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they, and thou regardest it not?' they had pleased them- selves in the performance of their duties, and expected that God also should be pleased with them. But he shews them at large wherein they had failed, and that so far as to render what they had done an abomination. And the like charge he expresseth against them, chap, xlviii. 1,2. This the deceitful- ness of sin endeavours to draw the mind unto, namely, to take up in the performance of the duty itself. Pray thou oughtest, and thou hast prayed ; give alms thou oughtest, and thou hast given alms ; quiet then thyself in what thou hast done, and go on to do the like. If it prevail herein, the mind is discharged from farther attendance and watching unto duty, which leaves the soul on the borders of many evils. For,
3dly. Hence customariness in all duties will quickly en- sue, which is the height of sins drawing off the mind from duty. For men's minds may be drawn from all duties, in the midst of the most abundant performance of them. For in and under them, the mind may be subject unto an habitual diversion from its charge and watch unto the rule. What is done with such a frame, is not done to God, Amos V. 25. None of their sacrifices were to God, although they professed that they were all so. But they attended not unto his worship in faith, and unto his glory, and he de- spised all their duties. See also Hos. x. 1. And this is the great reason why professors thrive so little under the })er- formance of a multitude of duties. They attend not unto them in a due manner, their minds being drawn off from their circumspect watch, and so they have little or no com- munion with God in them, which is the end whereunto they are designed, and by which alone they become useful and profitable unto themselves. And in this manner are many duties of worship and obedience performed by a woful generation of hypocrites, formalists, and profane persons, without either life or light in themselves, or acceptation with God ; their minds being wholly estranged from a due attendance unto what they do, by the power and de- ceitfulness of sin.
2. As it is in respect of duties, so also it is in re- spect of sins. There are sundry things in and about every sin that the mind of a brliever, by virtue of its office and duty, is obliged to attend diligently unto, for the pre-
104 THE NATURE AND POWER
servation of the soul from it. Things they are which God hath appointed and sanctified, to give effectual rebukes and checks to the whole working of the law of sin, and such as in the law of grace, under which we are, are exceedingly suited and fitted unto that purpose. And these the deceit of sin endeavours by all means to draw off the mind from a due consideration of, and attendance unto. Some few of them we shall a little reflect upon.
(1.) The first and most general is the sovereignty of God, the great lawgiver, by whom it is forbidden. This Joseph fixed on in his great temptation, Gen. xxxix. 9. * How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?' There was in it a great evil, a great ingratitude against raan,^ which he pleads also and insists upon, ver. 8, 9. but that which fixed his heart and resolution against it, was the formality of it, that it was sin against God, by whom it was severely forbidden. So the apostle informs us, that in our dealing in any thing that is against the law, our respect is still to be unto the lawgiver and his sovereignty : James iv. 11, 12. 'If thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge ; there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.' Consider this always, there is one lawgiver, holy, righteous, armed with sovereign power and authority ; he is able to save and destroy. Hence sin is called a rebellion, a casting off his yoke, a despising of him, and that in his sovereignty, as the great lawgiver ; and this ought the mind always practically to attend unto, in all the lustings, actings, and suggestions of the law of sin, espe- cially when advantaged by any suitable or vigorous tempta- tion. It is God that hath forbidden this thing, the great lawgiver, under whose absolute sovereignty I am, in de- pendance on whom 1 live, and by whom I am to be dis- posed of, as to my present and eternal condition. This Eve fixed on at the beginning of her temptation; ' God hath said, we must not eat of this tree,' Gen. iii. 3. but she kept not her ground, she abode not by that consideration, but suf- fered her mind to be diverted from it by the subtlety of Satan, which was the entrance of her transgression ; and so it is unto us all in our deviations from obedience.
(2.) The deceit of sin, of every sin, the punishment appointed unto it in the law, is another thing that the
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hiind ought actually to attend unto, in reference unto every particular evil. And the diversions from this, that the minds of men have been doctrinally and practically at- tended withal, have been an inlet into all manner of abomi- nations. Job professeth another frame in himself, chap, xxxi. 23. ' Destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.' Many evils he had mentioned in the foregoing verses, and pleads his innocency from them, although they were such as upon the account of his greatness and power, he could have com- mitted easily without fear of danger from men. Here he gives the reason that prevailed with him so carefully to abstain from them, 'Destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.' I considered, saith he, that God had appointed death and destruction for the punishment of sin, and that such was his greatness, highness, and power, that he could inflict it unto the uttermost, in such a way as no creature is able to abide or to avoid. So the apostle directs believers always to consider what a ' fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God,' Heb. x. 31. and that because he hath said, 'Vengeance is mine, I will recompense ;' ver. 30. He is a sin-avenging God, that will by no means acquit the guilty; as in the declaration of his gracious name, infinitely full of encouragements to poor sinners in Christ, he adds that in the close, that 'he will by no means clear the guilty ;' Exod. xxxiv. 7. That he may keep upon the minds of them whom he pardoneth, a due sense of the punishment that is due from his vindictive justice unto every sin. And so the apostle would have us mind, that even ' our God is a consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29, that is, that we should con- sider his holiness and vindictive justice, appointing unto sin a meet recompense of reward. And men's breaking through this consideration, he reckons as the height of the aggravation of their sins, Rom. i. 32. * They knew that it is the judgment of God, that they which commit sucii things were worthy of death, yet continued to do them.' What hope is there for such persons ? There is indeed re- lief against this consideration for humbled believing souls in the blood of Christ ; but this relief is not to take oiF the mind from it, as it is appointed of God to be a restraint