about it. The like also may be said of meditation, wisely managed unto its proper end.
[2.] In this duty there is wrought upon the heart a deep, full sense of the vileness of sin, with a constant re- newed detestation of it, which, if any thing, undoubtedly tends to its ruin. This is one design of prayer, one end of the soul in it, namely, to draw forth sin, to set it in order, to present it unto itself in its vileness, abomination, and aggra-
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vating circumstances, that it may be loathed, abhorred, and cast away as a filthy thing; as Isa. xxx. 22. He that pleads with God for sin's remission, pleads also with his own heart for its detestation, Hos. xiv. 3. Herein also sin is judged in the name of God ; for the soul in its confession sub- scribes unto God's detestation of it, and the sentence of his law against it. There is indeed a course of these duties, which convinced persons do give up themselves unto, as a mere covert to their lusts : they cannot sin quietly, unless they perform duty constantly. But that prayer we speak of, is a thing of another nature, a thing that will allow no com- position with sin, much less will serve the ends of the deceit of it, as the other formal prayer doth. It will not be bribed into a secret compliance with any of the enemies of God, or the soul, no not for a moment. And hence it is, that often- times in this duty, the heart is raised to the most sincere ef- fectual sense of sin, and detestation of it, that the soul ever obtains in its whole course of obedience. And this evidently tends also to the weakening and ruin of the law of sin.